Tone King releases Imperial MKII head with built-in Ironman II attenuator

Tone King Imperial MKII Head group shot

Tone King’s Imperial MKII combo has won a lot of fans over the years - including us, as we dubbed it “outwardly old-school, with tones to match” - and now the boutique guitar amp co has introduced a head version.

Like the combo, the 20W head aims to span ‘blackface’ and tweed tones at any level, thanks to an onboard six-step attenuator - just like the Ironman II attenuator the company introduced in April.

A High Frequency compensation switch promises to tame treble frequencies for smoother overdriven tones, while a Rhythm Bypass switch flicks between cleans and heavily overdriven tones.

There’s also an onboard spring reverb and bias-modulated tremolo circuit, tuned to balance across both channels, while the tube complement spans 2x 6V6, 4x 12AX7, 1x 12AT7 & 1x 5AR4.

Tone King Imperial MKII cab

The Imperial MKII Head is available in black, cream, turquoise and brown/beige finishes, as is an optional 1x12” 60W baltic birch speaker cabinet, fitted with a custom Celestion ‘1660’ 12” speaker.

Price is TBC, but we’d expect around $/£2,500 for the head, based on the price of the combo.

Head over to Tone King for more info.

Michael Astley-Brown

Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.

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