Incoming NAD

[GuitarBilly]

I picked up a Victory Sheriff V4 amp today. I've been really interested in pedalboard amps since I started using the Bluguitar. I think the format is great and fills a gap between analog amp tones and modeling practicality. While I am not planning to get rid of my amps anytime soon, I have to say I've been using the Bluguitar on nearly all recent shows and practices. So I decided to pick up the Victory and see if I like it. The clips I've watched sound really good. It should be here tomorrow

[Nateispro]

Ive been really looking at some of the options victory has and the lineup looks really solid, id love to try a Kraken, the 100 watt is killer looking but i dont need that many features, and info is scare on the 50 watt. Im excited to see what you think of the sheriff!

[NinjaRaf]

I tried the kraken preamp and it was pretty great! I’d be inclined to try the kraken pedal amp thingie. I did get a 50 watt at some point. Ended up exchanging it for another one. Both had EXTREME noise problems lol.

[Nateispro]

I tried the kraken preamp and it was pretty great! I’d be inclined to try the kraken pedal amp thingie. I did get a 50 watt at some point. Ended up exchanging it for another one. Both had EXTREME noise problems lol.

I wonder if its just inherit of their high gain designs? Kinda of a bummer to be 2 for 2 like that!

[RaceU4her]

That video that dude made had me going and checking out victory amps and now I want one lol

[Yarbicus]

The Sheriff 22 I had was the best sounding "lunchbox" amp I have ever heard.

[NinjaRaf]

I tried the kraken preamp and it was pretty great! I’d be inclined to try the kraken pedal amp thingie. I did get a 50 watt at some point. Ended up exchanging it for another one. Both had EXTREME noise problems lol.

I wonder if its just inherit of their high gain designs? Kinda of a bummer to be 2 for 2 like that!

Yeah, and this wasn't your typical high gain amp noise. Some other kind of hum. Supposedly the MT15 was built by the same people, and has similar issues that everyone complains about. Multiply whatever people say about that amp's hum by about 4-5 and that's where the Kraken was. It came from the actual amp, not the sound produced by the amp. Very strange. And disappointing because they sound great and have a really unique response.

The preamp didn't have any issues like that.

[darthcon]

It's got a solid punch and warmth to it. But, comparing it to the Bluguitar, they've got their own vibes.

[GuitarBilly]

It's got a solid punch and warmth to it. But, comparing it to the Bluguitar, they've got their own vibes.

Yeah I expect them to be different for sure. I like the Bluguitar a lot, but it does have its own vibe.
If I'm playing the Bluguitar exclusively for a few days, my ears get used to its tone and I feel like they're pretty much like a tube amp. But once I switch to one of my regular tube amps, I hear a certain smoothness that the BG doesn't have. It's subtle though and when I listen to clips of my live shows with the Bluguitar vs other amps the difference pretty much disappears in a mix. It's only noticeable when I play the amps side by side.

The Victory has more of an actual tube circuit so I'm hoping it will be even closer than the Bluguitar. We'll see.

[NinjaRaf]

It's got a solid punch and warmth to it. But, comparing it to the Bluguitar, they've got their own vibes.

Yeah I expect them to be different for sure. I like the Bluguitar a lot, but it does have its own vibe.
If I'm playing the Bluguitar exclusively for a few days, my ears get used to its tone and I feel like they're pretty much like a tube amp. But once I switch to one of my regular tube amps, I hear a certain smoothness that the BG doesn't have. It's subtle though and when I listen to clips of my live shows with the Bluguitar vs other amps the difference pretty much disappears in a mix. It's only noticeable when I play the amps side by side.

The Victory has more of an actual tube circuit so I'm hoping it will be even closer than the Bluguitar. We'll see.

You know, this was basically my experience with the Bluguitar, too. Except I didn't give it time for my ears to adjust. It is very uncompressed, and apparently I prefer amps with a good amount of compression from the gain. Otherwise, I guess the way that I play makes things sound kinda harsh if I don't have enough compression.

[GuitarBilly]

Interesting about the compression thing. I think you're right. I should try to add a compressor in the loop and see if it adds something to the feel of the amp. It's pretty easy to do it with the MS-3 so I'll try this tonight.

[NinjaRaf]

I think that's a big deciding factor for me. Not enough compression and I've typically gotten a really brash high end and too flubby low end for what I am specifically looking for.

[MacaroniSalad]

I'm interested to hear how this turns out. I don't know why I was unaware these were actually "amps", I thought it was just a pedal and ignored it totally

[NinjaRaf]

Probably because they made pedal preamp versions first, then added the 180 watt power amps to them later.

