SonicTone Loyalist amp review

[MadAsAHatter]

https://www.sonictoneamps.com/

I'm pulling this over from a couple of different writeups I did on other places. So I'll breaking it up into separate posts.

Part 1: Initial Tryout:

Back in mid Marsh I contacted Nick Sagona at SonicTone amps out of New Orleans Louisiana about going by his shop and checking out a few amps.

First off, Nick @sonictoneamp is legit and knows what he's doing. He's also a really nice guy in general. I enjoyed hanging out at his place. We talked about the Loyalist and Patriot circuits a bit. I'm versed enough to at least understand what he was saying. He talked about things like they were second nature.

He mentioned that he's talked with Bruce Engnater for advice. When I was showing him some pictures of my amps he saw my Headfirst Alta. Nick was like "that's Jason Tong's amp" and said he follows him too. He asked if I caught Jason's video where he called out Marshall for using Vietnamese transformers and we talked about that for a bit.

He gave the short story of how he got started. He built some vintage circuits for himself like the way some of us have done. From there he started developing his own stuff based on what he had learned. Local players liked what he had done and wanted him to build something for them. When COVID lockdowns hit he wasn't able to gig and decided to go for it and started SonicTone amps.

Right now he's a one man operation and everything is made in house. All his amps are hand wired on eyelet/turret boards. All is built with quality components and he uses Heyboer transformers. Chassis are aluminum and made by a local vendor. He even builds and covers the amp shells himself. Shells are constructed of 3/4 ply using box joints. As a woodworker myself I can tell they're very solidly made.

For guitar amps I only tried out the Patriot and Loyalist. I used my Hondo LP style guitar tuned in E standard on both. The Hondo is solid wood and I put a Dimarzio Fred in the bridge & PAF Joe in the neck. I played through two of Nick's 412 SonicTone cabs. One with G12-T75's and the other with Greenbacks. We did talk about some of his other amps but I didn't play them. You can check out his website for specs on his offerings. He's also been very responsive to my emails so I'm sure he'd answer quickly if you have questions

For both amps:
I didn't play the clean channel much. Both had a really nice clean channel which will crunch up if you crank the gain. The difference between the 2 amps is what you'd expect. The Patriot was more reminiscent of a Fender type clean and the Loyalist was more mid forward JTM45-ish.

Channel 2 is basically a JCM800 preamp with a switch for a "hotrod" option. It was kinda the same thing as the clean channel. On the Loyalist it was pretty much what you'd think as the JCM800 tone. The Patriot was slightly mid scooped. In standard mode it's a JCM800. In "hotrod" mode it's basically like putting a transparent boost in front. I could live on this channel and be happy.

Patriot:
This one is not in my usual wheelhouse. It's American voiced and mid scooped. I'm a Marshall guy. My impressions (and I said as much to Nick) is it reminded me of a Recto, but without the flubby bass. Even thought the amp is not my usual style, I could tell it would be a monster for modern metal. The low end is thick, but tight. Mids are scooped. There is a switch on the high gain channels for scooped or pushed mids. I personally like it better in the pushed position. We went over the component values he used for each position, but I forget what they are. Highs are just the right amount for modern American style metal. I didn't have a full dropped tuned guitar with me, but did do drop D on the one I brought. Holy shit, the Patriot would be a bulldozer for drop tunings. It was full, thick, and exactly what I'd want if playing in those tunings. If you predominantly play in drop tuning this would be the one to go with.

Loyalist:
This is where I live; British style mid forward. Even though it's British style, nothing comes to mind that I could directly compare it to. It really has it's own thing going. It has that JTM Hendrix type low end, but it stays tight. The mids and highs are what you'd expect from an 80's style Marshall. It all blends together for a really great British voiced modern amp, but with slightly thicker lows that stay tight. In the "mid boost" mode it would basically be a stock Marshall amp. In "scooped' mode it's a Marshall amp with the mids scooped out somewhat. It's kinda self explanatory. I almost forgot to mention, we didn't push the gain much above 4 or 5 and it as more than saturated enough for my style. So this amp has gain for days. When it comes down to it; though for different reasons, I'd rank the Loyalist right up there with my Hellion, Alta, & Skeleton Key.

Another thing to mention for both amps, they fit into what'd you'd want from modern amp dynamics. There was some response to pick attack, but also had some compression. I'm not talking ENGL levels of compressions, but it wasn't full on organic and raw either. Compression sat in a good in between place. Compressed enough to keep everything tight and even without being sterile, and having just enough dynamics for a good feel under the fingers.

