Victory The Sheriff 25 User manual

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VICTORY ‘The Sheriff 25’USER GUIDE
All Valve 25-Watt Guitar Head & Combo

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Thank you, and congratulations on acquiring a Victory Amplification, ‘The Sheriff 25’
amplifier head or combo. These amps are proudly designed and built by our committed
team of engineers and craftsmen in the UK.
Note: The Sheriff 25 head and combo are identical in operation and use the same
electronics. The only difference being the combo has an internal Celestion G12H speaker.
We value simplicity in operation, flexibility in use and absolutely no compromise in tone.
Our aim is simple: to create amplifiers that inspire you ever onwards in your playing and
never let you down.
SAFETY FIRST
We want you to enjoy your amplifier to the best of its potential. So please…
Before you go any further, take a moment to read these SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
• Read these guidelines & keep them
• Follow all instructions, guidelines & warnings, especially those in RED
• Do not use this amplifier near water or any other liquid
• Do not block any openings
• Do not attempt to clean the amplifier with any fluids: use only a dry cloth
•
Do not attempt to modify or service this product yourself
•
Removing covers could mean you are exposed to dangerous voltages that may result in
severe injury or death
• Refer all servicing to qualified service personnel
• Damage Requiring Service: Unplug this product from the wall outlet and refer servicing
to qualified service personnel under the following conditions:
(a) When the power-supply cord or plug is damaged;
(b) If liquid has been spilled, or objects have fallen into the product;
(c) If the product has been exposed to rain, water, or more likely, beer;
(d) If the product does not operate normally by following the operating instructions.
Adjust only those controls that are covered by the operating instructions. Improper
adjustment of other controls may result in damage and will often require extensive work
by a qualified technician to restore the product to its normal operation;
(e) If the product has been dropped or damaged in any way;
(f) When the product exhibits a distinct change in performance - this indicates a need for
service.
• It is the nature of valve amplifiers to get hot, so please take care when moving the amp
after use.
•Replacement Parts: When replacement parts are required, be sure the service
technician uses replacement parts specified by the manufacturer or have the same
characteristics as the original part. Unauthorized substitutions may result in fire,
electric shock, or other hazards.

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What’s included?
Your new Victory Sheriff 25 comes with the following:
1 x Dual Latching Footswitch for Channel Switching and Master Volume Switching
A mains lead for your country
A padded gigbag/dust cover
This User Guide
FRONT PANEL
INPUT
Plug your guitar in here.
VINTAGE GAIN
This control sets the Gain for the Vintage Channel. The more it is turned up, the more
Gain is added to the input signal control and adds a classic British crunch to the sound.
Use low settings for maximum clean headroom and higher settings when you want to
introduce more natural valve overdrive to your tone.
Balancing this control with the Master control is crucial in delivering the tone and feel
that works best for you.
CHANNEL SWITCH
This switches between the two channel, Vintage & Hot Rod. This function is also foot-
switchable using the supplied 2-Way latching footswitch.
HOT ROD GAIN
This control sets the Gain for the Hot Rod Channel. This has higher gain adding a further
gain stage for more ‘modded’ 70s & 80s classic rock and beyond.
Use low settings for maximum clean headroom and higher settings when you want to
introduce more natural valve overdrive to your tone.
Balancing this control with the Master control is crucial in delivering the tone and feel
that works best for you.
TREBLE
Controls the high frequency content of your sound and is also a powerful tone shaper
when it comes to overdrive character.

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MIDDLE
Controls the midrange frequencies in your sound. Run the middle control higher to help
cut through a band mix, or generally fatten and ‘widen’ your sound. Run it lower for a
lighter, less ‘in-your-face’ kind of sound.
BASS
This controls the low frequency content of your sound. Higher levels of bass can be good
at low volumes, but take care when running the amp louder –you may find you need to
reduce the bass control. As with all the EQ pots, adjust to taste!
MASTER 1 & MASTER 2
The MASTER volumes are independently switchable of the two channels and this is
achieved using the supplied 2-Way footswitch. These controls are used to set the stage or
overall volume for the two channels.
PRESENCE
This controls a different part of the high frequency response of your amplifier than the
treble control. You might like to see it as a ‘master high end’ control that helps you tame,
or perhaps enliven your tone depending on your environment, without having to change
your EQ.
The Presence control is positioned in the negative feedback loop in the power section. It
has a distinct effect on how your guitar feels, so play, listen and set to taste.
PREHEAT –ON Switch
The Sheriff 25 should always be switched to PREHEAT first to allow the valve heaters to
warm up. Once the rear mains switch is turned ON, the amplifier is now in a preheat
mode with just the valve heaters and low voltages on. This allows the valves to heat up
before they get 100s of volts up them, (it’s less of a shock).
Ensure the MASTER volumes are turned down to avoid sudden deafness and after around
60 seconds, the amp can be switch to ON.
Please always leave at least 30 seconds before switching from PREHEAT to OFF. This will
ensure extended valve life and avoid any power-down noise. This is especially relevant if
you are running through a large PA system as any small pop may become amplified to
audience death levels, which may limit your music career.
REAR PANEL

