There's an island, somewhere off the coast of Uruguay, where, thanks to science, once extinct species still rumbles and roars. And someday, if we're lucky, these marvels of modern technology will viciously turn on their masters with the fury of a God trifled with once-to-often.

Until that day, we can thank Victoria Amplifier for their dedication to resurrecting coveted amp designs from the 50's. Their newest breeds are the Electro King and the Golden Melody.

The Electro King is modeled after a 50's-era GA-40 and to that end, is engineered for the modern slide player who doesn't want to bring a fragile relic on the road with them. Its circuit -- cribbed from a 1957 schematic -- sports 15 watts generated from features two cathode biased 6V6s. One NOS 5879 input pentode in the preamp makes for a rich distortion and allows for natural tube compression at any volume. The tremolo channel boasts a NOS 6SQ7 oscillator tube -- just like a GA-40! A Jensen P12Q alnico speaker completes the time-warping signal path.

The Golden Melody [pictured] is of the genus "Deluxus Reverbius"; it's a 50 watt 2x12 combo with Victoria's “harmonic vari-tone” vibrato and reverb. The power section is made up of a GZ-34/5U4 and two 6L6GCs. Victoria is especially proud of the vibrato on this combo, employing superlatives like "spatially huge" and "peerless," adjectives that are probably well-earned, being that the vibrato and reverb are 100% tube driven [three 12AX7s for vib; 12AT7 transformer and Accutronics tank for verb]. Two Golden Melody Classic Lead style 12” speakers supply "spatial huge-ness."

Both amps feature a cream tolex/tooled brown leather motif and a lightening-bolt logo that just screams 1930's radio. I think we can forgive them one anachronism.