King Tone Guitar Switch

Elijah-Baley

Elijah-Baley

Active member
Hello,
sometimes I like to jump back to some of my old topics. Today, I’ve been thinking about the King Tone rotary switch for guitar, the Classic version.

This is the link to the switch: https://www.kingtoneguitar.com/product/king-tone-switch/

It’s not a tone cap switch, but something that changes the overall tone of the guitar making it bassier, brighter/crispier, smoother...
It also includes a treble bleed with many different settings.

There are many treble bleed circuits we can use or try, so I’m more interested in the tone/sound changes themselves.
I assume it uses capacitors, maybe resistors, and... inductors?

I’d like to get an idea of what the schematic might look like, or some possible approaches to achieve this.

Thanks.
 
According to Reddit it's basically a varitone. The picture seems to confirm that. Unverified though! $99 seems pretty high for what this is.
 
From the Kingtone picture I don’t see where the inductor would be, assuming it’s a 1.5H inductor: it would be pretty bulky. So maybe it’s even simpler than the varitone?
 
I didn't find the side of the PCB with the parts.
Ok, that could be just a cap tone switch.
But I see five cap and five resistor. We could assume something else?
 
What does “vibrato tracking” even mean?
I’ve only ever heard “tracking” in reference to pitch-shifter/harmonizer/octave type stuff. What could you possibly be tracking when you’re physically wiggling a string around…?

Is it just five fixed RC filters on a rotary?
 
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Here are the best photos I could find. It looks like there are some hidden caps underneath the switch, too. I assume the two visible caps and 150k resistor are for the treble bleed circuit. Based on the wiring diagram, I definitely think it's just a low-pass/high-pass filter and not a varitone or just a tone cap selector.
 

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stinkfeet said:
Here are the best photos I could find. It looks like there are some hidden caps underneath the switch, too. I assume the two visible caps and 150k resistor are for the treble bleed circuit. Based on the wiring diagram, I definitely think it's just a low-pass/high-pass filter and not a varitone or just a tone cap selector.
Click to expand...

Any idea about cap values?
 
Lawd..... Anyone with half a brain could just reach down and EQ their pedals or amp to taste..... I wish all of the people buying into this kinda marketing would just send me $5 to my Venmo and I'll send them back a positive message telling them their tone sounds awesome already and what a good player they are..., Positive reinforcement will likely make them a more confident/ better sounding player instead of that junk their chasing.
 
llewellynpotgieter said:
Hi Zach! Any chance you could share a schematic or notes on your layout?
Click to expand...
I used this video as a guide
It's the same idea as the kingtone I ended up using a 1p8t rotary switch and used 1n2 2n2 3n3 3n9 4n7 5n6 6n8. Just make sure it's compact enough to fit where you want to install it I replaced the bottom tone pot and wired the first tone pot as a universal tone.
 
swelchy said:
Lawd..... Anyone with half a brain could just reach down and EQ their pedals or amp to taste..... I wish all of the people buying into this kinda marketing would just send me $5 to my Venmo and I'll send them back a positive message telling them their tone sounds awesome already and what a good player they are..., Positive reinforcement will likely make them a more confident/ better sounding player instead of that junk their chasing.
Click to expand...
Then why build pedals in the first place if not for chasing tones
 
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