British firm Victory Amplification has announced a new Richie Kotzen Signature Heritage RK50 combo and compact head.
The 50-watt amp is loosely based around a Marshall Super Lead-like power stage and is designed to work in harmony with Kotzen's favoured Tech 21 signature RK5 Fly Rig pedal, meaning it therefore has minimal tone control options and straightforward valve-based gain staging.
In addition, it's augmented with reverb (full spring in the combo and digital in the head) and tremolo circuitry, while the combo and 112 cabinet are based around a 12-inch Celestion G12H-65 Creamback speaker.
Check out the official word below.
Press release
Victory Amplification from the UK proudly announces the Richie Kotzen Signature RK50 Heritage Series Combo and RK50 Compact Series Head.
This new collaboration with Richie Kotzen is a rekindling of a long-standing friendship between the celebrated American rocker and Victory Amplification chief designer, Martin Kidd.
Martin Kidd: “The initial discussions were for a unique approach to a 1x12 combo of around 40-50 watts. Richie is a big fan of the low-end response and feel you get from the power stage of a Marshall Super Lead-style circuit. For the front end, he wanted to rival his Cornford RK100 in terms of gain, yet have enough range to roll back to pushed clean and crunchy rhythm sounds. He likes to control things directly from his guitar, and also using his signature Tech 21 RK5 Fly Rig, so his only requirement in terms of gain or channel switching was a simple preamp boost that we achieved with valve gain staging.
“Likewise, he didn’t want or need extensive EQ shaping so there’s just a single ‘tone’ knob that works on the treble frequencies only. Brighter or less bright – it couldn’t be more simple! Nevertheless, given that he (and potential customers) will be using it with a variety of different cabinets, it was important to include some kind of low-end attenuation ability, so there is a ‘speaker damping’ switch on the rear panel that curbs some of the low-end resonance if you want the sound to be tighter.
“Richie also surprised us with his request for reverb and tremolo, but having developed versions of both effects for V40 The Duchess and V40 Deluxe, it was relatively simple to include these in the RK50 and really add to its appeal. In the Compact Series head the reverb is digital; in the Heritage Series combo it’s a full-length spring reverb.
“Even we’ve been surprised at how many styles the amp seems to suit, but hearing Richie play it live is where the biggest smiles happen. We are extremely proud to be behind such a brilliant and unique artist.”
MSRP/MAP: (September 2017)
UK: Combo £1,649 (Compact Series Head £999)
EU: Combo €1,869 (Compact Series Head €1,139)
USA: Combo $1,899 (Compact Series Head $1,149)
MSRP/MAP: (September 2017)
UK: Combo £1,649 (Compact Series Head £999)
EU: Combo €1,869 (Compact Series Head €1,139)
USA: Combo $1,899 (Compact Series Head $1,149)
Available at dealers: From September 2017.
