Synergy Amps – 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 …

26th March 202525th March 2025

#PlexiTone: Synergy Plexi Module + Axe-FX 3 For Reference Marshall Plexi Tones

After last week’s success with my Synergy BMan module, I decided to see if the same approach would work with my Synergy Plexi module and the Axe-FX 3.

This is a bit more of a quick and dirty effort. But hopefully you’ll agree that the results are, at the least, very promising.

18th March 202516th March 2025

#TweedTone: Dialling In A 5F6 Bassman Reference Tone For 2025

Recently, I posted about my latest attempt at creating a reference tone for my 5e3 Tweed Deluxe reissue amp. I’m still wrestling with creating a similar 5e3 reference tone purely in the Axe-FX 3. Sadly, I’m nowhere near ready to write up my promised comparison of the two.

I decided to take a break from that, and work on another reference tone that I’m going to need for future #TweedTone blog posts: capturing the mighty 5F6 Tweed Bassman sound.

Here’s how I got on. There’s audio demos to listen to, and a full breakdown of the signal chain that I used, with plenty of photos / screenshots to show you everything.

26th December 202424th December 2024

2024 Review: Pedal Platforms & Other Amps

Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why. And, this year, I’m expanding it to talk more about using amps for more than just pedals.

Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021][2022][2023]

26th December 202327th December 2023

2023 Review: Pedal Platform Amps

Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why.

Previous years: [2019] [2020] [2021][2022]

11th March 202310th March 2023

(Overdue) First Impressions: Lazy J Cruiser Deuce Boost Pedal

Back in January 2023, I picked up something a bit different: a pedal that’s designed (amongst other things) for boosting tweed amps.

Read on for my (overdue!) First Impressions, with audio examples too!

31st January 2023

New Arrivals: January 2023

Normally, I try to pick up something memorable in January, to celebrate another year of running my own business. It doesn’t always happen, but the idea’s always in the back of my mind when I’m looking at what’s around on the second-hand market.

This month, I picked up just the one item … but it turned out to be very special to me.