I was actually having a hard time deciding between the two. Both sounded great. The Loyalist is in my wheelhouse and the Patriot would expand my tonal pallet. Nick and I discussed this and came up with an interesting idea. On both amps Ch. 3 & 4 are duplicate channels. Nick is doing a custom Loyalist for me. Most everything will be the same as a regular Loyalist, but Ch 4 will be voiced more like the high gain Patriot channel. Nick said he could change up some components so the mids on Ch4 were more scooped and more lows were let though like on the Patriot. He hasn't done this mod yet and is intrigued about how it will come out too. Nick joked about watch this mod catch on then no one would buy a Patriot LOL. Lead time on my amp should be about 4 weeks.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Part 1A - Trying a bass amp

You can catch the detailed specs on the website it's the one labeled BA series. The basics are it's a 2 channel amp (clean & dirty), 100 watts, all tube bass amp. It can use 6L6, EL34 or 6550 power tubes. 3 band EQ and a couple of different switches to play with. It also has a presence knob which is something you don't see on a bass amp often.

I didn't know he had a bass amp, otherwise I would have brought one of my basses to play. I used one of Nick's J basses. Cab was an Ampeg 410 on top and a 115 (I think) on the bottom. I didn't spend a whole lot of time twisting knobs and such, but at least enough to get a full sense of it.

Clean Channel:
First note I played was Damn! this sounds good! It had what you'd think of a the core SVT tone, but there was something extra sprinkled on to that gave it more of a unique flavor. Nick said the bassist he was building one for described it as Ampeg with some Hiwatt seasoning. When he said that I was like that's the perfect description. That little extra to the tone had hints of like a DR201 or Reeves 225. The clean channel has a bright switch. I can see where this could be used for a slap bass tone. For me it wasn't necessary; I can't slap worth a damn. You can get some grit out of if you crank the gain, but for the most part it's what you'd expect from a clean channel.

Dirty Channel:
I like to play bass with at least a hint of grit so I lit up when clicking over to this channel. You can go from just a hint to full gritty overdrive. Even without having to crank it to power tube saturation it had a thick meaty overdrive sound. Nick mentioned that he had a Marshall Super Bass in mind for this side. To my ear it was there, but with more of a bass centric sound rather than the bass version of a guitar amp. Here's where things really get fun. The dirty channel has a hotrod & mid boost switch. Hotrod takes it from overdrive into full out distortion. Mid boost puts it more into that Marshall mid-forward sound. A perfect combo to crank out some Ace of Spades. Even with all that saturation, the low end didn't get all flubby with fart distortion.

One thing of note on the amp as a whole. This thing is loud. Nick pushed the master up to about 4/10 on the dial and the walls were shaking pretty good. I play pretty loud to begin with and wouldn't have wanted to push it much louder for the room we were in.

I'm thinking some of you may already be thinking it sounds like it would make for a great bass amp. But Nick did something to make it even better. There's a high pass filter on it that makes it guitar friendly. So not only is it a great sounding bass amp, but it can double as a guitar amp. I didn't play a guitar though it. We only clicked the HPF on while I was noodling on bass and still using the bass cabs. So this is an assumption based on that. I do think it would make for a fine sounding, working guitar amp playing through an actual guitar cab. I surmise it would probably sit somewhere between the tone of a Super Bass & Super Lead.

For me and my style, this is pretty much the perfect bass amp. I would have placed an order for one, but 2 things stopped me.
1. I hadn't budgeted for buying 2 amps at once.
2. When you thought it couldn't get better than what I already described, Nick said he'll be starting work on a full 300 Watt version..... HOLY SHIT!!!! I want to hold out for that one.
Right now he's working with a local shop to do a steel chassis instead of his normal aluminum ones. He said he wanted to make sure it would be more than sturdy enough to support heavy transformers on top. He's also working with Heyboer on the PT and OT. It will have the same channels and switches and such as the 100 watt one.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Part 2 - Bringing the Loyalist home & my initial general thoughts

First off, I’ve had the Loyalist only a couple of days. So keep in mind I’m still in the honeymoon phase and these are initial impressions. I’ve spent several days with the amp plus the time I spent trying things out before I ordered.

My review will first be a general overview and thoughts on main features of the Loyalist, then I’ll go through what I thought about each channel.

