For awhile now I've been trying to trim down my live rig to one amp that does tweed on one channel and blackface on the other. Lately I've been playing with a tweed deluxe and pro reverb and switching between them with an A/B/Y box. I've also traveled with a Gibson GA20 and a DRRI. I use a preamp out from the Giibson and pipe it through a Demeter Compulator and Hardwire Reverb to the first channel on the DRRI. This allows me to mic one amp and lets me use the preamp gain from the Gibson. This is has very thick, tight sound that I dig.
This has served me pretty well but I'm tired of cables and the older I get the more I want to simplify things. Enter the Tone King Sky King.
Played one a few weeks ago and bought one last week. Here are some pros and cons. Bear in mind that I'm still in the honeymoon period but I'll try to be straight.
Pros
Outstanding build - can't say enough about this one.
Dual Ironman Attenuator - excellent attenuation. the best I've heard
Fantastic clean channel - probably the best clean channel I've played. It's got a touch of chime and what seems to be very wide bandwidth. I play through a very acoustic sounding teisco pickup and it captures it beautifully.
Ultralinear Mode - this is where the magic is for me. It gets rid of any perceived harshness and just sounds fluid.
Beautiful reverb and tremolo - just try it. It's fantastic. Sounds like Pops Staples is creeping around.
Cons
Lead Channel - this is probably a really good sounding channel to most folks that dig the tweed sound but it's not really thick enough for me. On the tweed deluxe I'm usually on 7 or 8 on the normal channel and around 1 on the tone knob. Check on Ry Cooder's new live album to hear what I'm talking about. It's just a fat, thick, tone but without a lot of midrange bite. The Sky King is tweedish but not really like a tweed deluxe.
Ironman Attenuator - while I love the attenuation on the Sky King I wish it had smaller increments. It still can be difficult to match levels because of this. I guess I wish it was a little more linear.
Anyway, that's just my .2. It's a fantastic sounding amp and I think it's gets pretty close to the one amp solution I've been hoping for.
This has served me pretty well but I'm tired of cables and the older I get the more I want to simplify things. Enter the Tone King Sky King.
Played one a few weeks ago and bought one last week. Here are some pros and cons. Bear in mind that I'm still in the honeymoon period but I'll try to be straight.
Pros
Outstanding build - can't say enough about this one.
Dual Ironman Attenuator - excellent attenuation. the best I've heard
Fantastic clean channel - probably the best clean channel I've played. It's got a touch of chime and what seems to be very wide bandwidth. I play through a very acoustic sounding teisco pickup and it captures it beautifully.
Ultralinear Mode - this is where the magic is for me. It gets rid of any perceived harshness and just sounds fluid.
Beautiful reverb and tremolo - just try it. It's fantastic. Sounds like Pops Staples is creeping around.
Cons
Lead Channel - this is probably a really good sounding channel to most folks that dig the tweed sound but it's not really thick enough for me. On the tweed deluxe I'm usually on 7 or 8 on the normal channel and around 1 on the tone knob. Check on Ry Cooder's new live album to hear what I'm talking about. It's just a fat, thick, tone but without a lot of midrange bite. The Sky King is tweedish but not really like a tweed deluxe.
Ironman Attenuator - while I love the attenuation on the Sky King I wish it had smaller increments. It still can be difficult to match levels because of this. I guess I wish it was a little more linear.
Anyway, that's just my .2. It's a fantastic sounding amp and I think it's gets pretty close to the one amp solution I've been hoping for.