NAD - Tone King content

Aahzz

Aahzz

Habanero Evangelist
Well, I have to admit my first attraction to these was the color scheme :). Finally got to try one about a year and a half ago, and really liked it. This one popped up used from Brian's Guitars, so I pulled the trigger and it arrived today.

So pretty!

It is, as many reviews I've read have said, a rather dark sounding amp. I didn't remember the one I tried sounding quite so dark, but I tried it with a tele. So, after playing a bit, I grabbed my amp stand to get it off the ground - that definitely helped with the darkness! Still, my initial impression is that the tone knob needs to be at least 3/4 up. Reverb works great and sounds great, and the 3 footswitchable voices give nice dirt options. There's not a ton of clean headroom on the rhythm channel, but I prefer my clean tones to have a touch of grit around the edges so that works for me.

The attenuator works really well for taming the volume and keeping the cooking tube tone going.

The jury's still out, but I think I'll end up liking it and keeping it for a bit - I also know my own tendency to trade :grin:.

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Just got to spend a bit more quality time with it - I could live on the Tweed voicing alone. I'm less enamored with the Rhythm voicing, but also have little use for it. Lead is nice. Goosing it with a BMF Purple Nurple is freaking glorious, and adds sustain for days.
 
HNAD.
Can you define dark? Seems like that term means different things to people.
I've never played through a Tone King
 
JC777 said:
HNAD.
Can you define dark? Seems like that term means different things to people.
I've never played through a Tone King
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Not a lot of treble, almost muffled sounding. On the bridge pickup, but it sounds more like the neck pickup. Once the tone knob gets over about 2 o'clock it gets better, particularly with the amp up on a stand to kill some of the bass from being on the floor. With bright single coils it'd probably work better at the lower ranges of the knob. Also, it only has the one tone knob, so finding the sweet spot on it is important. It's also darkest on the rhythm setting, which is the cleanest.
 
HNAD!

Some of my amps tend toward bright. Others are more dark.

Some of my pedals tend toward bright. Other stomps are more dark.

I pair the darker sounding pedals with the bright amps and the bright pedals with dark amps. Also, I like to have an EQ on my board.

My brightest amp is based on a Vox circuit, a VAC Hayseed 15. I can get it perfect but it usually involves an EQ pulling down the harsh peaks. I find it’s easier for me to get my dark amps to the sweet spot.
 
I've had some of my priorities rearranged in terms of the gear I've been buying,, but a low wattage amp is still on my GAS list. I love the vintage look of this one.
 
OK - so, I mentioned that it's a touch on the dark side. In looking through the manual, it mentioned that 6L6GC tubes are a drop-in replacement for the 5881s that it came with, and said "you might find them a bit glaring in the highs". I swapped in a set of Electro Harmonix 6L6GCs, and in fact that was exactly what it needed to be glorious. The highs aren't "glaring", they're just there, in a full spectrum nicely balanced tone. I dig.
 
Aahzz said:
OK - so, I mentioned that it's a touch on the dark side. In looking through the manual, it mentioned that 6L6GC tubes are a drop-in replacement for the 5881s that it came with, and said "you might find them a bit glaring in the highs". I swapped in a set of Electro Harmonix 6L6GCs, and in fact that was exactly what it needed to be glorious. The highs aren't "glaring", they're just there, in a full spectrum nicely balanced tone. I dig.
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i have found, in the last 50-ish years, that you can almost never go wrong with 6L6's. :thu:

and 6V6's are just as sweet, with a bit less power.

old Leo knew what the F he was doing!!
 
mongooz said:
i have found, in the last 50-ish years, that you can almost never go wrong with 6L6's. :thu:

and 6V6's are just as sweet, with a bit less power.

old Leo knew what the F he was doing!!
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I have found myself having a distinct tendency towards 6L6s over the years. Hell, even my favorite Marshall is a JCM 900 with 6L6s.
 
HNAD!

I dig the color and control layout, thorough if it gas a Tweed voicing, where's the velour? Corduroy? Pleather?
 
Update: I listed the amp on Craigslist, and was just as happy playing through my HX Stomp XL - which I dearly love. I realized the other day that I hadn't plugged into the Falcon Grande since I had the Dragon 1 pickups in my 1997 Custom 22 replaced with Wolfetones - Marshallhead in the bridge, Dr Vintage in the neck. So, decided to plug in.

The amp isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It REALLY likes the Wolfetones in the Custom 22. I also spent more time tweaking it, and remembered that sometimes small changes can make a big difference. I now love the rhythm voicing, and the tweed voicing. The lead voicing has a more dramatic tonal difference, but also has its place.

I know me - this probably isn't my "forever" amp, since the likelihood of me having one of those is low. Still, the Craigslist ad has been deleted.
 
Aahzz said:
The amp isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It REALLY likes the Wolfetones in the Custom 22. I also spent more time tweaking it, and remembered that sometimes small changes can make a big difference. I now love the rhythm voicing, and the tweed voicing. The lead voicing has a more dramatic tonal difference, but also has its place.
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This is why I suck at flipping gear, things like this happen to me all the time. The most recent example was with my ASAT - I had it in mind to take to Austin and trade in for another guitar. Then I played it through another amp, in another room, and I'm thinking, "I was really going to sell this beaut? What is wrong with me?"
 
tiger roach said:
This is why I suck at flipping gear, things like this happen to me all the time. The most recent example was with my ASAT - I had it in mind to take to Austin and trade in for another guitar. Then I played it through another amp, in another room, and I'm thinking, "I was really going to sell this beaut? What is wrong with me?"
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I can relate. In my early years, I sold some gear and replaced it with different items. Now, I just hoard guitar gear.
 
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