Tone King Royalist Preamp Pedal

[FuzzyAce]

Analog is dead.

Not until the speaker is.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Not until the speaker is.

Which he isn't yet.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Which he isn't yet.

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I'm not gonna get reeled in to politics , and certainly not the British kind as I'm not one.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I'm not gonna get reeled in to politics

Nah, the guy isn't about politics. He and his "ooooaaarder" commands are legendary.

 

[Acwild]

I have the Imperial and love it. When I saw the demo for this I knew I’d have to get it as more gain is more better.

 

[gearJunkie]

Working on my Tone King pedalboard...

 

[ejecta]

Working on my Tone King pedalboard...

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Man that’s a sweet setup. Just got an Imperial preamp pedal I’m pairing with a VP4 for effects and a Kernom Ridge for drives. I would have gone with the Royalist but I have those bases covered with the Marshall JMP Synergy preamp.

 

[gearJunkie]

Man that’s a sweet setup. Just got an Imperial preamp pedal I’m pairing with a VP4 for effects and a Kernom Ridge for drives. I would have gone with the Royalist but I have those bases covered with the Marshall JMP Synergy preamp.

That should be a great sounding rig.

I have a VP4 as well, but I'm trying to keep this board primarily analog (except for the delay and built-in Tone King reverb) and LCD screen free.

 

[ejecta]

That should be a great sounding rig.

I have a VP4 as well, but I'm trying to keep this board primarily analog (except for the delay and built-in Tone King reverb) and LCD screen free.

I tried to do as analog as possible as well but I wanted more options and control over the post effects like the mix on multiple effects at once with an expression pedal.

I’m actually going to try using the Suhr ACE for some analog cab sim and see how that compares to IR’s.

 

[Acwild]

What’s a practical way to incorporate the Imperial and Royalist? Hopefully without midi.

 

[madhermit]

Just got mine today. Sounds excellent in headphones! What a great device! I have the Imperial too. Killer 4 channel setup.

 

[Acwild]

I’ve been running all my guitars through this and loving the sounds! It shouldn’t be a surprise but my favorite combo is this with a Les Paul. No pedals needed. I tried unsuccessfully pairing it with an Imperial (user error) but the Royalist cleans are so nice it’d just be a waste of floor space.

 

[Acwild]

It took a lot of tries, but I finally got them paired up. While it doesn't need pedals, it really does work well with a variety of them. I definitely prefer having the Royalist in the Imperial loop as I think the Imperial has a better sounding reverb. Anyway, back to playing.

 

[Acwild]

For those who have both the Imperial and Royalist and want to pair them but don’t know how;

From the Imperial, cable from the To Amp In attaches to the Input of the Royalist.
Imperialist From Amp Send to Royalist Send
Imperial To Amp Return to Royalist return (top row).

Press Bypass to get the Royalist sounds. They will use the Imperial effects.

I can’t tell you how many wiring combination attempts I tried. It reminded me of an old telephone operator at a switchboard.

 

[ejecta]

It took a lot of tries, but I finally got them paired up. While it doesn't need pedals, it really does work well with a variety of them. I definitely prefer having the Royalist in the Imperial loop as I think the Imperial has a better sounding reverb. Anyway, back to playing.


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I’m not a big compression pedal guy but that Woodshed compression pedal is great. Cool setup!

 

[Acwild]

I’m not a big compression pedal guy but that Woodshed compression pedal is great. Cool setup!

I'm with you regarding compression pedals. It's on there because with higher gain settings on the Royalist, low notes flub out. The Woodshed keeps it tight.

 

[JasonE]

The woodshed compressor is a good one. I have a pretty decent stock of compressor pedals and the woodshed is one I probably use the most.

 

[rocknrollshakeup]

Finally got to try my Royalist preamp.
DI w Sennheiser HD6XX’s…superb tones, clean to light breakup to cranked Plexi.
I got fizzy highs with Audio Technica ATH-M50’s, that I tamed with the software LPF and HF attenuation compensation.
Shows how important monitoring solutions are from cans to Speakers!

But incredible home DI recording solution.
The DI tones and feels from this thing are superb…it really does feel and sound like I’m mic’ing up real amps…well no, cause if I mic’ed up real amps I’d likely get a worse result .
But getting JTM45 cleans to Plexi ‘everything on 10’ tones from a wee box, completely silently is wild.

 

[Stratzrus]

I really like the clips I've heard of the Royalist.

I have a Tone King Imperial Preamp that I really like and got it because I like having a really simple alternative to my Fractal FM9.

I'd pick up a Royalist but I'm leaning more toward getting an AM4. Both have great gain tones but for me, one analog preamp pedal is enough and adding a Royalist would defeat the simplicity I bought the TKIP for if I paired the two. Same reason I'm not getting a VP4.

When I use the TKIP it's basically a preamp substitute for plugging into my '66 Deluxe Reverb. I don't want to add anything that would change the experience of just plugging straight into that amp.

One of my idiosyncrasies is that I prefer to just use one pedal at a time. No interconnects, no tap dance. The FM9 allows me to do that. So does the TKIP.

Why the AM4 then? So I can have upstairs/downstairs rigs. I also want to use it as a backup for the FM9 at gigs, something the Royalist can't really do.

Still, the Royalist sounds really sweet. Great product, and if I didn't already have my desired gain tone options covered I'd definitely pick one up.