REVIEWS

Victory V140 Super Duchess

Published 4 years ago on February 9, 2020

By Guitar Interactive Magazine

 

Victory V140 Super Duchess

Guitar Interactive star rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

MSRP (UK) £1549 (US) $TBC

 

PROS

Huge range of tones,

Fantastic build quality.

Extra treble and top-end than predocessor.

 

 

CONS

Not much to dislike.

 

SPECS

Valves: 4x 12AX7, 4x 6L6

Size: 480mm x 295mm x 235mm

Weight: 12.5kg

Two button footswitch for reverb and tremolo included


With Victory Amplifiers V140 The Super Duchess, the British amplifier heavyweight presents a powerful version of the popular Duchess top with enormous headroom reserves and authentic Vintage sounds. Accordingly, the single-channel preamp design, which relies on two 12AX7 - and two 12AT7 tubes, convinces with a crystal-clear Clean Californian sound that can be optimally adjusted via the classic 3-Band tone control. Here's Phil Short with the full breakdown.

 

We're back again with another fantastic review of the brand new Victory Super Duchess! The third model in the V40 The Duchess line of amps, this model is perhaps their most glorious version to date. It's bigger, louder and more versatile than their previous models boasting a 100 watt power section.

 

Wait..! 100 watts? Why would we possibly want or need 100 watts? The answer is of course, headroom! The previous versions in the V40 line were deliberately designed to get that edge of break up tone at sensible gigging volume. Chewy clean tones with a touch of hair to the tone are available in abundance.

 

Sometimes though, you just need an amp that will stay truly clean at much higher volumes, or you just need more power for bigger stages. Enter the V140 Super Duchess, which picks up where the V40 Deluxe left off.

 

The amp features a 100-watt power section with 4 6L6 power tubes for those huge, lush American style clean tones. The bigger power section affords a greater sense of depth that beautifully fills the room. Because of the extra headroom the dynamic range is vastly increased, so some players may find the use of a compressor helpful to tame some of their attack.

 

Whilst based on the V40 Deluxe, the Super Duchess does have noticeably more treble and presence and feels much more "fendery" than their previous models. This will please players looking for copious amounts of sparkle and chime.

 

The extra headroom also allows a little more breathing space for "amp in a box" style pedals to have a little extra breathing room, and helps them not to "flub" at higher volumes. There's also ample sonic space for boost pedals for volume jumps for solos.

 

The preamp circuit has the ability to drive really well and has more gain than the previous versions. Wound all the way up, huge, fat sounding early Marshall esq tones were available, and the extra headroom kept that low end thump we'd associate with a 4x12.

 

Let's not forget the cab either! Vertical construction, housing two 12inch Celestion creamback 65 speakers, the cab sounds just as big as any 4x12 we've heard at a fraction of the size and weight. The open back design helps to really fill the room too. The money is worth spending to really allow the amp to sing at its best.

 

There are a couple of added features that we greatly enjoyed. The voice switch has an extra setting on it, giving three variations to the midrange response of the amp so you can really fine-tune your tone for different guitars and pedals.

 

We're still treated to the same lush built-in tremolo circuit, but we're afforded a bigger reverb tank with a much longer reverb tail. This is definitely a highlight, with beautiful lush reverb tones available in abundance.

 

If 100 watts is too powerful, you can drop the power to 30 watts. Low power mode does still have plenty of kick to it! But the reduced headroom helps tame the bottom end, definitely useful for smaller stages or large bands where the bottom end could get in the way. The low power mode feels very similar to the deluxe, but has a slightly different voice to it, with more presence and upper mids.

 

All in all, a stunning workhorse that is extremely tweak-able and flexible, yet simple to use.

 


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