Analogman's King of Tone Overdrive

Analogman’s King of Tone (KOT) overdrive pedal

Peerless Tone Review

Analogman introduced this pedal a couple of years ago as the perfect overdrive pedal. It was co designed by Jim Wieder with final circuit tweaking by Ohbayashi san. After putting this pedal through it’s paces in my rig for a few weeks I wanted to write this comprehensive and critical review. This is a very nice sounding pedal and for some will serve as the Holy Grail, however is not designed to meet everyone’s needs. Some players who use their pedals for hi gain applications will be better off sticking to the tube screamer or another hi gain pedal. The King of Tone (KoT) is, in my opinion, a truly great pedal. A classic. But it is not for everybody and will not have the mass appeal as a TS808. This pedal is for blues players and tone connoisseur's who are really picky about their tone. Some players may even find harder to get a good tone off this pedal initially because it puts the whole process back into your fingers. Its not a typical stompbox. I do think it is a really cool pedal but less seasoned guitar players are not going to like it because it wont flatter their playing.

This is a review of version 4 of the KoT which is built as two pedals in one. It is very similar in function to other duel overdrive pedals such as the Fulltone Fulldrive II or the Foxrox ZIM (especially the ZIM which also has a fully independent pair of cascadeable overdrive modules). However, unlike the Foxrox ZIM, the independent inputs/outputs for each pedal are not present so you cannot put effects between the KoT drive modules nor can you isolate modules via patch-cable routing. No big deal. Having independent drive and volumes for each side of the pedal is a modern feature players are starting to make use of. You can set each side up as boost, overdrive, or distortion. Each side also has its own tone control. There is also a treble booster on the inside of the pedal on the circuit board. I found this control very sensitive and useful for tweaking the pedal for different amp / guitar combo’s. It is a very sensitive dial and the treble enhancement sounds good and is very useful. The default (treble off) position sounded fine but this is a great feature to have when you need it because it is very useful. The tone control on the outside is also very sensitive and musical. You can use it like a tube screamer; set it and leave it alone or you can play with it a bit to color your tone. Like the inside control this control too has utility. For instance I turned the tone control of the side I used for boosting the overdrive almost full clockwise in order to dial in more presence and get a Range Master type vibe. This gave some of my bluesy neck pickup strat licks that silky sweet sound. The construction and parts used are all top notch and high grade. That is a phrase that gets bounced around a lot but that craftsmanship inside this pedal is truly something to behold. A pair of dip switches on the circuit board toggles between settings (boost, overdrive, distortion) and allow for independent assignment of settings to each side. It becomes simple enough after a bit of experimentation.

I read a lot of comments on Harmony Central about how tweakable this pedal is and how you really had to tinker with it at first to get your sound out of it. I was puzzled by this since this pedal seemed like it was very straight forward and would be really simple to dial it like any other overdrive pedal. I was surprised to find that the pedal actually did require a bit of fusing around in order t get the best sounds from my rig. As simple as it is, the controls are very interactive, especially when combining the two sides. I eventually ended up going with the reverse of the default setting. I put the yellow side on overdrive and the red side set to boost. This gave me a bit more drive when cascading. This setup would be analogous to having a boost pedal in front of your overdrive. Feel free to experiment however, because Analogman actually prefers the reversed arrangement because it will give you more signal boost. I guess there is no right or wrong, these options just depend largely on your amp and setting in which you play I gave up on the distortion setting early on it my experimentation. This is one of the pedals strong points, again returning to its remarkable versatility and it will take time to hone in on what works best with your rig. I gave up on the distortion setting early on it my experimentation. Their just isn’t enough drive in this pedal to make that setting any more useful than the overdrive setting. Perhaps more experience with the pedal will allow this setting to become more useful.

