Experience with Tone King imperial pre-amp?

[Gabe]

Did anyone here buy and/or try the Tone King Imperial pre-amp. 
 

I am tempted to buy it, (even though delivery will take some months), but I would like to learn from your experience. 
 

Also how do you use it, in the effects return of one or two guitar amps, with active studio monitors (if so, which), or with FRFR-speakers (if so, which)?

Do you use it at home, live, for recording. How do you connect to the DAW?

Is it worth it?

Or would you advise something else?

 

Gabe 😀

[django49]

Amazing piece of kit. I have it set up with an Effectrode Blackbird preamp ( which kicks in when in bypass) and the rev and trem are usable when the TKIP is bypassed. I use a stereo delay and run through a board mounted Powerstage stereo amp into a shop built stereo cabinet with a pair of my fave speakers. Smallish board that can pretty much be all you need for a quick and easy rig to carry in. Add a few other pedals to expand the options. Note that Carvin makes a small stereo power amp that is small and really inexpensive, as one other option.

I am also a fan of the Thermion Zero board mounted stereo power amp. But do note that it has its own built in preamp (more or less a Deluxe Reverb) so it gets a bit awkward if you also are using another preamp section. 

The Tone King has great tone (IMO) and is extremely flexible, so you can also use it with a combo amp, a house sound system or just about any other combination you can dream up. Check out some of the great demos on line. Not to mention hundreds of posts discussing ideas and solutions on that other guitar/gear site. (If you want to get really nuts, ponder matching it with a Friedman IR-D preamp pedal as another way to expand your preset/footswitchable options if you want to get more into M tones. But you might then need an A/B switcher to manage them 🤔). 

All these board mountable gadgets using real tubes make a nice option to a typical tube amp.

I def recommend it.

[santellavision]

I pre-ordered it and got it early. Love it. I'm using it to record most of the guitars on my new album. It just 'feels' and sounds as good as any of my tube amps mic'd. You can't tell the difference, even with critical listening. Not using the on-board reverb for recording, but just jamming, works nice with dwell time and level. The tremolo in stereo is great too. I'm just running the XLR outs to my UA Apollo interface. The on-board IRs are very nice. I have also been messing with a few other Cab files I have. Easy interface to change them out.

It's a great box and I give it a solid recommendation.
Check out Pete Thorn's video:

 

 

[Gabe]

Thanks Django49 and Santellavision for your very clear and helpful answers. 
 

I have one more question: 

Where does the sound come from if you use the “To amp in”, “From amp send” and “To amp return” jacks?

Will the sound when the Tone King preamp is put into bypass mode also come from the active studio monitors or FRFR speakers connected to the XLR outs of the Tone King preamp?

if that is the case, is the “To amp return” necessary?

 

Gabe 😀

 

[Saul Goodman]

These guys try it through a frfr. This is the only video I've seen using frfr. They apparently don't like frfr (I also am in that camp) so I wouldn't say it was impartial. To answer your question if you don't have time to watch the whole video, "To amp in" goes to the front, the others go to the FX loop. When you step on "Bypass" it turns off the Imperial preamp channels but the Reverb and Tremolo can still be used. So if you have a one channel amp you essentially turn it into a three channel amp. I've tried mine using several amps and prefer it with my Cali Tweed and the alnico speakers. I love this "pedal." You won't regret it.