The Victory V1 Sheriff is an amp-in-a-box overdrive pedal that packs Victory's Sheriff amplifier range into a compact stompbox. Victory, the British valve amp maker, built it in collaboration with pedal designer Adrian Thorpe MBE of Thorpy FX, and it launched in September 2022 as one of five V1 pedals based on the company's amps123. The pedal is based on the Sheriff 22 and 44 amplifiers, which Victory describes as Plexi-inspired, and it aims to cover a wide spread of gain: with the gain low you get vintage channel sounds, and pushing the gain up delivers 80s hot-rodded crunch14.
It is an analog, solid-state design with no tubes, true bypass switching, and a black and gold enclosure that Sweetwater's demo described as compact and heavy567. Victory's product page currently lists the V1 Sheriff as unavailable1.
The Sheriff amp sound in a pedal
Victory says the V1 Sheriff "takes all the elements of the Sheriff range and squeezes it into a pedal," aiming at a wide variety of tones from 60s British blues rock onward1. The amp it models has its own lineage: Guitar.com's review calls the Sheriff "Victory's Plexi-inspired amp that does everything from 60s Blues to 80s hair metal," and Delicious Audio notes the pedal is inspired by the sound of the Marshall Plexi line of amps64. Guitar Pedal X places it in a JTM45 and Plexi slot on the pedalboard9.
In practice, reviewers described the gain range the same way Victory does. Sweetwater's Nick Bowcott called it "an arresting combo of vintage-style, low-gain tones at lower settings that easily escalates into '80s-style crunch when pushed," covering "all of the dirt from subtle low gain to 80s shred metal"5. Delicious Audio found that "the Sheriff nails that tone and also includes a 3-way EQ section to sculpt the sound as needed"4.
On That Pedal Show, Mick highlighted where the pedal's character sits:
"the sheriff has just enough of that really super aggressive upper mid-range that you would associate with something like" a Plexi, dialed in to give the flavor without an unusable amount.
A Sweetwater demo by Nick Bowcott walks through the pedal's controls, its range of tones, and where it fits on a board:
Bowcott notes in the demo that the pedal is hand-built in Surrey, England, and that it needs a 9V center-negative DC adapter, since there is no room inside for a battery5.
The controls
The control set is straightforward amp-style: volume, gain, and a three-band EQ of bass, middle and treble, plus a bypass footswitch56. Victory calls the three-band EQ "powerful" and says it is "perfect for sculpting the sound to work with any amp and set-up"1.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Volume | Sets the pedal's output level5 |
| Gain | Runs from low-gain vintage-style sounds through to classic 80s metal sounds1 |
| Bass | Low-end shaping within the three-band EQ5 |
| Middle | Midrange shaping; the upper-midrange character is central to the Plexi-style voice510 |
| Treble | High-end shaping within the three-band EQ5 |
| Footswitch | True bypass on/off6 |
History: Victory and Thorpy FX
Gearnews wrote at launch that "Each has a distinct tone and ThorpyFX has done a great job of capturing that character," and noted that all the pedals use true-bypass switching and are made in the UK3. The Sheriff sits alongside siblings including the V1 The Copper, the V1 The Duchess and the V1 the Jack.
The Sheriff and the Copper compared
The two pedals players most often weigh against each other are the Sheriff and the Copper, both Victory amp-in-a-box overdrives from the same collaboration. The difference is the amp each one models41112:
| V1 Sheriff | V1 The Copper | |
|---|---|---|
| Based on | Sheriff 22 and 44, Plexi-inspired16 | Copper series, EL84-powered British rock voice11 |
| Gain range | Vintage low-gain to 80s hot-rodded crunch1 | Clean chime to crunchy 70s British rock41 |
| Current draw | 17.4mA1 | 15.3mA12 |
On That Pedal Show's first-sounds video, Dan and Mick found the Copper "sound open" and "sound big," with Dan crediting Martin Kidd for the chime, "the hardest thing to get right in an AC style pedal"10. The Sheriff, by contrast, was the one with the aggressive Plexi-style upper midrange10.
What reviewers said
Guitar.com's Matt McCracken reviewed the V1 Sheriff in December 2022, rating it 8 out of 10 and concluding6:
"Easy to use and eminently versatile, this distortion pedal will find a spot on even the most cluttered pedalboard."
Videos
Victory Amplifiers
Pedal Empire
Questions
How much current does the Victory V1 Sheriff draw?
Victory lists the V1 Sheriff's current draw as 17.4mA at 9V DC. That is modest by pedal standards, so it runs comfortably on most isolated power supplies and even many daisy chains, though it draws slightly more than its V1 siblings the Copper (15.3mA) and Duchess (15.4mA).
Is the Victory V1 Sheriff still available?
The Victory product page currently shows the V1 Sheriff as unavailable, as it does for the other pedals in the V1 series. The pedal launched in September 2022 at $249 in the US and £199 in the UK, so secondhand units are the main route for players who want one now.
Where is the Victory V1 Sheriff made?
Victory describes the V1 Sheriff as designed and built in Britain, calling it a true collaboration between two British companies. A Sweetwater demo adds that each unit is hand-built in Surrey, England, and Guitar.com's review lists it as made in the UK.
Is the Victory V1 Sheriff analog?
Yes. RockBoard's PedalPedia lists the V1 Sheriff's circuit type as analog, and a Sweetwater demo notes that unlike Victory's tube amplifiers it contains no tubes. It is a solid-state analog design aiming to reproduce the sound of the all-valve Sheriff amps.
What is the difference between the V1 Sheriff and the V1 Copper?
Both are Victory amp-in-a-box overdrives co-designed with Thorpy FX, but they model different amps. The Sheriff is based on the Plexi-inspired Sheriff 22 and 44, covering vintage low-gain sounds through 80s hot-rodded crunch. The Copper emulates the EL84-powered Copper series, running from clean chime to crunchy 70s British rock.
Does the Victory Sheriff take a battery?
No. The V1 Sheriff runs on a 9V DC center-negative power supply only. As Sweetwater's Nick Bowcott put it, the enclosure is so full of electronics that there is no room inside for a battery.
Sources (12)
- V1 Sheriff, Victory Amps (www.victoryamps.com), 2026-04-21
- Victory teams with Thorpy FX for overdrive pedals based on its most popular guitar amps, MusicRadar, 2022-09-29
- Victory V1 Pedals launch with a little help from ThorpyFX, gearnews.com, 2022-09-29
- Victory V1 The Sheriff Overdrive, Delicious Audio, 2022-12-11
- Victory Amplification V1 The Sheriff Pedal Demo, Sweetwater (YouTube), 2022-12-11
- Victory Amps V1 The Sheriff Overdrive Pedal review, Guitar.com, 2022-12-13
- V1 Sheriff by Victory, RockBoard PedalPedia, 2026
- Watch Thorpy FX pedals get blown to smithereens, Guitar.com, 2022-10-19
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2024-02-27
- New Pedal Day Victory V1, EQD Special Cranker, Fender Space Delay, Empress Comp MkII, That Pedal Show (YouTube), 2022-11-01
- V1 The Copper by Victory, RockBoard (PedalPedia), 2026
- V1 Copper, Victory Amps, 2026-04-21
