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Tone King Meteor II Guitar Amplifier Review

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Tone King Meteor II Guitar Amplifier Review

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Nathan Mace

The Tone King Meteor II is an amazing “boutique” amplifier made by Mark Bartel who is based out of Baltimore MD.

…this amp is the audio equivalent of HD…

Tone King Meteor IIThe Tone King brand specializes mainly in vintage inspired amplifiers and excels at this. Personally I feel that the Meteor II gives me all of the vintage sound that I want, but that was not the real intention of this amplifier.

The defining characteristic of this amp is its crystal clear “true” sound. If you are looking for an amp that gives you the most defined clean tone around this is your amp.

But it doesn’t stop at just the clean tone. As you dig into the amp the super clean circuitry delivers ultra-defined overdrive that stays true to what your playing is trying to get across.

The best description I can come up with is that this amp is the audio equivalent of HD.

Features:

  • Output Power: 15W 20W 30W/15W (switchable) 40W/20W (switchable)
  • Output Tubes: 2 x EL84 2 x 6V6 4 x EL84 4 x 6V6
  • Rectifier Tube: 5U4 5AR4 5U4 5AR4
  • Preamp Tubes: 5 x 12AX7
  • Reverb Driver Tube: 6V6
  • Preamp Channels: 2 (Rhythm, Lead)
  • Rhythm Channel Controls: Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Bright Switch (3-pos.)
  • Lead Channel Controls: Volume, Tone, Mid-Bite
  • Reverb: Tube driven, full size 3-spring pan
  • Reverb Controls: Dwell, Tone, Mix (Rhythm), Mix (Lead)
  • Tremolo: Bias modulation type, footswitch controllable
  • Tremolo Controls: Rate, Depth
  • Footswitch: Included, controls both channel switching and tremolo

Ease of Use:

It is very easy to get a great tone from this amp. The lead channel is especially simple with only 3 controls of volume, tone, and mid-bite. This may sound limiting at first but it is actually extremely versatile without a lot of hassle.

Sound Quality:

As I mentioned the sound quality of this amp, in my eyes, is simply unmatched. It delivers a crystal clear signal of the entire tonal spectrum without being devoid of warmth.

Reliability:

I have had my Tone King Meteor II since 2009 with absolutely no incident to speak of. As with most quality amplifiers if you take care of it, it will take care of you.

I should mention though that I am not a road traveling musician so my amp has not been thrown around too much. However I have seen nothing that would indicate that it could not stand up to a more rugged existence.

Overall Rating:

This is a wonderfully versatile amplifier. I must mention that this particular Meteor II model is not currently in production.

The builder, Mark, builds every amplifier himself and can normally only have 2 or 3 different models available and one time.

However, there are plenty of them still floating around out there and if you have the chance to get your hands on one you will be glad you did.

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Nathan Mace

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