Wish Tone King Imperial Mark Knopfler Amp

Randalljax said:
Cliff will consider it possibly if you have the amp to send and a schematic
i think i saw the schematic posted
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I think my amp tech has an official schematic for it. I'll ask.

Bartel has tweaked the circuits over the years. This is a good discussion about his changes and what makes Imperials sound the way they do...

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/tone-king-imperial-from-amps-cabs.1030145/

I've been playing with a preset for a couple hours on my FX3 with the Cygnus final candidate, and think I have it sounding a lot like my Imperial Mk II clean channel. The GEQ block is to flatten my Sennheiser HD 650, Audio Technica ATH-MAx headphones and Shure SE 535 earphones, in channels A, B and C respectively. The Drive block is @yek's Soul Food block, where channel A is the FET boost and B is the FET Preamp.

http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=8827 or...
 

Attachments

  • TK Imperial Mk II.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 18
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Not sure if this is the same amp Greg Koch uses on a lot of the Wildwood demos, love his tone on those. Thanks for sharing the preset.
 
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Doubleneck said:
Note sure if this is the same amp Greg Koch uses on a lot of the Wildwood demos, love his tone on those. Thanks for sharing the preset.
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It is.

He never shows what the amp can really do though, and the videos that demonstrate its range of sounds either have have lousy audio or don’t wind up the lead channel, so it’s hard for people to get an idea how it really sounds. I stumbled upon one in Tucson years ago and played with it for a couple hours and fell in love with it and that drove me to try to recreate its sound with various Fender amp models and mods but nothing came close. Finally my tech told me to “just go buy the real thing” and I did. Mine has NOS tubes in it, and a minor mod to give the lead channel a bit more reverb range.

It’s a great tool. My friends borrow it, or ask to sit in on it, and we leave it on the lead channel and control it all from the guitar. It does the clean to mean thing really well.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Bartel's new line of amps (post- ToneKing) would be great to have models and IRs for. They're very unique and the cabinets resonate like a cello, deliberately contributing to the sound. They're not typical preamp architecture according to Mark and the controls are very interactive. Given the times, and the flexibility of Cygnus I'm not sure I can justify one of the new models, but I'd enjoy playing through one.
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That to me seems like another candidate for "no need to model the amp but let's get the cab IRs". On the real amp it makes sense that it's designed to do a lot of flavors by varying the controls but on the Axe-Fx you can just switch amp models to do the same thing.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I think my amp tech has an official schematic for it. I'll ask.

Bartel has tweaked the circuits over the years. This is a good discussion about his changes and what makes Imperials sound the way they do...

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/tone-king-imperial-from-amps-cabs.1030145/

I've been playing with a preset for a couple hours on my FX3 with the Cygnus final candidate, and think I have it sounding a lot like my Imperial Mk II clean channel. The GEQ block is to flatten my Sennheiser HD 650, Audio Technica ATH-MAx headphones and Shure SE 535 earphones, in channels A, B and C respectively. The Drive block is @yek's Soul Food block, where channel A is the FET boost and B is the FET Preamp.

http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=8827 or...
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Thanks Greg, will give this a go later. Cheers!
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I think my amp tech has an official schematic for it. I'll ask.

Bartel has tweaked the circuits over the years. This is a good discussion about his changes and what makes Imperials sound the way they do...

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/tone-king-imperial-from-amps-cabs.1030145/

I've been playing with a preset for a couple hours on my FX3 with the Cygnus final candidate, and think I have it sounding a lot like my Imperial Mk II clean channel. The GEQ block is to flatten my Sennheiser HD 650, Audio Technica ATH-MAx headphones and Shure SE 535 earphones, in channels A, B and C respectively. The Drive block is @yek's Soul Food block, where channel A is the FET boost and B is the FET Preamp.

http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=8827 or...
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing the preset. It sounds great with a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity Texas Hot. It brings out many nuances

I've made a couple of tweaks:

AMP Dynamics
Cathode Follower Compression = 2 (adds a subtle touch of hump)
Output Compressor: 1.00, Out Comp Type= Gain Enhancer (it improves the response when rolling down the guitar vol)

CAB Preamp
Type = Vintage (or any other, at taste)
Mode = High Quality
Drive = 3
Saturation = 2
(Just because we can use expensive console preamps for free :cool: )
 
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Piing said:
Thank you for sharing the preset. It sounds great with a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity Texas Hot. It brings out many nuances

I've made a couple of tweaks:

AMP Dynamics
Cathode Follower Compression = 2 (adds a subtle touch of hump)
Output Compressor: 1.00, Out Comp Type= Gain Enhancer (it improves the response when rolling down the guitar vol)

CAB Preamp
Type = Vintage (or any other, at taste)
Mode = High Quality
Drive = 3
Saturation = 2
(Just because we can use expensive console preamps for free :cool: )
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Glad you like it.

Yes, the real amp sounds amazing with my Strats, which all have late 50s/early 60s type pickups. I was testing the model with my PRS DGT and 509 guitars, and liked how it was sounding; I’ve always kept the amp tipped back pointing at my head so my idea of its sound is very close to what the modeler will generate. Both of the PRS guitars’ pickups shine through.

I did some basic tweaks to the preamp and power amp dynamics yesterday but haven’t posted them. I’ll try your suggestions too. Thanks.
 
Piing said:
Thank you for sharing the preset. It sounds great with a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity Texas Hot. It brings out many nuances

I've made a couple of tweaks:

AMP Dynamics
Cathode Follower Compression = 2 (adds a subtle touch of hump)
Output Compressor: 1.00, Out Comp Type= Gain Enhancer (it improves the response when rolling down the guitar vol)

CAB Preamp
Type = Vintage (or any other, at taste)
Mode = High Quality
Drive = 3
Saturation = 2
(Just because we can use expensive console preamps for free :cool: )
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This is my current version. I incorporated your changes on the amp and cabs for scenes 3-5 and did some other little tweaks. It's close enough to the sound of the amp to use live I think. :)

http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=8831 or
 

Attachments

  • TK Imperial MkII.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 18
Last edited:
Arni61 said:
Why don't fractal make a modeling of the Imperial amp? This amp is a standard in the amp world.
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Because Cliff needs the amp and the Schematic if you would be willing to send your amp and a schematic email Cliff
if he is interested he will be able to advise next steps
 
Arni61 said:
Why don't fractal make a modeling of the Imperial amp? This amp is a standard in the amp world.
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It really isn't. It's a boutique amp owned by few.

A Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is a standard but even that isn't modeled, mostly because it has more utility and cost benefits and there are a ton of better sounding amps out there.
 
Sashman said:
Thank you! Sounds great with the Red Sound 👍 🥰
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Thanks. I spent several hours tweaking it on my FM3 yesterday. I was very happy with how it sounds on 3.03b and look forward to the Cygnus release, but right now it’s plenty good to use live. The “Lead” channel/scene uses the Supertweed amp model and that is responsive enough to use it all night long. It sounds killer with my PRS DGT and my 509. I’ll try my Studio and SC-245 today and maybe a Strat.
 
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