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Voltage Selector
The Voltage Selector is located on the side of the Sheriff 25 amplifier and selects the
correct mains voltage for your territory. Please refer to a qualified technician before even
thinking about moving this switch. If you do find yourself in foreign climes where the
mains voltage is different to home, (and the water tastes funny), it will be necessary to
switch this selector. The mains fuse must always be changed at the same time. Failure to
do this will result in either the mains fuse blowing as soon as the amp is turned on or the
amp running with a fuse that is of too higher value to provide adequate safety protection.
Generally, the fuse value will double if the mains voltage is halved, (i.e. if it’s a 0.5A fuse
in the UK @ 230V, it will needs to be a 1A fuse for the USA @ 115V).
Always use the correct rating and type of fuse. Victory amplifiers exclusively use UL-
approved 20x5mm glass ‘T’ or ‘Timed’ fuses. If you have difficulty acquiring the correct
fuses, please contact Victory using [e-mail].
The voltage selector in the Sheriff 25 combo is inside the amplifier chassis. To change the
voltage in a Combo, the amplifier chassis will need to be removed from the cabinet and
then the rear wooden panel removed to gain access to the inside. Two of the amplifier
fixings are located under the rear information panel, so this will also need to be removed
to release the amp section.
Mains inlet (IEC Socket) and Power ON switch.
The mains fuse is located in a small tray between the IEC inlet and the Power On switch.
Please only use the correct mains cord for your territory!
HT FUSE
The HT or ‘High Tension’ fuse protects the high voltage for the valve supply. If this fuse
blows, the first step is to replace it with an identical T250mA 20x5mm fuse. The HT fuse
may sometimes blow due to ‘flash-over’ inside an output valve. This is where during the
manufacturing process, not all of the gas is removed from the glass envelope and the
‘getter’ inside the valve, usually made from barium or magnesium oxide, will burn or
evaporate these remaining gasses resulting in the common silvered internal surface of the
valve. This process, which is more likely to happen with new equipment, draws high
current momentarily and can blow the HT fuse. It will rarely cause any damage so just
replacing the fuse is sufficient to get the amp running normally again.
However, if the HT FUSE repeatedly blows, it may indicate a serious valve failure where
internal parts of a valve are shorted and in this case the amplifier needs to be checked by
a qualified engineer to assess the problem.
VERY IMPORTANT WARNINGS!!
In certain countries, (specifically, Nordic countries), is it totally forbidden to open up any
electronic equipment or to work on them at all unless you are a fully qualified and

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approved technician. Please check the laws in your country and do not attempt to change
valves/tubes or re-bias the amplifier if the law forbids this. In this case, please take you’re
your amplifier to a qualified and approved electronics technician.
In certain countries it is also totally forbidden to keep or place any liquids on top of the
amplifier, (e.g., beer, water bottles, glass, drinks etc). This may cause serious electric
shocks and/or dangerous situations.
Also, it is totally forbidden to use the amp in the event of rain splatters/water drops
getting into or onto the amp.
Even if it is not a law in your country, you should never allow liquids near the amplifier or
attempt to use the amplifier if it has been subjected to any moisture as this could result
in a fatal electric shock.
Biasing
The Sheriff 25 is a fixed Bias amplifier and requires the output valve idle current to be
pre-set with a variable resistor.
Biasing needs to be done each time the output valves are replaced and should be checked
periodically to make sure they are working at their optimum for sound quality & valve
life. To set the Bias on the 25, you need a multimeter set to the 200mV DC range. This is
carried out externally so no need to remove the base plate from the amp. Output valves
can be replaced on the head by removing the top cage, (2 x M4 screws per side) and by
removing the amp from the cabinet in the combo. The valves can then be pulled out using
a slow rotational movement to ease them from their sockets, (dweezling). Ensure that the
pins on the replacement valves line up correctly with the pin holes as they are easily bent
if not.
We recommend always buying matched pair of output valves or Biasing may be difficult if
not impossible.
To Bias the new valves, make sure the amplifier is connected to a speaker cabinet, (or
dummy load resistor). Turn all controls to zero and remove the guitar input as any signals
may interfere with the Bias settings. Switch to Preheat mode, wait 60 seconds and then
switch to ON.
Now put the black meter probe, (-ve) into the GND Bias socket and the red meter probe,
(+ve) into the left hand V4+ Bias socket. Using a small flat blade screwdriver into the Bias
adjustment POT, turn this so you get 22mV on the multimeter.
This equates to 22mA of current per valve as we are measuring the voltage across a 1
Ohm resistor.
Now put the red meter probe into the right hand V5+ Bias socket and measure the
voltage. Try to balance the 2 measurements around 22mV with a maximum of 4mV
between them. For example, an extreme but perfectly acceptable case would be 20mV
for V4+ & 24mV for V5+.

