Victoria Amplifier Co. 45410

Ok i submitted a review 7 years ago after acquiring this amp..time for a follow up. We all know what features it has but no one discusses the versatility of this amp. I now play any and all of my instruments from acousitic to electric through it and find it very easy to get exactly what I am looking for tonally out of it.

This may be a liitle different comment than what is usuially offerd here but here goes. Over the years,besides personal use, I have rented this amp out to local promoters to use with bands who's musical styles ranged from Chicago Blues, Country, Reggae, you name it. Everyone of the guitar players involved without exception raved about the tone and clarity of this amp. Granted the metal boys needed their stomp boxes to get the grunge they were looking for. they did not seem to mind. That should tell you alot.

This amp has always been right there. Never has broken down or given me any trouble. Los Lobos ran this thing on 12 all night long for an hour and 45 minutes and it kept on cooking. You could have fried an egg on the tubes!

Over the years I have had Mark service some old vintage Fenders for me as well talk me through tube combinations. Also bought one of his Reverberato units that had some initial problems. Thare was no fuss or muss..he simply had me ship the unit back and he sent me a new one the same day. Freindly,knowledable and a man of his word with me. Can't ask for more.

I have been playing a long time 30+ years. Lots of gear acquired over that time. Strats, Tele, 335, Teisco's. I use various effects on and off.

I would buy another one in a heartbeat I have used this onstage with old vintage fender gear playing buddies, old marshalls, mesa boogies,carrs,kendricks,etc..never felt lacking. Even used it to play my old Precision bass w/flatwounds through it..sounds like God intended it to sound. I love this thing still after 7 years!

I should start by saying that I walked out of the store with this amp even though it wasn't even on my short list of amps to try out. After playing through various Dr. Z's, Bad Cats, Divided by 13's and others, all of which were great but not really ringing my bell, I thought I should check out the Victorias (a different animal than the aforementioned amps, granted) while I had an opportunity. The store had a wide selection of Victoria models, all of which sounded incredible in their own ways. I initially honed in on the 35310 and Double Deluxe, but once I plugged into the 45410 it was all over.
The 45410 is perfectly versatile enough for me, though it might not be for some. If you want master volume, reverb, channel switching or any other fancy stuff, you're looking in the wrong place. However, the tone controls are surprisingly versatile for what they are. The middle control is the key - it seems to have the most effect on the amp's voice. This amp has the perfect amount of clean volume for my needs, yet it sounds great at "bedroom" volumes too. I am tempted to experiment with different tubes and speakers, as some of the other reviewers have suggested, but I think I'll live with it stock for a while before I start monkeying around. As it is super responsive to changes in the guitar's volume control, I would never consider channel switching to be a necessity. As for the lack of reverb, there are plenty of external units of all types that can do the job - I currently have an EH Holy Grail, which is not spectacular but ok for my needs as I am not generally going hog wild with reverb these days. This amp sounds so great without it, unless you are playing surf music or atmospheric kind of stuff that would require reverb, why bother?

I have had some experience in the past with a friend's modded 80's reissue Bassman, so I kind of knew what to expect, though for some reason I had forgotten how great a good Bassman could be. I believe the 45410 would sound fantastic with just about anything you could plug into it, but for some reason it is very inspiring to play a Strat through it (mine is a '60 Relic). After I got the amp home, I tried using the clean boost on my Fulltone GT 500, which hit the front end of the amp hard enough (with Strat) that I got some nice throaty grind starting with the volume on about 5 (normal channel). Backing off the guitar's volume put it in perfectly acceptable clean territory with plenty of dynamic variation. The amp is surprisingly quiet, even when cranked. It has very nice dispersion - not "beamy" in the slightest. That could partially explain why I don't miss having reverb. Bottom line: For just about anything but metal (and I rarely have to make those kinds of sounds) I would consider this amp to be one of the best amps I have ever played through, and by far the best I have ever owned.

I have no personal experience as I have only owned the amp for a couple of weeks, but one of the guys at TrueTone told me Victorias were the only brand of amp he had never seen come back to them for repair in his five years there. As they do a large volume of business, that is saying a lot. The amp comes with a lifetime warranty, which seems to be rare these days.

No experience as of yet.

