Happy Jack
Victory’s latest addition is a highly portable all-valve preamp with a 180-watt power amp, digital reverb and built-in Two Notes Torpedo cab sim technology
Well known for powering the backlines of guitar gods such as Guthrie Govan, Richie Kotzen and Rabea Massaad, Victory has also had considerable success in the pedalboardsized preamp and amp niche with its award-winning V4 series. The V4 amps are intended to reproduce the tones of Victory’s full-sized heads but in more portable packages, and feature a clever valve preamp section hooked up to an ultra-compact 180‑watt Class D power section, with a smooth digital reverb.
Victory recently announced three new additions to complete its V4 amp family: The Copper, The Sheriff and The Jack, the latter of which we have on test here. All three new V4 amplifiers include embedded Two Notes cabinet emulation, a headphones socket and an extra feature called the Valve Response Circuit, VRC for short. Meanwhile, the two existing V4 amps – The Duchess and The Kraken – have both been updated to include the same features as the new models.
Based on the V30 Jack head originally designed for Guthrie Govan as part of his flying rig, The Jack V4 promises to make flying with an amp even easier via its lightweight aluminium case, which is about the size of a large paperback book. Just like the other V4 amps, The Jack’s preamp uses three New Old Stock military-spec versions of the EF91 pentode valve and a single NOS EC900 triode, made by EI in the former Yugoslavia. These are among the bestquality valves ever made, built to standards far exceeding current production and with useful lifetimes of several thousands of hours, allowing Victory to offer them with a unique two-year warranty. Because Victory holds large stocks of both valve types, V4 owners are also protected from current shortage issues affecting other more common valves.
The V4 Jack is smartly presented: that tough aluminium case is powder-coated in metallic dark grey, with bright graphics that will stand out on a dimly lit stage. The internal construction is typical Victory and