SHOOTOUT ___TONE KING ___IMPERIALIST vs. ROYALIST

 Tone King   

___THE UPDATER___MARCH 2026___NEW GEAR NEWS___UPDATED___24/7

THE UPDATER

MARCH 2026

Separate those pedals that are a steal from those 

that are stealing from you at any price.

IF ITS WORTH KNOWING ITS HERE FIRST

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MY MONTHLY RANT

Tarriffs off ....Tariffs on. 10% then 15% then who knows WTF!!!

TIME TO SHOUT

Like most of you the budget is a more than a bit strained. My wife will be out of the country for a month so Muggins here will be doing all the household buying which for the most part will be groceries at the new eye watering prices. 

New pedals have slowed down. No one knows when to buy the parts etc. as they may overpay and won't be able to recoup the costs and no one is shipping the parts for transportation is all over the map with prices and delays etc. is also in a mess. 

 

Fender is going to fire 250 workers in May. They have kept creeping up the prices and no one is buying. Amps new at $2000 are literally easy to find used and even mint sell for $1000. Last week Youtuber Phillip McKnight bought a  Fender Hot Rod amp and was 

shocked at the difference. He said he found 3 under $1000 in just seconds of looking. 

.....Double back here over the month as I will keep you updated with all the whatever, lol.

 

TOYS FOR THE OLDER BOYS

Some old, some new, all cool !!!

 

JHS PEDALS MORNING GLORY CLEAN

The standard morning Glory is Josh's biggest selling pedal. A BluesBreaker clone that every upgrade took from a transparent Drive to a mediocre mid gain pedal. This one is his original v.1  but with a knob to add cleans. I had the standard one for 2 years. Garabage! If I pulled it back where I wanted it ,it had nasty artifact like an extra cheap Chinese OD. The clean version is easily 110% better. If the one I had was this I would still own it.

Wait for it!!! WTF only just got out of bed!!!!  

Come back in an hour or 2 for the rest of the sh@t

GADGET- MOOER Prime M2___NEW ___ a Rockman for the present

$220.00 USD

MOOER PRIME M2

An all in one Toy. It is a Modeler, Looper and Drum Machine with a sound quality that could in a pinch get you through a gig. A song writing and practice tool and undeniably a lot of fun. It does everything very well.

On the down side anything it has there are other choices that choose to do just one thing like a Looper or a Drum Machine or indeed a Modeler with a much, much more Pro sound or/& function. Other units that are primarily headphone units are far cheaper and totally 100% Modelers are too.

thefineprint

If I wanted a toy I would buy the VALETON GP-50. 

It Is a NAM Capture style Modeler. The sound can 

easily sub for an amp adequate enough to use in 

a world class studio to go on a world class recording 

with its 110% Pro sound.  $130.00 USD

OCTAVE - JHS Double Dragon ___NEW ___ surprisingly unusable ....<>^

$180.00 USD

JHS PEDALS

Double Dragon  

It is an old school monophonic octave pedal. You can not play 

chords and half the notes that you will want to play will glitch 

and make you sound like you just learning to play, LOL.

   CONCLUSION ___

The yellow enclosure with red knobs is dead cool.

There is a fine line between Genius and just Stupid. 

I have reviewed over 4,000 pedals.

You have at minimum hundreds of better pedals

to spend your money on. 

Hey! ...Cheer up!!! You just saved yourself $180.00 !!!

DELAY- KLOWRA Rilum___NEW ___ multi-head Tape style Delay

KLOWRA 

RILUM

$130.00 USD

Hotone started out as a nano pedal maker and kept morphing to various budget digital effects and are know known primarily for their great sounding but more important 'User Friendly' modelers. No manual needed.

Anyhow they decided to take a side road and make some budget but very high spec pedals under another name. The layout is Lag Time, Feedback, Mix, Rate, Heads Volume and Lo-Fi.

The video is a virtual manual so I'll let ol' Mike explain.

    CONCLUSION __

It is damn impressive with both its spec and price.

