Victoria Amplifier Co. 20112-T

Bare bones tube amp. Plug in and play. 2 normal and 2 bright inputs; 2 volume controls (1 for normal and 1 for bright); 1 tone control; on-off switch (no standby); ground switch.
There is no point in adding anything else to this amp (except maybe a standby switch). It is as close to perfect as you can get. You make it sound different by opening your ears and using you hands, and it makes you feel like the king of the world.
The amp is plenty loud. For stupid loud, you can always mike it.
I don't rate the amp highly for "features," because it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. But I really consider that a plus, given the overwhelming superiority of this amp's tone. Not only do you not need to spend years trying to figure out where to set millions of knobs and switches, but there is hardly any setting you can dial to get a bad sound out of this amp.

I use a Heritage 535 with stock humbuckers. Most of the time I only use the neck pickup. I play jazz. This amp is perfect for what I do.
The amp can be a little noisy when you crank it up, but not in a way that detracts from what is happening. In a band setting you would never even notice it.
This amp makes the most beautiful sounds I have ever managed to coax out of a guitar. When other people play it, they have the same experience.

Mine is less than a year old. So far no problems. But you know how tubes are.

I have had some of the same experiences as other customers. Mark B. loves his work and seems to try to be responsive to his customers, but I get the impression he may be spread too thin. Fortunately, I have never had to deal with him over a problem. For the kinds of things I have e-mailed him about (e.g., to ask whether Victoria has an owner's manual or makes an amp cover), he did respond, althoughly slowly. He was apologetic about the delay, and, frankly, what I was asking about can hardly be considered an emergency.
It may be that the best "customer support" for this product is that the amp is a known design, which should mean many people across the globe can repair it. I don't happen to be one of them, so this may be wishful thinking. If I never have to find out, so much the better.

This is a really expensive, light weight, easy to play, great sounding amp. I am delighted. If it were ever stolen, I would replace it if I had the cash, which is a big if.
I have played some Dr Z amps that also sound great. I think they are in the same league. Really, you get what you pay for.

I play Blues/Rock/pop/Jazz and bought it via Station Music in Germany as new for 3400 DM without any speaker. TYPE : 15-18Watt 1x12" Combo. INPUTS : Bright hi/lo + Normal hi/lo. CONTROLS : vol + vol + tone (For bright channel). TUBES : 5Y3 + 2x6V6 + 12AX7 + 5751. SPEAKER : bought it without any, but installed a Celestion Blue Alnico RI afterwards. For what I play, the features are just what I need and no more. Of cause a lot of further "tuning" could be done simply by changing the types of the preamp-tubes OR brand of any of the tubes.

I play Blues/Rock/pop/Jazz and play both humbucking and single coils. When I recieved the amp I was very pleased with the clean sound that were HUGE sounding! 30Watt? Big bottom, vocal-like midrange and detailed top. The optimum (for me) amount of compression. What was a bit harder to get, was the lead overdrive/distortion sounds right. It turned out that it was mostly a matter of getting to know the amp - or especially the speaker - better. The "Blue Alnico" speaker are VERY dynamic and detailed. Now (after 2 months of playing) I have found the right settings for the rhythm AND lead-tones. Actually I ended up with an A/B/A+B box that applies my guitar signal to the Normal or Bright-inputs OR both! A VERY GREAT SETUP FOR THIS AMP! - Now it?s VERY versatile.

The amp I have by now is very dependable I think. I do not intend to bring another amp with me on the road. BUT this is after some problems I must say. If you really want to be bored, read the story under "Customer Support"

Well now, the amp described above is actually the SECOND amp that I have received! On the first one some of the front panel labels were missing and others were scratched? The German distributor told that the amp were factory-new, so they (Station Music, Germany) were not to blame. Then I Emailed Mark Baier and he admitted, that there were some finish-problems with that specific amp, so he would send a new one. That was okay with me. When I received the second amp I noticed THREE missing soldering on the second pre-amp tube, a different kind of resistor were used in one place (NOT a carbon-type) and two diodes were located on the rectifier socket! I was told by Mark Baier that the resistor and the diodes were upgrades that I should not worry about and that he couldn't believe the missing soldering. So I have sent him several pictures of these and have not heard from him yet.
Since I'm an educated electronic engineer, I can't help feeling a little bit disappointed about the inconsistency of the two amps I have seen by now. BUT now I have the amp I wanted after all! HAPPY ENDING! And Mark has sent me some preamp-tubes that I can "tune" the amp with - for free, so by now I barely recall the problems.
The German distributor have been very professional all the way and Mark Baier (President for the factory in the states) have been very responsive (Emails) and have VERY good intensions but I think that he should hire some kind of Quality Control personnel. Maybe some "gear queer" like me?

