As this weekly series of amplifiers draws to an end I wanted to make sure the closing weeks were not dull. You don’t slow down towards the end of a race. Well , you might, but I try not to. You’ve got to be in it for the win (which I believe some people say as #ftw*). If you’re in this game looking for a win, you most likely need a Victory. The V30 The Countess seems like a decent enough kind of Victory to me.
* For me #ftw ends with the words The World. F stands for one of my all-time favourite words.
Interestingly—to me at least—is the fact that I became aware of The Countess through a friend I have on Twitter called The Ormskirk Baron. I’m pretty sure everyone in the United Kingdom is royalty though. They live in a kingdom for crying out loud! It is a small kingdom though (physical land size). Which probably explains this tiny, yet loud amplifier.
That’s the perfect combo for me. Tiny and loud. But often I’ll be playing guitar where others around me are less impressed with my guitar playing skills than I am (which is saying something as I am not impressed with my guitar playing skills at all). Luckily The Countess can be tricked into performing as a 2 watt amplifier and not a 30 watt amplifier (which it normally is). When I say tricked, I mean it is a clever configuration the amplifier has. Tricked sounds cooler.
Enough rambling though. What exactly is in this amplifier? Well it has tubes. Tubes and …
- Two channels
- Effect loop
- Individual channel gain controls
- Individual channel volume controls
- Shared bass, middle and treble
- Awesome tone
I believe when an amplifier sounds amazing the tone needs to feature as an official list item. Obviously I normally include the tube/valve information when putting together a list. But today I am mixing it up. Which is convenient because the V30 The Countess can also mix it up. The amplifier comes with 4 x 12AX7 tubes as well as 2 x 6L6 tubes. You can however swap those for 2 x EL34 tubes. Handy.
Handy is another way to describe this amplifier actually. It’s handy because Guthrie Govan helped develop this amplifier and he specifically wanted something that allowed him to travel with the amplifier—it fits in carry-on baggage while you’re flying. That’s very cool.
Of course all of my rambling means little if I can’t prove the tone. Thank goodness for the Interwebs. Check these two videos out. They’ve convinced me that this amplifier is a contender. Perhaps it will end up on the podium when I finish this little series of 52 amplifiers.
Disclaimer: I’ve not played through this head. I have not experienced the sound or tone of this head other than through video. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.