It is not a specific clone which we all often get hung 

up on. I include myself. If you want to dabble in 

a little Shoegaze or Star Wars yet still get some

great conventional sounds ...they are all there. 

 

PREAMP- TONE KING The Royalist ___NEW___ all tube, goodbye modeler ;-)

$600.00 USD

 Tone King

R o y a l i s t PREAMP

Get your MIAB Pre but with 3, 12ax7 tubes. It gives 

a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Get Real'

You get the JTM45 and the big boy of classic PLEXI 

the Super Lead. Yes the Stack of all Stacks!!!

CONCLUSION ___

Between Friedman or Tone King for your Pre. Add the Wampler Pedalhead a totally convincing tube amp sounding & responding power amp and you have your real tube thing the size of a modeler complete with 

everything need to link to a Sound Reinforcement rig. 

 

    

OVERDRIVE- BROWNE AMP Alkene (Nashville OD)___NEW___ Nobel OD-1 clone ...plus?

 Browne AMPLIFICATION 

$230.00 USD

 ALKENE 

Browne got put on the map when they released their double pedal the Protein with a Nobel OD-1 stacked on a Bluesbreaker. So enters Alkene & the Carbon. The secret is their knack to take a classic and make it more transparent and near 3 Dimensional. They are killer when backed off to really improve a clean sound or pushed to keep the total vibe of both your guitar and amp. Many guys found they loved one side. I was was one of the many. In fact I was first inline for the Carbon/ Bluesbreaker, LOL. With the Alkene everyone is happy getting the one they wanted, lol.

The layout is Volume, Tone and Gain. A toggle lets you switch between symmetrical and asymmetrical clipping. It is such an obvious idea that I am amazed others have not featured it. An internal switch increases the gain if you are more into a bit more aggression. 

           CONCLUSION ___

My Carbon is my most used OD. That said I use it for a clean 

sound or stacked on other OD's so even I almost do not think 

of it as an identifiable sound. It is like the hammer in my 

tool box. Boring but 110% needed. I expect many guys will 

use the Alkene in a similar way. In short an always on pedal.

___ NEED TO KNOW ___THE HISTORY OF THE GIBSON ES-175 ___

   GIBSON ES-175    

      

   

____VALETON LOFT MINI PEDALS___ accurate clones of Boss pedals___ re-released

VALETON LOFT  

These are neither dumbed down or improved they are part for part 

clones of all the classic old Boss pedals. I have the CH-10 Chorus 

which is literally the most famous of all Chorus pedals the 

BOSS CE-2. I am more than happy with it.

The absolute best prices are at Only Pedals. The Chorus is $90.00 USD.

DELAY- HUNGRY ROBOT PEDALS The Moby Dick ___NEW___ Tape Delay for a mad man

$275.00 USD

 HUNGRY ROBOT PEDALS

The Moby Dick | 

The unit is stereo in and out. It has delays you can 

tap differently for either side. Control over the wow 

and flutter via modulation and you can control the tape/age wear and stretch. It has a separate 

control for double tracking.  

CONCLUSION __ 

Your choice,you can add many twists to a basic delay  

or go totally Star Wars & Shoegaze. 

OVERDRIVE- LPD LTD. Sixty8X___NEW___ 10 Year Anniversary of 'the essential' MIAB

LPD PEDALS

$240.00 USD

SIXTY8X

The first serious and successful pedal Lawrence Petros brought out 

was the SIXTY8 and it put his brand into the 'Must Haves' when it 

came to a MIAB. 

In those days you could even order yours as a mini pedal. I got 

mine in the mini format 

asap after seeing Phillip McKnight review it on his show. He loved his 

so much he got 2. I still use my mini 68 every damn day!!! the layout 

is Treble, Mids, Bass, Level, Presence and Gain. Hold down the switch switches channels. In side you can boost one over the other.

CONCLUSION ___

Arguably not cheap but worth every penny spent. Get 

one of each of the 4 LPD MIAB pedals. All are not just 

good but necessary!!!

 thefineprint

MXR Phase 90 fans will appreciate that I have the original version

of the SIXY8 with ...the script logo, lol.