Tone King Metropolitan 1x12" Combo

The 40W 1x12 Metropolitan Tube Guitar Combo Amp is the finest amplifier ever produced by Tone King. It is an entirely new design, with an exciting new sound, driven by the warm resonance, midrange chime, and three-dimensional sound of its new speaker and cabinet design, and the enhanced sustain of its ultra-pure signal path. It also includes the breakthrough new Phase-4 output power control technology developed by Tone King, which gives you the sound of natural power tube overdrive and distortion at any power level from 0.1W to the full 40W.

Warm, woody resonance, effortless sustain
The Metropolitan is a magical guitar amplifier with a sound all its own. The lightweight, resonant speaker cabinet is tuned and voiced as if it were a musical instrument unto itself, producing the perfect balance of warm, woody resonance and elastic feel, as well as power and punch. The ultra-pure signal path and automatically balanced and calibrated phase inverter give you an unusually effortless sustain, even on perfectly clean notes, and a bell-like clarity.

Hand built quality
The Metropolitan is built to the highest standards of quality with only the finest materials. From the cabinetry, to the upholstering, to the electronic assembly and testing, each amp is entirely hand-built by designer Mark Bartel in his Baltimore, MD craft shop. Not satisfied with using off-the-shelf parts, Mr. Bartel works with skilled fabricators to develop custom components such as transformers and speakers in order to craft his totally unique and musical creations to his exacting standards.

Revolutionary power control
The revolutionary Phase-4 power control system gives you the ability to achieve the true sound and feel of an amp cranked up and driven into natural overdrive and power tube crunch, at any volume - even "bedroom" volume - by providing a usuable output power range of 0.1W - 40W.

Over the years, scores of approaches have been devised to achieve this end (master volumes, power scaling, attenuators, etc.). Tone King designer Mark Bartel has tried them all, but has never been sufficiently satisfied with any of them to consider including them in his designs - until he developed the Phase-4 power control system.

Tone King's breakthrough Phase-4 power control technology is ahead of these older approaches in its ability to retain not only the tone, but also the tactile feel of the amp's natural power tube overdrive, even at very low volume.

The new sound of Tone King
The Metropolitan's newly-designed Rhythm channel provides an even wider variety of great clean tones, from the more "mid-scooped" sound of the original Tone King rhythm channel, to a range of new tones with an additional measure of midrange girth and chime.

The Lead channel draws heavily from the designs of past Tone King models, but is infinitely more useful, because it can now be used to dial in anything from fat, greasy tweed overdrive to the kerrang of crunchy early-Marshall power chords, at any volume level.

Warm, resonant cabinet, custom designed speaker
The Metropolitan's light, resonant cabinet is an integral part of its unique sound and feel. Warmer than the Imperial, more elastic and three-dimensional than the Meteor/II, it achieves the perfect balance of looseness to punch, and three-dimensionality to focus. It is voiced to have its own unique sound, lending character and dimension to any type of guitar sound.

Designer Mark Bartel worked with Eminence Speaker, LLC to develop a fantastic new paper-cone speaker for the Metropolitan. This new speaker has its own unique sound that mates perfectly with the voicing of the cabinet and the amp circuitry. It has a lot of character, defined mostly by it's prominent, vocal-like midrange and bell-like top-end (think more chime and less crushed-glass shimmer).

Features

I have loved the Tone King amps since long before I became a dealer. Most people I have sold these amps to over the years rarely ever part with them.

Please click here for sound samples and here for more video demos.

For detailed specs. please click here.

** Please note we typically have a variety of tolex choices in stock including black/cream or Brown/Cream. Please be sure to email and confirm that we have the colour you prefer in stock prior to buying. Thanks.