# Tone King Imperial MkII



## Alex (Feb 11, 2006)

I bought a Tone King Imperial MkII last week and got to spend some quality time with it….20 watter, 2 channel amp with reverb and trem circuits and built in attenuator. Not a low cost amp, however, a lot of features which I feel makes it a good bang for the buck.

I owned a couple Tone King’s going back 10 years ago and thought they were great amps and well designed. Mark Bartel is a top notch designer and a firm believer in continuous improvement. Although I liked the amps, they were a bit “glassy” sounding as opposed to “chimey” which interestingly enough, were the main complaints around the internet. Bartel listened and redesigned the circuits and came up with his newest design in the mkII.


The clean channel is pure Blackface tone - warm and chime combined. This “small” amp packs a lot of punch – with the volume at 4, it is loud but very musical. Although I was blasting away, I never got ear fatigue or that feeling of being wiped out due to a loud volume. The reverb is on the strong side and I keep it at a low setting (just a sprinkle of ‘verb). Not a huge fan of reverb but this is a very fine unit. The trem is a delight and is also footswitchable. On a side note, I compared the reverb and trem of the amp to the Fractal FX8 verb and trem effects and was again, pleasantly surprised at how good the Fractal FX8 is.

The dirty channel is taken from a page of the Tweed amps – This is the channel I struggled a bit with in the past but very happy wit this new revised circuit. Volume at 3-4 and a midrange knob set at 5, very nice OD crunch tones. I stacked a boost and BB preamp (from the FX8) and had singing lead tones with gorgeous controllable feedback. Really impressive. In dialing in the midrange knob, the level of grit varies.


The attenuator is quite good as well and very useful for lower volume applications. It has 6 settings I believe from slight decrease of volume to bedroom whisper volume settings. It is a very good unit but nothing beats the bloom of this amp with no attenuation.

All in all, a great grab and go amp. Easy to use with a few knobs on each channel, 35 lbs or less, looking forward in using this in a band setting.


PS. Purchased from Dealer Electric Mojo – Pro service, pro pack – very enjoyable experience.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

I really love how they look. I would love to try their version of a marshall.


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## Alex (Feb 11, 2006)

adcandour said:


> I really love how they look. I would love to try their version of a marshall.


I looked at the JTM equivalent (Royalty?) and they are coming out with a mkii very shortly.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

Alex Dann said:


> I looked at the JTM equivalent (Royalty?) and they are coming out with a mkii very shortly.


I believe it's the royalist. They had to change the name or something. But yeah - that's the one. 

Off to youtube goddammit.


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## Alex (Feb 11, 2006)

adcandour said:


> I believe it's the royalist. They had to change the name or something. But yeah - that's the one.
> 
> Off to youtube goddammit.


Check the NAMM threads - I think the newer version is shipping now (early feb iirc)


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I'd love to hear this thing.

Heck who am I kidding, I'd love to come over and check out your gear room!


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## WonderfulRemark (Jun 2, 2013)

Damn, I've always wanted one of these. 

I've been very tempted to sell my current rig(maz38 and Clark Beaufort) but it just seems to be a bit of a hassle to get rid of my current rig. 

Does the attenuator suck the high end out of the sound?


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## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

Budda said:


> I'd love to hear this thing.
> 
> Heck who am I kidding, I'd love to come over and check out your gear room!


When's the party? Me too. Oh and check out Alex's cool wing chair that's in all the photos.


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## Alex (Feb 11, 2006)

WonderfulRemark said:


> Damn, I've always wanted one of these.
> 
> I've been very tempted to sell my current rig(maz38 and Clark Beaufort) but it just seems to be a bit of a hassle to get rid of my current rig.
> 
> Does the attenuator suck the high end out of the sound?


It does take some of the clarity out. More often than not, tone needs volume. Oddly, I preferred the lowest setting than the in between settings which attenuate less.


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