Analog Man King of Tone V4 w/Mode Toggle & High Gain Red Side

The King of Tone (KoT) is either the most hyped or most desired Boost/Overdrive/Distortion on the market. Analog Man founder Mike Piera has been hand-building these in Bethel CT, USA for years and the waiting list to purchase one is also measured in years! These are made one-by-one in limited batches by a small group of assemblers from the best components. They are highly sort after and many people will pay a premium price for a used one from eBay or REVERB. Maybe one of the few pedals that demand a higher price in the used market than the new purchase price due to the wait.

Analog Man Mike Piera has chosen to limit production and not ramp up his small business to meet the high demand. During the recession years it allowed his company to survive and thrive.

If you want to take a look at ProAnalog Devices Scotty Smith in 2018 you can see a different solution to building pedals and meeting a high demand. The Manticore pedal was hand built and the waiting list was extending 7-8 months. Scotty’s solution was to partner with a larger pedal builder and mass produce the the pedal changing it to the Manticore 2. If you take a look at my comparison you will see that there is lots of differences between the Manticore and the Manticore 2. Although, both are awesome pedals. This is one way for a small boutique builder to survive the pressure and the finances.

Analog Man Mike wants to keep quality high and limiting production is the method he is using. The KoT v4 has been in production since 2005. Will the KoT only increase in value and become more rare? Only time will tell. For now, well over a decade into the pedal’s lifetime, it’s clear that the enthusiasm among players is only growing—and there’s no sign of that stopping anytime soon.

Same can be said for the original hand-built Manticore. Looking at what the original Klon sells for, who knows? In my case none were bought as a financial investment, just for an investment in TONE!

From Analog Man Mike:
“People like to think that we did this waiting list as a business strategy, as a way to create hype, or as a way to make money. You can’t make money on things you’re not selling,” Piera says. “There are actually a lot of issues dealing with waiting lists. I had to hire someone as a King of Tone waiting list administrator just to deal with the emails.”

While one possible solution would seem to be simply increasing production of the pedal, the diodes and capacitors required for the design were discontinued several years ago. “If I hire 20 people to build them, then I’ll be done in two months and never be able to build any more, because there’s only so many parts,” Piera says.

Starting in 2016, we are only allowing four KoT pedals per customer, even if you order one every few years, because too many people are selling them for a profit. After four, your orders will be cancelled.

This pedal is a legend! Hyped and hard to find and copied like the Klon. This is the latest v4 version with the optional Mode Toggle Switch that allows the “red” side to choose Boost/Overdrive/Distortion (without opening the back to use the DIP switches) and High Gain Red Side option that allows for about 20% more gain on “red” side.

The mini toggle on the red side does experience a volume drop when engaging the OD or DIST mode. I noticed my Prince of Tone (POT) this was not noticeable. I emailed Analog Man Mike about this and he replied “yes that is correct, the POT does not have as much volume drop as distortion mode is improved.”

The KoT sounds nothing like a Klon or a Tube Screamer. It started life using a Blues Breaker circuit, but has evolved into the present unique and amazing sounding box it is. The KoT is a mainstay on many pro guitarists pedal boards. Jim Weider played huge part of the design for the KoT. I have seen Jim live a few times at his Maters of the Telecaster shows and his tone is amazing!

Inside the Analog Man King of Tone there is a 4 position DIP switch and table boost trim pot for each side of the pedal. The DIP switches allow you to choose between Clean, OD, and DISTORTION modes and the Treble boost trim pots add more presence.

DIP Switch Modes (4) – the left two switches are for the red side and the right two for the yellow side of the pedal. You can set either side to normal OD mode or CLEAN mode by moving it’s OD/CLEAN dip switch (switch 1 or 3). You can set either side for additional distortion, with the DIST dip switches (2 and 4). When you turn one of these DIST switches ON you get significantly more and harder distortion, and a little less volume. When the DIST switch is on you can’t get the normal OD or CLEAN modes on that side. See the manual for specific information on setting the DIP switches.

King of Tone pedal info from the Analog Man website:

Hand made in the USA

Analog Man, in collaboration with Jim Weider (of The Band), have come out with the pedal we have been looking for for many years – the King Of Tone (KoT). There are many overdrive pedals on the market, but none of them have been quite right, preserving the tone of the guitar and adding the right amount of overdrive without compromise. There are some good clean boosts available, but they just don’t have enough drive to really give your amp the distortion you often want. There are some newer OD pedals that have a great frequency response, but to me they sound too DRY, a bit sterile and cardboardy. There are also some nice sounding pedals available but their sound is too “saturated”, losing the touch and feel of your guitar. That is where the King Of Tone pedal comes in – it has enough warm overdrive but still preserves the tones of your quality guitars and amps. If you are looking for a big change in your sound, or a lot of distortion, this is probably not the pedal for you.

