Menatone King Of The Britains

The drive on this thing is such that you really can't get a bad sound out of it at any gain level. Its range is wide and it sounds good uniformly, from smooth OD to ripping distortion. The controls are sensitive, and I find that a little treble boost and a bass cut can provide a real cutting sound. The 'mid' knob doesn't really seem to do much between the two others.

Thed KOB surprised me by how quiet it is, even though the effect can get quite noisy. I run it into a Fender Princeton 2x10 amp from an Epiphone Riviera (HH). Putting the output of the pedal too high tends to muddy up the sound, but this is not a major issue, as the gain control itself is pretty responsive. I tried running the pedal through the crunch channel of the amp, but I found that it doesn't add much, taking away the sharpness. Better to run it clean with high gain. Also sounds good with a pre-amp boost. I put a Dynacomp before it with the compression turned off and it enhanced the sound.

I would hope so! It was pricey!

I've always relied on the crunch channel of my amp for overdrive, as I rarely use it and tend to prefer distortion. I didn't want a TS808 clone because I wasn't looking for mellow OD at low-gain settings. The KOB kicks even at the low settings. And you've got to love the new paint job. It's got a swallow carrying a coconut! (Must be an African swallow.)

Takes a little getting used to the controls. They are VERY responsive..which is good. Its pretty self explanatory though but the MID feels like a prescence knob.

Absolutely phenomonal.
Ive been SEARCHING for a distortion pedal that was SMOOTH like an OD but still had the high gain.
This thing is AMAZING. INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!!
Its noiseless, sweet and screams!

SOLID

Dont know..havent needed it.

AMAZING! Nothing else to say.
Also comes with its own velcro on the bottom for pedalboards. nice feature.

Four knobs, and they all really do what they say.

Oooh. Boy does this sound good. Not thin and buzzy, it's thick and hairy. Not noisy. Really full sounding. I cannot believe something this thick sounding comes from a pedal.

I don't like giving out 10s, but I have to with this pedal. It's making me fired up to play guitar.

Can't say for sure yet.

No experience with them.

I play rock music, I have lots of good gear and these days I gig 8-10 times a month. This pedal really rocks. I've used most everything under the sun. In the past I've noticed overdrive pedals such as Fulldrives tend to have better sound quality than distortions. This just changed my opinion. It's a very nice, fat, complex sound. I plan on keeping this pedal for a long time.

I found the kob to be a bit tricky at first. So I went back and read some of the earlier reviews for tips and found that to be really helpful. It IS pretty much self explanatory. I, like other users think that the mid control acts a lot like a presance control, so, that can be a bit confusing at first. There is no manual, but there really is no need for one. By the way, The Mid control did not exist on earlier KOB'S and I think that it is an important upgrade to the pedal. So, buyers who are reading these reviews should be aware of that fact if they are looking into buying used KOB'S.