To start, I have to say I really love the way the Loyalist sounds and feels. It definitely has the British character. I have several name brand & boutique amps that are also British character so I have many of those typical tones covered. I can hear certain influences in it without it being an exact clone of any particular amp. The Loyalist; while being in the same realm, still has its own unique character to set it apart.

As far as feel goes, I like where it sits. It doesn’t respond as much as say my Naylor Superdrive, but is definitely not as compressed as my ENGLs. I like where it sits. It’s compressed enough to keep and even keel with variances in picking, but not so much so to feel stiff. On the other end it has enough give that you can tell the difference between low and high or passive and active output pickups. And each channel has a slightly different feel. Channel 2 (crunch) is a bit more responsive than Channel 3/4 (high gain).

If I heard Nick right, mine was the first production Mk 2 out the door. I asked for mine to be modded. Instead of duplicate channels for 3 & 4 I wanted Ch3 to be the Loyalist high gain channel & Ch4 be the high gain from the Patriot model. So Ch4 would be more American sounding having more scooped mids and a bit more bass. This setup would be more useful to me than duplicate channels. We’ve dubbed this the Culper mod. (Google Culper spy ring and you’ll get the reference).

As mentioned already it’s 100 watts, EL34 & 12AX7 tubes. Heyboer Transformers with 4/8/16 ohm taps on the OT, switchable series/parallel FX loop that cab be bypassed, FX send & return levels, and bias test points for each tube. There is only one external bias adjustment knob so matched power tubes would be needed. One newer feature that wasn’t on the prototype & put on mine is dedicated preamp out and power amp in jacks so you can slave.

Each channel has its own gain, volume & EQ. There’s a master volume, presence & resonance knobs. Channel 1 has the lowest channel volume so you’d want to set that first, then match volume levels of the other channels to that, and use the master for overall volume. The master volume has a smooth taper across the sweep. No worries about being whisper quiet then a big jump to ungodly loud.

Presence & resonance knobs are the same way. They’re not like some amps where all the adjustment is in the last couple of millimeters of the sweep. You get a nice sweep across the full range of the knobs. Resonance doesn’t get too boomy even at max. I find 3-5 is a good spot for my taste. Presence can sound a little muffled on the lowest end, but doesn’t get ice-picky when maxed. 4-5 on the knob takes the blanket off, but I like a little extra shimmer so 6-8 seems to be good for me.

Unlike some production amps, I got a footswitch. Switching is done with relays so the footswitch function is a little unique and not everything is accessible via footswitch. It’s not complicated or anything, but will take a bit to get used to. It’s 4 button, Button 1 switches between Ch 1/2 & 3/4, button 2 switches between Ch1 & Ch2, button 3 switches between Ch3 & Ch4, and button 4 is FX loop on/off. Depending on where you are & where you want to go switching between channels can take a couple of stomps. The other features are switchable only on the amp.

It would be nice to have everything accessible via MIDI and be able to have programed patches, but at least the way I use my amps I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m not going to switch between a heavy mid scoop sound and mid push in the middle of a song. The most I’m going to do is switch clean/crunch/gain. Plus, in the standard (non-modded) amp Ch3 & 4 are duplicate channels. So, you could set them mid scoop & mid push. Nick mentioned he may try to work MIDI function into the amp later down the road. Right now, I don’t think it’s a priority.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Part 2A - Mode details about each channel

Channel 1:
This is the clean channel. Unlike many high gain amps, the clean channel does not sound like it was slapped on as an afterthought. It can actually be used 2 ways. For a pristine clean max out the volume knob and use the gain knob to set the volume. If you want to crunch it up, set the gain between 7-max and use the volume knob for volume level.

There is a bright switch. If you use single coils it’s more of a set to taste. If you use humbuckers like me, it’ll likely be always on. With humbuckers it sounds a little dull with bright off. Bright on with humbuckers gives it the right amount of top end and livens it up.

I personally like Ch1 with a bit of hair so I set the gain at 7.5, turn bright on, and max the volume. As mentioned, Ch1 is the lowest channel in volume so set this one up first then match the rest of the channels to it.

