Victoria Amplifier Co. Victorilux 310 Combo

2008 with reverb and trem which is all I need. EQ as you wil know plus, it responds well to guitar tone changes. Very simple, classic layout and design, hand wired quality work that is hard to find and harder to beat. Amp techs love these amps because they are easy to work on, tus lower cost when an dif things go wrong. I am playing in my home studio and very occasional gigs when I feel like it.

Strat and Tele. No noise at all. runs quiet. Clean, pure, milky, brown to mellow and the best reverb and trem I have heard in years. Crank above 4/5 and it breaks nicely but really it sounds so nice. Use a pedal if you want more fuzz. This amp is about tone and more tone.

New. but looks and feels very well built

Sent one email with one question and was replied to same day. Great!

36 years playing. Compared to new Fenders this is amp is in a different league, way bettr sound/tone. I like Mesa amps as well, but this amp has a mojo that is purely 60s blackface. I feel these amps will be the collectors in a couple of decades.

A great Made in America amp. To me the features are impressive. Great reverb and tremolo along with bass, middle and treble controls. I don't really want additional channels or models of different amps I simply want a great sounding amp. And this is a great sounding amp.

I am using mostly vintage style Fender Stratocasters and can get a great percussive, punchy full tone. I love classic rock and real Chicago blues and this amp nails it. Just moving the mid control can take you from blackface to brown to tweed tones.

The amp is rather clean, but my other amp is a 20112 and it is rather dirty so there you go. The amp is not noisy at all and is great for my recording with Garageband.

It helps to have have an OD pedal for some dirt at lower volumes, and the amp has shined with every pedal I have used. The funny thing is this is the last Victoria model I thought I would ever get by specs and description, but I am actually enjoying it more than my beloved 20112 with Celestion Blue.

Fantastic, Mark gets back to you fast, and the amp construction is so clean you just know it is going to last. I got the amp used and it has a great set of new production tubes that I think are going to be dependable. I would gig without backup. I suspect my next amp will be a Regal II.

I haven't talked to Mark about this one, but I cant see that it will be needed.

I have been playing about 25 years and play roots, blues and classic rock. I have several CS Fenders and a nice 335 and they all sound great through the amp. My other amp is a Victoria 20112 and my wife has a 518 and they are both fantastic amps that cover the dirty end of the spectrum.

I was actually at the store to try Wah pedals and just plugged into this amp because it was a Victoria and fell in love with amp. I sold my Mesa BOogie to get this one. Great move by me.

I am only giving it a 9 because the amp is a bit expensive considering the speakers could be higher quality for the price. I would give a 9.5 . I still recommend this amp VERY highly.

There is one in the local music store, but I'm gonna review it anyway becuase its over 3000$ when you add tax. I'd like to trade my "expenable" gear for it, but I'd still be a couple (1000$) bucks short.

The one I long for is the 6L6 version, very simple features; same as everyone else has mentioned. What you CAN NOT make up for with a thousand knobs(listen up MESA)is what this amp has in spades...... TONE, FEEL, and SOUL.

Your fingers, and a pedal or two make this as versitle as you want it too be.

DYNAMIC! You connect to it through your guitar. Reminds me of the DR. Z Maz for the "feel". DR Z.'s are incredible amps, and as much as I LOVE em, they just ain't me. This Victoria just realizes whats coming from my finger tips; through the guitar, simply astonishing. Not as easy to break up, and lack a master volume...I have pedals that already pull these tricks for me though...

If you want alot of gain, you better have a good arsenal of stompboxes. Most of us who play around with these kind of amps,with these kinds of price tags do anyway....

Amps don't make sounds, strings and fingers do. This amps sure can get the point across though! Theres a bit of overdrive in there, but not at bedroom levels.

I've been going back and getting my fix with stratocasters, a 62 RI, and a Am. Deluxe w/ laces. I thought about plugging in a nice tele, but they didn't have any decent ones (Usually refered to as ASAT's).

This is a quintessential blues amps. You could be insane and put a mosfet fulldrive, vintage TS, or a sparkledrive in front of it, or maybe you'd leave "way better than good enough" alone..but I know what it'd do if I ever got it home ;)

Suprisingly quiet for the type of sound that comes out of it, when you hear something so sweet and vintage you expect a bit of noise!

This sucker comes with a reasonably hefty price tag, for those fortunate enough to own one...I envy you.
Its not even close to the most expensive amp I've every played price wise, but definatley one of the most enjoyable.

Its one of the best "Fender-type" amps ever; period

Personally I own; LP std w/ PAF's, a 62 strat RI w/ Rio's, an ASAT Special, a 57 strat RI, Fulldrive 10thAnn., Sparkledrive, Ibanez UE300. All these a H&K Combo, and a 2004 "Twin Amp". the Twin amp has got some good mojo now that there are some american tubes in it and a fulldrive in front of it, but it can't hold a candle, let alone a flame to that damn vicky!

Features are Reverb and Tremelo. Wish it came with a footswitch.

This is a great blues and roots amp. Like the previous review, the mid control garners the grind. Back off with buckers, wind up for single coils. This amp doesnt seem as powerful as one might first suspect, but get the volume over half way and it sings! Like the web site says, It "has far lower decibel levels than a Super Reverb which makes it more useable, and a higher clean threshold than a Deluxe". It really is the best Bandmaster they never made. I played through it with all pickup types and couldn't get a bad sound out of it. The reverb is awesome and goes from subtle on 2-3 and surf land thereafter. The tremelo is very subtle unless you wind the intensity way up, but very usable. I play blues and other roots type music, and this kills. The 3x10 speakers are just right as far as sound spread and prescence. When this thing is turned up it sounds very stringy and articulate. Turned down it is warm and airy. This is what an amp should do. I dont use pedals anymore and havent tried it. Use the volume and tone knobs on the guitar, is all I need. I was looking for an amp that could approximate the tone landscape comparable to Ronnie Earl and Kid Ramos and this does it. It also sounds like me!

I just got this, but Mark Baer seems like a standup guy who would be more than willing to address any issues. The amp is built simply (point to point wiring) so is easy to service. This is a tip to Leo Fender. I would at least bring spare tubes to a gig.

Ive been playing for 27 yrs. and been thru many amps, and have really nailed it down to a couple amps that serve my purposes, this being one of them. It is pricey, and makes me sad that big companies can't make them like they used to. This is how they should be made commonly, but good luck to that. So in this present world it fits a price point. Yes I would buy this again if I had the money.

I bought the amp in 2006. It was made to order the day I picked it up. The amp is perfect for what I'm playing. I'm one of two guitarists in a five-piece contemporary blues band.

As far as features, we're talking about reverb and tremolo. I had been looking for a good tremolo unit to add in front of my '93 Blues Deluxe, but nothing was nailing what I wanted. I had a chance to hear and play a Victorilux a few months ago, and instantly knew that this was what I wanted. Not many features, but it absolutely nails what those feature are supposed to do. The reverb is as much as you could ever want, and the tremolo is so warm and subtle that I don't ever really turn it off.

Additionally, I don't know...it's got an extra speaker send....the tubes are self-biasing.

This category isn't fair to a great amp like this one. Within it's expected realm, it's as versatile as it should be.

This amp does everything I want it to do. I can't find a really bad sound. It really, really seems to love single coils. Humbuckers are fine, as long as I back the bass and mids almost off. In any case, the mid control is where the growl is -- for more grind, add mids.

I'm playing it with a Heritage 535, an 89 American Strat (which I've fallen in love with again since using this amp), and another Strat that I've put together myself, with Texas Specials. the Texas Specials are fine, but they almost seem to be trying to do too much, instead of letting the amp do the work.

The sounds on the website are pretty indicative of what you're going to get.

I bought myself a Tuki cover -- a little pricy, but part of the investment -- because I want to keep it pretty. As far as reliability, it's guaranteed for life. What else is there? I'll play it at every forseeable gig for the forseeable future. I'll gig without a back-up. Probably not the best idea in any case, but it's reality.

Again, the amp is guaranteed forever. Every story I've heard about the builders and the company has instilled confidence in me. I have no apprehension about the amp.

When I picked up the amp at the shop, everyone was very friendly, very interested in my amp, my guitars, etc. I mean, come on, these people don't have to be interested, or to fake it if they aren't. These genuinely seem to love what they're doing, and working with musicians.

Also, I think I'll send my other tube amps to the good folks in Naperville to recondition.

I've been playing about 25 years and gigging for about 12 years.

My previous main amp was a 93 Fender Blues Deluxe. I'll still use that in some circumstances....possibly recording some things with my Heritage. I also have a silverface Vibro Champ and a Bassman 20. Those are cool for smaller things or recording too.

But none of these others compare with my Victoria. I have a Fulltone 2 overdrive pedal, but increasingly that's getting left out of the mix, or is just set for a bit of grind and left alone. The Fulltone seems to help sweeten the Texas Specials a bit.

I usually use a Sennheiser wireless, and the current 'usual' set-up is that through a short George L cable into the amp. I can get everything I want by riding my guitars' volume knobs.

The best amp I've ever played. The only amp I'll absolutely ALWAYS keep.

My amp is a 2005 with 2x6L6 cathode bias power section and 5AR$/GZ34 rectifier. Reverb, Trem, Treble, Mid, Bass, Volume contols. The tone controls work just like any other passive tone contols and are highly interactive. Treble affects mid which affects bass. Easy to dial in. Mid control seems voiced in the upper mids and overall the tone controls seem to be well voiced. Reverb seems typical fender black face. Trem controls very traditional. Trem speed control has a great range, trem intensity control is barely noticable until you get to about 2 o'clock and then all of the variation happens between 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock.
My rating for features is based on what the amp is not comparing it to amps with tons of gadgets. Example: I have one of Victoria's 20112's that is a copy of a fender tweed deluxe, I give that amp a 10 for what it is. This amp is a victoria original design and not perfect in the feature department. Here is my list of "features" that would be nice.
1) Victoria used to ship amps with great NOS tubes, now they don't. Mine came with GT's, not completely crappy but nowhere near the quality and sound of what came in my 20112. Easy to fix and cool to experiment but costly.
2) A foot switch for reverb and trem would be nice.
3) A cover would be good too.
4) Complete perfection would be the ability to bypass the reverb/trem circuit completely and the ability to switch the tone stack from infront of the second gain stage to in back of th second gain stage. This would give you sort of a tweed/black face switch(es)
5) A bypassable effects loop. Don't get me wrong, I do not use many effects, most of the time none. So I would probably have it bypassed most of the time. However imho time based effects (chorus, delay, etc.) when used infront of a pushed amp sound like sh*t. For the times I would like some delay or others that use it, it would be nice to have this amps fabulous tone.
6)This one is minor and maybe difficult or impossible but a more useful adjustment range on the trem intensity control would be welcomed, it's not like Victoria has to copy the circuit of some other amp for historical integrety or anything.

Guitars I used with this amp are:
American standard strat
Custom shop 54 relic strat
Custom shop 60 strat with texas specials (i hate these pickups, anyone interested in getting them cheap please email me, it would be great motivation for me to replace them)
Gibson Les Paul DC studio
Gibson Les Paul DC standard
PRS McCarty w/ soapbars

Bottom line is that this thing sounds great, full rich harmonics, detail, great bottom end. This amp seems to have a little more headroom than Victoria's other 35watt pure tweed designs. Pushed tones are good but not quite as good as Victoria's tweeds. Reverb is lush, typical blackface. Trem is very mellow, not harsh or overbearing.

Clean to slightly pushed this amp loves my strats and soapbars. The humbuckers sound good too just not great. Fully pushed harder hitting pickups sound great and my traditional single coils sound good but not as creamy as on the 20112.