I play a stock Fender American Standard Stratocaster and a stock Epiphone Les Paul Classic. I run the guitars into an Ernie Ball volume pedal/ Dunlop 535q Wah/ Fulltone Deja Vibe II/ Menatone Foxy Brown/ Menatone King Of The Britains/ Menatone Red Snapper/ Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus/ Danelectro Dan echo/ and into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I love the clean sounds that the hot rod puts out and got killer crunch sounds on the drive/ more drive channels with the Les Paul. But the drive/ more drive channels sucked when I played the strat. I just could not get a dirty sound to work with it. It was either too thin and wimpy at mildly driven settings, or too flubby or muddy and loose sounding as you increased the drive. And the Les Paul does not get those great sounding clean sounds that the strat can. So I started trying OD/ distortion pedals. I called Teddy at musictoyz.com and he turned me on to the KOB. I have since become a Menatone Freak. Brian Menna makes kick-ass pedals period. The KOB solved all my problems that I was experiencing with the drive channels on my hot rod. Now I run the hot rod on the clean channel for the killer pristine clean sound that Fenders are known for, and I use Menatone pedals to get dirty with. As other users have already stated in their reviews, the KOB nails that classic Plexi sound. I don't know if it is perfect, but I do know that I have the best tone that I have ever had in all my 20 + years of plank spanking. If You want warm fluid, overdrive with sustain that just lasts for days, then the KOB is your pedal. The true tone of your amp and guitar shine with the KOB. The KOB cleans up beautifully when backing off the volume on a strat but not as well on a Les Paul. I think that is due to the fact that the strat uses 250k volume pots and Les Pauls use 500k pots. It is also very quiet. The switch is a bit microphonic, but not noticeable when playing at stage levels. All Menatone Pedals are true bypass, so tone sucking is not an issue. As another user stated in his review the mid control really acts like a presence control, and can really get and in your face sound that can be overpowering if not used with taste. I have my best success with the gain set anywhere between 10:00 and 11:00. A sweep from 10:00 to 11:00 does not seem like much, but Menatone pedals are VERY responsive. I find that anything past 12:00 is too muddy for my taste. The bottom end gets really loose with that much drive. I don't tweak the bass past 9:00 either and treble is not on at all. My volume setting changes from gig to gig because I always match the volume of the KOB as well as the Red Snapper just slightly above the volume of my amp, but has never been past 11:00. You can also turn your amp down and still get killer dirt sounds from the KOB when you need to play at low levels. I used to tweak the settings differently when switching between my two guitars during gigs, but that became a pain, so I went to purchase another KOB. I test drove the Blue Collar and the Red Snapper and bought the Red Snapper instead. Now I have so much versatility. If you are using only one kind of guitar, then you may not see a need for this. As far as getting sounds like other artists, Menatone pedals have gotten me closer to those coveted sounds than I've ever been before. I don't think any pedal can make you sound exactly like someone you might try to imitate, but I've had people tell me that I've nailed that Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robin Trower, and Jimmy Page sound. And that says it all for me.

At $225.00 a pop, who can afford a back up? I depend on it because I have to. But It seems rock solid in my opinion.

No problems, so no need to contact. I did try to visit a Menatone website and was redirected to musictoyz.com. I talked to Teddy at Music and he said that He was the Menatone Link at Brian's request. Brian must be a busy guy. Teddy rules... He has always answered every question I ever had, and pointed me in the right direction in the quest for the ultimate tone.

What can I say? The KOB, and every other Menatone pedal I own are incredible. I compared them to a few other pedals and Menatone has been my choice for dirty tones. In all fairness, I can't say they are the best because I have not tried some of the other boutique pedals that are out their because most dealers carry few or none of the custom pedals such as Fulltone, Klon, Zvek, Prescription Electronics, and many others. And until I do, Menatone pedals rule for me. Hey Brian, If you read this review, how about some Menatone Decals? I'd like to fly your colors!

Very easy to use, 5 knobs (gain, bass, treble, vol., mid) It took me like 5 min to find an awesome sound for the style I play!

I use a fender strat with a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. in the bridge. I play through a Laney pro tube 100 head and line6 & crate 4x12 cabs. The first thing I noticed about this thing is that the noise that comes from it when you turn the effect on is VERY minimal. You can hardly tell the effect is on until you start playing. Also, I love how it is true bypass so it doesn't suck out any of your guitars natural tone. There is a Mid knob on the new ones. Not very usefull, but I guess it does make some more sounds available. I personally leave it all the way down. This pedal covers everything from slight overdrive to Marshall Plexi with ease. and it sounds wonderful!! By far my favorite pedal!!!

hand built in a heavy guage stell chasis. I don't think I'm gonna have a problem with it!! Looks like it would take a beating even though I'm not going to give it one! I take care of my equipment so mine will last a LONG time :-)

I play mostly Pop punk, emo type music. This pedal does exactly what I want it to do and has exactly the sound I was looking for! Handmade in the USA. You can't beat that. If it was lost or stolen, I would save my pennies (I'm a college student!) and this would be the first pedal I buy!! I absolutely love it. Wide range of sounds and Very well constructed!

Very easy to use ... Just like a little amp ...