Channel 2:
This would be the “crunch” channel. It uses the same preamp as in the 81 special model. There’s a switch for classic & hotrod mode. Given the description on the 81 special you may think JCM800. I hear that influence in it, but it doesn’t have the same upper end bite as a JCM800. To me it sounds a bit thicker in the mids and not quite as grindy in the high end. I hear Ch2 more as sitting somewhere between a Plexi, a 6550 JCM800 and a SLO. Classic mode puts it in the Plexi gain realm and hotrod is like putting a transparent boost in front. This channel will work great for rock/hard rock. It has just enough gain for thrash metal, but it’s not tight enough on its own. If you want to use this channel for higher gain you’ll want to have it in hotrod mode and put a Tube Screamer type boost to hit the front end and tighten it up. Sticking with it for the hard rock crunch sound it’s just right.

Channel 3:
If you don’t do the mod like I did this will apply to both Ch3 & 4. This is the high gain channel. It’s tighter than Ch2 and has much more saturation. It’s not just a higher gain version of Ch2. It has its own sound. You still heart the British tone in it, but I’m detecting what sounds like some 5150/6505 influence. There’s a mid scoop switch. With scoop off it has a really pleasing mid forward sound that’s not honkey or wooly. It’s a good thick sound for rhythm playing. I like my mids so you’d think a mid scoop wouldn’t be that useful to me. In actuality I really like the way it functions. With scoop on it obviously scoops the mids, but also seems to shift the center frequency slightly. To my ears this gives it a more modern sound that still has midrange bite. Something that would work well for down tuning, but still cut through a mix.

In my playing style I prefer to use my technique to tighten up the sound than put a boost on a high gain channel. So personally, I think this channel is tight enough on its own. That said some people my not think it’s tight enough without a boost. If that is the case, just drop a Tube Screamer or Super Drive in front, back off the a little on the amp gain, and you should be good to go.

Channel 4 (Culper mod)
As said my amp transplanted the high gain channel from the Patriot into the Loyalist. If not evident my realm is British voiced amps. I wanted something that would push me into an aera I wasn’t used to, but still have a little familiarity. The Culper mod does just that.

Pretty much everything I said about Ch3 applies to Ch4, but the tone is shifted. Modded Ch4 scoops the mids more in both scooped/pushed setting and adds more bass and a hint of extra treble. It’s a different enough voicing where I wouldn’t be able to achieve it by adjusting the EQ on Ch3. What this amounts to the way I hear it is a more American voiced channel that still has a bit of British bite. This is perfect for me. Scoop off is slightly more scooped than Ch3 with scoop off and the same with scoop on. It gives me more variety without being something that would be unusable/unfamiliar to me.

To sum everything up:
I own some amps that many hold in rather high regards. I would put the SonicTone Loyalist right up there with them. I’m not going to blow smoke and say this will be the perfect amp for everyone. What I will say is the quality and tone is at the top of the hill and the Loyalist can stand with any well-regarded boutique amp. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone if you think it would fit your style. And if the Loyalist isn’t your speed, I’d still recommend SonicTone in general. Nick has several other high quality models where you should easily find something you like.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Part 2B - Some extra info

A few days later after bringing the Loyalist home Nick contacted me. He decided to put the Loyalist high gain channel into his personal Patriot. Sticking with the Revolutionary War theme we've decided to call this the Benedict Arnold mod. Nick loved the way both the Culper and Arnold mods sounded so much he's offering them as standard options on both Patriot & Loyalist amps. He hasn't updated his website as of yet to reflect the mods, but said he would give me credit for the initial idea and names of them. I don't thing that's really necessary, but am honored he's giving me the shout out.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Part 3 - 10 day review

First thing of full disclosure. I did have a small issue pop up. One of the power tubes turned out to be bad. I just replaced them with a new set, rebiased, and all was good to go. Nick uses JJ's as the standard set which is what I went with. After I told him what happened he said he was having some issues with getting bum JJ power tubes. I've heard others have been having similar issues. Nick offered to drop ship me a new set no charge, but I declined. I have enough spare EL34 sets and already had the amp back up and running.

Over the last 10 or so days I’ve been familiarizing myself with the Loyalist more. My initial review is still holding up. I’ve also learned a few things and have a couple updated thoughts.

First, I wouldn’t mind having a negative feedback knob. Not that the Loyalist needs it. It’s a feature I have on a couple of amps that I find useful. It could be that extra 1/2% of fine tuning the tone and feel to personal taste. I may talk to Nick later about adding one, but I don’t think it’s necessary right now.

This is a big thing I discovered on the Loyalist. The Channel Volume and Master Volume play a big role in the tone and feel.