Overall like all of Victoria's amps this thing sounds like magic, great "swirl" and a blast to play. More importantly it "feels" great. Anyone who hasen't played one of Victoria's vintage style amps or the real thing (other company's too but I can only vouch for those two) really should, once you do it's hard to go back to amps that don't have all of the "feel", "touch sensitivity", etc. Simulators, etc are ok but I don't know any players that have tried one of these type amps and didn't have to have one. Hell, even some of the metal heads and shreaders that I have let try them have a blast playing them even though they would never use them for their perfered style.

So far so good. Hard to imagine anything as simple as Victoria's amps having problems other than tubes. Built very well. Easy to fix if something goes wrong. What more can you ask for in terms of reliability?
Just a note with respect to construction for those not familiar with traditional amps like these. Victoria's parts and construction methods are true to 50's practices. This means if you are anal about cabnit rattles etc. in the lower registers you will spend a lot of time playing with de-rattling your amp. This is not poor workmanship it is just how it goes. That said, enjoy the way the pine smells when it gets heated up by all of the tubes and just forget about it considering all of the environmental rattles and resonances that actually happen in vitually any playing situation.

Talked to a bunch of people at Victoria on a number of occations. Always helpful and very into their products.

Been playing (on and off) for 25 years. Been through a bunch of gear. Some of it I wish I had never bought and other stuff I wish I had never sold. The Victorilux as well as the 20112 that I own are never leaving! I love these things. I don't use them for everything I play but If I had to get rid of all of my gear but one amp and one guitar I would certainly keep my 54 relic strat and one of the Victoria's.
I would definitely buy another if somehow it went bye-bye. I tried not to gush on my review but hear is the gushing part. Victoria's amps tone is to die for and the price although not cheap is worth every penny. They might be the best amp value there is! Like most guitarists out there I have a gear fetish (mostly amps). I have played lots of amps extensively and have to say there is so much out there that is great it is overwhelming. I am not rich and cannot afford everything. I can honestly say the Victorias I have were easy to justify spending the money on them. I cannot say that about a lot of the other great amps out there that I would love to have. I am not into hype, older is better, technology sucks or any of that. I am into simple and into the concept of what ever feels good/sounds good/looks good etc too you will make you play more and play better.

Other amps I own and my over all ratings:
Marshall 1972 model 1957 50W - overall rating 6 - good at one thing (with THD hot plate)
Marshall JCM 2000 100W - overall rating 6 - good at two things.
Mesa Heartbreaker 100/60W - overall rating 7 - good at a lot of things, most misunderstood amp in the universe, hard to dial in, only gets good if you hit the power section hard.
All of the above are too big too heavy and too too much unless you have a crew to lug around these and a bunch of speaker cabs.
Fender Hotrod DeVille 4x10 - overall 3 - complete junk, sounds ok but is built to break.
Mesa LoneStar Special 1x12 - overall 8 - great value sounds good after playing this I could not even begin to imagine spending the $ on a matchless (even though they are nice)
Victoria 20112 - overall 10
Roland MicroCube - overall 8 - best $100 I ever spent on gear, I wish they had stuff this cool and this cheap when I was a kid. Batteries last forever and the line out sounds great recorded in garage band or DI into a PA.

I am no stranger to Victoria amps as I currently own 5 of Mark's amps. My Victoilux is a 3x10 EL-84 model. I purchased it,actually I didn't purchase it-Mark sent it over because I wasn't pleased with a custom amp he had made me. That shows how customer focused he is.This is a straight ahead amp with reverb,tremolo,treble and bass-just the way I like it. Back in the day I would only play and own blackfaced fender amps w/ 6v6 or 6l6 configurations so when I initially heard about Mark using EL-84's I was like ,NO THANKS! When the box arrived I was all set not to like this amp.

When I opened the box I just got home from work(I work late) so I couldn't crank it. I turned it on expecting to hate it- COMPLETLY the opposite. I was like, BABY where have you been all of my life!! Black face supers have always been my amp of choice since my heros(Ronnie Earl,Anson,Duke etc) usually play one and I like to emulate their sound. Wow!! It sounded so good at low volume I messed with it for hours. Full rich tones,great reverb. When I took it into the Green Iguana, (Tampa Monday night blues jam)This amp was incredible. Headroom, and when you hit an open E it gave a BIG Clear EEEE.Sustain,power sounds like a super minus all of the shrill and clanky, clunkety ear shredding in the first tones.

