I had my first play on a Victoria on Friday, and I'm smitten.
So I am now after a tube amp with sparkling cleans at low volumes at home but which can deliver cranked tone when I let rip.
My shortlist is (I think):
Victoria 518
Victoria 5112
Fender Champ 57 RI
Anyone able to give any pointers: pros/cons/comparison? Any really good alternatives I should consider? I know that these are all a lot of money for what they are, even buying used as I intend, but by Crom ... that TONE...
All observations gratefully received.
Inactivist Lefty Lawyer
Comments
A 5F1 with the original 8" speaker is a one-trick pony that quickly becomes limiting unless your entire sound is focused around the one thing it does well - a very brassy, raspy blues/early-rock'n'roll overdrive sound. It's loud enough to cope with a low-volume band but only fully overdriven. It does have a clean sound too, but it's not especially deep or sparkly and it's not loud enough to use with a band. It sounds more or less the same with most guitars.
The 5112 is in a totally different league - the cleans are much clearer and richer, and the overdrive is big-sounding. It's far more sensitive to the guitar, because the speaker allows more than just a narrow midrange tone through. It just about loud enough for a band, even clean - and definitely so overdriven. The guitarist in my band had one, which would compete with a reasonably loud drummer and my 500W bass amp when it was cranked right up - admittedly it wouldn't with anything cleaner.
And if you don't quite like the speaker, there are dozens of possible replacement 12"s - as opposed to probably only about two or three 8"s that are worth having.
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Rob
A Deluxe (5e3) and a Super (1x12 variant I got from Merlin off here)
Both outstanding apps.
Of your list I’d go for the Victoria 5112. Also worth noting all your shortlist are champ based, single ended 5w amps. These sound different to the tweed deluxe types.
Which Victoria did you try?