Did loads of research and the V40 with el34s sounded like the perfect head for me. Ordered one and couldnt wait to give it a go when it arrived.
Hooked it up and set all eq controls to 12 o clock and was all set to be thrilled. Strummed one chord on my US tele and got the most wallowy, overly bassy and uninspiring tone you can imagine. Huh, something must be wrong. Checked all cables and went for it again. Same big farty bass heavy tone, set it to voice 2 and nothing to write home about there either. Changed eq settings drastically and couldnt get a sound i liked no matter what.
Pretty much every tone comprised of a big flubby low end, smooth treble and a big hole in the middle, an amp should not be such hard work and after less than 1 hour it was back in its box and ready to be returned. I know plenty of guys here didnt like the v40 and i gotta say with hindsight i agree with many of the opinions raised.
Comments
Try a Fender supersonic. Loads of head room and takes pedals like a champ
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/66067/nad-victory-v40/p1
Oooo! They are a grand a pop! I thought they might be some kind of bargain basement amp, then I was going to say the flubby bass could probably be fixed by a change of coupling caps and a bit of response tweaking?
But no, for £1000 you expect better and right!
Dave.
With the master volume over half way and a good pedal it sounded great but was just too loud for me to use much that way so I sold it any now have a Morgan PR12 which has more treble on tap and is lower power so I can get the tone I want at lower volumes.
Sometimes miss the grunt of the V40 though as there's no pre-amp volume on the PR12 so any natural amp distortion only happens when it's loud.
I suppose the V30 speaker tightened the bottom end and gave it more mid with a more open cutting sound. Eventually I swapped to V type Celestion speakers because the V30 speaker was too 'hard rock' for the band I was in at the time.
Maybe speaker choice (and cab) is a big factor. It was OK as an amp and seemed to sound better in a live situation when it had been on for a while. I found it better at higher gig volumes with the master volume on a high setting.
I've since replaced it with a Blues Cube Artist 1x12 combo which I prefer.
Shame, but I'm glad you could return. I really wanted to support Victory as UK builder offering almost boutique level amps.
For me this sounds like I should steer clear. Not the first V40 I've heard about that didn't satisfy.
Basically the same reasons, just sounded muddy and way too bassy. Maybe if I cranked it it would have sounded alright, but even 1 watt turned up is too loud for what I needed it for!
I just tried one of these for the first time.
Cabinet - Marshall TSL 2x12" with a 'Heritage' and 'Vintage' speaker pair, 16 ohms.
Horrible.
Similar experience to Telejester - it has no top-end, clarity or sparkle *at all*. None. Even on the brighter voicing, with the treble maxed, the middle low and the bass just under halfway - the closest I could get to a good sound - it's still too dark and dull. I wouldn't quite describe the low-end as flubby, but it was certainly too thick and woolly - and I *like* bass in my guitar sound. The problem is that I also like there to be at least some treble…
It was also very tight and unresponsive to dynamics - not obviously compressed-sounding, but with no 'bounce' or life to it.
It did get very marginally better with the loop (and reverb, even with the knob on zero) turned on, after I was initially baffled as to why the reverb wasn't working! And slightly better on the high-power setting than the low power. But not a lot.
I honestly have no idea what type of sound they're aiming for with it - really smooth muffled blues-rock?
The owner of it loves it...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
In fact, it sounds to me like an amp that's been carefully and deliberately designed to sound like that - much like both Cornford and Blackstar, which have definite 'company sounds', and both of which I detest . So it may not be easy to fix.
As opposed to a 5F1 circuit which has virtually no tone shaping at all and just naturally sounds great...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
ps. it sounded atrocious.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein