Tone King has rolled out the Royalist MkIII, a new feature-stacked tube amp series that promises vintage Marshall amp sounds, and lots of ‘em.
Comprising a 40-watt 1x12” combo amp, a 40-watt head, plus matching 1x12” and 2x12” guitar cabinets, the Royalist MKIII range has an all-tube signal path, packing a trio of 12AX7As in the preamp and a pair of EL34 power tubes.
Tone King’s legendary – well, IYKYK – Iron Man II attenuator is available for each channel, complete with HF switch for softening a single coil pickup or adding a little push in the mids to taste.
These amps look beautifully constructed, too. Like the amps that inspired them, there is no master volume, and that makes us doubly thankful for the Iron Man II, but there are some very clever tricks up its sleeve for dialing in your favorite Marshall sounds, not least the three-way voice switch that selects from three classic vintages – 1964, 1967, and 1970.
They say if you can remember the ‘60s you weren’t there, but the world remembers the electric guitar tones of the era and generations of players have made it their mission to recreate the magic behind the sounds of Clapton, Hendrix et al.
Vintage amps offer one solution. Problem is, they’re expensive, can be unreliable depending on how they were looked after, and might need work. Plugins and amp modelers are another, but then they lack the romance of having heavy transformers, wooden cabinets, hot tubes, and speakers pushing air about the room.
That’s where a high-end guitar amp such as this can come in handy.
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Beano super-fans might want to pop the toggle in ’64 and see where that takes them. The 1964 voicing “delivers a balanced treble response, lower gain, and less aggressive attack”, just as you might find on a – yes, you guessed it – JTM45 or Bluesbreaker. You will, of course, have to find your own 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, but that’s the easy bit, right?
Well, moving on, 1967, the year of our Lord, brings us a little aggression and more presence in the treble with a Plexi-style sound. Finally, 1970, having fully dispensed of the free love of the ‘60s, starts the decade afresh with more gain and attitude with a Super Lead voicing.
There is also a FAT mode on-hand to add some more low frequencies to the first gain stage of the preamp, which Tone King advises could come in handy when needing more bottom-end on your cleans, or for juicier, err, fatter overdrive sounds.
The Royalist MKIII presents these sounds across a two-channel platform. These channels are footswitchable, and all the essentials you need can be found on the front panel.
From left to right, you have a channel select toggle switch, then independent volume controls for Channels A and B, each with a pull function to activate the FAT mode. Treble, Midrange and Bass serve both channels, while Presence offers a little global sparkle if needed.
Lastly, you have your three-way voice switches, one for each channel. Think of the possibilities. You’re on Channel A, on the 1964 voicing, playing a I-IV-V shuffle and it is time to solo, et voila, you can throw it into Channel B on 1970 and pin the audience to the back of their seats for the guitar solo.
Around the back of the amps, there is a 1/4” unbalanced line out with a level control for sending to the desk or DAW, a speaker impedance select rotary dial offering four, eight or 16 Ohms, the footswitch input, and the power and standby switches.
Cabinets are built from Baltic birch. Speakers are made for Tone King by Celestion. The Royalist MKIII head is priced $2,495. The combo will set you back $2,695, while the 1x12” cabinet is $695 and the 2x12” $995.
For more details, see Tone King.
