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Note from the Design
Note from the Design
Note from the Design
Note from the Designer
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Thank you for choosing Tone King’s “Majesty 15” guitar amplifier. The Majesty is a
genuine milestone for us, as it’s the first Tone King amp that delivers the best of the
vintage British sound.
The Majesty is inspired by the sound of the
early Marshall amps, and you will certainly
hear elements of the old Bluesbreaker, JTM45,
and JMP50 in the sound of this amp.
However, the Majesty is no mere clone of a
vintage amp. It is very much a new design
which captures the essence of those fine
vintage amps, but goes further as well.
I used the same approach to the design process
as I always have in the past. It all starts with
critical listening, in order to understand the
qualities - good and bad - that define the sound of these iconic vintage British amps.
Then, relying simply on engineering know-how and past experience, I developed circuit
designs to deliver more of the good and less of the bad qualities, for an idealized version
of those iconic tones we all know and love. I made no attempt to duplicate the design
or construction of the originals, since my goal was to go beyond the limitations of those
classis designs.
As always, half of the design effort went into the voicing of
the speaker cabinets. The goal was to capture the low-end
thump, chunk, and presence of a certain vintage
“basketweave” 4x12 which is a big part of that sound, but
do it in a smaller, lighter, more convenient package – 1x12
and 2x12. This was the most difficult design I’ve done in
several years, since it was so entirely different from the
Fender voicings I had been familiar with. Regardless, I am
delighted with the sound of the Majesty cabs, and I think
they are an excellent match for the amp.
To top it off, I added a number of additional useful features.
I developed a special version of the Ironman attenuator,
with a reactive load tuned specifically for this amp, as well
as an extremely transparent effects loop and a very useful line-out circuit.
I thank you for your purchase of the Majesty,
and I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I
do.
Best Regards,
Mark Bartel
Tone King Amplifiers, a division of Premier
Builders Guild LLC
