Tone City - King Of Blues
- Sam Goffen
- Sep 26, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 29
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#ToneCity are a budget friendly Chinese pedal brand who are really making some big waves despite the small size of most of their pedals.
Their approach is basically to make cheap knock-offs of very well-known pedals, usually produced in small, pedalboard friendly enclosures. Some people may disagree with this way of doing things, but when you think about it most overdrive pedals, for example, are based on just a few classic circuits.
The King of Blues is a perfect example of the company’s approach: a total rip-off of the Analogman King of Tone pedal, but at a fraction of the price, so the average mortal can actually afford to have these tones at their fingertips.
A quick search on a well-known auction site will quickly throw up some of the Analogman originals at a price of around £400 in the UK at the time of writing this, whereas the Tone City King of Blues can be had for under £60. In fact, I got mine for £40, which I considered a steal for the tones on tap.
And just what are those tones?
Well, the way I’d think about it is like this: basically a Tubescreamer and a Klon in one pedal.
In my experience this is a fair way to describe the King of Blues as the left side has a distinct mid-hump, while rolling off both the highs and lows a bit similar to a Tubescreamer, and the right side still has prominent mids but allows a more natural top end, reminiscent of the infamous Klon.
While the King of Tone was originally more based off a Blues Breaker circuit, Analogman states himself that they changed it so much in their tone search that it ended up completely different anyway.
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