Lone King Overdrive - the "other" 50% of the Duellist - Update

[MichaelW]

So I posted my build of the Kings Hand OD a couple weeks ago and finally got around to building out the other side, the Lone King (Kingtone Soloist)

I really like the Kings Hand a lot, and was expecting to really like the Lone King as well. I don't.....despite all the rave reviews that I've read, "to me" it sounds like JATS
(Just Another Tube Screamer). Also, I'm super disappointed that turning on the pedal didn't immediately make me sound or play "just like SRV" as the marketing copy claims either....... I think the GreenGage is a much better sounding and more flexible pedal than the Lone King.

I dunno, it's highly possible and even likely that I'm hitting a point of overdrive burnout. I've been building so many that they're all starting to look and sound the same.

The Lone King has some cool features going for it. The "dial-able" body pot is kinda cool. But overall, it sounds like a TS....kinda muffled, very colored, pretty one dimensional.

The build turned out trickier than I expected. I had housed the Kings Hand into a 1590B and the Lone King is the same size PCB so I wasn't expecting any issues.
But when I went to go put it together I took a look at the size of the 82U caps that I had for it. Ugh, no way that was gonna work. I wound up having to jigger some stuff around, use some larger caps so I could bend them out of the way then get creative with the placement of the 82U's BUT it all worked out in the end.

 

[fig]

Dats a lotta capacitance mon!

Excellent build and write-up sir!

 

[JamieJ]

This was my exact experience with this Drive @MichaelW - I was completely underwhelmed.

What amp are you playing through? I have a little fender bass breaker and it didn’t do anything for me at all. I played it through a more classicly fender type amp and it sounded much better.

 

[MichaelW]

I'm playing through a Revv D20 dialed "Fender-ish".

I also played it through my "basic pedal testing" digital amp model, which is a clean Fuchs ODS w/6L6's via my Apollo Twin X. The Apollo's Unison Preamps do a fantastic job emulating the pre-amp responses of the various amp models they have. The ODS has been a super consistent and reliable model for me to test overdrive pedals.

I also tried running it into the King's Hand but all that did was make the King's Hand sound kinda muffled

I mean, I think it does do the whole TS thing well and is probably great driving a dirty amp or an overdriven amp. But most of the demo's I've listened to of the Soloist is using it as a standalone overdrive pedal.

 

[cdwillis]

That's a good fix. I dig those cream knobs with the green enclosure.

I feel you on YATS. I used to think that I didn't like tube screamers because of the very focused mid hump with the thin low end. The more pedals I've built and played lead me to think it's more that I don't like just one pair of silicon diodes in a feedback loop. I like the sound of an SD-1's asymmetrical clipping a lot more and when I had a Plumes my go to was the LED clipping. I think having more gain and headroom in the feedback loop makes the distorted signal louder than the clean it's mixed with so it just sounds better to me.

 

[HamishR]

I haven't tried a Lone King but I'm no fan of YATS either. I built one a while back for a friend based on an 808 but couldn't bear the pair of diodes so used two pairs of 1N4148s and it made a huge difference. Still YATS though!

 

[MichaelW]

So far the only TS variant that I really like is the Greengage/Plumes. I think because it's got more to it than the typical TS tonal range.
Which is what has me somewhat interested in building the Stockade pcb. (EQD Palisades). From what I can see, the Plumes tonality is inclusive in the Palisades with some additional clipping options, a boost and tone controls.

 

[giovanni]

I love the DS1. I think it’s actually better than the TS in most rigs. It was my secret weapon to cut through the mix in a live setting for years.

 

[MichaelW]

Reviving this thread with an update. Since building the King's Hand V2 version a few days ago I decided to revisit this pedal that's been sitting on the shelf since I built it. I hadn't touched it since I wasn't very impressed with it initially. Sounded like a YATS.

Well funny how this works, but it actually sounds really good to me now with some fresh ears.
Running at 18 volts was something I hadn't tried before but it really seems to benefit this pedal and it sounds really good with the P90's on my new tele.

Probably more to do with running it at 18volts and with the toggle set to Glass or Edge. Seems to open it up a bit more.

Glad I went back to it and gave it another try.

I may need to go back to some other pedals that I didn't like so much to begin with. Like my (cough cough) Duocast

 

[harmaes]

Reviving this thread with an update. Since building the King's Hand V2 version a few days ago I decided to revisit this pedal that's been sitting on the shelf since I built it. I hadn't touched it since I wasn't very impressed with it initially. Sounded like a YATS.

Well funny how this works, but it actually sounds really good to me now with some fresh ears.
Running at 18 volts was something I hadn't tried before but it really seems to benefit this pedal and it sounds really good with the P90's on my new tele.

Probably more to do with running it at 18volts and with the toggle set to Glass or Edge. Seems to open it up a bit more.

Glad I went back to it and gave it another try.

I may need to go back to some other pedals that I didn't like so much to begin with. Like my (cough cough) Duocast

I’ve also build this one a few months ago and was underwhelmed as well at first. I did compare it to a normal TS and a Zendrive and this one has some other sounds with the glass or edge setting. What I really like about the BA282 is that with a lower drive setting and higher volume and bass/treble to taste it’s stays open which is an aspect of the older TS pedals. Dont be afraid to crank the volume.
I also like the edge setting with higher bass, volume cranked and gain 3 oc.
This one also sounds good used with edge of breakup amp settings. I just got a UA Dream 65 pedal which is reacting very well to this pedal when set to having more breakup. A compressor in front of this pedal works nice as well.