Originally, I was playing with the Channel Volumes around 7-8 and using the Master to adjust the overall loudness. I don’t want to say congested because that’s not the right word. For my taste it was lacking a little top end on the high gain channels. On the crunch channel, it gave an early Black Sabbath/Tiny Iommi sound. In fact, it wasn’t far off from my Laney Lionheart which I think is very reminiscent of that tone. What I think is happening is there’s phase inverter distortion being mixed in with the preamp distortion.

Then I tried swapping it up. I kept the Channel Volumes lower; about 3-4 and put the Master up high. This put it squarely in the Marshall tone camp. It sounded brighter and more open. It was much more JCM800 and high gain modded Marshall across all the channels. This tone fits my overall taste better.

Playing with the interaction between the volumes I think lets you fine tune the tone and feel to your taste. Where I also found it useful is matching the speaker/cab you’re using. With my main cabs that have a Weber Grey Wolf/Blue Dog mix and Grey Wolf/Silver Wolf mix it worked better with the channel volume lower. My secondary cab that has G12K100’s can be a bit bright with some amps. Pushing the Channel Volume up tamed that high end.

The other thing I’ve been doing is some back-to-back comparisons. I’m not going to go into anything specific because I’d be writing pages about it. Later on I'll probably post some comparison thoughts. For now I’ll say that while the Loyalist is a familiar tone it doesn’t directly correlate to any of my other amps. Modded Ch4 helps set it apart even more. It has its own unique tone and feel that minimizes any overlap. I’m not sure exactly where to rank it yet, but it’s currently sitting pretty solidly in my top 5 favorite amps amongst my Hellion and Alta.

 

[JiveTurkey]

This thing looks great! I saw an OG thrash guy posted he was using this on FB the other day but can't remember who it was?

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Bonus - More bass amp thoughts

When I picked up my Loyalist I brought my main bass along to give Nick's bass amp a longer tryout. The bass i brought is one of my custom made (by me) ones that has Schaller double J pickups. The switching is set as neck pickup as P/Full/Reverse P and Bridge pickup as Neck side J/Full/Bridge side J.

As I said about my initial tryout, even at 100 watts holy crap this thing is loud. On the clean channel the gain was at 3 & master volume at 4; that of 10 not o'clock. Granted those Schaller pickups are pretty hot, but it was already at needing earplug volume and staying clean. I'm pretty sure there was a good bit more room to fo before hitting some grit. On the gain channel it was pretty much at the same volume levels, just with the preamp saturation.

Pretty much everything I said still holds true on the second tryout. In addition to that I was able to pull off some other styles/tones. Of course there was the already mentioned "Lemmy" tone. On the clean channel I was able to get some really nice core vintage bass tones. It was really responsive to the different options of my pickups. On channel 2 and setting the gain at the right level I was able to get both the Cliff Burton Kill 'em All and Ride the Lightening tones. It really hit those tones when we plugged in a wah pedal.

Needless to say Nick's bass amp is on my wishlist. For my purposes the 100 watt would be more than enough, but I'm still holding out for the 300 version. I'm hoping to have enough put aside to get one at the end of the year.

Update on the 300 watt one:
Nick was finalizing the details on the stainless steel chassis and would be order 5 of them. He's working with Heyboer on the transformers which will be 2, 4 & 8 ohm stable. He'll work the circuit to use your choice of 6550 or KT88 power tubes; I think 6 total of either for the 300 watts. Pricing is still up in the air but he's thinking lower 3K. IMO for a full tube 300 watt bass amp that really reasonable.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

This thing looks great! I saw an OG thrash guy posted he was using this on FB the other day but can't remember who it was?

So far I'm loving it. It really is settling in nicely as one of my top amps. Not trying to brag or that I'm anyone special, but considering I have several other highly regarded amps that's a pretty decent compliment.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Lovely room of death you have! I have always wanted to try a Peters amp but never seen one in the wild?

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Lovely room of death you have! I have always wanted to try a Peters amp but never seen one in the wild?

Thanks. Yeah I don't see Peters amps come up very often. Mine has the Halo/Vega channels. I got lucky with mine. One, finding it and two, it didn't get majorly damaged in shipping. The dude I bough it from shipped it in a box 2 times too big and almost no packing. From UPS tossing it around the chassis got dented from the weight of the transformer and the footswitch was crushed. Luckily there was no damage to the circuit and I was able to mostly knock the chassis dent out.