My basic rig for testing was a Lil Dawg D-Lux (5E3 clone) with a Weber Blue Dog and a Fender Strat equipped with Bare Knuckle pickups or a stock Heritage CM 140 2nd Edition with HRW pickups. Everything was hooked together with Fulltone guitar cables and GeorgeL patch cables. My first impression was that this pedal does not have very much gain. Analog man says this pedal is rated just under the gain of a tube screamer. A tube screamer set to 11 o”clock is about the gain of this pedal when dimmed. I am not saying this is a bad thing, I am just making the statement as accurate as I can because as great as this pedal turns out to be, this is all the gain your going to get. If you require more overdrive then this then this might not be the pedal for you. If you think you are in this category, read on anyway, because this is still a very useful and good sounding pedal. [SEE POSTSCRIPT AT BOTTOM REGARDING THIS ISSUE]

My next impression was that this pedal sounds just like my amp does when cranked! Just turn the gains all the way up and use your guitar volume for cleaning up and adjusting the overall gain. The pedal is very attack sensitive; just like an amp. Given this and the fact that there is not much gain anyway, I found myself playing at full-up pr close two it with my strat which sounded very clean and uh, strat like. That is, the KoT allowed my strat to sound like it is supposed to. I realized how even the best overdrive pedals tend to cover up or mask the real true tone of your guitar and pickups. Break out the CM 140 (Les Paul) for some real bite. Again, this pedal sounds just like the amp cranked up. There is no compression of the notes, so the drive is not as smooth. The sound and quality of your guitar’s pickups are going to come into play here. I really enjoyed playing through this pedal and the whole time I just felt like I was playing through just my amp. I started to think, do I really need this pedal? In my living room? Oh yeah. I also want the pedal on stage where I want a really good drive, but I do not want to crank the amp up so that the tubes start compressing the signal too much. Or I can use this pedal to push a crank amp over the edge. This pedal does sound like my amp cranked, but maybe even a little better. This reminds me of Analogman's history section on the KoT webpage where he compares the sound of the KoT on his Deluxe Reverb to a tweaked to perfection Deluxe Reverb (as the story goes the pedal was actually tuned to impersonate this great amp, one modded by the late great Ceaser Diaz). Now that I own this pedal I am sure the story is true and not hype.

The overdrive produced by this pedal is so natural sounding that this is a great pedal to play other pedals through. Case in point: my favorite BYOC fuzz face. You know how fuzz pedals sound the best when they are in front of an amp that is just starting to break up? Most of us use fuzz with just a little bit of overdrive to smooth it out. Fuzz faces sound so good in front of this pedal. I found myself playing my fuzz pedal much more and with much delight. It is like I bought a new killer fuzz along with the KoT. A tube screamer is just too muddy for this. The KoT is very transparent and natural with almost no compression. I get along quite well with tube screamers. However, as great as TS808’s are, the KoT exposes how muddy and mid thick tube screamers are. The KoT has way more volume, especially if you are using the boost. It can really get loud. On the other hand the TS808 has quite a bit more gain and increased midrange. The KoT lacks this midrange hump and therefore at times may not cut through the mix as well as a TS808. The boosted midrange of a tube screamer is what allows it pedal to cut through the mix so well and this is why the TS808 is so special in the first place. I always scratch my head when guitarists ask for a flat mids TS 808. This is just being ignorant of what the tube screamer is for; the mids are supposed to be boosted. However, it’s great to kick on the KoT and loose this effect and hear the natural sound of pure overdrive. Having said this, it will be great to occasionally kick on a TS808 and hear how you cut through the mix in a band situation. Therefore I see these two pedals easily coexisting on the pedal board. Choosing between one over the other is limiting. Again, the KoT has a pretty flat EQ curve. Sometimes it is hard to hear the overdrive as it is so clean (my ears being so used to the tube screamer sound). This may limit its ability for crunchy power chords to cut through the mix in certain band situations.

Again, the KoT does not have a lot of compression in the overdrive. Thus adding to it’s clarity. It is so uncompressed that I never heard the “singing” effect Analogman spoke of. Not enough compression and just not enough gain (even when both sides are engaged) to get this effect. In regard to singing, I think of the violin like sustains of the boost side of the Fulltone Fulldrive II. Now that is a singing pedal. The KoT will need a little help to get into this range. This pedal may be best suited for those light overdrive applications like blues playing and classic rock. Take this comment with a grain of salt though because there is a lot of magic in those classic rock and blues tones, and in this overdrive box. Good tone is good tone.