I have a lot of amps and guitars .. It is quite compressed and complex distortion .. so pretty clean amp is best ... very natural

Fine so far

Absoulutely on the money

My first Menatone pedal used to be called the Blue .. it has evolved into the Blue Collar with a few more features and different look .. it is my first choice distortion pedal

The King of the Britains is a hotter overdrive and really gets eyebrows up in the studio ... recent engineer said " wow, I gotta have one of those" // I thought with my G&L Interceptor playing slide on fr. and mid. p/us sounded really like a trashed old Gibson amp... really complex and funky rich tone ...

It was a nice surprise plugging this up for the first time. With the gain turned low, it sounded remarkably like the amp, so the KOB left a good first impression. This model has the extra knob labeled "mid". Along with the other controls, gain, bass, treble, and vol, I really wasn't able to get a bad sound out of it. Thanks to my friends at Rock Block Guitars in Nashville, this pedal came highly recommended. I was looking for the Marshall sound in a box, it doesn't disappoint. It took me a while to get past the "mid" control, though- it works more like a prescence knob. As the overall sound is infinitely more transparent than say, a Tube Screamer, my natural inclination was to crank the mid knob. I found later I was able to dial in a fatter tone setting the mid between 9 and 12 o'clock. Just took a little getting used to.

One of the things that turned me on about the KOB was how quiet it is-very little hiss, no hum. The only downside is that the case is a little microphonic at high volume so the switch noise comes through a little. It's a true bypass, it doesn't seem to suck any tone out whatsover. I use this mostly with a Mesa Boogie head driving a Marshall cabinet, and this pedal is really da bomb. It has the best attack dynamics of any pedal I own, I think I've owned most of 'em. The King doesn't squish any of the input signal. I use it with Strats, Les Pauls, and lap steels. One of the greatest things about it is how it responds to the input. Back off the guitar's volume, and it cleans up real sweet. It sings like a bird with the Strat (maybe that's why the bird on the front of the box). There's plenty of gain available, the tone ranges from clean to screamin'. At low gain, it's extremely transparent. Higher gain gives plenty of clang, thunder and sustain. A very nice touch is the ability to turn volume down next to zero and it sounds exactly the same. Plug a Les Paul into this baby and you won't know what hit you. I've had my best luck with the gain at one o'clock, bass at 9, mid at 9 to 12, treble all the way down, vol about 9. Turn the mid up and you get a lot of leeway with the guitar's volume control. I found this a little too in your face for my taste compared to clean, but found I could use the mid to dial in just right. Rockin'! It really has THE lead sound nailed. Pretty much one basic tonality, lots of gain variance. I like the fact it doesn't try to be all things- just the best at one.

I've only had it a month, no problems. The weirdest thing is that I haven't had to change the battery. On the inside, great attention to detail. Beautifully wired and soldered, everything obviously done by hand. It's better be dependable, I'm getting rid of some junk on account of this pedal.

Haven't contacted Menatone-yet.

Well, if I lost it, I'd have to have another one tomorrow. Great for rock, blues, slide stuff, you name it. Sounds like a lot of thought went into the design, it's got some great chemistry. It lets me stop messing around for a tone on a lot of things I do. Well worth the price of admission. On the next incarnation, I'd like to see a little more versatility out of the mid control.

Want to add that the latest edition of this pedal monster has a midrange control!!

Very natural Marshall in a box ... Versatile and amp like

It will be used with a Top Hat Club Royale with a Celestion G12H ... Classic British Crunch ... Very harmonious with amp ... even great direct ... Smooth ... saturated natural amp grind

Brian Mena is a champ very knowledgeable and accountable

This is cutting edge tone ... Very mature natural sound

It has a simple layout: just drive, bass, treble and master volume. It's very simple to use and get your favorite sweet spot.

I use it with a '69 strat and a voxac30. Great sound, full and natural. I tried almost everything in the market and this one ranks among the best. I have only a minor criticism: the sound is a bit too modern for my tastes.

It's absolutely reliable. I use it without a backup.

Never dealt with the company.

I've been playing 16 now. I play blues, soul and rock. This pedal gives me a very usable sound and I'm completely happy with it. It only lacks some vintage vibe but it gives you the warmest crunch you've ever heard. And that's enough for me.