Models include the Kraken, the Sheriff and the Countess.
Victory Amps have released three new all-valve powered pedal preamps as part of their V4 Series: The Countess, the Sheriff and the Kraken.
The two-channel pedal preamps feature four valves running at full-plate voltage and are designed to bypass existing amps’ preamp sections and go straight to the power section via the effects return or power amp in.
The pedals employ an ‘Amp Through Mode,’ which allows the signal to hit the amp as normal; when the pedal is turned on, the amp’s preamp is bypassed and the pedal provides an entirely different all-valve front-end.
The three models are based on their namesake Victory amplifiers: The Countess (distinct clean and dirty channels); the Sheriff (classic rock and modded 'plexi' tones) and the Kraken (heavy rock, extended range and progressive styles).
According to Victory, “It was the valves themselves that first inspired us to begin work on the V4 Series. Friends and customers had consistently asked for the ‘Victory sound’ in a pedal, but we felt the market was already completely saturated—pun intended—with every kind of OD pedal imaginable… until we discovered the CV4014.
“The V4 Series Pedal Preamps began life with a quartet of NOS (new old stock) CV4014 valves. It is a small-signal pentode valve with seven pins, physically just a little smaller than the more common, nine-pin 12AX7/ECC83 dual-triode. We discovered a quantity large enough to ensure sustainable production and spares supply over the long term, we really liked how they were sounding, and so we began testing.
“Again to the best of our knowledge the CV4014 hasn’t been used widely—if at all—in music audio applications to date. It was produced from 1953 to 1981 by legendary UK manufacturer Mullard for the British MOD to NATO 5960 military spec. It was designed to give long life in various military applications including mobile communications.”
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“The Victory V4 Series Pedal Preamps are not ‘normal’ pedals. The market is awash with incredible overdrive and distortion boxes that do a certain job in front of a great tube amp. That’s one thing. An all-valve preamp is quite another and we are immensely proud of the sound potential within each of them.”
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