SOUNDS VERY GOOD INDEED, HANDY/LIGHT-LOAD (Feels like a 10-15W but sounds like 30w) and with the addition of the (my own) A/B/A+B switch box it is VERY versatile.

This is the second amp that Mark has built for me and it is a gem. The main feature of this amp is tone. It is gutsy when you want gutsy, and sparkly when you want sparkly. It has two channels that are somewhat interactive and one tone knob. I've got people coming up to me during breaks and asking me what kind of pedals I'm using that sound so great. Aside from the Reverberato which is a very nice reverb/vibrato unit, the only pedal on the floor is a tuner. 18 watts of heaven. I can crank the amp to it's sweet spot and not hear any complaining about "You're too loud". I was initially concerned that it might not be loud enough but I was wrong. I play Chicago blues and some old Jump blues with a four piece group and it is plenty loud for the bars and I mike it for the festivals. This is the perfect amp, and its an easy load in.

I'm playing a couple of strats, a 59 RI Les Paul (Thank you Tom Murphy!) and an old ES 330, Lindy Fralin pickups all around. I get a little 60 cycle buzz on the Strats in the 1-3-5 positions, but hey, they're Strats. I can hear all of the sounds that I remember hearing on old Rhythm and Blues and early Rock and Roll songs jumping out of this amp. That's no surprise when you consider all of the effort that Mark put into replicating the original components of the 50's Fender Tweed Deluxe. Your pick attack really determines a lot with this amp. It responds like its reading your mind and knows what you want to hear.

This is better than if I'd bought a 50's Fender amp because all of the components are new, except the NOS tubes. The craftsmanship in this amp is above reproach. The wiring is clean and it has a very cool shellac finish on all of the tweed. Fender should be doing this on their reissues. I expect this amp to be in service for a long time if I don't abuse it. After all, the 50's amps that are like it still play well if you take them in for a tune up once in a while.

Mark Baier is very responsive to my calls with questions and emails where I pick his brain. The only service I've needed is to replace a Jensen speaker that had some kind of infant mortality problem. Mark jetted one out to me immediately and I didn't miss a gig.

If anything happens to this amp, I will definitely order another one that day. My backup amp is a 76 Fender Deluxe Reverb. I've owned a few of the Fender reissue amps and a lot of old Fenders as well as products by Marshall, Mesa Engineering, HIWATT, Bedrock and odds and ends in between. I am sold on Victoria amps. The only thing I wish the amp had was a cover, but I can get one made locally pretty cheap.

This honey was built in 1999 and has one feature: TONE. Classic tweed Deluxe clone with all the beauty and warts. Bell-like clean tones and classic tweed crunch. I added a three-way ON/STANDBY/OFF switch to replace the ON/OFF switch. This is the only feature that would actually enhance this amp besides a better 12-inch speaker to replace the stock MojoTone. I installed a Weber P-12-Q. If you're rating this for the quality of the feature(s), it gets a 10. If you're rating it for the quantity of features, it gets a 1.

When I'm using my Hamer Daytona w/Rio Tallboys, I'm playing traditional blues, i.e., Chicago style, Texas...When I'm using my Special, I lean toward the British blues/rock. As soon as I latch onto an archtop, the Vic will be used for jump blues as well. This amp covers these three bases with equal aplomb, although it is probably least suited toward British blues. I've been using primarily the NORMAL channel for its warmth.

This amp was only purchased in the summer of 1999, so it really hasn't been tested yet. As a matter of practice, I would always bring a backup amp.

A few years back I purchased a Victoria Bandmaster clone. One of the preamp tubes was microphonic. After calling Mark Baier and telling him about the problem, he said he'd send me "a couple new ones". He said they had been having this problem for reasons which I forget. As of 3/17/00 I have received nothing from him. I'm not holding my breath. The times when I have talked with him though, he has been helpful. Of course, this was before the sale.

