Ugly Truth About Tone City King of Blues

If you suffer from GAS as I do, then you are probably aware of the influx of pedals from china. I'm not talking about BOSS, or Digitech, or Mooer, or Mod Tone or any of the other pedal brands that manufacture overseas. As I remember, it started with Joyo. They made a brand for themselves by mostly copying other pedals and rebranding them, all at discount prices. There has been several others to come about. These pedals have a bit of a stigma already. The first time I ordered a Joyo pedal, the wrong pedal came, and customer service was so bad that I opted to sell the pedal outright instead of returning it. There has been several brands to come about since, and service and quality seem to be improving as well. However Tone City don't seem to be turning out the 'same old stuff' as these other brands. When I first saw their pedals, I did think they were just shined up Chinese copies. To start, you can find lists of the pedals that most of their micro-pedal like is emulating. What caught my attention was their release of their larger, seemingly more original, pedals. I learned of these when I saw my favorite two Brits fool around with them:

Chappers and The Captain are amusing to watch and their production quality is nearly unmatched on YouTube. Something that you have to remember is that they are representing a store. This store sells the products that they are demonstrating. Bare in mind that it would not be beneficial for them to complain about or criticize these pedals. They are going to speak favorably about them, but one thing that Lee 'The Captain' Anderton said made my ears perk up. Most of these dual button Tone City pedals are voiced like very particular amps. All except one, one is just called, "King of Blues". Lee mentioned that he thought that it could be a aNaLoG MaN King of Tone clone. I decided to find out for myself.

I Haven't Played A King of Tone

So this first one is telling on myself. I haven't had a chance to play through one of the more iconic boutique pedals. I have listened to many high quality demonstrations, but I know that there is a lot missing from these. There is no way of sensing the attack sensitivity or feeling how the pedal reacts with the amp. I will say that I've heard a wide range of tone from this one pedal. Obviously the amp these pedal being played through are very important, also the guitar and anything else that is in-line with the pedal. So everything taken with a grain of salt, the KOT is a full sounding flexible overdrive. It is capable of clean-ish 'transparent' boost and thick saturated overdrive. So I may not have played one of these pedals, but I've spent a lot of time researching just what makes this pedal so sought after.

The Pedal Has A Mix Message

Several descriptions of this pedal include that the first stage of this pedal is a straight Klon copy. Stating the the second stage is an 'original' design. I find this a little over simplified. I also think that this description is a little lazy. However, you can't dismiss it entirely. Tone City makes a spot on Klon copy in the 'Bad Horse' pedal. The famous circuit shrunk down just like the Tumnus from Wampler. This is completely likely, however, the KOT and the Klon have similar features as it stands, so the comparisons between each of these pedals may not be totally baseless. I've recently put the King of Blues pedal against every Klon circuit I could get my hands on, and my verdict is that it may share characteristics, I can't say that its a direct copy of the Klon. For one, the Tone knob works like a tone knob (low pass filter) rather than a treble boost. The amounts of gain are similar but the output from the pedal is notably less. The King of Blues of much warmer than any Klon or Klone that I've ever played. From what I've heard of the Tone City 'Bad Horse' (klone) these are not the same circuits.

If It Is A KOT Clone, Then I Have Bad News

Let's say that this is a KOT copy. The real deal goes for north of $300. That's three times the price I paid for this pedal. That's KTR money. Sure, there are other pedals that fetch that kind of money, but what is really striking is that the pedal is only so-so. I do like the pedal. It is capable of several good sounds, and it is really flexible. Two 'channels' make it a great option to handle your overdrive tones. But, if this is a actuate copy of the famous pedal, then I don't see what is so great about it. I'm able to do everything this pedal does with a couple of other overdrives already on my board. This might have had the appeal at the beginning of the boutique boom, but now it's just riding the way of hype from its glory days.

Conclusion

This is a fine pedal. If you are looking for a multi-stage low/medium gain overdrive then this might be the thing for you. I'd put it above a Fulltone Fulldrive (a pedal that I don't really care for all that much), but I'm probably not going to replace what I already have on my board with this. There might be certain situations that I'd prefer this pedal to others, like if I wanted to run a small-ish board for some running around, but it fall short of the litany of pedals that occupy my board. Its good, but it's not "sell all your pedals now and get one of these" good.

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Ugly Truth About Counterfet Pedals

As anyone who appreciates a nice guitar pedal knows, there is a struggle between spending money on guitar stuff and other things that are less important, like food. So when you can, you try to find deals that make it possible to purchase more of the stuff you need, and maybe put gas in your car if their is a little left over. Recently I've patrolled the internet for a good deal. I found what seemed to be fair. What I traded for was a Surh Riot overdrive/distortion. This pedal is sold for about $200 which made it attractive. The general thought about this pedal is that it is well like. I was sold. So I made a trade of an unspecified amount, but one that I thought favored me. I was wrong...

It turned out to be a fake. There appears to be many of the fakes coming from mostly China. Here is some help information about keeping yourself safe from making the same mistake I did.

1. It's Hard To Tell The Fakes

It seems like this one would be a given. and it is. The people who set out to fool people with their pedals, try hard to imitate the original. I'm not saying that these are clones or copies that share a circuit, but pedals that function and look like the real thing, but are nothing but a sham. Sometimes it take a look on the inside to confirm the actual layout of the circuit or components used. If you suspect that your pedal might be a forgery, and if you aren't lucky enough to have access to a confirmed authentic pedal, Google is your friend. Most pedals have gut-shots on the internet. These are important to help you confirm your pedal. Forums are also handy to weed out your suspect pedal.

2. Pedals That You Think Could Be Fake Aren't

If you've ever tried to mod pedals, you know that even real pedal will have variances from time to time. Boss pedals are notorious about changes the circuits with-in the same models. Fulltone's OCD is on it's forth version. and nearly every other pedal that has been around long enough, have been changed to some extent. So what might look like funny business, might just mean that it is a difference version. It is important to know exactly what your are looking at before you call shanagins.

3. They Might Actually Be Decent Pedals

These pedals are based on, if not directly copying the original, so chances are that they sound like the originals too. The most surprising thing about my experience is that the pedal is good. I was surprised to learn that the pedal I've come to like was a fake. So the pedal that I thought I was getting a deal on, ends up being a decent pedal. If you look at it from a economist's perspective, the utility (how much something is worth to the actual user) is determined by how much the product it enjoyed. In theory, the copy could be enjoyed more. Especially when you consider that the copy is a fraction of the McCoy's price.

In Conclusion

These copies are a corrupt attempt to profit off the success of companies that have toiled for there success. It's an easy was to profit off of something they have not earned. The years dedicated to developing these circuits are often only worth it if the one responsible for that circuit can then turn that work into something profitably. If that product gets ripped off then it there is no incentive to design it in the first place. These imitators might claim to make something more affordable, but make no mistake. If they use the name of the notable original, then it is damaging, not only that particular maker, but the whole independent designer community.