I have always wanted a pedal like this. I often listen to Rory Gallagher’s first couple of records and think about his tone: it’s overdriven but not saturated and not smooth and thick like he is using a pedal. It just sounds like he is running the amp to the point where it is about to blow up. It sounds like it is just almost at the point of perfection. The overdriven tone that the guitarist hears in his head as ‘perfect’ and he is pushing the amp as hard as he can to get the amp as close as he can to that point. It’s being pushed almost to that point; it’s almost there but not quite, Maybe some of the time but mostly just right on the edge. This is the Zen of attaining peerless tone. This is how all the classic recordings of good guitar tone sound to me. Click on an overdrive pedal and you easily hit this point and beyond. The Zen is gone. This is what made the tones of Gallagher, Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, Hendrix, and countless Chicago blues recordings sound so good.

Overall this is a great pedal. It functions just as Analogman described on his page. It does exactly what it is intended to do and the sound quality and construction quality is top notch. This pedal is priced right too given the overpricing of many boutique overdrives. Hats off to Analogman for not sticking it to his customers when he could have asked so much more for this pedal that is both innovative in sound and design. I really do not see the KoT replacing any of the overdrives on my board (e.g. ZIM, TS808, Rat, etc) but it is a pedal that will coexist right along with them. Having said that, I find myself playing through the KoT more frequently than I play my other overdrives. Only time will tell where this will go. The reduced gain and compression in this pedal helps in letting your guitar’s true sound come through. It will also make your fingers work a little bit harder too. This is one of those pedals that will make you play better and instead of simply stamping its own color and EQ curve to your sound it will allow you to find your own tone with it. Thanks, Analogman. Thank you very much!

POSTSCRIPT 3/12/08

I would like to make some additional comments on this pedal after using it for a longer time. As I become more experienced with the pedal and learned how to set it up to best interact with my amps some of my above opinions did change.

First off, in the above I said that this pedal is a good addition to the pedal board but will not necessarily boot off the TS808. As of now, the KoT is the only overdrive on my board except a fuzz face. The Ts808 and ZIM are currently of no use to me. The KoT just has better sound quality, it is more natural and organic, more responsive. I just don't need the other pedals anymore. For now at least, even by beloved Range Master clone is sitting on the shelf. I can get that magical boosted tone and snarl with the KoT red channel (as I have it set up, see above).

In the above review I mentioned that the KoT may not have enough gain. I disagree with my own first impressions now. I think I was not used to the overdrive without compression. I actually get all the gain I need from this pedal and for changing it's tone I would use an EQ pedal (to get metal sounds with for instance). For blues and rock and even hard rock the KoT does fine. Good tone is good tone. The gain can get to that snarling blistering stage. What you do with it is up to you.

I also have to note that my comments about this pedals limited ability to cut through the mix has been repeatedly challenged by other players.

I totally left out a great feature of this pedal. The ability to swap out booth opamp chips makes this a great engine for testing the sound characteristics of different opamps. This is such a cool feature for those of us that like to test such things out. Not to mention this feature adds even more flexibility to the tones generated by this pedal. Maybe one day soon someone among us can post results from such experiments.

Another issue regarding gain that indeed this is a low to medium gain pedal. I sorta missed the point in the beginning. The best tones from Angus Young, Jimmy Page, Larry Carlton, are all rather subtle. The most sensitive range of this pedal, its dynamic operating range, is at this lower spectrum and thus makes this pedal fantastic for dialing in many different shades of overdrive. This pedal is far more versatile than I first realized. The essential tones that we all look for from a barely overdriven amp or an amp that is breaking up in that most magical way are in attainable with this pedal. Combine channels or blend with your amp's overdrive and you can go over the top with it.

For low volume bedroom situations this is the best solution I have ever come across. You an turn this pedal way down and it will still make your amp sound really good. You can get that enhanced tone of a cranked amp at very low volumes with this pedal.

All in all this is a very special pedal. This may turn out to be one of the best overdrives if not the best overdrive ever made. I am speaking of its ability to blend with the existing sound of your amp and other gear, especially your guitars pickups.

If you would like to say anything about this review or discuss this pedal please goto Analogman's King of Tone Discussion.

Your comments and participation are encouraged!