I have been playing for 22 years. This may be the most satisfying amp I have ever played, even more so than an original Fender tweed since it doesn't fart out as bad and has better clarity. I play it more than either my boutique Bassman or Deluxe Reverb. I chose the Victoria brand mainly because I was able to trade some gear I had for it new. If it was stolen, I would probably buy a Clark instead because I get the sneaky suspicion that he stands behind his amps better than Mark Baier. I've also done other business with him and would really like to try one of his tweeds .

This amp is a 3 knob single channel combo, no loop,speaker out,etc. Bare bones just like the old narrow panel tweed deluxe. It is appx.20 watts with a 1-12 spkr.Nos tubes and burnished tweed covering

This amp sounds fantastic no matter what you play through it. It has a distinct change in character with each input. I went through all four inputs and found the differences to be not dramatically different, but the change in tone was obvious. There is not a lot of headroom here,but lets face it 20 watt amps don't have much headroom anyway. The thick,creamy,fat,warm overdriven tones are what we all hear about and read. If you play a Les Paul with this amp you are overwhelmed with the richness of the tone. Humbuckers seem to push the amp into heavenly overdrive with no pedal involved. It is typically 50'ish with all of the bumps, and extraneous noises associated with these great amps. The tone is worth it

Reliability has not been a factor at this point. IMO a backup should always be brought to a gig. An amp is only as reliable as its tubes, and we all know that tubes can be unreliable.

Here is where the s*it hits the fan. I contacted Mark about a problem with my cabinet. I fixed all the buzzing and rattling,as this is inherent in amps like this. No problem. I noticed that the amp had several inconsistencies in the staining of the tweed. Also some nitwit had to have several of the parts of the cabinet numbered in magic marker, apparently to put it together I guess. In any event,for the price of this amp I expected a lot more attention to detail.Lets face it, even a $400 stock fender is without some of the above problems. I made an inquiry to Mark to see if he could address the problems with the cabinet,he responded and asked where I bought it,when etc. I waited almost a month for him to answer my question with no reply. Finally I emailed him indicating that I was unhappy with the absence of a response.Still no word back.I know everyone and their brother wants a Vic, and rightfully so. They sound better than anything I have ever played.So much so that when I ran into an older used one at GC,which my buddy bought, I ran back to my local music store and convinced the owner that I was going to track one of these things down,he contacted Victoria,became a dealer, and I ended up buying a 50-212 and the deluxe. I know how busy they must be,and how backordered they are, but I was busy too,bustin my ass to make the extra money to buy both of these great amps.I do not regret owning either of them, and I don't see me ever getting rid of them.They are a fantastic example of what we all strive for in the tone dept. I read other reviews that claim the amps have a lifetime warranty,how the hell would any of us know.No documentation, and no response from the company,no check that,no response from the owner of the company. I hope that everyone out there has better luck than I did.

I have been playing for over 30 years,the proud owner of several les pauls,and strats. Amp wise I am fortunate enough to own a Kendrick, Naylor, a few Marshalls,and A DR.Z rte 66. If the amp was ever lost I probably would buy it again.But as far as customer service goes Mark,take a lesson from DR.Z

The amp was new when I bought in in August 1999. I was advised by the seller (Bubba's Guitars, Randy Cloud owner) to be sure the amp had enough clean headroom for me. Its warm pure tube overdrive tone that starts around 4 on the volume knob is exactly what I wanted. The amp has 3 knobs, normal volume, bright volume, tone. There's no effects loop, channel switching, headphone jack, reverb or tremelo. Adding features is not what this amp design is about. This is an absolute replica of the late '50's tweed deluxe. The amp has plenty of power for a small to medium room. The Jensen C12N 12" speaker has a wide range, its warm and never harsh.

I'm a novice player. I play blues and blues rock music. The amp is versatile enough for most music. I use a '79 Les Paul Custom w/ standard humbuckers. The amp's vintage tone makes it more fun to play and practice. Volume can be controlled by variations in picking attack. Rich harmonics and biting rock sounds are easy to achieve. Overall the sound is round and warm. It does have a hum which I attribute to the old circuit design. I accept the hum as a price for the rich tone. I plug into the normal channel 1 and jumper cable from the normal 2 to bright 1 for more tube saturation. Vice-a-versa jumper also works for a brighter saturated tone.

