Tone King is a manufacturer of

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

guitar amplifier A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic amplifier, electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a Pickup (music technology), pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce so ...

s and stand-alone attenuators located in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, U.S. Tone King was founded by Mark Bartel in 1993 in

Kingston, New York Kingston is the only Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grou ...

, after studying vintage fender amplifiers with blues guitarist Ben Prevo. In 1994 Mark moved the company to Baltimore. Tone King is one of the boutique "vintage" amplifier companies making Fender style amps. Tone King was owned by the company Premier Builders Guild (PBG). In 2016 PBG went out of business and sold the Tone King brand to Boutique Amps Distribution (BAD), which now manufacturers these amps in Huntington Park, California. In January 2016, Tone King introduced the new Royalist 45 Mk II amplifier, an updated version of Tone King's Royalist amplifier, known for its low-gain British sound qualities. That same month, Tone King introduced an updated version of its Ironman attenuator, the Ironman II Mini. There are 4 different amplifiers in the current lineup that all feature the Ironman compensated reactive load attenuation: Gremlin Combo, Falcon Grande Combo, Imperial Head and Combo, Sky King.

Critical acclaim

Of the Tone King Ironman II Mini attenuator, Guitar Player magazine reviewer Dave Hunter said this in a June 28, 2016 review: "The Ironman II Mini will go down to whisper-quiet, and sound reasonably good in the process, but the better test was in knocking off a reasonable 6dB to 9dB, at which levels I found it impressively accurate and unobtrusive."Guitar Player Ironman II Mini Video Review
/ref>

References

External links

Official websiteGuitar Player reviewHarmony Central reviews
Describes using a Tone King amp.
Guitarist James Bay references his use of Tone King amplifiers.
Guitar amplifier manufacturers Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Baltimore Manufacturing companies established in 1993 {{Musical-instrument-company-stub