Tone Report Weekly Issue 110 | Page 46

VICTORY VERTICAL 2X12 CABS As many already know, Victory Amplification is the one to beat for modern British-built boutique tube amps. One of their endorsees, Rabea Massaad, helped mastermind amp designer Martin Kidd develop my favorite of their compact heads—The Kraken. Basically, it is a dual channel 50-watt beast that has one channel dedicated to hot-modded British crunch and the other in the modern American aggression tradition. Rabea’s live setup involves two vertical 2x12s with two Krakens set to the different channels atop. The Kraken set to the aggro-American channel is fitted with 6L6 power tubes and the other is fitted with EL-34s to compliment the British channel. This setup yields a crushing one-two combination of tones and responses in a single half-stack footprint. Because the two channels are voiced differently, it actually emphasizes the stereo spread when the effects are kicked in. Another often-overlooked problem that his setup addresses is because the two amps are identical, 46 TONE TALK // the effects loop levels are the same— clever indeed. For those about to rock the bigger rooms, but don’t want to schlep two half-stacks around, get amongst a good pair of high powered lunchbox heads and a couple vertical 2x12s. One could even fit them with different complimentary speakers to fill out the frequency spectrum. The imagination is the limit. Double your Pleasure with these Compact Stereo Setups