I am mainly a bass player, so I actually own a lot more bass gear than guitar stuff. However, in the past few years I have been playing a lot more guitar out of necessity. Since I have been playing professionally for 30 years, I pretty much have an idea of what I like, and I'll tell you right now what I like most is this amp! As there are boutique-y amps out there that command prices in the $3500 - 4000 price range, the Victoria at around two grand is comparably a good value, at least to me! It might not appear that way to someone who once bought a used tweed Bassman for $250 bucks! Anyway, the 45410 makes me sound more like the player I've always thought I could be, and what kind of value do you put on that?

What features? It's a tweed amp!! Less is more.

This is the best sounding amp I have ever played my strat through. The harmonics and tone are amazing. I have been playing for 35 years and have finally found my amp. I wish I would have known this earlier. I would have saved myself a lot of time and a ton of money.
That said, the key to this amp or any amp for that matter, is picking the right tubes for the amp. For this amp, you have to go with Tung-Sol 5881's. I have a large stash of NOS tubes and nothing sounded as good as those. Also, I use a 5V4 rectifier tube to bring the plate voltages down to those of the original Bassman, which is 430-435. For the first preamp tube, I always use a JAN GE5751. The other two, pick your favorites and go with it. I play mostly blues-rock and classic rock. Mine is not noisy at all. If you put your ear right next to it you will hear a very low hum, but that is normal for a tube amp. The overdrive is great, especially with the Tung-Sol's. For lower volumes, I just use a clean boost.

As has been said before, all the Fender tweed amps from the 50's are still working. So this should be the same. These amps are so easy to work on, whatever happens, I can fix it.

This is the amazing part. I called Victoria with a question and who did I talk to on the phone? Mark Baier himself, the owner of Victoria Amps. He was very helpful and talked with me for a 30 minutes. I don't know very many places that you can get that kind of attention.

As I stated above, I have been playing for 35 years. As with everybody else, I have been searching all that time for "the tone".
I have finally found it with this amp. If it were lost or stolen, I would replace it in a heartbeat. There is nothing I hate about this amp. It sounds fantastic, it's easy to transport and there's not a lot that can go wrong with it. I used to have a Fender Bassman reissue that I modded and I thought sounded pretty good. But I got rid of it after getting this amp. No comparison. If you play a strat or a tele, try one of these amps.

as I'm sure you've heard, the lack of features are this amps strong point. Pure Tone. This is pretty loud amp, not Marshall 50 watt loud, but pretty loud. I find the 35310 isn't always loud enough, so this works well at bar and club gigs.

I like 10" speakers over 12's, less beamy. I also put clips on one speaker, and dis-connect it for quieter gigs. Hook it back up for louder stuff. Pete from Victoria told me its ok to do this, no probs. This amp likes all pickups. I have a strat that sounds great, humbuckers sound great, P90's are really the tits with these tweed amps. This amp has great thick, warm cleans, deeper than blackface amps. But you can still get cut. Not as tight as blackface amps. But doesn't get ice-pickey, like black face amp can sometimes get. Turning up the middle control on this amp really brings out the highs (mid-highs). I keep it at 9 out of 12. The bottom isn't Marshall or blackface tight, but that goes with the tweed terrotory. The amp starts breaking up around 6 out of 12. I turn it up to 6 or 7 for gigs. The breakup is really amazing on this amp, not over the top, just perfect. As you turn the amp up, you generally turn the bass way down to around 3. You can keep it higher for more breakup. You can also jumper the channels of the amp, for the best of both channels. I plug in to bright input #1, and with a short cable jumper from the normal 1 channel to bright #2. Then you can get the snap and cut of the bright channel, and the thickness and warmth of the normal channel. You also get more breakup this way. If you can, put in Tung Sol 5881's (expensive, but great sound), or JAN Phillips 6L6WGB, or TAD small bottles are great power tubes for this amp. They give you earlier breakup, with the classic tweed vibe. They also bring the volume down a little bit. If you want to keep it cleaner/louder put in regular 6L6's.

I've never had any problems with my Victoria's.

They're not e-mail people, call them. They are alway's very helpful. I call from time to time and pick Pete's brain.

