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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

This pedal is amazing. Very versatile and the response os very touch sensitive. Feels great & sounds great. Perfect for hard rock and metal, yet can roll back for classic rock or fusion sounds. Built like a tank, made in England. Yes it is expensive, but you will have a prized piece of gear with the Victory Kraken!

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I own both the Headerush MX5 as well as the NUX MG-30 and have used one of these regularly as my primary amp modeler the past 18 months; prior to those, I sued the Line 6 Pod Go. All 3 of those units are wonderful tools, without question, however, I wanted a more nuanced and organic tone for my high-gain riffing and soloing so I bought the V4 Kraken preamp to sit inside the effects loop of the MX5.At first - I was not impressed with the V4 because it sounded flat and as though the gain was nearly as high as I thought it would be. I even intended to ship it back to Zzounds but after having it sit in its box for about a week and re-watching all the videos that convinced me to get one, I plugged it back in and it's like the tubes woke up - the thing came to life.I'm not tube expert, but it now seems like perhaps those tubes neeed a few hours of operation to truly come to life. Now within 3-5 minutes of warming the preamp up, it sounds so damn good that I'm happy I did not send it back. The green channel sounds awesome for rock to hard rock (or a slightly dirty clean channel with the gain rolled back) and the red channel sounds thick and saturated for super heavy applications, riffing sounds super chug-y and I rarely push the gain beyond 1'oclock.The unit itself is super sexy in its dark gray chasis; it's built like a tank and feel like it could easily survive touring and endless practice/jam sessions.Also, this is a wonderful high-gain replacement in one's amp modeler effects loop where it benefits from well-tuned noise gates to combat the noise of the V4 when it's on the red channel. I did also use the V4 with the 4-cable method into my Hughes & Kettner 100w Switchblade combo, but I prefer the sound of it either through the 24/96 IRs in the MX5 or running directly into Two Notes Torpedo CABM+ Virtual Cabinet pedal.FEATURES:If I wasn't using modelers for their noise gate, effects and IR/DynIR features, I'd be a bit bummed it lacked a noise gate but given its role as strictly a preamp, it's not a big deal.Also - I've had no need to use customer service for any kind of support so that's why I'm leaving 'Manufacturer Support' blank.Otherwise, I have to say that I LOVE this preamp!

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I have more than a few distortion pedals .. some very good some not so much but the kraken just made them all obsolete. From gritty cleans to classic rock to full on metal I have everything I need. Running it through an Orange CR120 and it's truly devastating... you'd think I was playing through a 2000 dollar amp. Victory really knocked it out of the park. It's a little pricey but , in my opinion, well worth it.

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