More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

Lewguitar

New member
Been playing my Strat through my Princeton Reverb and Deluxe Reverb a lot this passed week and experimenting with the 4 switches and the 2 treble controls inside the King of Tone.

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The pedal is actually two pedals in one box, each side with it's own VOLUME, DRIVE and TONE control, and with the 4 little switches inside the pedal so you can set each side to be either a CLEAN BOOST, OVERDRIVE or DISTORTION pedal. Each side also has a little treble trim pot inside as well.

The RED channel is on the right and YELLOW channel is on the left. You plug into the RED channel and then your guitar signal continues through to the YELLOW channel.

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The default setting is RED channel OVERDRIVE and YELLOW channel CLEAN BOOST and that's how I've been using it for a the last couple of weeks. After experimenting a lot with the inside settings of the pedal, it turn out that the factory setting is still one of my two favorites.

Setting both channels for DISTORTION gets a sizzling ripping overdrive/distortion tone that's smooth and thick and singing and invites ZZ Top riffs. Reminds me a little of my Vintage Rat. I can also dial in some of my favorite Jeff Beck tones from Truth.

But here's the kicker: I was playing my Strat - not a Les Paul with humbuckers!

Setting the RED channel for DISTORTION and the YELLOW side for CLEAN BOOST is pretty cool too! Not as fuzzy when both channels are engaged and the CLEAN BOOST can add a lot of volume and gain.

The DISTORTION modes don't clean up completely with the guitar's volume control, and that's important to me, so I also tried both channels set for OVERDRIVE.

With both sides set as OD Pedals, I can clean up the overdrive using my guitar's volume control much more completely, but still not 100%.

Loved the soloing tones available with both sides set for OVERDRIVE though!

I can make the Alnico 2 Antiquity Texas Hot Custom Bridge pickup on my Strat sound almost like a paf humbucker. Thick and singing, slightly nasal, slightly honky and I was able to sting those pinch harmonics like you can with a real bridge humbucker.

The OD & OD setting is probably my favorite setting so far and the one I keep coming back to.

My next favorite setting is the factory setting: Red OD & YELLOW CLEAN BOOST.


Setting the YELLOW side as the CLEAN BOOST gets a super usable and cool clean tone for soloing, chords and whatever. It clean up better than having both channels set for OVERDRIVE and if I just crank the DRIVE control up on both sides I can get close to the "Strat bridge pickup sounding like a paf humbucker" tones I got with both sides set for OVERDRIVE.

When using the RED side as an OVERDRIVE, adding the YELLOW side as a CLEAN BOOST both thickens the soloing tone of the Red Channel and somehow makes it sound smoother and more focused. Plus the CLEAN BOOST can add clean volume and drive.

I'll probably go back and forth for a while deciding between: OD & CLEAN BOOST and OD & OD.

OD & OD is better for soloing but cleans up well. OD & CLEAN is better for clean tones but also great for soloing tones.
 
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Re: More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

A pawn shop in town had one of these in a couple of months ago, I wish I had at least played with it, even though I probably couldn't have afforded it.
 
Re: More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

I know a lot of guys rave about these things, but personally I hate having that much adjustability built in. Too many knobs and switches for me.
 
Re: More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

Pretty much.

That's what I'm saying...the KoT is a set and forget type pedal for the most part but since it has so many options you can tailor it for various different guitar and amp combos or depending on your needs. If I am running it at home at low volumes on a dead clean amp I might use more grind or even a higher gain setting such as the OD or even DIST setting but when I play out and can crank the amps a bit I find myself leaning on the CLEAN setting more, now I don't run it clean, I run the gain fairly high but on that setting it's not gobs of distortion even with the drive at full.
 
Re: More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

Frank Lee wonders if anyone has compared the Tim/Timmy to the KoT.

Thank you.
 
Re: More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

That's what I'm saying...the KoT is a set and forget type pedal for the most part but since it has so many options you can tailor it for various different guitar and amp combos or depending on your needs. If I am running it at home at low volumes on a dead clean amp I might use more grind or even a higher gain setting such as the OD or even DIST setting but when I play out and can crank the amps a bit I find myself leaning on the CLEAN setting more, now I don't run it clean, I run the gain fairly high but on that setting it's not gobs of distortion even with the drive at full.

Once you find what you like it's a "set it and forget" pedal. It took me a couple of weeks just working with the factory default settings (Overdrive & Clean) to get the hang of this pedal and the various ways the two sides interact to get a wide range of creamy to snarly overdriven tones.

I can dial in my tones quickly and easily now that I know the pedal.

I don't use the DISTORTION settings inside the pedal at all.

I like OVERDRIVE on both sides or else OVERDRIVE on the Red side and CLEAN on the Yellow side.

I'm glad I got the RED side modded for more gain. I make it the OVERDRIVE side and my "always on" side. I have all the gain and overdrive I need and it still cleans up pretty nice when I lower the volume on my Strat. I can turn the Drive controls all the way up if I want to but that would be more gain than I need.

Analogman suggests always having the Drive controls at least half the way up. So I keep the Drive on my Red Channel at about 4 O Clock.

I'm the kind of Strat player who uses his volume and tone knobs and with the KoT I use them even more than usual. So much so that I replaced the white Strat knobs with Tele knobs to make it even easier.

My Strat has a master volume, master tone and a blend pot to get the neck & bridge pickups on together.

I'm thinking of moving the tone control to only effect the bridge pickup just because it sounds so great with the treble rolled down on the bridge pickup and the KoT cranked up. Sounds like a humbucker!
 
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Re: More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

Once you find what you like it's a "set it and forget" pedal. It took me a couple of weeks just working with the factory default settings (Overdrive & Clean) to get the hang of this pedal and the various ways the two sides interact to get a wide range of creamy to snarly overdriven tones.

I can dial in my tones quickly and easily now that I know the pedal.

I don't use the DISTORTION settings inside the pedal at all.

I like OVERDRIVE on both sides or else OVERDRIVE on the Red side and CLEAN on the Yellow side.

I'm glad I got the RED side modded for more gain. I make it the OVERDRIVE side and my "always on" side. I have all the gain and overdrive I need and it still cleans up pretty nice when I lower the volume on my Strat. I can turn the Drive controls all the way up if I want to but that would be more gain than I need.

Analogman suggests always having the Drive controls at least half the way up. So I keep the Drive on my Red Channel at about 4 O Clock.

I'm the kind of Strat player who uses his volume and tone knobs and with the KoT I use them even more than usual. So much so that I replaced the white Strat knobs with Tele knobs to make it even easier.

My Strat has a master volume, master tone and a blend pot to get the neck & bridge pickups on together.

I'm thinking of moving the tone control to only effect the bridge pickup just because it sounds so great with the treble rolled down on the bridge pickup and the KoT cranked up. Sounds like a humbucker!

Yeah, the higher gain option is the way to go...I got my KoT before there was a higher gain mod and found myself wishing I could go farther on the gain, the higher gain mods correct that! It's the higher gain mods that allow me to use the clean boost setting as an overdrive!
 
Re: More thoughts on the Analogman King of Tone

Frank Lee wonders if anyone has compared the Tim/Timmy to the KoT.

Thank you.

TGWIF wants you to know there has been a LOT of discussion on the KoT vs Tim(my) in the past...

If you dig around on TGP you'll find tons of info. IN fact I think both Analog Mike and Paul C have both talked about it themselves!
 
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