I bought the amp in August and have had no problems with it so far. The way its built I don't expect to. I called Victora Amp Co. to verify that the amp had a lifetime warranty and Mark Baier, the President answered the phone himself. He said that he would stand behind it as long as he was alive and he's in his 40's. Since I'm in my 50's thats good enough for me. Construction and finish quality of the amp is very high.

I talked with Mark by phone once and email several times and he's been quick to respond, friendly and helpful. I've had nothing requiring repair. The warranty is lifetime except for tubes and speakers. I found that Tulsa Guitar and Electronics is an authorized service center. No warranty or instructional papers were included in the box. Since I bought it from a dealer - box opened - I emailed Mark to see it documentation was lost or just not supplied. Mark said that currently the did not supply documentation. Its no big deal but a single page of warranty and instructional documention would help. I would just put the documentation on the Victoria web page.

I was looking for a hand wired point-to-point tube amp with quality parts throughout. I wanted vintage warm tube tone without high volume. Everything else I found was hundreds of dollars more expensive. I was happy find this amp in a store and be able to hear it before buying. I played it at the shop then went home to get my LP and try it. The amp was exactly what I wanted. I continue to be happier the more I use it. I tried a Matchless Hurricane and it was no where near as responsive and harmonic as the Vicky and it was $500 more. I compared it to a new Fender Blues Deluxe and I much prefer the Victoria. The tone control interacts with the volume controls of the bright and normal channels enabling lots of different tones. I wish there was an effects loop but that wouldn't be true to the replication design of this amp.

Features are not the strength of this amp but they shouldn't be when you are purchasing an exact replica of an amp from the late fifties.It has everything you need for a great sound, volume and tone, tone, tone. An added bonus is that this amp now comes with the Jensen speaker instead of the Mojo.

I play a bunch of American Standard teles and a '52 reissue, plus a couple of American Standard strats. For each of these guitars the amp is absolutely perfect, it sounds so sweet like an amp from this period is supposed to. I play blues and classic rock like the stones and the who, and for this type of music you can not do any better.

I just purchased it so no problems, I also have a victoria champ and had another victoria deluxe and had no problems with them.

It is a local company for me so I consider the support good. Before I purchased, I contacted the manufacturer and talked with him personally on the phone, obviously very knowledgeable and very accessable.

I stupidly had one of these and traded it for a custom telecaster 12 string but soon found that I could not do without this amp. 2 Weeks later I went to Make N Music (the coolest guitar and amp shop in chicago) and bought a new one. The good news is that my new one has the Jensen speaker where my old one had the Mojo. The mojo sounded great but the Jensen blows it away. I will NEVER part with this amp!

This amp has volume for each channel and one tone. Three knobs. For me, that is perfect. The tone is so beautiful, who needs grapgic EQ? I don't require effects loops. I play a variety of music, rock, blues, country, and, with this amp,I can handle things from the volume and tone controls on my Tele. With only three knobs, it is surprisingly versatile. It is plenty powerful for small to medium clubs. By miking it and going through the PA, it has enough power for anything that I would ever need.

Unbelievable tone. It makes my other amps, 1963 brown Princeton, '59 tweed Champ, '60 brown Concert, '77 Marshall 50 combo, Peavy Special 130, and others, sound thin and pitiful. I can hardly describe it. I play Tele's and a A Les Paul Special TV w/P90's (reissue). It is a little noisy at high volumes, but not too bad. The harmoics and distortion are wonderful. The only drawback is that the low E sting can get a little muddy when the volume is set around 10-12. That is not a critical issue for me. I like the volume between 4 and 9. I use the bright channel.

I haven't had for very long. It's build right, so I don't worry much about it. If I am far from home, I take a backup. If not, I wing it. I havent had enough experience with it yet to give it a fair rating.

I've not dealt with the company. I bought through a dealer in St Louis.

I've been playing for 26 years. I would replace this amp if it were lost or stolen. In fact, I will buy the Victoia 35310-T soon, to use on larger jobs and studio work (it sounded wonderful, too, in slightly different way). Victoria amps are expensive as hell. They're worth it. I also love the fact that it is lightweight. A Tele in it's case in one hand, and this amp in the other, and I can walk into a room and not even have broken a sweat.

