Victoria Amplifier Co. 45410

Basically a Tweed 5F6-A Bassman. 45 watts, 4 inputs, Bass, Treble, Mid, Presence, Bright Vol, Normal Vol, 4 Mojotone MP10R speakers, solid pine cabinet, laquered tweed, what can I say. Tone to the bone! I believe that this one was put together in '95.

I play mostly strats with Texas Specials and this is the nicest sounding amp I have ever played through. Very complex and full sounding, 3D texture, yada yada yada. This amp sounds awesome and it suits the blues style of music that I play, mostly Texas, Chicago, and West Coast Swing. Can get a little noisy at higher volumes but I guess so would an original. Sweet spot for me is with volumes at 8-10. This amp is very touch sensitive and can go into a nice smooth breakup or clean, depending on how hard yer spanking the plank or how you have your guitar vol set. Distortion is very subtle, definetly not high gain or heavy metalish. Slap a TS or a FD2 in front of the amp and it will just scream.

I'm gigging with it without a backup, although I do carry an extra set of tubes and fuses just in case. Haven't had a problem with it so far. If it needs fixing I could probably do it myself or have just about any tech fix it. It is afterall a 5F6-A circuit and schematics are everywhere.

Have E-mailed Mark Baier with a few questions and he got back to me in a timely manner. Very Professional. We'll see what happens if something breaks and I really need to get a hold of him.

Been playing for about 20 years and have owned a variety of new and vintage gear including Marshalls, Fenders, Peavey, etc.. This is, bar none, the finest sounding amp I have ever played through and I've played through plenty of 'em. I know that there is a lot of discussion on the merits of PTP wiring, solid wood cabinets, vintage Fender vibe, etc, etc.. Whatever it is about this amp it nails the vintage amp tone in such a way that I have a hard time discerning between it and an original. The only ingredient missing might be the speakers which are not 40 year old broken in Jensen P10R's. Having owned a Fender Bassman Reissue, I can safely say that this amp blows away the RI. Not by all that much and not neccessarily in just in the way it sounds. The biggest difference for me was the "feel" that this amp has when playing through it. The RI feels constipated compared to the Victoria. The other difference is when you crank it up to stage volumes. The Victoria sounds sweet, the RI...well? The RI can get much louder than the Victoria and has more headroom. Not something that I'm into since I like the amp to breakup fairly early and not make your ears bleed when it does.

I bought this amp new in 1996 and immediately installed it in an anvil case. The features are covered in other reviews- it basically has the choice of normal or bright. Not much in the way of options. No channel switching, no reverb, it just is what it is: a hand-made 59 Fender Bassman.

This amp sounds like the amp god would buy if she had money, but it has two problems. 1: it rattles at high volumes. 2. it only sounds good at high volumes. I'm a professional and I play venues of all sizes, and I've never been able to turn it up past 5 without having a soundman explain that my stage volume was drowning out the vocals. If you're playing football stadiums, this may be the amp for you. If you're playing clubs, even big ones, you're going to need some kind of pedal in front of the amp unless you want a crystal-clear clean tone, which rather defeats the purpose of paying two kilobucks for a tube amp. I don't like pedals- I like the sound of my PRS played through hot tubes.
I can't emphasize this enough- before you buy this thing, take it to a gig.

I've sold mine, but I believe it would have lasted forever. The quality of construction is breath-taking. My tech almost burst into tears when he took the back cover off- it was just too beautiful. Just one question: what was rattling?

N/A

I've been playing guitar since Hitler was a sargeant, and I've owned vintage Fenders, Mesa-boogies, ampegs, Marshalls, you name it. If the Victoria had been stolen I would have hunted down the person who stole it and extracted $2K from his/her hide, but just because it's a real expensive piece of gear.
If this amp had any way of getting a good tone at a reasonable volume, it would be the amp for a lifetime. I know they make smaller ones, but I've picked up one of the newer Fenders and it's real close to the right sound at 25% of the price. The good news is it held its value- I was able to sell it for almost what I paid for it. Bought the Fender, put the rest of the money in the bank, and haven't had a sound man bitch at me since.

Simple. 4 inputs. 2 volumes, Bass, Mid, Treble, Prescence. Had Mark do the optional varnished tweed for an extra hundred bucks, makes the tweed look darker. Maybe this isn't a big deal but the finish was not applied to the bottom of the amp and made me feel like they were cutting corners. I mean it's a $1900 amp!

A beautiful hollow clean sound. Thick distortion when turned up. The amp is very quiet, even with single coils. The only reason for the score of 8 is that the cabinet rattles when turned up to six, even with the bass at 2.

Amp has been used 10-15 hours per week for over six months with no problems.

I bought a Reverberato, and after not liking it returned it. Mark didn't want to give me my money back and was actually insulting on the phone. (This is to a customer who had spent over $2600 buying his amps over the years) When I finally got a check in the mail 2 months later, it was for $400 less than what I had paid. Mark said this was because I had ordered a custom cabinet (which he charged me $50 for, if his incremental cost was $50 for the cabinet when I ordered it, why did he charge me $400?) After arguing back and forth over the phone, Mark finally sent me another $125. Suffice to say my next tweed purchase went to Clark Amps.

Besides the rattles at higher volumes, and the poor customer treatment, this is a decent amp.

This is as close as you can get to buying a new '59 Bassman. 2 channels, no effects loops. Actually I plug my guitar into the #1 input of the normal channel and go from the #2 input into my reverb tank and then from the reverb tank into the bright channel. Doing this allows you to mix the dry sound of one channel with the effects sound of the other. This amp sounds great with its 50W and 4 x 10 Mojo Tone speakers. It's all handwired, point-to-point using period correct components. The controls are very straighforward with no pull-pots or pushbuttons. There is an external speaker jack. Biasing the amp can be accomplished in 5 minutes with a DVM. It uses 2 5881's and a GZ34 but you can also use 2 6V6's and a 5Y3 or a few other combination of tubes. This amp has all the features that I want in an amp, a great sound that's easy to dial in.

I play Strat's and a Les Paul Special with P-100's and they sound they way they're supposed to. I've also played 335's and a few jazz boxes through it and it always sounds like the real deal. It has a very organic sound with lots of complexity that I don't hear in most of the newer amps. It breaks in a very linear way as you crank up the volume. Not crunchy or grungy, but very bluesy. Head bangers look elsewhere. I've had harp players blow through my rig and they all want one like it.

The amp is built like a tank and can take a beating. I don't worry about it crapping out on a gig. I've got spare tubes but haven't ever needed to work on my Victoria at a gig. If I ever need to get it serviced, all I need to do is take the Aspen Pittman Tube Book in with it to any tech because it is virtually a Fender 5F6-A circuit that any tech can service.

I've talked to Mark Baier on a few occasions to ask him about different tube combinations and generally to pick his brain and he's always been very helpful and willing to share his wealth of knowledge. I think the amp had a one year warranty on it but I'm sure it'll be around in 30 years and will probably sound even better then.

I've had my Victoria 45410 for 2 years and it is still rock solid. I've had Mesa/Boogies, Marshalls, HIWATTs, Fender Twins, Super Reverbs, DeVilles, ToneMasters and about everything in between and I've never been as content with an amp as I am with my Vic. I probably will buy another Victoria amp, probably a smaller one to use as a practise amp. This is a genuine, made in America product that will last for years.