Tone King Continental

I am not sure when this head/cab was made, my guess is 1997 (I bought it very slightly used for $1,200). Quite a versatile amp. Looks like a beautifully restored art deco piece but is a high-end class a tube amp. I play funk, jazz, r&b, rock and the Continental pulls all of these styles off well. The Tone King is a switchable two channel amp with a beefy clean 40 watts in the rhythm stage and a 20/40 switchable lead channel (20 watts allows you to get a nice overdriven tube sound without making your ears bleed). The amp derives it's power from 4 matched Sovtek 6V6's which also give the Fender Deluxe Reverb it's famous tone. The Continental boasts 4 6V6's giving more clean volume than the Deluxe Reverb's 2. My only complaint is that the Continental has no effects loop as I hate to deminish her beautiful sweet tone by putting effects in front of her (this is the only thing that keeps the Tone King from getting a perfect 10 in this category). The reverb is excellent - all tube and spring, no crappy digital stuff here. In fact, the whole amp is point to point wired - no PCB's. It also has a very usable Tremelo with speed and depth controls. The channel selection and tremelo are both footswitchable with the optional ($80) footswitch. I use this amp with a full 5 piece band in various live situations and haven't had to throw a mike in front of her yet.

I use a Custom Shop American Classic Tele, a 70's American Standard Strat with 3 Humbuckers and Occasionally a 60's Silvertone Hollow Body with 3 DeArmonds. The Tone King works well with all of these but seems to compliment the humbuckers more than single coils. My musical styles are diverse and the Tone King lends itself well to most styles of music. I don't play heavy metal and can't say whether it would be a good match for this or not. Clean channel is big and breathy at high volumes. Lead channel is great! I love the ability to switch between 20 and 40 watts on this. I never need to switch to 40 watts actually, 20 seems to overdrive nicely for all of the clubs that I play. Think Black Face Deluxe Reverb with more clean power and you have a good idea of what this amp sounds like. I would like to think that the Tone King is a bit more diverse than the Deluxe Reverb and certainly more reliable than an older amp.

I have been playing the Continental for about 6 hours a week for a year and a half now without any problems. I haven't even had to change the 6V6's yet. The only weird thing is that some pedals seem to suck a lot of tone out of the mighty Tone King. Be sure to use high quality effects with true bypass to avoid this. An effects loop would be nice. I want to rig up an A/B switch but there is only one instrument jack on the amp. If anyone could tell me if a Y-adaptor works well for this I would appreciate it.

Spoke to the guy once and he was cool. Talked to me for about an hour about the amp. You can tell that it is a labor of love for him. He told me that he would fix it if anything ever goes wrong with it which is pretty cool of him considering I got the amp second hand.

I have been playing for about 15 years and this is, by far, the nicest amp I have ever owned. I play a custom shop Tele, a 70's Strat and a Silvertone Hollowbody. If this amp were stolen I would cry. I don't know if I could afford to buy a new one (I think they retail for about $2,300). I love the great retro look of it, the beautiful tone and the rock solid reliability of the Tone King. I wish there was an effects loop. I played many high end amps this one just spoke to me more than the rest. This amp is sure to please anyone who is looking for a cool vintage Deluxe Reverb tone with more volume and reliability and certainly better looks.

The Tone King Continental Head has two channels. It is powered by 4 Sovtek 6V6GT power tubes (40 watts), 5 Sovtek 12AX7WA preamp tubes, and a chinese 12AT7 for driving the two spring reverb. There are just three knobs on the clean channel; volume, treble, and bass. There are also reverb, speed, and intensity controls which work on BOTH channels. The lead channel has only three controls; volume, tone, and mid-bite. If you've been counting, that is the same number of knobs as the Deluxe Reverb. The lead channel is where the normal channel is located on a Deluxe. The whole front panel feels real familiar. There is only one input at the far left. There is a channel changing toggle switch between the lead and rhythm channels. The rear panel is a lot like the back of the Deluxe with some exceptions. There is a removable power cord, one speaker output (4 ohms), a standby and power switch located exactly where you'd expect them on a Deluxe, a footswitch jack (controls the channel switch and the tremelo.) I really like to be able to footswitch the tremelo on and off. I don't need it to do reverb because it is always on. There are quarter inch reverb in and out jacks. And last but not least a half power switch for the lead channel only. The Tone King Continental head looks absolutely stunning. It is covered in expensive naugahyde in a choice of colors. I got the red and white. It looks like it could be the front panel of an early 60's water ski boat. I didn't have enough scratch to buy the matching 2x12 cabinet but that will be my next purchase. It is also gorgeous. The footswitch doesn't come as part of the amp. You have to buy it separately for about $80. It is worth getting because of how it looks. It is made of cast aluminum and has the color scheme of your amp choice printed onto the top. I'm giving the amp a 9 instead of a 10 for features because it would be nice if it had an effects loop. For the type of music I play there plenty of clean and distorted power. The amp is solidly built and is flawless in all of the details.

