Tone King


Tone King is a manufacturer of vacuum tube guitar amplifiers and stand-alone attenuators located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. Tone King was founded by Mark Bartel in 1993 in Kingston, New York. In 1994 Mark moved the company to Baltimore.
Tone King is one of the boutique "vintage" amplifier companies making Fender style amps. Bartel subsequently sold the company to the Boutique Amps Distribution.
In January 2016, Tone King introduced the new Royalist 45 Mk II amplifier, an updated version of Tone King's Royalist amplifier, known for its low-gain British sound qualities. That same month, Tone King introduced an updated version of its Ironman attenuator, the Ironman II Mini.
There are 4 different amplifiers in the current lineup that all feature the Ironman compensated reactive load attenuation: Gremlin Combo, Falcon Grande Combo, Imperial Head and Combo, Sky King.

Critical Acclaim

Of the Tone King Ironman II Mini attenuator, Guitar Player magazine reviewer Dave Hunter said this in a June 28, 2016 review: "The Ironman II Mini will go down to whisper-quiet, and sound reasonably good in the process, but the better test was in knocking off a reasonable 6dB to 9dB, at which levels I found it impressively accurate and unobtrusive."