Victoria Amplifier Co. 20112 112 Combo

This review is for a Victoria Tweed Deluxe built in 2002. It is designed around the original 1955 narrow panel Fender Tweed Deluxe (model 5E3. The amp features a normal and bright channel w/ 2 inputs each. There is 1 tone control and an on/off switch. The tube lineup is 1 12AY7, 1 12AX7, 1 5Y3GB rectifier tube, and 2 6V6s, yielding 20 watts RMS. The amp came with a Jensen C12N speaker installed on a floating baffle in an open back cabinet. There was no owner's manual included which is somewhat puzzling. The amp is cathode biased so there is no need to bias new power tubes. The phase inverter circuit is a "split-load" type, requiring only half of the 12AX7, leaving the other half as a second preamp stage, common to both channels. It is covered in period correct tweed as the name implies. I use the amp to play classic rock from the '60's and '70's. I normally play it with a Fender Custom Shop Relic 1960 Stratocaster. It seems the amp was designed with single coil strat/tele style pickups in mind. It gets a little mushy on the low E and A strings with humbuckers in my opinion. The amp has plenty of power to play small to medim gigs, especially if you mike it up.

As stated above I play the Victoria Tweed Deluxe with a Relic 1960 Stratocaster. I can nail down the Eric Clapton Layla/Bellbottom Blues tone easily. It does a good job reproducing 1970's Lynyrd Skynyrd tones also. I sometimes use a Radial Engineering Tone Bone (Hot British) to push the preamp section. Doing so allows me to really expand the tonal capabilities of this rig. With the Hot British, the amp/guitar combination gives a smooth singing overdrive sound that never gets mushy. It sounds huge and very 3-dimensional. It's also very responsive to a player's picking attack. Wack the strings hard and it will snarl back at you. Gently carress the strings and it will purr like a kitten. I'm sure the NOS RCA/GE tubes help in this regard. I have never heard or played an amp that sounds this good, anywhere.

Victoria Amps are handwired PTP construction with top notch transformers, resisters, and capacitors. The amp very well could outlive the original owner. All components are first rate and assembled with attention to detail like nothing I have ever seen. There is no question that this amp will go the distance.

Mark Baier is easily contacted via telephone and email. He promptly answers any questions a new owner may have reqarding his amps. I just wished Victoria included an owners manual (and perhaps an Internet Web Site).

I have been playing guitar since 1966. I have owned Fender, Marshall, Studiomaster, and other brands of amps. The Victoria Tweed Deluxe is the most expressive and responsive amplifier I have ever played. It's a keeper.

This amp is a reproduction of the late 50's Fender "narrow panel" Deluxe amplifier. This one was built in 2000, but I bought it used (looks like new). Victoria did a beautiful job on this amp (tweed, circuit, etc.). It does not have many features; it is just a simple classic circuit that puts out tone. It is a nice size amp that is easy to carry around and it does not take up much room in my bedroom. The previous owner replaced the Mojo speaker with a Fender C12N replacement speaker (I believe it is an Eminence).

This amp has fantastic tone. I have a few of vintage amps to compare it with (blackface Deluxe Reverb, Princeton Reverb, and 1957 Fender Harvard). It has a nice deep tone that the Princeton does not have (because of the 12" speaker), yet it has more mids and a 50's tone that the Deluxe Reverb cannot attain. I actually prefer the tweed tone to the blackface tone; although, they are both great tones. I have not tried to jump the channels on this amp, but I understand it will yield some great tones (like a Marshall Plexi) when this is done. The amp is much cleaner than I have heard that tweed Deluxes are suppossed to be, but I use old fender strats with stock low-output PUPs, so that may part of the reason. I like the clean slightly overdriven sound, so it sounds great to me. In my opinion, I have not heard too many amps that sound better than this amp; it's up there with the best of them.

It has worked flawlessly. Although, I noticed that one ground wire came loose in the chassis, and the output transformer sheet metal screw was stripped out when I got it (the output transformer was dangling from the chassis). I easily repaired both, and they may have been done in shipping.

Never used this.

Fantasic amp. Unfortunately, I sold this amp due to too many amps. I miss it already. However, I will eventually sell off some of my other amps and buy another one of these (or maybe a victoria bassman). I think I am going to sell my blackface amps and go tweed, since I prefer that sound.