Hello Everyone! As promised at the end of the video, I am going to try and cram as much info into this description as YouTube will let me!

How I Recorded the Video / My Attempt to Keep It Fair:

Right up front, I want to mention that I acknowledge that I am using the first iteration of the Tone King Imperial, and NOT the MKII. I do not own a MKII, but I have played them -- and from what I have been able to research, Tone King did not do much in the way of tonal modifications between the two generations.

That said, I attempted to remove as many variables as possible when recording this video. By that, I mean I ran the actual amplifier's speaker output into a load box, then used the Neural DSP's speaker IR in the Tone King plugin as the speaker for the actual amp. So, when I switch from the plugin the the actual amp, I am truly just swapping the amp heads themselves -- the speaker remains the same.

Likewise, the actual guitar takes are the same as well. I recorded one guitar part for each section by running my guitar out into a DI with an amplifier out. In other words, I recorded the amp's take and the DI'd plugin's take simultaneously.

My Thoughts and Issues:

My initial positive thoughts: By itself, this is a very fun plugin with a great interface, lots of features (including Neural DSP’s modeling of different pedals, mic selections and placements, and tons of other features). For a little over $100, that’s a lot!

That said, if you watched this video and thought “but does it really sound like a Tone King Imperial? Or even a Deluxe style amp at all?” then keep reading…

If you watched this video and thought to yourself "the Neural DSP plugin seemed to be overdriven the entire time," then I would have to agree. I would say my biggest struggle with making this video is that on both the lead and rhythm channel of the plugin, the amp was breaking up as soon as you turned it on. By putting the DSP's volume knob at 2, it was already crunchy.

That could very well work for a lot of folks, because not everyone plays with ultra clean sounds. However, if this is trying to simulate a Tone King Imperial, one of the best features of the Imperial is its clean sound (especially on the rhythm channel).

Also, between the two channels, I think Neural DSP got the lead channel closer. If I fiddled with the EQ in Cubase, I'm willing to bet that I could have gotten the two clips closer between the Neural DSP and the actual amp when doing the rhythm channel comparison, but with just using the features on the two amps? That is just about as close as I could get it. If anything, I would say that the Neural DSP rhythm channel has some boosted mids that you just cannot get out of there without using an additional non-amp EQ. That might also be a contributing factor for the immediate overdrive no matter where the volume is on the rhythm channel.

What Gear I Used:

Telecaster with the Rosewood Fretboard: A 1968 Fender Telecaster

Telecaster with the Maple Fretboard: A 1995 Fender Custom Shop Telecaster

Load Box: Two Notes Torpedo Captor X (8 ohms)

DAW: Cubase 11.5

Speaker IR: Neural DSP Tone King Imperial (with the SM57 and Royer R-121 mic IR)

Time Signatures:

00:00 - Intro Performance

00:17 - Lead Channel (Tone Match)

00:52 - Lead Channel (Knob Match)

01:29 - Rhythm Channel (Tone Match)

02:04 - Rhythm Channel (Knob Match)

02:42 - Outro Comments

THIS VIDEO WAS NOT SPONSORED BY ANY COMPANY.