NAD Victoria Ivy League

[Vanschoyck]

After a couple years consideration, wailing and gnashing of teeth, I bought my first "tweed" style amp.  (You can tell it's tweed, it looks like it.)  I finally have wired hand iron points (a little amp lingo for the amp guys on the forum.)  And even though I haven't had a chance to really play it yet, I know it has tone, because the knob says "Tone" and it goes up to 12!

Seriously though, it really does seem very well built, and I'm already enjoying how awesomely light weight it is.

[rockabilly69]

5 hours ago, Vanschoyck said:

After a couple years consideration, wailing and gnashing of teeth, I bought my first "tweed" style amp.  (You can tell it's tweed, it looks like it.)  I finally have wired hand iron points (a little amp lingo for the amp guys on the forum.)  And even though I haven't had a chance to really play it yet, I know it has tone, because the knob says "Tone" and it goes up to 12!

Seriously though, it really does seem very well built, and I'm already enjoying how awesomely light weight it is.

Oh I am dying to hear what you think of the Vicky, don't keep us in suspense!!!

[Spectrum13]

Harvard, Princeton, Yale?

[kennyv4]

Congratulations on your purchase of a great amp, enjoy.

[pressure]

Fab amp Vanschoyck. Does it have a 10" or 12" speaker? 

[Vanschoyck]

6 hours ago, Spectrum13 said:

Harvard, Princeton, Yale?

Actually, I'm a USC man.

 

5 hours ago, kennyv4 said:

Congratulations on your purchase of a great amp, enjoy.

Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, pressure said:

Fab amp Vanschoyck. Does it have a 10" or 12" speaker? 

It is the 10.

 

12 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

Oh I am dying to hear what you think of the Vicky, don't keep us in suspense!!!

Hoping to spend a little time this PM.  So far I just plugged in my 535 to make sure it was alive, and right away (on a clean setting) I could hear the frequencies that are missing from later designs.  I know that most think of "tweed" amps as overdrive machines, but I've suspected for a while that they could be capable of some very pretty clean sounds, and that's what I'm hoping to coax out of it.

[Gitfiddler]

Great amp!

Early jazz recordings were made on tweed amps.  Expect magical clean and OD tones from your new box.

 

[rockabilly69]

1 hour ago, Vanschoyck said:

Hoping to spend a little time this PM.  So far I just plugged in my 535 to make sure it was alive, and right away (on a clean setting) I could hear the frequencies that are missing from later designs.  I know that most think of "tweed" amps as overdrive machines, but I've suspected for a while that they could be capable of some very pretty clean sounds, and that's what I'm hoping to coax out of it.

Yep those Octal preamp tubes have a magic to them. One of my favorite amps is my Ampeg Mercury which has all 6SL7 octal preamp tubes, 5Y3, and 6v6 output tubes, and the shimmer I get in the high frequencies is fantastic. I just had it rebuilt (all new filter caps, some signal caps, and all new caps in the trem circuit) and I'm loving it.  I would love to own an IVY league! I've said this before, I really think Victoria amps sound fantastic, my Regal II is one of my favorites, and it gets used on everything, lately it's been the amp of choice for bass guitar and my wurlitzer. I posted this song a few weeks ago but give a close listen to the bass and wurly, I actually used the Victoria's trem on the Wurly because it was lusher and easier to beat time than the on-board Wurlitzer...

 

[Vanschoyck]

5 hours ago, Gitfiddler said:

Great amp!

Early jazz recordings were made on tweed amps.  Expect magical clean and OD tones from your new box.

 

Yes indeed; played my 575 into it today and it's wonderful!  I love what the "tone" knob does.  And it gets plenty loud without any distortion so far (I really don't play very loud.)

4 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

Yep those Octal preamp tubes have a magic to them. One of my favorite amps is my Ampeg Mercury which has all 6SL7 octal preamp tubes, 5Y3, and 6v6 output tubes, and the shimmer I get in the high frequencies is fantastic. I just had it rebuilt (all new filter caps, some signal caps, and all new caps in the trem circuit) and I'm loving it.  I would love to own an IVY league! I've said this before, I really think Victoria amps sound fantastic, my Regal II is one of my favorites, and it gets used on everything, lately it's been the amp of choice for bass guitar and my wurlitzer. I posted this song a few weeks ago but give a close listen to the bass and wurly, I actually used the Victoria's trem on the Wurly because it was lusher and easier to beat time than the on-board Wurlitzer...

 

Daniel, I really love the Wurlitzer on there.  You don't hear that sound very often anymore but it's a neat one.  Your production chops are first rate!

[rockabilly69]

3 hours ago, Vanschoyck said:

Yes indeed; played my 575 into it today and it's wonderful!  I love what the "tone" knob does.  And it gets plenty loud without any distortion so far (I really don't play very loud.)

Daniel, I really love the Wurlitzer on there.  You don't hear that sound very often anymore but it's a neat one.  Your production chops are first rate!

Thanks for that! I love Wurlitzers too, their organic tone is really a perfect compliment to guitars! My Wurlitzer used to belong to a very accomplished song writer and when he passed away, his wife really wanted it to go to somebody that would use it to write original music. She just happened to tell that to one of my oldest friends, and he immediately got a hold of me so that it would wind up in my studio. Right place, right time:)

[RJLII]

Congrats! I have the 12" version and it really sings.

[rockabilly69]

5 hours ago, RJLII said:

Congrats! I have the 12" version and it really sings.

I like to record with 10" speakers, but play live with 12", I wonder which version I would like the best!!!