Now understand where I am coming from amp wise. I've been playing a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue with both a PRS CE and a Bonnie Raitt Strat. Sometimes I'd put a distortion pedal in front of it. There were times when gigging where the Deluxe would not have enough horsepower for me. When you are playing in a loud band you can't get loud and clean on a Deluxe. There were also times where even at 10 it couldn't quite keep up with a high energy band. To solve this problem I would play a Mesa DC3 (35 watts) which had enough juice to play louder both clean and dirty. I am always concerned about my hearing so I don't want an amp that has too much wattage because I'll probably use it if it is there. Plus I think lower wattage amps sound better. The Deluxe on about 3-4 is just gorgeous. The Mesa never sounded as good as the Deluxe on any settings, but it did the trick volume wise. What I needed was an amp that would sound like a Deluxe Reverb, only louder for the times I wanted to play clean and sweet (reverb is an absolute must in my book). I also needed an amp that could play nasty at the appropriate volume (I like to play in a mid 70's Hot Tuna style which is basically an aggressive psychedelic trio sound). For those of you who don't know, one of the things that make a Deluxe sound so good is the 6v6 tube (it uses two of them). IMHO this is the best tube for a guitar amp. The two in the Deluxe put out about 20 watts, hence the lack of clean headroom. The Tone King Continental uses 4 6v6 tubes in a unique circuit. It has TWO output transformers so that their are two independent pairs of 6v6's (cathode bias) wired in parallel at the speaker jack so it is Class A amp. On the clean channel you really have the Deluxe Reverb sound except louder. It is a treat to be able to loud and clean without the low E string farting out. And when you push the clean channel hard it sounds just excellent. Lots of touchy feely with a rock and roll edge. The mid-bite control on the lead channel has a very pronounced effect on the tone of the amp. On 2 -3 it makes the channel sound like a cranked Blackface Deluxe Reverb. This is pretty cool because you can have a loud and clean Deluxe sound on the rhythm channel and footswitch over to a cranked Deluxe sound. The further up you turn the mid-bite control the more pronounced the mid-range gets. As you get close to all the way up the gain increases and you get into cranking Marshall territory. But it doesn't lose the Fender vibe until most of the way up on the mid-bite control. The half power switch disables one pair of the 6v6s in lead mode only. This way you can have 40 watts of clean power on the rhythm channel, and only 20 watts of cranked lead. It helps balance things nicely in a small room. I prefer the full power lead mode though.

I've only had it for 4 days but it does come with a two year warranty. It is built like a tank and I don't expect any problems with it.

After I bought the amp I spoke with the company to ask some questions and compliment them on their killer tone and looks. They couldn't have been nicer. The fellow I spoke with answered all of my questions, and offered some helpful suggestions about matched tubes, why 12AX7WAs were used instead of 12AX7WBs, and any other question I cared to ask. It was a most pleasant conversation.

After 4 days I would definitely buy it again. It is so cool I can't begin to tell you. I checked out a lot of the boutique amps and this is the one I picked. Money was not an issue, tone was. This is the first time I have owned an amp of this caliber. Since I am a big fan of 6V6's, and a lover of Fender Deluxe Reverbs, I was gratified to find an amp that would give me that tone, but louder. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the lead tone is great. The bass response from this amp is tight and very dynamic. All in all you can't go wrong with the Tone King Continental.