This is Victoria's clone of the '59 Fender Tweed Deluxe. Beautiful shellacked tweed cabinet, housing a single 12 inch speaker. Mark Baier, Victoria's founder/president, offers Jensen reissues in addition to stock mojotones. I paid extra and got the Jensen P-12N. The circuitry is true to the original 5E3 schematic. It has two channels: normal and bright. One volume control for each channel and a single tone control. As on the original, the tone can be further modified by the volume control of the channel you are not using...this typically scoops the midrange a bit. Surprising amount of flexibility with so few controls. Beyond this, there are no other features..very simple and straightforward, but the tone on this is awesome. More about that later. One thing I did notice is that there is a hole in the chassis where there should be an extension speaker jack. According to Mark, he had a lot of customers plugging the speaker into the wrong outlet causing problems so he eliminated it. I want to get one installed in mine.

I use this with a '69 Les Paul with SD P-90's, a '54 Custom Shop Strat Reissue, and a newer ES-335. I play mostly classic rock/blues, and this thing provides the perfect sounds for me. Maybe it's the combination of the 5E3 circuitry, NOS preamp tubes,the RCA Blackplate 6V6's, and the P-12N Jensen...but let me tell you...this thing sounds beautiful...both the chords and single notes have a full, warm, round tone with great harmonics. The sustain will last for days...especially with the Les Paul. It gets fairly clean,rich tones, and will distort nicely at medium volumes. Great for any style of blues..Stormy Monday ala Dicky Betts/Duane Allman, Bloomfield, etc. You can get bright a any classic Fender, as well as a warm, smooth tone...and alot in between. So far, I think the single coils sound better in it than the HB's. A setting of 3-4 is very loud for in-home playing, but adjusting the volume on the guitar will give you clean through distorted sounds. This is the kind of setup that makes you just want to play all the time. I also have a BFDR Reissue, and this Victoria is louder..it'll be more than adequate for small-medium size club gigging. It does hum...more than the BFDR and much more so than my Mesa Heartbreaker...but I think this is a function of the design.

Only had it a few weeks and so I really can't say. I am a bit concerned about the life of these expensive NOS tubes in it because, like the original, it does not have a standby to preheat the tubes. I would always carry extra tubes just in case.

Before I bought it, I talked to Mark about various options. He was very helpful. He's a guitar player and can speak with credibility about various options. I never got the feeling that he was trying to get me to upgrade anything..but I coaxed him into admitting the Jensen P-12N was the way to go. I fully agree. However, when I got it, there was a very annoying rattle. I had several discussions with Mark and he offered suggestions. Mark says he has had complaints about 10% of the time, but they are (almost?) always fixable. I was getting frustrated there for a while, but before sending it back, I decided to tear into it and look at everything. I think the culprit was a cap that was between the ground switch and chassis that was just touching the chassis. Playing a "G" or "A" chord would send it buzzing like crazy. I carefully pushed it away from the chassis and now no more rattle. I'm still having some conversations with Mark on perhaps modifying the on/off to include a third position for standby...he seems helpful, open...but he is busy, so he's not as responsive as you might like...but he does get to you eventually.

I've been playing for over 30 years and have owned a 50W Marshall Plexi Head w/4-12's (can't believe I sold it now!!!), a Traynor Twin clone (I hated this...), and now have the Fender BF Deluxe Reverb Reissue, the Mesa Heartbreaker 2-12 combo, and a small Marshall valvestate (it was cheap!). I've had lots of guitars. This fit my needs perfectly...it provides great tone and distortion at fairly low volumes. I don't do large venues, in which case this amp would definitely have to be miked. If this were stolen/lost I would definitely buy it again. I played several genuine Tweed Deluxes before I bought this and found each of them to vary widely in tone...some better, some worse. The appeal for me was getting an amp that I know is built as good, or better, than the original. I know that this has a good 30 years or so life before it needs major service/recapped. I do wish there was one modern improvement to the original..the standby switch. I understand Clark has this mod in theirs and it is the one thing I think would improve the amp. Mark is absolutely true to the original. He is fanatical..the wiring, fiber board is all just like the original..but I gotta believe the originals didn't have the wires so perfectly arranged and as neat as this Vicky has. The inside of the chassis is a work of art. If a low watt tweed is what you're looking for, this thing has to sound almost or better than the real thing and you won't have the reliability concerns.