Trial license was used to review this product – All thoughts and opinion’s within this review are my own and do not reflect those of the developer or others.

INTRO

Tone King Amplifiers is a boutique amp manufacturer known for their modern take on Fender style amps and high-quality stand-alone attenuators. Founded and manufactured in the United States, they pride themselves on exceptional build quality using hand selected components for a no compromise tone.

The Imperial MK I was first introduced in 1993, inspired by and delivering the vintage tones of both the Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Tweed Deluxe through separately voiced channels. Fast forward to 2019 with over 20 years of development, the Imperial was revised and launched as the Imperial MK II, not to change the sound but improve upon it and the build quality using quality building methods, as well as adding a built in Ironman II attenuator to allow for a great playing experience at any volume.

Neural Dsp has teamed up Tone King Amplifiers to release Imperial MK II in plugin form, with all the bells and whistles all painstakingly modeled to replicate every sonic nuance. Time to grab a guitar and check it out.

Experience

The GUI is a familiar sight utilizing the design Neural DSP’s known for, simple, clean, and elegant. Across the top is the component menu and below that the main plugin controls, easy to find, and intuitive to use. At the bottom left a convenient tuner built in at the click of a button and midi mapping so it can be controlled via Midi controller. Cycling through the different components, the pedals, the amp and cab, the FX, it all looks fantastic. How does it sound though? Well, it sounds like a Fender. More on that though soon.

The Amp

The Imperial MK II has 2 channels, lead, and rhythm, with a single input. The amp also has built in spring reverb and tremolo controls. As well as an attenuator and other functions on the back panel.

Rhythm Channel

This channel is voiced to sound like a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Twangy and sparkly country cleans to crunchy rock tones. It has independent Volume control, Treble and Bass tone-stack controls, like what would be found on a Fender Deluxe Reverb.

I used this channel for mostly cleans to light breakup in conjunction with the overdrive pedals to add a little grit when I wanted to dig in. I kept the rhythm volume around 10 O’clock and the treble and bass around noon. From there I added overdrive 2 with the drive at 8 O’clock, level at noon, bass set to 10 O’clock and treble 1-2 O’clock. From here I dialed the guitar volume up and down depending on what I wanted in terms of grit and turned on the overdrive for lead work.

Lead Channel

This channel is voiced with more of a tweed flavor capable of a crunchier rock tone. It has an independent volume control, but unlike the other channel has a tone control for shaping the sound and a mid-bite control for morphing the tweed tone into a crunchier tone. It tightens the low end while simultaneously taming the ice pick frequencies, increasing gain, and noticeable effect in the upper mids.

I found setting the volume on this channel to a modest level and adjusting the mid-bit first helped to dial in the channel overall. I set the volume to around 10 O’clock, with the tone at noon I rolled up the mid-bite until it felt a bit too much then rolled it back, then I went back to the volume control and rolled it up just until I felt it was in the sweet spot. Finally, I adjusted the tone to taste for nice crunchie tweed sound. The overdrives just add another layer of saturation if needed, but for vintage rock tones the lead channel has it covered very well on its own.

The Attenuator

Flipping over to the back panel it has an attenuator control, but while it doesn’t change the perceived volume, it does change the tonal characteristic of the amp as its adjusted. The HF comp switch can be used to bring back lost highs when utilizing the attenuator. Finally, the attenuator can be bypassed on the rhythm channel, so it only effects the lead channel.

During testing I bypassed on the rhythm channel as I much preferred the non-attenuated tones (personal preference) on this channel, but I did utilize it on the lead channel, settling on -15 db attenuation with the HF Comp enabled.

Built-in Reverb & Tremolo

While it may seem like a simple thing, honestly the amp reverb is probably one of the best emulations of a real spring reverb I’ve heard. I’m not big on tremolo effects but it’s functional and I’m sure anyone who likes using them, will find the built in tremolo perfectly suitable for their needs.

I kept the tremolo off except for functional testing, but throughout testing I varied the level of reverb between 9 O’clock and noon.

