Victory V4 The Copper Guitar Amp Evaluate

Important Parts

The Copper Guitar Amp is a real, stand-alone tube/solid-state-hybrid amp with surprisingly deep performance. The unit contains six built-in Two Notes cab sims, which could be routed to the XLR output and balanced line out, or the XLR solely. There’s additionally a headphone output. And any of those outputs can be utilized with out plugging into a conventional guitar speaker cab (the amp is load-protected). The six Chris Buck-created sims could be edited by way of Two Notes’ Torpedo Distant software program, with the unit related to your laptop by way of USB, or the software program can be utilized to load different Two Notes or third-party sims.

Controls embody achieve, tone (a voicing management for the upper-mids and highs), grasp, TB (treble increase) grasp, reverb (digital), bass, center, treble, sim preset, and sim degree. The treble increase is engaged by way of the change on high of the amp, nevertheless it may also be activated, together with the reverb, by way of an elective footswitch. Curiously, the increase is ruled by way of an output-stage management, which, as we’ll see, diminishes the amp’s flexibility a bit.

Additional connectivity contains guitar enter, results ship and return (for a loop between preamp and output stage), line out, footswitch, XLR cab sim out, and speaker out (appropriate for a great deal of 4/8/16 ohms at 180/100/50 watts, respectively). Victory additionally thoughtfully included a 9V DC/500 mA output to energy exterior pedals, and there’s an on/off change for the interior fan.

The V4 The Copper amp is rugged. It’s constructed into an aluminum chassis with a metallic carry deal with on high and vents at both finish. The tube complement eschews conventional 12AX7s within the preamp. Fairly, it contains three CV4014s (aka EF91s, a 7-pin preamp tube mostly seen in a well-liked headphone amplifier) and a one 7-pin EC900 (6HA5).

Police Squad

I paired the V4 The Copper Guitar Amp with an open-back 1×12″ cab with a Scumback J75 speaker, in addition to a recording interface, studio displays, and Audio-Technica studio headphones. How did it fare? The quick reply is that this little field delivers a dynamic, articulate, genuine tube-amp-playing expertise, and a variety of moods inside the Vox tone household.

Many manufacturers chasing Vox-like voicings by way of various amp structure are let down by flat, muddy, or brittle-sounding outcomes. However this effort from Victory sits comfortably within the “correct tube-amp camp.” Satirically, The V4 Copper amp achieves its most correct Vox-like efficiency—at the very least to my ears—by way of headphones or studio displays and the built-in cab sims, which embody a component of power-amp modeling. With a conventional guitar cab, the unit nonetheless sounds excellent, however the amp’s hybrid nature is extra simply belied by the absence of an EL84 output stage’s harmonic complexity and the compression you hear when pushing an AC15 or AC30 to the sting of breakup and past. For a lot of, the compromise shall be a good commerce for portability and comfort.

 Undercover With the Vice Squad

The Copper V4 Amp boasts one of many higher amp-loaded digital reverbs I’ve heard shortly. It’s acquired a pleasant taper from refined house to lush cathedral-like atmospherics, it’s heat, and the decay is reasonable. The EQ part is much less clearly highly effective. The tone management is efficient however refined (“temper” or “shade” could be higher names for the perform). The treble increase actually provides extra hair and drive to the output. However from my perspective, the treble increase’s adjustment by way of the TB grasp management—there isn’t a increase achieve management—is counterintuitive, as a result of it means each high increase achieve and output degree are tied to a single knob that additionally interacts with the achieve management within the first achieve stage. There’s additionally no impartial adjustment obtainable for crunch- or lead-gain settings.

Given this configuration, you may’t simply dial in an edge-of-crunch tone from the usual achieve management and push it over the sting with the increase with out getting fairly bushy and fuzzed out. Including an impartial lead channel of kinds would have supplied way more flexibility. However these choices would additionally imply extra space and weight, which is at a premium right here. Regardless of that, the treble increase perform continues to be an actual bonus that a number of amps lack. And there are various good sounds to be discovered by placing it to make use of.

The Verdict

The V4 The Copper Guitar Amp is a cleverly designed bundle of Vox-voiced jangle and chime in an impressively compact package deal. The final tone is energetic and dynamic, and onboard Two Notes cab sims enhance its usability dramatically. The controllability of the increase/lead perform is a bit of compromised with only one management, however there’s a number of energy and potential to faucet into within the V4 The Copper Guitar Amp—particularly while you issue within the dimension and honest value.