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Is this the perfect solution to an ampless rig?

Welcome to the show! There’s been a lot of excitement around Tone King’s Imperial Preamp. In tube amp form, the Imperial has a stellar reputation as an evolution of Fender’s genre-defining Tweed and black-panel Deluxes: 20-ish watts of utterly classic guitar amp.

However, with the increasing move towards ampless rigs for so many players, Tone King have put the entire Imperial amp’s preamp section into a pedalboard friendly enclosure and added a bunch of extremely useful features to boot. Those would be direct XLR outs with option inbuilt IRs, onboard reverb and tremolo, a separate FX loop and… what for it… some very clever switching options to enable you to run it with your main amp and FX loop, adding a two channels to your existing amp. And more. Let’s get on with it…

Enjoy the show!

Why do our PA cabs sound so different from the direct recorded sound?

It’s a great question! These are EV EKX 12P powered PA cabs and I’d always assumed them to be fairly flat sounding. (Mick here). They’re certainly set flat in terms of any on-board controls, but the guitar sound Dan and I were experiencing in the room compared to the direct pass-through sound that was recorded was radically different. We guess it just underlines the fact that all PA cabs / FRFR speakers are different… and why we ALWAYS want to hear a guitar speaker.

Pedals & Stuff used in this show
• TheGigRig Three2One
• TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir
• Sonic Research ST-200 Turbo Tuner
• Ibanez TS10 Tube Screamer
• Kingsley Juggler MkIII Preamp
• Tone King Imperial Tri Tube Preamp
• Source Audio Collider Delay & Reverb

If you use these links to buy stuff - any stuff – we receive a small cut.
UK & Europe: Andertons Music - https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
USA: Sweetwater - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/5g6ALN
Australia: Pedal Empire - http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf

Interesting bits and go to sections…
0:00 Intro playing
1:00 What are we doing today?
2:20 Why the Kingsley Juggler?
2:55 Yeah it’s slightly confusing
4:05 Imperial amp rhythm channel sounds
5:50 Imperial preamp signal routing
7:04 Imperial Preamp into FRFR speakers & direct
9:00 Moaning about FRFR speakers and related issues
11:35 Tube Screamer in the front
14:00 Amp & preamp lead channel comparison
15:21 In built IRs on and off
16:20 It will always be EQ’d out front
17:50 Onboard reverb, tremolo & FX loop
20:15 Amp & Preamp reverb and trem compared
21:35 Does it sound like the amp?
21:55 Imperial Pre with a sizeable Marshall
24:00 Using both the input AND FX return!
26:45 Imperial Pre & Juggler explanation
29:05 Imperial Pre & Juggler comparison
31:25 The dB meter, finally
31:50 More Imperial Pre & Juggler comparison

Guitars in today’s show
• 1965 Gibson ES-345 TDS - Mick’s video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdYvdn7vDDE&ab_channel=ThatPedalShow
• Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar
• Fender Custom Shop ’63 Telecaster - Dan’s video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnQ4OIJFTgY&ab_channel=ThatPedalShow

Amps in today’s show
• Tone King Imperial MkII head & 112 speaker cab (standard TK speaker)
• Marshall 1987x 50-watt head
• Marshall 1960B with 4 x Celestion G12-65 speakers
• Electro-Voice EKX 12P powered PA cabs

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