Over the years, boutique British amp builder Victory has assembled a remarkably well-received collection of tube amps and pedal amps, which have become synonymous with exceptional tone.
Indeed, the V4 Duchess, V4 Kraken and V4 Jack all received five-star reviews from Guitar World, with top marks also going to the V40 Duchess.
Now, Victory has expanded all five of its unique guitar amp families – Duchess, Jack, Kraken, Sheriff and Copper – with the all-new V1 stompbox series.
Simply put, the quintet of new pedalboard-friendly units seek to supply the same amp tones and nuanced sonic characteristics of their larger counterparts in a compact format.
Designed in collaboration with award-winning pedal maker Adrian Thorpe of ThorpyFX, the V1 pedals were created with one goal in mind: “To create a single button footswitch pedal that encapsulated each Victory family of amps."
The topography of all five pedals remains exactly the same: a single footswitch is joined by Volume and Gain parameters, as well as a three-band EQ comprising Bass, Middle and Gain.
In practice, though, each pedal has been crafted for a specific purpose, and with a clear callback to the amp family it derives from. The Duchess, for example, is designed to emulate the V40 Duchess, promising to provide vintage US tones in the form of a clean boost or crunchy gains, depending on the settings.
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The Copper, meanwhile, is described as a “classic British rock tone," which is said to range from ‘60s blues rock to ‘70s classic rock thanks to its responsive gain parameter.
Based on the V30 Jack, which was designed in collaboration with Guthrie Govan, the V1 Jack is all about “gain, barky sounds and over the top gain," while the Sheriff sets its sights on harnessing ‘80s hard rock sounds that can be tamed for more vintage channel tones.
Completing the collection is the Kraken V1. Again, it promises a range of tones, from the British-style gain of the Kraken VX’s Channel One to the US high-gain sounds of Channel Two.
Of Victory’s latest range, Thorpe commented, “We were keen to make the V1 pedals sound as close to the full-bore valve amps as possible but working with Martin [Kidd, Victory Chief Designer] and the team meant that we had to be even more precise to do their amp designs justice in solid state pedal form.
“It took a long time and many times we had to go back to the drawing board,” he continued. “Despite this, maintaining an uncompromising nature of what the Victory sound is, means that pedal fiends worldwide can enjoy these pedals, no matter what their flavor preferences. I’m proud to say we worked on these V1 pedals.”
“The idea of a collaboration was something that made a good deal of sense, as we (Victory) were to an extent, venturing into the unknown,” added Kidd. “At Victory, we have the knowhow, of course.
“However,” he continued, “being able to make use of Adrian’s experience and the various subtleties of his design ethic, enabled us to better appeal to the player who likes a clean amp platform; getting their various sounds from pedals.”
Each V1 stompbox will carry a price tag of $249.
To find out more, head over to Victory.