[eyeball987]

The Victory Kraken pedal was in a cart once or twice before I stepped away from it. I had been buying and selling so many amps that I had to stop for a while! Still interested though.

I have Billy's original Bluguitar Iridium, and also had a Mercury for a while. Both are great pieces of gear and sound like a real amp to me. No sense of a lack of compression issue for me, but now I am curious to fire it back up and drag out an old Danelectro Surf & Turf compressor that I used to gig with back some 20 + years ago! The plastic knobs are broken off but they can still be turned with a finger tip.

[GuitarBilly]

I'm interested to hear how this turns out. I don't know why I was unaware these were actually "amps", I thought it was just a pedal and ignored it totally

Yeah they have a preamp and a full amp version. They look pretty much the same so that's why some people are not aware of the amp version. A bit of bad marketing there, they could have made each version more distinctive.

[GuitarBilly]

The Victory Kraken pedal was in a cart once or twice before I stepped away from it. I had been buying and selling so many amps that I had to stop for a while! Still interested though.

I have Billy's original Bluguitar Iridium, and also had a Mercury for a while. Both are great pieces of gear and sound like a real amp to me. No sense of a lack of compression issue for me, but now I am curious to fire it back up and drag out an old Danelectro Surf & Turf compressor that I used to gig with back some 20 + years ago! The plastic knobs are broken off but they can still be turned with a finger tip.

Yeah honestly I only notice it in a direct comparison. If I'm just playing the Bluguitar I have no issues.

[NinjaRaf]

Yeah, I don't know that I would say its a lack of compression in general terms, but for me personally, I like a relatively compressed tone.

[GuitarBilly]

The amp arrived today but I just got back from the beach and can't try it out at loud volume, but I tested it at a really quiet volume and it sounds good so far. I'll definitely do some testing tomorrow and I'll practice with it this weekend.

[GuitarBilly]

I had a chance to play with it this morning at a louder volume. Not full band volume, but louder than I could last night.

The real test is tomorrow with the band but I'm VERY impressed with it so far.

Comparing it the BluGitar, right off bat, the BluGuitar is more versatile. 4 channels, custom EQ, gate, preset mode, MIDI etc there are tons of options on that amp.

The Sheriff is a 2 channel amp with Reverb and DI out. That's it. The only feature where it beats the BluGuitar is the DI, since it has the Two Notes IR tech, whereas the BluGuitar just have an analog emulated out. That said, the BluGuitar DI out sounds pretty good so it's definitely more than enough. But the Victory DI definitely offers more options.

In terms of tone. Again, the BluGuitar is more versatile and capable of many different tones. They are not exactly like say, a Marshall or a Mesa etc, the BluGuitar definitely has its own tone identity.

The Sheriff is a Marshall. Full stop. It's not Victory's take on the Marshall sound. It's the Marshall sound. But I have to say, it's pretty impressive. It doesn't do everything the BluGuitar does. But if you like a Marshall sound, it does that better than the BluGuitar.
It's extremely similar to the DSL on both channels. The Vintage Channel is like the DSL green crunch. The Hot Rod channel is like the DSL lead 1. Even the difference in low end between the 2 channels is here. The same gain and EQ settings I use on the DSL work on this amp too.

Being a Marshall guy, and particularly a Marshall DSL guy, this feels more natural to me. I literally plugged in the same pedals, dialed all the same settings and got the same results. So this could be the winner for me, (pending a full volume test tomorrow).
But I can't say it beats the BluGuitar. For Marshall sounds, yes it does. 100%
But the BluGuitar can go way past Marshall sounds. I think I'd need the Sheriff and the Kraken to cover the whole Iridium territory.

BUT the BluGuitar takes getting used to. This is way closer to my other amps (so far) and sounds familiar right out the box.

I'll practice with it tomorrow and post more about it. I'll take the BluGuitar too so I can compare the two.

[GuitarBilly]

I took it to practice today and it was really disappointing
It did not hold up well in the mix at all. It's definitely loud enough and the tone itself is good but it sits super flat with no bite or heaviness whatsoever. It's sad because by itself it sounds really fucking good, but once the bass and drums hit, it all but disappears in the mix.

I ended up finishing practice with a Katana 2x12 combo they had it at the studio and that was way better. Real bummer.

[Mike Oxhuge]

It's the strangest thing but so true that some gear just doesn't sit well in a mix. Oh well, you still got some killer gear that does. On to the next experiment....

[MacaroniSalad]

Dang!

Oh well, you checked it out for science.

[RaceU4her]

well thats a bummer

[valtyr]

Ouch, that sucks! Too bad it vanished in the mix.

I have an early version of the Victory v-30. Clean channel is great, but the lead is a bit dark. I’ll probably get a treble boost.