Jim had been using an original TS-808 for well over 20 years, it’s now housed in a 1980s TS9 case after Rick Danko stepped on it at a concert that THE BAND played. Jim likes the tone of his TS-808, but has always found it loses some low end and is a bit too heavy in the mids. I also love TS808s and have sold thousands of TS9s with our TS808 mods. But sometimes I have wished for a less compressed, more open and natural sound with more of the guitar’s actual tone, or as Jim says “you can hear the note better”. A Tube Screamer makes it easier to play and sound good due to the compression and vocal midrange boost, but a master player like Jim would often prefer less coloration to allow his techniques and superb tone to get through.

A good friend of ours suggested the old Marshall Blues Breaker pedal might work for Jim, so we found one on eBay and I had it sent to Jim who said it was pretty good. So I got another one on eBay and modified it quickly with some improved parts for a baseline test. I brought it up to Woodstock and Jim’s sounded better, I was surprised! Then I opened Jim’s up and saw that it was already modified heavily! I thought he was playing a joke on me, but he just laughed, someone sold it on eBay like that. I tried those mods but didn’t like them much, so we totally redid the circuit with different diodes, chips, capacitors, treble boost, modes- pretty much everything was changed. And of course the KoT is two pedal circuits in one box. So our KoT pedal is not much like, and does not sound much like a Blues Breaker pedal anymore. Especially the clean or distortion modes are different, and the higher gain option changes it even more, making it more useful throughout the DRIVE knob range. We used the higher gain KoT circuit as the base for the Prince Of Tone which came out in 2012, and improved the DISTORTION mode also on the PoT.

The King Of Tone overdrive was designed to take an amp at reasonable settings, and make it sound like it would sound if it were naturally driven to pure, smooth, tube distortion. It was fine tuned with Jim’s 1960s Fender Deluxe Reverb amp to duplicate the sound when his amp is singing, but at lower volume settings – to simulate the natural tube amp distortion of preamp and power tubes. It does the same thing on other amps like Vox, Marshall, etc, making them sing in their own voice. Jim’s amp was modified by our good friend the late Cesar Diaz, and is about the best sounding Fender amp I have heard. Later on, I tested the KoT on my own 1966 Deluxe Reverb amp. My amp is stock, and does not sound that great when it’s cranked up. It gets loud but not very warm or singing, a little harsh. My amp sounds MUCH better using the KoT for overdrive, then it sounds very close to Jim’s amp.

Tube Screamer comparison:
Everyone seems to know what a Tube Screamer sounds like, so we can use them to describe how the KoT sounds. Even our modified Tube Screamers and all the boutique TS clones out there are still basically tube screamers, so this info will still apply.

The KoT is one of the few overdrive pedals available that is NOT based on a Tube Screamer circuit. In OD mode, it has a little less drive available than a Tube Screamer. It has quite a bit more volume available than a Tube Screamer and The TONE control has a similar range. The KoT has less compression than a tube screamer, and also does not boost the mids or cut the low end as much. It does not have a large amount of distortion.

Once we had a prototype that Jim liked and used on stage several times, I emailed the circuit to my collaborator in Japan, Ohbayashi san, and he tried several ideas I gave him. CAMTAC Ohbayashi san has a suberb ear for details like capacitor and chip selection and came up with some great ideas for the pedal- a chip and diodes that made it sound even better! The special JRC chip he preferred was designed for audio tone controls, and has a warm yet clear sound. The diodes are more open sounding, for a stronger, clearer, less compressed sound and more volume. All the nuances of your playing and each string of the guitar will come through clearly.

The Version 4 King of Tone was developed in late 2005 due to popular demand for separate controls for each channel of the original 4 knob KoT. The original KoT was one overdrive circuit, with 2 channels, having separate volume controls and internal configurations. Almost all “dual overdrive” pedals available are like this. The Ver4 KoT is actually TWO overdrive pedals in one box, one on each side. Remember that each side is a separate pedal, and they are the same except for how you set the DIP switches. Each side has an on/off switch, LED, and three independant knobs. Each side also has configuration DIP switches and a TREBLE trim pot on the inside. Having two actual overdrive circuits allows you to use both pedals at once, in series (stacking) for even more possible tones and levels of drive!

Each side has it’s own Volume, Drive, and Tone control and LED. We use SUPER BRIGHT Yellow and Red LEDs so you can easily tell which channel is selected. In addition, there is a TREBLE BOOST knob on the inside of the pedal. This is a small knob or trimpot which can be turned by hand or with a pick or small screwdriver. Jim does not need more treble for his Tele, but I found it allowed some superb tones with my ’59 reissue Les Paul through my ’69 Marshall amp, similar to the sweet yet biting tones of Michael Bloomfield (I believe he used a Fender Twin amp with his famous 1959 sunburst.

When comparing the King of Tone to my Prince of Tone I can say they sound quite similar. So saying that the King of Tone is two side-by-side Prince of Tones in ONE pedal is not too far from the truth. Both these pedals sound wonderful in front of any amp I tried with it and also was great with just about any guitar. The tone can get distorted, but not without definition. The volume control on your guitar can clean up the signal. The signal is warm and not shrill and lacks the mid boost you might hear with a Tube Screamer. If HIGH gain is what you are after, this pedal is likely not for you. Hype or not the King of Tone is a great pedal!

Analog Man Prince of Tone and King of Tone