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PRESENCE SHIFT SWITCH
This switches the band of frequencies that the presence works over. Try both positions,
(switch in & switch out) to obtain your required results. When pushed in, the tone may be
brighter as there is less negative feedback.
BASS FOCUS SWITCH
This function alters the negative feedback at low frequencies in the poweramp resulting
in a ‘looser’ or ‘tighter’ overall bass response. This will be affected by the positions of the
tone controls so please experiment with this switch to achieve the bass response you
desire.
FULL POWER SPEAKER OUTPUTS
PLEASE NOTE: The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol, within an equilateral triangle,
is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated ‘dangerous voltage’ within the
product’s enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric
shock. Terminals labelled as “Speaker Outputs” must be connected to a speaker cabinet
of the designated load rating using an un-shielded two conductor cable for speaker use at
all times during operation. Never use a guitar cable to connect the amplifier to a speaker
as this presents the amplifier with a ‘capacitive load’. This can cause instability or
oscillation which may seriously damage valves and/or the expensive output transformer.
Always ensure a speaker is connected to the amplifier before powering up or damage to
the output transformer may result. Never unplug a speaker when the amplifier is ON as
this is even more likely to damage the transformer and the output valves.
The output transformer in the Sheriff 25s have 2 separate secondary windings; a 16 Ohm
and an 8 Ohm. This makes it easy to connect different combinations of speakers. There
are three speaker output jacks: 2 x 8 Ohms, (wired in parallel) and 1 x 16 ohms.
So here are the possible combinations:
1. For a single 8 Ohm cabinet, use either of the 8 Ohm sockets.
2. For a single 16 Ohm cabinet, use the 16 Ohm socket.
3. For a pair of 16 Ohm cabinets, use both of the 8 Ohm sockets.
If you wish to use a pair of 8 Ohm cabinets, this can be done using a series lead which
results in a 16 Ohm impedance and will then use the 16 Ohm speaker socket. These leads
are not readily available and would need to be made specially. Alternatively, Palmer
offers a tiny speaker matching box which allows 2 x 8 Ohm cabinets to run in series from
a 16 Ohm output: Palmer CAB M Passive Cabinet Merger - Andertons Music Co.
The Sheriff 25 combo is fitted with a 16 Ohm Celestion G12H Heritage Speaker.

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You will need a couple of extra standard Jack to Jack speaker leads to use this box but it is
a more elegant solution than a series lead.
All Victory amplifiers are constructed using Posidrive Screws & Machine Bolts. These are
an improvement on the Phillips type of fixing which uses a 4-blade screwdriver. The
Posidrive uses an 8-Blade screwdriver which allows for more precision and higher torque.
Please try to use Posidrive Screwdrivers when working on a Victory amplifier to avoid
damaging any fixings. These are readily available from all good tool suppliers. We
recommend having a No.1 and a No.2 point Posidrive screwdriver.
FOOT SWITCH
Plug the supplied 2-Way latching footswitch into this socket. The TIP connection switches
from the Vintage to the Hot Rod channel and the ring connection switches between
master 1 & Master 2.
MASTER VOLUME AUTO-ASSIGN
When switched ‘IN’, this function assigns Master 1 to the Vintage Channel and Master 2
to the Hot Rod channel.
FX LOOP
The Sheriff 25 has an effects loop, which is a simple, low impedance, series loop. This will
not add any noise, gain or volume to your signal so if you experience such changes when
using an effect pedal, they will be caused by that effect.
The SEND socket is for connection to the input of effects units. On the Sheriff 25 it is a lower
impedance version of the signal that appears at the INPUT. Use the send to connect to floor
pedals or rack effects such as Delay, Chorus and Reverb etc. Effects such as Overdrive, Fuzz,
Wah Wah and Tuners often give better results plugged into the Instrument Input on the
front panel. The Send socket can also be used on its own to send a signal to another
amplifier.

