NPD: Analogman King of Tone

Ben Randolph

Ben Randolph

Power User
I've been on the waiting list for over a year on this one. I found a vendor at the Dallas International Guitar Festival that had 2 for sale. The one I bought has the high gain mod on the red side.

This is a great, transparent and dynamic drive pedal. It reacts beautifully to your pick attack and pairs well with humbuckers as well as single coils.

It's actually way more transparent than a TS808. It doesn't have the mid bump that a Tube Screamer has.

I wanted a little more bite to the gain channel, so I flipped the #2 dip switch to add distortion. Even with this, it's not exactly a high gain pedal. It's more a pedal that lets an already great tone shine through rather than taking over your tone. 18222362_10154615355538437_1472277264499510433_n.jpg
 
They say that the KoT actually is based on Marshall's Bluesbreaker, which is equivalent to the Blues OD drive model. Curious about your findings.
 
yek said:
They say that the KoT actually is based on Marshall's Bluesbreaker, which is equivalent to the Blues OD drive model. Curious about your findings.
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It IS a modded Marshall Bluesbreaker. Tons of guys that sell DIY pcb Bluesbreaker boards also offer the means to turn it into a KoT in their build docs.
 
The KoT is a killer pedal. I like the High Gain both Sides version (not really high gain in the Rectifier high gain sense, just higher gain than stock!). It's a completely different sound from a Tube Screamer, and works great on all guitars, but especially does awesome stuff with hot Tele pickups. Congrats on adding it, it's a super versatile unit.
 
Nathan M. said:
Well...it is and it isn't a modded Marshall Bluesbreaker.

Mike (Analogman Man) and his good friend Jim Weider were looking for an overdrive pedal that offered a little more compression but still retained the natural tone and character of the amp and guitar. Some would call this a clean boost but they were looking for a little more overdrive and saturation but retain the frequency response and not color the original tone of the guitar and amp like a tube screamer does. Which is what Jim was using at the time.

A friend of Jim's recommended the Marshall Bluesbreaker and he found and purchased one on Ebay. He liked the pedal and told Mike that it did the trick mostly so then Mike bought one on Ebay. Mike opened it up and "improved the parts" to better quality components but retained the original circuit so that he could run some test. Well it didn't sound like the one that Jim purchased and when he opened Jim's unit he discovered that unit was heavily modified and didn't sound anything like the original Bluesbreaker which Mike had purchased.

The King of Tone was actually inspired by the unit that Jim purchased which didn't sound anything like the original Bluesbreaker pedal because it was so heavily modified. So, yes people often refer to the KOT as a modified Bluesbreaker but the pedal that was used for inspiration didn't sound anything like a Bluesbreaker because the original circuit was completely reworked.

I can attest to this because I have an earlier KOT and had an original Bluesbreaker and no, they did't sound the same. I sold the Bluesbreaker but will never sell my KOT.

Also, the Bluesbreaker was made famous by John Mayer because it was seen in a photo on his pedal board but it is believed to have been a modified version as well.
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https://www.analogman.com/kingtone.htm
 
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