I mostly use my strat volume on 8 and balance the settings of the pedal and amp (Dream and NeuralDSP plugins that is). Ive used amps in the past and a few years ago got rid of my Axe Fx III because I was fed up with modelers. Somehow the tones I was getting from Neural DSP plug-ins sounded better in recordings than the Axe. The Dream is just one amp and much more simple, less options and sounds great. Using pedals for the drive.

 

[szukalski]

I may need to go back to some other pedals that I didn't like so much to begin with. Like my (cough cough) Duocast

This is generally my experience, different guitar or amp can make the difference. Duocast + P90s + cranked Fender tweed made for some very useful tones, especially on the neck pickup.

 

[MichaelW]

I’ve also build this one a few months ago and was underwhelmed as well at first. I did compare it to a normal TS and a Zendrive and this one has some other sounds with the glass or edge setting. What I really like about the BA282 is that with a lower drive setting and higher volume and bass/treble to taste it’s stays open which is an aspect of the older TS pedals. Dont be afraid to crank the volume.
I also like the edge setting with higher bass, volume cranked and gain 3 oc.
This one also sounds good used with edge of breakup amp settings. I just got a UA Dream 65 pedal which is reacting very well to this pedal when set to having more breakup. A compressor in front of this pedal works nice as well.

I mostly use my strat volume on 8 and balance the settings of the pedal and amp (Dream and NeuralDSP plugins that is). Ive used amps in the past and a few years ago got rid of my Axe Fx III because I was fed up with modelers. Somehow the tones I was getting from Neural DSP plug-ins sounded better in recordings than the Axe. The Dream is just one amp and much more simple, less options and sounds great. Using pedals for the drive.

I'm a huge fan of the BA282 diode. It's probably the only diode that I can actually hear the difference in the clipping noticeably. At least in the circuits that I've tried them in. (Paragon, Paragon Mini, Pauper, the Kingtone pedals) Too bad they're EOL'd.

The UA amp pedals are intriguing to me. How exactly are you using it? Does your signal chain go from the Dream 65 directly into your interface? And does the front end of the Dream 65 behave like a real pre-amp with pedals in front of it like the Apollo Unison does? I have an Apollo Twin X and I'm super impressed how real the amp models "feel" and how the Unison DSP preamps function. But since building pedals I only ever use a single clean 6L6 amp model anymore. The new "Amp model in a box" pedals from UA are interesting to me because I "think" they would allow more routing flexibility, like being able to place time based effects after the amp pedal before the interface.

I agree they "print" to a recording just as well as when I use my real amp. Lot less to fuss with for a desktop recording setup. But for pure enjoyment I still love cranking a tube amp

 

[MichaelW]

This is generally my experience, different guitar or amp can make the difference. Duocast + P90s + cranked Fender tweed made for some very useful tones, especially on the neck pickup.

I'm gonna break out the Duocast today and see how it sounds with some fresh ears too. But then, I've got a bunch of new boards from @PedalPCB (damn coupon code got me again....) I've got the Magnetron on the bench waiting to be put together so that's probably next. Then if my Ukrainian transistors ever show up I have a bunch of fuzzes to build (all recommended by this friend I have in Germany that keeps enabling me.....

 

[szukalski]

Wait until my next batch of PPCB comes through, it's 80% Ge fuzz boards. I'm on the lookout for a nice low-gain Ge option now, the Chickenhead fills it pretty well so far but I like variety.

I want to give the duocast another go, maybe on breadboard/vero to try and take the edge off.

Have you got an octave pedal yet? I got back into the Parenthese pedal, love the octave on that. Such fun.

 

[harmaes]

I'm a huge fan of the BA282 diode. It's probably the only diode that I can actually hear the difference in the clipping noticeably. At least in the circuits that I've tried them in. (Paragon, Paragon Mini, Pauper, the Kingtone pedals) Too bad they're EOL'd.

The UA amp pedals are intriguing to me. How exactly are you using it? Does your signal chain go from the Dream 65 directly into your interface? And does the front end of the Dream 65 behave like a real pre-amp with pedals in front of it like the Apollo Unison does? I have an Apollo Twin X and I'm super impressed how real the amp models "feel" and how the Unison DSP preamps function. But since building pedals I only ever use a single clean 6L6 amp model anymore. The new "Amp model in a box" pedals from UA are interesting to me because I "think" they would allow more routing flexibility, like being able to place time based effects after the amp pedal before the interface.

I agree they "print" to a recording just as well as when I use my real amp. Lot less to fuss with for a desktop recording setup. But for pure enjoyment I still love cranking a tube amp

I‘ve been experimenting with placement of the Dream 65. I now use guitar into a Klon for the input buffer (and gain), compressor, drive pedals, slap back analog delay, Mimiq mono in and stereo out into the Dream 65. The analog delay in front is nice to get those dirtier delays when it’s pushed by a drive pedal. After the Dream 65 I go stereo into Strymon Flint, Timeline and Bigsky and stereo in my RME Babyface Pro FS. Sounding great to me with enough headroom.