I've been playing for 27 years. This amp is not as loud, not as shrill and not as crystal clean as the Fender re-issue Bassman. Though you can get good loud headroom with it if you wish. It has alot more warmth than the Fender re-issue. I really love this amp, especially when I get to turn it up to 6-8 out of 12. Thats when it really shines. Pick hard and get breakup, pick soft, it stays clean. Thats when you see the magic of these amps. I have the 35310, and that sometimes get swallowed up at louder gigs, or with a 2 guitar or heavy handed drummer. The 45410 also has a fuller, deeper sound than the 35310. I usually turn it up to 6 or so at gigs and it sounds really great. Dont need any pedals for P90's or Buckers (great natural breakup, just enuff, prefect). Strat still stay's mostly clean. When I do get to turn the amp up to 7 or 8 is when its totally over the top amazing. At louder gigs (heavy handed drummer, or two guitars, a full room) I get to nudge it to 7, maybe 8. It is a loud amp though, made for gigging. If your just playing at your house or a friends garage, or play in a quiet band, get something smaller like the 35210.

Don't look for a lot of features. There isn't any. The wasn't any on a vintage bassman and why should there be here?
If you want a bunch of tremelo reverb or whatever this is not the amp for you. It is a straight forward tone machine.
You can't grade this on versitility other than it sounds great with every guitar that I have.

Great tone. tone tone tone. That is what this amp is all about. If you want a true great amp tone then this is it.
Seems as thought some of the previous postings have talked about noise and such. A vintage bassman has a lot of noise. Most tubes amps put out a bit of noise. Straight forward amps of this nature are very sensative to tubes used. Buy good ones!!!!! Stop with the junk. Pay the extra for the RCA NOS blackplates and NOS GE, Mullard, or RCA in the preamp section. Makes a great difference.

Had this amp for 8 years. It performs as well today as it did the first day that i got it.

Mark is a great guy and easy to deal with. He has answered every question that I have every ask him. I have never had any service trouble with the amp but I asked about tube choices and such.

I've been playing 27 years. I run vintage Stratocasters, Les Pauls, and Paul Reed Smith guitars through this amp and they all sound great! If it were lost or stolen I would cry out loud then go buy another. I have stacked it next to Bogner, BadCat and others and it will flat beat them on tone anyday of the week. I have gigged with this amp every weekend since I got it. It is great for small clubs to outdoor festivals.

If you look hard you can find stuff to complain about and some people are too touchy about things. Comments about ($2000.00 and perfect) are ridiculous. Listen to it. If you don't like it sell it. They go quick on eBay.

This amp doesn't have any tremelo or reverb, so I'll give it a 9 rather than a 10. On the other hand, it has a midrange control, and I never use a tremelo/vibrato anyway.

I use this for harmonica (though my guitarist frieds have enjoyed plugging in occasionally as well). It has nice tone, especially when used with an attenuator and an outboard reverb, but it's not the best amp I've heard by any stretch. The reissue Jensens that it came with are mediocre quality (regardless of what Mark B. and others say about a "break in" period of "100 hours" (I kid you not). I've used the amp with a quartet of matched '59 p10r's (re-coned by Neil's of CA) and that helped, but the Webers have made the real difference (p10q's on top, c10n's on the bottom--all straight cones). Also, experimenting with different vintage tubes has helped.

The normal channel pre-amp tube has hummed just slightly and intermittently since the amp arrived (packed in a single box), and the tubes in that channel become microphonic too quickly. After trying different tubes, the problem persists. I've had it "glanced" at by 2 superb technicians who are vintage Fender guys. . . they haven't found the source of the problem yet (I usually mention it in passing when I have them swap speakers or power tubes). The techs haven't replaced any components yet, as the hum is pretty subtle and the tubes last reasonably long (I gig with this amp occasionally). When I mentioned it to Mar B. he suggested that I switch to a 5751 tube (is this why he suggests that tube substitution so often?). Again, it's a pretty subtle problem, but for this kind of money, the amp should be perfect. As for craftsmanship: the power tube sockets were lacking in tension when the amp arrived (tubes would need a "tap" or two after they'd cut out); the lacquer was applied in a less that meticulous manner (on the inside of the amp there were some sloppy areas--"so what, it's on the inside" you say, but for $2000 this amp should be perfect); the preamp tube retainers fit so poorly and were so tight that I after barely getting them off I've never bothered putting them back on. Also, the amp arrived with it's leather handle unravelling. When I called Mark B., he quickly responded by sending me a new handle (of course, he wanted me to send him the original handle first), but, again, for $2000 you'd think that the amp would arrive flawless. . .

Although I ordered this amp through one of Victoria's dealers, it arrived at my house in a factory sealed carton. When I called the factory with my concerns, I was met with a defensive, slightly hostile response--essentially, Mark B. told me that nothing that I was concerned about was his problem (other than the crappy handle). He said that I should direct my concerns to the dealer who sold it to me. Fair enough, technically, I suppose, but needless to say I won't be buying a Victoria amp again.

