Tone King Metropolitan gig review

I gigged with the new Tone King Metropolitan last weekend, playing the straight and natural (GRIN) Cowboy music with The Bar Association up in Marin, in NorCal.

First, the stats: The Metropolitan is Mark Bartel’s newest Tone King. It’s 4x6V6, 2 channel switcher 1x12” combo with reverb. No FX loop. Channel switching and reverb on/off on the footswitch. It’s housed in a really cool art deco inspired two tone (brown and beige) slant cab, and it looks really cool onstage.

The Clean channel is everything you’ve come to expect from Tone King – stellar, huge voice, shimmering highs, very BF Fender-esque, sits very very well in the mix. Has a bright switch, Vol, Treble, Bass, and you can select low or high input sensitivity – I used the less sensitive (Normal) sensitivity. And the new Master Watt control, which I used all the way up for more max clean.

The Tweed/ Gain Channel is much like Tone King amps of the past, BUT it features Mark’s new Master Watt control in the circuit. The controls are Volume/Gain, Tone, Mid-Bite, and Master. The reverb has only one knob, but it’s drive is attenuated in the Tweed channel, and the balance of the levels from channel to channel seem to me to be about right.

As stellar as the clean channel was, the Tweed channel really shined. I was amazed at the Roots/ Americana, slightly gain-ey with just a little hair on the notes kinds of tones I could get with the Tele in that channel. I found it a little odd at first when playing the amp in my living room, but onstage the Tweed channel is totally RAD – I could get low growling sounds like an Alamo or Supro at the edge of breakup, tweed sounds, and wonderful mid-gain edge and that with the Vol at 5, tone at 6, mid-bite at 5-6, Master at 3 o’clock. There was PLENTY MORE GAIN ON TAP TOO, especially when you switch the input sensitivity to higher gain.

There was no 'call' for much gain at this gig (this is a Honky Tonk and Twang type band) but it's worth noting that the Mid-bite knob is usable through the entire range of movement - turn the knob to 9, play, then turn it to 10, and you'll hear a difference. Same with the Treble knob. There are tons of cool tones that can be coaxed out of the Metro. And the speaker is still breaking in ....

Tone King fans know that the Tweed channel tone controls aren’t the typical layout. There’s Vol, Tone, Mid-bite, and now Master. Once one gets used to the way the controls work, it’s really easy to get tons of Roots gain tones with the Metro. It will also do more “normal” gain sounds, but I was amazed at how much like an AC-15 I could make it sound – not quite as hollow as a real AC-15, or quite as gritty, but very remniscent of that tone. Oh, the amp seemed to love my BJF Pine Green Comp, Fulldrive II, and Maxon Analog delay.

After gigging with the Metro, I have to say it’s even more versatile then I expected. It takes pedals great, though you may not need ‘em. Easy to hear in the mix, never overwhelming, light (42 lbs), looks great, and sounds great.

That’s my review – ask me questions, I’ll tell no lies (GRIN - except about how many good looking women were hitting on me!)

Thanks, Dana O.

Disclosure: I worked this year at NAMM for Tone King demoing amps, and Mark left a Metropolitan with me to use, demo for folks, and review. As I stated in a previous thread on the subject, I'll probably make a ton of money for this, and get great gigs with maybe the Stones, or maybe Lucinda Williams or Brad Paisley, or perhaps playing second guitar for David Lindley, Oh, wait, he doesn't really play electric anymore ... well, SOMETHING good is bound to happen ... maybe I'll make gas money for the long drive to the gig anyway.

 

Hey Dave - I agree with this, the Metro is very dial-able and gets a surprising array of clean tones with only Treble, Bass, Vol, and a bright switch.

Hey Bryan T and James - Plenty headroom on the clean channel for humbucker guitars. Plenty good for high output lap steel pickups. David Phillips, the wonderful steel player for Peter Rowan's New Free Mexican Air Force played through it for a bit last weekend on his lap steel AND pedal steel - sounded amazing, better actually than his Evans Steel amp w/ 15" JBL.

Hey Hatim - I think the cleans are tremendous, as good or better than the Meteor II. Easy to hear the high strings, and the Bright switch works well. It is, in fact, thicker than past Tone Kings. The mids, and bass too, are stronger.

Hey Oldschoolguy - I'm working on clips, but I haven't been able to record one that really sounds like the amp does just yet - it's a work in progress. It does sound great.

Thanks folks for the interest. I have a pal who has a (rare) Tone King 1x12" extension cab that I borrowed. It's the same size box as the Metropolitan but is 'square' with a flat front panel, not slanted up in front like the TK combo amps are, with a Meteor II speaker, so you can stack the combo on top of it. The Metro with this extension cab plugged in (I'm calling it the Metro mini-stack) sounds excellent!

Thanks, Dana O.

 

ADDENDUM:

I forgot to mention that with an independent Master Watt control on both channels, you can push the clean channel into some great breakup tones too - think old blues stuff, or as gain-ey as, say, Albert Collins.

It's a great 'trick', and very effective - you just ride the guitar's vol knob a little, and work it (GRIN).

Thanks, Dana O.

 

I also forgot to mention that when I plugged in the extension 1x12" Tone King cab, I switched the output tap to 4 ohms.

It was a bit louder, and seemed to have more headroom too. at 4 ohms.

Thanks, Dana