Imperial MKII Preamp Module – HomeToneBlog.com

28th July 202527th July 2025

First Impressions: BJFe Honey Bee OD Retro

Earlier this month, I picked up one of my holy grail pedals: a Honey Bee OD made by BJFe.

This is a photo of three guitar effects pedals on the author's pedalboard.

On the far-left, is the BJFe-in-your-hand series Honey Bee Overdrive by One Control. It's a distinctive warm honey colour, with four control knobs on the top surface.

In the middle is the BJFe Honey Bee OD Retro, by BJFe. This pedal is a lighter shade, almost yellow. It has three control knobs on its top surface.

On the right-hand side is the Klone v2 by Arc Effects. This pedal has a metallic gold finish. It spots the Klon's distinctive control knobs.

What do I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.

6th July 20255th July 2025

#CoffeeAndKlon 42: Can I Learn To Love My RYRA The Klone?

#CoffeeAndKlon is my (irregular!) Sunday morning magazine series, where I talk about whatever’s on my mind right now. There’s always coffee, and there’s normally chat about the Klon and its many competitors.

I’ve had my RYRA The Klone pedal longer than this blog’s been going, so why haven’t I featured it at all until now? Why hasn’t it had the love from me that its fan base says it deserves?

And is that about to change? Can I learn to love my RYRA The Klone?

3rd June 20252nd June 2025

First Impressions: Tone King Imperial MKII Synergy Preamp Module #TweedTone

Synergy have just released the Tone King Imperial MKII preamp module.

This is a photo of the Imperial MKII preamp module in a (dusty!) Synergy SYN-1 housing.

On the left of the module, there are two rows of three pots, one row per channel.

The top row of three controls are for the Lead channel (the tweed-voiced overdrive channel). They are labelled Volume, Tone, and Mid Bite.

The bottom three controls are for the Rhythm channel (the blackface-voiced clean channel). They are labelled Volume, Bass and Treble.

Next to them are two large, fixed stepped controls. These are the Attenuation controls, one for each channel.

There's a mini toggle switch nestled in between the two large controls. This enables a high-frequency cut.

On the right, there are two more toggle switches, to switch on the built-in, valve-driven tremolo. Next to them are two more pots, for controlling the speed and depth of the tremolo circuit.

I found one in stock here in the UK the day after launch, and ordered it straight away.

Now that it’s here in a very dusty Hermit’s Cave, what do I think of it? Here are my (very positive) first impressions.

31st May 2025

New Arrivals: May 2025

They say buses come in threes. After a quiet couple of months, I’ve had three new (to me) tweed-tone preamps all arrive within 48 hours of each other.

Sadly, I won’t be keeping them all …