I have never had any problems with any of my Victoria amps. I bought my 1st one in 1999 and all of them perform perfect. Mark stands behind his amps 100% so don't worry! When I bought my bassman it had reverb in it but it didn't take long to realize that tweed Victirias do not need reverb so I asked mark if he could remove it and I would gladly pay for the process. He removed the reverb,shipped it to me and there was a note inside that said NO CHARGE,ENJOY!

Mark is a very hospitable businessman that will stand behind his product 100%. When I 1st got my bassman it had a microphonic tube. I called him up,(he didn't know me from Adam)I told him about the tube. Next day fedex had 2 tubes,not one hand delivered to my door. The warranty is stated on his web site"As long as I am breathing air" the amp is covered

I have been playing for 30years and when I heard my 1st Victoria I sold every Fender I had. I just can't stand how old amps break all of the time. They make a nice reference tool but they are not practicle. Victoria is the answer to the working musician, Old sound, new parts.

I've heard 3-4 other Victoria amps of friends and have always thought they sounded great. So, I started looking for a couple of months for just the right one. I finally picked-up a near-mint, used 6L6 version. Now I know why it took so long to find a nice used one... Nobody wants to let their's go!

It's everything I've heard/read. Wonderful feel & tone. Just makes you want to keep playing it. I'm 45 and have been playing for 37 years. There's only been 2 or 3 other times I've felt this good about an amp. I've owned a handful of Blackface and Tweed amps. (Still have a '52 Pro that is magic) And other rock amps from a Plexi-Hiwatt-Orange-Rivera-Mesa etc. Those are great for what they did. But, this is obviously different.

This amp is more personal. You make a personal connection with it. Play soft and it responds. Hit it hard and it growls. It makes you play better, because you start to realize more of what your doing with BOTH your hands. Amazing!

OK... Featurewise, you can't really give it a 10 because it's not that kind of amp. No channel switching or any footswitching at all. (I kinda' would like to have a footswitch for Trem/verb, but I'm sure it doesn't because it would effect the feel/tone, so,forget it.

2 inputs (high/low level) And basic controls. 1 Volume, Bass, Treble. Reverb, Tremolo Intensity & Speed.

Through a half dozen guitars, '66 335, TV Jr., Relic Strat, Relic Tele, LP Standard and a Dano, it works nicely with all of them. You start to hear nuauces that you may not have heard before. How the vibe of a P90 is different than a single-coil Fender. (I'm gonna have to get some more Lollar P/U's now!)

Just a quick Bass/Treb adjustment for each and your rockin'. It might be me, but Strats really love this amp. The tone of each switch position is just that much more evident. The quack stands out more. The SRV tone of neck. And best of all, I now love the strat bridge. Bright, but no ice-pick and plenty of compression to keep it totally playable.

One thing that sold me on getting one was the Tremolo. It's huge. Check out the soundfiles on the Victoria website. The LP with tremolo is breathtaking. The open-back makes it sound very 3D. Awesome Ry Cooder, Creedence tones, crank it up... Oooo Weee!!

I've tried some pedals too. I've got a Klon and a Fulltone Fat Boost for extra drive. Both work nicely. The Klon is sweet for just a little extra clean drive. The Fat boost is nice too, but it colors the tone a bit more than the Klon. (Not really a bad thing for bright guitars). I also have a Demeter Tremulator. Close, but no cigar to the real thing.

The 3x10's are a perfect match for this amp. Huge tight bottom. Hit deep open E and its all there. Clean and articulate. With plenty of pop/spank on the Tele with Robben Ford A & E string finger pops. And a nice, articulate top-end. The amps sounds great from 0-10 (It goes to 12 Spinal-Tap fans) After that, it starts to loose it's control and sweetness. The 35 watts is perfect, enough clean head-room and way loud enough for 95% of gigs. I'm glad I got this instead of the Victorette. The 18 watt, 2 EL84 versionmight not have enough clean headroom, but who knows.

