Victory puts the metal to the pedal as the Copper joins its stellar V4 preamp series

Being big fans of Victory Amplifiers' VC35 The Copper and of its V4 series of preamp pedals, the news that the British boutique guitar amplifier company has launched The Copper in a V4 format is very exciting indeed.

Those familiar with the VC35 head will recognise much of its DNA in this V4 pedal. It similarly has the bronze, folded-steel chassis. The signal path is all-valve, with a EC900 joining three CV4014 valves running at plate voltage.

Tone-wise, you are in for late 50s chime, with that harmonically rich midrange and a sound that shows a little teeth when you engage the treble boost section to push the unit into overdrive. 

You can place The Copper V4 in front of your amp or go straight into an audio interface, or indeed go via your amp's effect loop.

The unit has two footswitches, one to bypass/engage the preamp, the other to activate a treble boost that will push the valves a little harder and give you some creamy gain to play with.

There is a TRS jack input, so you can use remote switching should you want to place the unit back by your amp out of the way. It is small enough to place on your desktop or mount on your pedalboard.

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With the treble boost function, The Copper V4 is effectively a two-channel design. On the top of the unit there are global tone and gain controls, with independent volume controls for the clean channel and the treble-boosted channel. 

These are supplemented by a 3-band EQ, and a 3-position Bass mode from which you can choose Full Bass with Bass Cut on the treble-boost feature, a Global Bass cut, or Global Full Bass – these features combine to make for what will surely be a most tweakable pedal, taking you from bright Fab Four jangle through to chewier classic rock crunch.

The Copper V4 is available now, priced £369 / €449 / $519. See Victory Amps for more details.