Tone King Sky King - Black
Product information "Tone King Sky King - Black"
With the Sky King BLK, the Californian manufacturer Tone King has a vintage style amp in its programme that convincingly delivers the classic sounds of Californian amps from the tweed and blackface era. The 2-channel combo covers the range from crystal-clear clean to classic deluxe crunch. The highlight of the 35-watt combo is the integrated Ironman II Reactive Power Attenuator - a 6-stage switchable power soak that works with virtually no significant loss of sound and dynamics and can be set differently for each channel.
- Channels: 2
- Country of Origin: USA
- Dimensions (WxHxD): 61,0 x 45,7 x 30,5 cm
- EQ: 1x Treble/Bass, 1x Tone
- Effects: Reverb and Tremolo
- Headphone output with speaker mute: no
- Impedance: 8 ohms
- Inserts: no, according to Vintage Specs
- Loudspeaker Type: Toneking 1660 by Celestin
- Loudspeakers: 1x 12"
- Power: 35 W
- Power Amp Valves: 2x 6L6
- Power Range: 31 - 40 W
- Pre Amp Valves: 4x 12AX7, 1x 12AT7
- Special Features: Ironman II reactive attenuator can be controlled separately for both channels
- Suitable for Harps: yes
- Technology: Valve
- Weight: 27,5 kg
Tone King from Baltimore, USA, is a manufacturer of vintage valve amplifiers founded in 1993 by Mark Bartel. Among the most popular are the heads and combos from the Imperial and Gremlin series. In addition to the high-quality amplifiers, Tone King is particularly known for the much-praised Ironman Attenuator, which preserves the amplifier's tonal character very faithfully even at low power.
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Amp gives a very high quality impression, seems very well made. Every little detail has something about it that feels polished. Nothing negative at all to say about this. It's on a level where I even enjoy just looking at it. Feature and sound-wise this amp has all I really need. Everyone can read the Blackface/Tweed/early-Marshall descriptions from Tone King and various reviews so I won't go into that. Personally I think it sounds as described, but it will reward experimentation with all the settings and the plentiful variations they offer. It really makes the differences in my guitars come out. The character of each guitar has a significant impact on what I get out of the amp and how it responds to different settings. After some weeks of use I still find new sounds and dynamics depending on settings and gear combinations. It's a great amp in general but this "musical" behavior is what has me hooked. Bought new late 2021. Came with Sovtek output (6L6WGC) and rectifier tubes, the 12AX7 are from Electro Harmonix, the reverb driver (12AT7) I couldn't identify just looking. Speaker has a sticker on the side with "Celestion Vintage 30" printed on it which correlates with the serial number (not sure if there are any mods to the specs specifically for Tone King). Should point out that I use the built-in attenuators to balance the relative volume between the channels (great feature!) and then I attenuate the actual output with a PS-100. So I haven't put much thought into how well the built-in attenuators work on higher attenuation but given the little I've used them I also don't have any complaints at all.
