NAMM 2019: Victory Amps Super Duchess V140 – 100-watt all valve tone
A 100-watt single-channel, all-valve amp
The new Victory Amps Super Duchess V140 is an all valve, 100-watt head and it pulls no punches. Yes, it is a single-channel and yes it is insanely powerful, but it is valve tone, so should sound pretty epic.
Victory Amps Super Duchess V140
Is there a market for single-channel 100-watt heads? Well the Victory Amps Super Duchess V140 is going to need one, as it isn’t subtle. With this new 100-watt amp Victory is aiming at players need power and headroom. With these comes better, bigger clean tones.
Clean Power
The amp is driven by four 12AX7 preamp valves and a further quartet of 6L6 valves in the output section. It also has external bias test points and adjustment for the setting up and maintenance of the amp. You can actually knock the 100-watts down to an ‘easier on the ears’ 30-watts if you like, so it is actually a really flexible amp head.
The Super Duchess V140 also has a newly voiced Mid Kick switch that works with the middle EQ pot for two extra levels of oomph, when you need it.
Effects or not
It has a valve-driven spring reverb with a full-length reverb tank, so should sound pretty lush if you require some ‘verb. Plus, a valve-driven tremolo for when you need some warble. Both can be activated using the included two-button footswitch. It also comes with an effects loop that is placed between the pre and power stages and can also be completely cut out of the circuit when bypassed via the switch on the rear of the amp.
On paper, this sounds like a beast of an amp and yet I can see it working well for gigging musicians. It has all the classic ingredients for a great amp head, so don’t dismiss it on power alone. I never use channel switching myself, I always prefer to use my guitar’s volume control to tame my amp, which would work well with this particular amp.
RRP – GBP 1549 / USD 1829 / EUR 1699
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