Pretty good amp despite some minor problems and lousy customer support, but not worth the money

This is an update from my previous review below.

I wanted to share how I have set my Victoria 45410 up so you can try it and see if you like it. First I had a set of the new 6L6GE tubes from Groove Tubes installed since the 5881's that came with went bad fairly quickly ( no fault of Victoria's it just goes with the teritory when using NOS tubes). After the Bias was set properly I set the volume controls between 6-7 and all the tone controls between 6-7. I run my Les Paul or strat to a full drive 2 that is on all the time. I set the overdrive control to 9:00 and the boost to 9:00. Now I use the volume control on my guitar and at 5-6 I get a great warm clean sound, as I turn the vol pot up the sound begins to breakup in a wonderful bluesy way. When I step on the Boost switch the distortion is very Santana like, and allows fluid lead lines and power chords with great definition. This set-up has really charged up my playing and the simplicity of the system seems to let a person concentrate on their tone and touch.

Mark makes the best amps (for tweed styles) in the country.

Excellent

The more I work with this amp the more I like it.

This is a Victoria 45410 amp that is a remake of a Fender Tweed Bassman. One channel with bright and normal imputs, Vol, Treble, Middle, Bass, Pres. No effects loops, channel switching Or Master volume. After going through multiple Boogies and assorted other high tech amps I have come full circle to the realization that less is more and the simpler the amp design the better the tone in my opinion. This amp has more than enough power to gig with and is very touch sensitive to your playing.

Doesn't matter if I use a strat, tele, Les Paul a or ES 335 this amp sounds great! I recently had a tweed Fender Bassman RI and thought it sounded good but when I had a chance to try the Victoria I immediately sold the Fender and bought the Victoria. Trying to compare the two amps is hard because the Victoria is in a whole different class. The amp is warm and sweet sounding, has incredible overdrive sounds and responds to your playing in a way that I have only found in original Fender tweed amps! The amp is very quiet, light weight due to the pine cab. If you like to turn an amp up and ride the volume knob for clean to distorted sounds than the Victoria may be the best amp out there.

Built like a tank!

The best in the business.

I've been playing for almost 35 years and this is the one amp I've found that I wish I had back when I started. I love the sound and pure tone this amp gives and immediately order another one if anything happended to this one. I plan to save up and buy the 80212 (tweed twin) model in the near future.

A replica of the holy grail Bassman, except that speaker inputs different. The original has each speaker plugged into the output transformer, the Victoria has a common 1/4 inch jack connected to the 4 speakers. This may be part of the reason my original sounds better

The amp sounds superb with hummbucker pick-ups, but lacks the loudness and full tone with single coils. A real bassman is loud and full at a volume of 3. The victoria is barely on at a volume of 3. As you turn the victoria up it gets louder, but lacks a depth in its tone. The victoria does sound excellent when cranked up to 7 or more. Again, if you play with Hummbuckers, it is wonderful. With single coils it cannot keep up with my original 58 Bassman.

Superb construction, mine does not rattle

Mark is accessible and seems like a nice reliable guy, however I bought the amp direct from him since there are no dealers in my area and he charged me the higher price, which in the long run has kind of ticked me off, especially since I had bought two other peices of gear from him!!

This is an excellent amp! However it does not sound nearly as good as the original. I'd blame the speakers,Jenson P-10 re-issues, but I have these same speakers in my Fender Vibro-King, and the sound loud and full as can be!! This amp will not age into anything like my original Bassman. He missed something with this. My matchless DC-30 and Kingsley Deluxe-30 sound much closer to my 65 Vox Ac-30 than the victoria 45410 sounds to the original 59 4 input Bassman

You already know from everyone else. No Reverb gives it a 9. You can buy a reverb, tremelo outboard, but that does not matter.

This Thing Blew My Mind. I went to just pick up a bruno I had custom made, and I heard this. I would not leave without it. It is Keith Richards when he is not using a Vox. It is amazing. Sounds better the original Bassmans I have. It is amazing. One of the greatest sounding amps ever made. I say that with confedience. Buy one! You will be very happy you did!

I have not had it long.

Smae as above.

The look is beautiful. Sound is amazing. A must have. Go listen and bring a check book. It will grab you. A true gem. This amp+ a Bruno+ a diezel= lifetime needs. Woth its weight in gold!