Victory Amplifiers V40 The Duchess Lunch Box Head

Great Value Amp, nice cleans and breakup sounds, awesome to carry around, as even the guys that have a lot of money should take this in mind as a pedal platform, spare!

Pros:
- Portability (Size, weight and bag)
- Good Cleans
- Good Value (quality/price)
- Little to no Noise (hum/hiss)
- Loud!
- Nice change between the Voice 1 and 2

Cons:
- Eq knobs dont have a lot of range
- No outside the chassis bias adjusting and measuring points like the newer Victory amps have
- A little bit dark, that for me is ok, but for others can be strange.

Havent experienced the FX loop yet.

Victory is a relatively new brand on the market that seems to get a lot of praise online, which is why is decided to try one. It has been the best gear purchase I've ever done.

Even though this is supposed to be the more low gain, pedal friendly amplifier in the victory range, I find it to be a tone monster on it's own. The cleans are dynamic and warm, and the 42 watts offer plenty of headroom. Don't let the label fool you though, when the gain is gunned the amplifier turns into a rock beast. I found this amplifier has a great tweed/ oldschool British type crunch to it. It sounds huge through my single 12 inch speaker cabinet, both in the studio and live. I set the amp up fairly crunchy and control the gain by the guitar's volume, to which the amp reacts well. It's a versatile single channel. The reverb can do anything from adding lushness to splashing surf drip, it's not a real spring but it fits the overall high quality of the amp.

Let's be honest, this isn't the right amplifier for metalheads. Victory offers other models that suit those genres better (for example the Kraken). Rockers will be surprised though.
The power scaling is very handy to get good tones at lower levels. I use the 0.5 watts at home to get some tube warmth at decent volume levels. I rarely use the full power setting, even when gigging. This amp can move some serious air when it's pushing the right speakers.
People's heads turn when they hear to tones and volume this tiny box offers. It's lightweight but doesn't compensate in tone. It's easily a pro-spec and sounding amp. Also the build quality of the unit is insanely solid.

The carry bag is, well, good for carrying. Nothing special. The included footswitch feels durable.

I would recomment this amp to basically anyone. The cleans easily compete with Fender amps in my opinion. When the gain is cranked, it can breathe fire if you want it to. The build quality is great. As I said, it is the best gear purchase I've ever done.

I bought this amplifier 8 months ago and I'm still very impressed with it ! So far I've gigged with it in two different bands, with different pedal boards (one for blues/country and one for rock/pop) and different cabs (112 & 212) and this amplifier delivers a great, open, warm and balanced sound in every situation ! The on-board reverb is rather subtle, but it blends in nicely with other reverbs & delays. The FX loop works great with my eventide H9, however the buttons on the back (for bypassing the FX-loop) get pressed a lot during transport. That is the only minor downside I could think of. Great sounding & powerful amp, a true chameleon, well worth the buy !