Ryan's Gig Guide - September 2019

price tag may be a little hard to swallow. Boutique amps are never going to fall into the same budget as your factory run amplifiers. Some will argue there is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to buying gear, but it is very clear where the extra dosh goes in this example. You are paying for time, premium parts, and pedigree. It takes more time to put one of these beasts together. Handwired in the USA the labour is not cheap, however it does allow the manufacturer to keep a close eye on the quality of each build resulting in extremely reliable products. Tone King have shown their faith in this system by including a 5 year warranty with every amp. Cheap parts don’t fly with a manufacturer of this caliber. They want their amps to sound the best, as well as to outlive their competitors.As soon as a product receives a bad reputation for breaking down it does not take long for musicians to abandon the company.After all, the last thing any musician wants half way through a show is to be tackling the flames shooting out of their recent hefty investment. Some music gear has more of a following than the musicians they sponsor. The growing interest in music products has seen an increased importance on history and brand prominence. For the top manufacturers on the market you will need to hand over a few extra notes. Please do not fall into the classic trap of thinking more expensive gear will gain you respect as a musician. If you are a superb player, then you should be able to rock a room with a Line 6 Spider. It’s all in the fingers.The amp is the decorative icing on top. If your cake is naff, no one cares about the icing. The head is a tidy 22 watts. This is plenty of volume for a gig and definitely enough to sizzle your ear drums in a small room. Tone King have included a 6 position attenuator on the back panel. Another one of Marks delightful creations, the Ironman II has received much critical acclaim for its ability to reduce the volume level whilst retaining all that juicy flavour that the amp has worked so hard to produce. It really is remarkable how well it works. You can achieve the same fruitful outcomes in a bedroom environment that you can on stage. Whether you are playing to your cat or recording your next track, this revolutionary piece of hardware will prevent any permanent damage to you or Captain Flicky Whiskers. The Ironman uses reactive load technology to absorb any unwanted extra energy. This means your amp is still blaring full tilt,balls blazing,but only a fraction of the sound created reaches the speaker. The process could be very much likened to putting a greyhound on a treadmill. Tone King have also found a genius way of utilising the attenuator to allow a gargantuan amount headroom on the rhythm channel as well as a gain saturated lead channel without a massive difference in volume level. The brilliance comes in the simple addition of a switch that allows you to bypass the attenuator on the rhythm channel, whilst still attenuating the lead channel. The onboard effects are not something to skim over. It seems Tone King do not want to cut this amp short in anyway, shape, or form. Why just add a reverb when you can load a tube driven spring reverb tank in there? It sounds good to say and sounds better to play. Start off with a tickle and a splash of reverb then rotate the pot around to a pool of harmonically thick and lush decay.The onboard tremolo is an old school tube biased effect. Not an easy feature to install but an American style amp would feel lacking without it. This type of circuit works by using a very low frequency sine wave to change the bias in the power valves. It is a very unique sounding effect and due to its complex nature it is often replicated but not actually implemented. You may think adding in all of these components may come at the price of a heavy box that would silently mock you as you drag its fat ass up the two flights of stairs at your local venue, but in actual fact it weighs in at only 25 lbs. For those of you who do not have eleven bags of sugar knocking around the house, 25 lbs is not bad for an amp head.To give you some scope, a Blackstar HT-50 Head ,which you can find at most guitar stores, will weigh around 44 lbs. Having the Imperial MKII in a head opposed to a combo means it is even easier to combine different cabs with the amp. Tone king have kindly produced a matching 1x12 cab that they have designed to be a perfect match. The cab is constructed from the same material as the head, Baltic Birch, a classic wood known for resonance and that is clearly not too heavy. Both head and cab can be coated in an eye catching choice of either Turquoise/ White, Brown/Cream, Cream, or Black/Cream Tolex. The cab sees the same semi open back design as the original Imperial, but interestingly they have loaded a different speaker in the cab to what was installed in the combo. A Custom designed Celestion instead of an Eminence. Small changes aside, the classic sounds of this amplifier are beautifully communicated through this cab. Creating a guitar amplifier is not a case of cramming a maize of electronic spaghetti and fancy components into a compact little space then slapping a catchy name on it. It has become an art form. The Tone King Imperial MKII is an item that should be admired as well as played through. www.ryansgigguide.com rgg Sep 2019 31