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The RETURN socket is for connection to the output of effects units. When not used, it is
internally connected to the SEND, therefore the FX LOOP can be ignored if not in use. It can
also be used as a small signal ‘Slave’ input from another amplifier but DO NOT plug an
amplifier’s speaker output into the Return socket or very bad things will happen.
The RETURN socket is also very useful for fault diagnosis. If your amp doesn’t produce any
sound when played, plug the guitar directly into the RETURN socket and play. This
bypasses the entire pre-amplifier section and sends the guitar signal through just the
output stage. If sound is now heard then the problem is in the pre-amp section and is
likely to be a faulty pre-amp valve.
Amplifier Head Dimensions:
SIZE (mm): 345(w) x 180(h) x 180(d) Unboxed. 590(w) x 300(h) x 315(d) Boxed.
Weight: 7.15Kgs Unboxed. 10.1Kgs Boxed
Combo Dimensions:
SIZE (mm): 605(w) x 495(h) x 255(d) Unboxed. 720(w) x 600(h) x 375(d) Boxed.
Weight: 23Kgs Unboxed. 26.2Kgs Boxed
Output Power
WARNING! The Sheriff 25 has been designed to achieve high sound pressure levels (SPL)
so caution is required when playing in full power mode or hearing damage may result.
The following measurements were taken at 240V mains input into an 8 Ohm load using a
1 KHz Sine Wave with the output waveforms set just before clipping. Channel 1 and
MASTER 1 were used and the tone controls set to give the best representation of a sine
wave:
Full Power: 25 Watts
The Sheriff 25 is fitted with 3 x ECC83/12AX7s in the preamp section and a pair of EL86s in
the output section. The EL86 is very close tonally to the EL84 but has a more dynamic
response and higher power output. You may fit EL84s in the Sheriff 25 but please observe
all of the details for Biasing on Page 6.
Notes on output volume and speaker attenuation:
Victory amplifiers are designed to be played loud with gigging and rehearsal in mind so it
can be quite difficult to get suitable volumes and tones from valve amplifiers at home or
‘bedroom’ levels. For recording or running the full power outputs at lower levels, many
Victory users have had great success with speaker power-soaks and simulators. The
simplest ones are low-cost attenuators such as the Bugera PS1 which simply soaks up the
output power of the amplifier allowing only some of the signal to reach your speaker(s).
This allows you to really crank the amplifier up into output valve distortion to get big-
stage overdrive without disturbing anyone: Bugera PS1 Attenuator
For home studio recording and speaker attenuation, at the top end of the market, we
have the Two Notes Torpedo range of attenuators & simulators. These are really
excellent devices and are what our colleague Rabea Massaad uses for home recording:

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Torpedo. There are many others out there with Palmer being one of the first companies
to offer such devices. These are tried and tested solutions and also recommended by
Victory: Palmer
Warranty
All Victory products come with a 5-year limited warranty. This covers any defects in
manufacturing or faulty components. Valves and speakers are warrantied for 90 days
from the purchase date but replacement parts will be at our discretion. The warranty is
transferable to a new owner in the unusual event that you wish to sell your amplifier.
Please contact your local dealer if you have any issues with your Victory product. Victory
are setting up Official Service Centres around the world so please check on the Victory
website to see where your nearest centre is located. These will have original Victory
spare parts including the recommended valves for your amplifier direct from the Victory
factory. They also have all technical details for your product and have been carefully
selected to ensure you get the best possible service for warranty and non-warranty work.
Footswitches are covered for 12 months from date of purchase due to the nature of their
use, (getting kicked around a stage for example). Take great care not to damage the cable
as this may result in an intermittent connection and erratic behavior. If you suspect that
any of your Footswitches may have become faulty, please contact Victory service for
advice and options.
Notes on what to do if your amplifier experiences any strange behavior:
The only real issues that comes up are valve-related. These are either premature valve
failure, (minimal), valves that have worn out through extended use or have become
microphonic or noisy over time.
Many issues relating to valves can be cured simply by re-tensioning the valve bases. Over
time, the valve sockets, which are constantly heating up, cooling down, expanding and
contracting may become a bit ‘loose’ and not hold the valve pins as tight as they should.
This can lead to noise and more commonly, sudden drops in volume or complete lack of
sound.
It is an easy task to re-tension the valve sockets and this can be done with a small flat
blade screwdriver such as this:
Important! Please ensure the amplifier is not plugged into the mains and has been off for
at least 30 minutes before removing any valves so all of the high voltages have dissipated.
Carefully remove each valve in turn. The pre-amp valves have a sprung-loaded screening