Cabinet

The speaker cabinet works well and has lots of options for shaping and voicing the amp. Its nice to see Neural DSP offering more than one speaker option for a standalone amp suite and the selection of mic’s is very generous. It’s also nice to see the addition of a room mic, or rather 2 room mics in the cabinet section, not always wanted but it’s nice to have for added room ambience. The cabinets were created using hundreds of IR’s captured by 5by5 studio, and the quality really shows.

During testing I pretty much went through the entire collection of mics between the 2 speakers and got great results with many different combinations. I also utilized the room mic’s as well, I felt they added some nice depth to the overall sound I was going after.

The internal IR loader works great for third-party impulses, and it’s easily bypassed for use with an external Impulse loader or cabinet simulator.

Another layer to the final amp tone shaping is a 9 band equalizer, some might not use it, and that’s fine, but it’s nice to have when it is needed. The amp features, cabinet section and the equalizer combine for a high level of tone crafting.

Pre-Effects

Tone King comes a compressor and 2 overdrives, as well as a Wah pedal. Functionally speaking the Wah and compressor work how they should, personally I don’t utilize them, but they should do fine for anyone who needs them.

You might ask why there are 2 overdrives included. Simple, Overdrive 1 has less boost compared to overdrive 2, and they can be layered to not only add more complex saturation but also adds the ability to remove that saturation on the fly.

I used both overdrives either separately or together throughout my testing, I liked using overdrive 1 for more subtle boosting on the rhythm channel with cleaner tones and smoothing out the lead channel saturation at higher volume/gain levels. When using them in combination. I set the overdrive 2 for a modest drive level as more of a clean boost and then I would run the overdrive 1 as the dirty boost into it.

Post-Effects

The chorus is great, it does what one would expect a chorus to do, from coloration to thicken the overall sound. The stereo delay is very robust and highly configurable, from simple slap back to jaw dropping ambient sounds it will cover most needs. The reverb can be used to add another layer to ambience in combination with the chorus and delay, or stand on its own, for adding a little wetness or roominess all the way to large out of this world spaces. Really the sky’s the limits with the post effects options available.

UPS/DOWNS

The amp sounds awesome, with more voicings beyond just the simple lead and rhythm channel when utilizing the built-in attenuation as well as the mid-bite on the lead channel. It makes for a highly configurable tone. The amp reverb is one of the finest digital spring reverbs I’ve heard.  The cabinet section has loads of options for adjustability while still allowing users to bypass if its just not for them.

The Pre-Effects, I understand the concept and application of the 2 overdrives to some it may be redundant though, still they work, and sound wonderful. The Wah and compressor work well, are functional and should fulfill the needs of anyone who finds they need them.

The Post-Effects are fantastic sounding individually and bring a huge amount of complexity when combined and adjusted in several different ways.

Now this may come off as nit picking but I do believe that the transpose and doubling capabilities of the Archetype: Petrucci could have been brought over, with such a excellent post effects selection already included it only makes sense. Tone King already has the capability for exceptional clean to light break up ambient tones, the transpose and doubling functions would just add more to it. A Phaser and a Flanger would also be a nice touch as well but that’s more wishful thinking than anything.

Regardless, what is offered with Tone King Imperial MK II is a huge value overall, especially compared to the thousands in value of analog components and equipment one would have to buy to match the level of configurability and sound quality this plugin offers. Pricing is set at €99.00 (VAT will apply depending on you region) and it’s available for both Windows and Mac users in standalone as well as 64-bit VST/AU/AAX format.

On a final note, its nice to see Neural DSP diverge from the usual amps and plugins they have been. It’s a welcome breath of fresh air and I hope to see more products that stray away from what they are known for, in the future.

Conclusion

The NDSP Tone King Imperial MK II is vintage tone not only in a modern package but in digital format for the modern era. From classics like the Dire Straits to modern tones like John Mayer, country to rock, the highly configurable Imperial MK II suite has you covered. Neural DSP did a phenomenal job of taking this amp and bringing it into the digital world. It’s available in a 14-day fully unrestricted free trial, so you have plenty of time to try before you buy, so grab a guitar and go check it out today!

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See more – release video from Neural DSP