Just the set the amp on 10 (of 12) Ride the guitar volume/tone and use your hands. You can coax everything you need right there! It's an ephipany to be able to do all that with just your hands!

I had one issue. UPS dropped it in transit. When I received it, the 'verb didn't work. the seller wanted to claim the insurance. No way. The amp worked perfectly otherwise and I hated to think that this work-of-art was going to end up in some dirty old warehouse for the rest of its life! Musical blasphemy!

I tried replacing tubes, checking cables etc. So, I called Mark at Victoria and we chatted, tried some tube swapping etc. No dice. Off the amp head went, back to Victoria. He went through it completely and there was nothing wrong. So, I pulled that Reverb tank out, and after about a 1/2 hour, I found the problem A barely noticeable broken solder joint on one of the wires inside the Accusonic tank. Soldered it, re-mounted it and back in business.

Oh, Mark didn't charge anything for all his time checking out the amp. I have to give it a 10 because it was UPS's fault, not Victoria's for the damage. And the fact that even with their shipping abuse, everything else worked perfect. It's built like a tank otherwise. I'm sure it'll hold up for many years... and more so than most old vintage Fenders. (You should see the inside of my old '52 Pro, its amazing that it's made it at all, 'til now.

See above.

Oh, I did learn one other thing from Mark. I sent some RCA NOS Blackplates with the head for him to set-up. I know the EL84 versions of this amp are self-biasing, but I didn't know the 6l6 version was too. So, no need to pay a tech to bias for re-tubing. Nice.

I'm sure you've read the reviews. The Tonequest report wrote that this is the pinnacle of Fender tone. I have to agree. It's everything you could want in Fender tone. A total no-brainer... Buy one, you'll love it. And it will make you play better too!

It's 5 days old - 6L6 version w/ 3-Jensen pr-10's I play rock-a-billy-blues-country alt. and some studio project work. I purchased the amp because of its minimal features - volume ,treble and bass. Reverb and Tremolo are a bonus. 35 watts at first I thought this isn't loud enough, so after a couple hours of playing I took it to a gig. It sounded so good, i started with volume at 6 and ended at 10 just cause some songs needed a little edge. no pedals! it goes to 12!

G&L ASAT, Strat w/seymor duncan vintage stacks,Stew Mac tele seymour duncan Alnico II. This amp is musical its full bodied, warm and make the notes stand up and dance. The open cabinet creates its own reverb. The reverb on board is lush it comes on at 3 good til 5 after that surf city. The amp starts break up at 7 and just keeps getting better. You don't need no stinking pedals! Treble and bass really come on when you turn them

Came with a microphonic 12ax7, replaced it and did the gig without thinking twice about a backup.

Had the pleasure of trying a couple of Victorilux's and the new(Sovereign - wow) out at the shop - the guys are cool - I never asked about the warranty if you saw the way these amps are wired it says a lot about there own work ethic!

I've only had a few amps in my time by no means am I an expert but I did my research. I wanted something i could carry with out a dolly (45lbs),hand wired, chimey clean with head room but not the kind that knocks your head off. And natural breakup that sounds good in this case sounds great! 35 watts with 3 10's pushes enough air to fill the room if you need more mic it! It's a familiar sound but its fresh and its all good!

This is an addendum to my review dated 10/10/03 for the 2-6L6, 3x10 Victorilux.

Now that the speakers are broken in and I've got it out with the band, the overall tone has changed a bit.

The amp is definetely much more of a 3x10 Princeton Reverb (with 35 watts) sounding amp. Not too much of a tweed thing going on here. Very similar to a Super Reverb but not quite as bassy...maybe due to the 3x10 setup. The responsiveness of the tone controls is really amazing, as is the clarity. The clean tone is really, really good. This would be a fantastic swing/jump blues, country, or blues amp where great clean tone would be favored.

A totally classic/classy sounding amp.