Kingsley Amplifiers

The Kingsley ToneBaron is a 60W cathode biased amplifier that takes its inspiration from the Deluxe 30 and Deluxe 32, but adds higher output levels and adds the tonal flexibility of being able to accept a variety of output tube types and combinations.

The ToneBaron comes with four 6L6s or four EL34s, but it can also accept 5881s, KT66s, KT77s, 6V6s or 6550s. There are two pairs of octal sockets in the power amplifier. Each pair has its own on-off switch on the back panel that allows the user to turn each pair off in the middle switch position, allowing the amp to run with only two output tubes for reduced power. For example you could set the amp up with four 6L6s or EL34s for 60W (or a combination of two 6L6s and two EL34s), or turn off either pair for 30W. Or you could run four 6V6s for 30W output or a combination of say two 6V6s and two EL34s. Additionaly a pentode/triode switch cuts the power in half with any tube complement, for a lowest power output of 7W.

The pre-amplifier section features two completely independent channels - channel 1 for low gain mild break-up through medium gain blues and rock tones to smooth rich sustaining lead tones. The controls on this channel are: gain, volume, treble, middle and bass, as well as bright, mid smooth and gain switches. The mid smooth is a 3-way switch that in positions 2 and 3 rolls off highs as the mid control is raised. This results in a rich, smooth midrange when desired. The gain switch also has three positions, allowing a range of gain levels to accomodate a wide variety of overdrive
tastes.
Channel 2 is for clean tones, but can also be set for overdrive if desired. The controls are volume, treble, bass and reverb, as well as bright, EQ lift and gain switches. The clean sounds are airy, dynamic and bell-like with great note definition to rich and warm (great for jazz). But this channel is also very versatile. The EQ lift dis-ables the treble and bass for a very thick, rich and organic tone. In this mode the global tone control, bright switch and gain switch are still active. This mode is great for strats, teles and other bright guitars. The neck pickup of a strat with the EQ lift is a match made in heaven. The gain switch is a 3-way mini-switch that increases the pre-amp gain. This pushes the clean channel into very touch sensitive overdrive. Combined with high volume control levels there is plenty of gain on tap to make this channel double as an overdrive channel. However, the overdrive from this channel is more raw and vintage sounding than channel 1, perfect for classic overdrive tones. The master volume allows these tones to be had at a variety of volume levels. A very natural sounding reverb is the icing on the cake for this channel.

The two pre-amp channels can be run in two ways: in parallel mode each channel operates independently and can be selected by pugging into its own input jack. An ABY box will allow remote channel selection. On the front panel a switch changes the parallel operation to series. In this mode the overdrive channel is run in series into the clean channel. This offers two advantages: a jack on the back panel that acts as a channel 1 output jack can now be used as an effects send and the input of channel 2 functions as the return - a simple effects loop has been created without the addition of gain stages and extra circuitry. Secondly, the reverb of channel 2 can now be added to the overdrive sound of channel 1. With an effects loop pedal the two channels can be remotely selected. Now effects such as delay can be used on both the clean and overdrive channels and you can still switch between the two sounds on the fly.

On the back panel there is a line out jack and line level control. This allows the patching of effects after the power amp for a wet/dry rig if desired.

The ToneBaron is available as a head, a 1 x 12 combo (with Celestion Classic Lead 80) or as a 2 x 12 combo (various speaker choices available).