We like the way Victory Amps think – first they offered more players the chance to access the tonal skills of Martin Kidd with preamp and then full amp pedals. Now the Brits are going further with the help of Thorpy FX; V1 overdrive pedals based on its five flagship amps? Yes please!
Yeah, we thought we were out of the overdrive pedal game too. But there's always new temptation around the corner and these look difficult to resist.
The brief the company set itself with these pedals sounds simple but is actually very ambitious; a single button footswitch that 'encapsulates' each amp.
"The idea of a collaboration was something that made a good deal of sense, as we were to an extent, venturing into the unknown," says Victory's Chief Designer Martin Kidd.
"At Victory, we have the knowhow, of course; however, being able to make use of Adrian’s [Thorpe's] experience and the various subtleties of his design ethic, enabled us to better appeal to the player who likes a clean amp platform; getting their various sounds from pedals.”
It took a while to bet their, because neither party could put their name to something that didn't meet the grade.
“We were keen to make the V1 pedals sound as close to the full-bore valve amps as possible but working with Martin and the team meant that we had to be even more precise to do their amp designs justice in solid state pedal form," explains Thorpe. "It took a long time and many times we had to go back to the drawing board.
"Despite this, maintaining an uncompromising nature of what the Victory sound is, means that pedal fiends worldwide can enjoy these pedals, no matter what their flavour preferences.I’m proud to say we worked on these V1 pedals.”
So how do they sound? Well you can hear for yourself in the videos, but Victory has also provided a breakdown for those not familiar with each amp's signature traits.
The Duchess
'Designed to emulate the V40 Duchess, it can add a vintage American clean sound, a clean boost or a surprising amount of American style gain to your rig.'
The Copper
'Classic British Rock tone as soon as you engage the Copper. Push the gain up and you are into 70’s Classic British Rock, then dial it back for 60’s British Blues Rock and everything in between.'
The Jack
'A Victory classic based on the V30 Jack designed in collaboration with Guthrie Govan [formerly known as The Countess]. The Jack can do low gain, barky sounds, all the way through to over the top gain.'
The Sheriff
'All out rock from the Sheriff family in this V1, keep the gain low to get the vintage channel sounds, then push the gain up for '80s hard rock sounds.'
The Kraken
'This V1 pedal is all about gain, keeping the gain down will give you channel 1 British Gain of the VX, then pushing the gain up is Channel 2 American High gain sounds.'
All the V1 pedals have a steel chassis feature a three-band EQ with volume and gain controls. They will be priced at £199/€239/$249.
Order at Andertons in the UK and Sweetwater in the US.
More info at Victory
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