Tone King Imperial Mark 2

chris45

Background
I bought my TK new in September 2015 from Andertons in the UK.  Previously I had been using a Cornell Romany Plus, but found it had insufficient volume for monitoring in playing live with a covers band.

Exterior
I am no expert but the amp seems very well constructed with a robust chassis.  It weighs 16kgs which means it is easy to carry.  Aesthetically it is a beautiful design with the shiny grill cloth giving it a very classy 50s look.  Comes with two button foot switch with LEDs for channel selection and tremolo on/off.

Rhythm Channel:  Volume; Treble; Bass Controls
Lovely blackface type tones from completely clean to mild drive; full spectrum Keith Richards.  Responsive Treble and Bass controls mean that depending on the guitar the Bass can be at zero and the Treble and 10.  Although many reviewers reference the "ice pick" nature of the Imperial, I have not noticed this (possibly only a feature of the Mk 1).

Lead Channel:  Volume; Tone; Mid Bite
Goes from slight breakup to classic rock scream.  The mid bite thickens single pickup sounds and adds "definition".

Reverb
Usable all the way from the barest hint to Dick Dale drenched

Tremolo:  Speed; Depth
There's a slight volume drop when the circuit is engaged which I think is typical of valve tremolo.  Again great range in this feature from very subtle to Marr / Buck throb.

In Operation:
It is a low noise amplifier; I have to be careful when it's set on clean because I once left it on overnight
It is also LOUD.  It's rated 20W and I have no problems with clean or driven sounds when playing live.
The attenuator is indispensable.  Fully attenuated you can comfortably talk over it.  At home I use the next setting up for drive as the most attenuated is a bit too squashed.  The attenuation can also be disabled on the rhythm channel which gives you the most clean headroom live, but tames the amount of volume needed for driven lead - that's usually how I used it.  However with some experimentation it's possible to get mild drive on rhythm and more volume / drive on lead.  It depends on what you are playing.
Finally there is an HF comp switch which is supposed to balance highs at low volumes but I have not really noticed the difference.

Conclusion:
It's great fun to play with and makes you want to just play guitar into amp and that's it.  I will play live now with this and only a boost if I want to increase volume without having to go to the lead channel.  No reliability issues at all.  The only downside is the cost  since I bought this the price has gone up 25% which makes what was already an expensive amp even more so however I have been cured of amp GAS since I bought this.

Dominic

Yup.......great amp all round.
The clean isn't Blackface in my opinion ........it's warmer and more middy sounding but it's a lovely sound.
The mark 2 is perfect the mark 1 is very shrill in the treble.