Victory VC35 Deluxe demo

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3 years ago
9

The Chimeâ„¢
Apparently the AC15 and AC30 have it. Fenders and Marshalls can only dream of it and can only wonder as to its meaning.
Victory amps have recently released this new addition to their line which attempts to capture the sound of the Vox circuit without including some of the less enviable properties, such as cooking the EL84 output section due to poor ventilation and greater than 100% biasing levels. They also include nice things like an FX loop and a reverb tank even though it's a sort of puny 2 spring short tank.

You can hear the sound of Vox amps and recognise the sound. To me, chime means a high midrange emphasis. Not a bark or a growl but a midrange which is actually nice to listen to. This amp does have a switchable midrange boost and a bass cut and the latter is really great but I'm not a fan of massive barky midrange.

I have found this amp to be very different to a Fender design. It has a global tone control which is post Phase Invertor and has a wide range of action indeed and you can really change the overall tone massively. I set it just over half for this demo with a Les Paul Custom but you don't really need to move it much from there to hear the difference.

I'm also using the lower wattage setting which uses pure cathode bias but at a lower plate voltage on the EL84 power section to get that AC15 sound but there is the option to switch into the mixed cathode/fixed bias 35 Watt mode. The bias strategy is to avoid one of the problems with Vox amps which is the tendency to bias way above the maximum rating of the EL84 design.
Another problem was always heat dissipation, given the the Vox amps had poor venting out the top. The head design of the Victory is a great way to get the Vox sound and tone stack without the issues.

I'm using a Les Paul Custom 1968 re-issue in this and no effects or post processing. I use the onboard reverb throughout and the tremolo in one section.

The cab is a Zilla Fatboy with an EVM 12L in it.

I use a Shure SM57 and Rode NT1-A into a Presonus Studio 68C. Also a curly cable...

Check out my website for more cool stuff:

https://www.gringopig.com/

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