Lots of gear coming and going

**Jim Soloway** · 06-11-2026, 02:12 PM

I'm back to playing out some and I'm really starting from scratch putting together an appropriate rig. I've had a bunch of gear come and go already with more incoming and hopefully out going. Incoming is a Toneking Imperial preamp and a Quilter Toneblock 202. I already have a Raezer's Edge NY8 that I hope can be the cab for the rig. The plan is to try the three pieces together with the Toneking as the front end and the Quilter providing the power as well as trying the Toneblock 202 as the front end on its own. I suspect that at the price, the Toneking is is going to have to feel like a divine super force for me to keep it but I've heard and read enough about the unit to believe that it's a real possibility. Either way, my hope is that I will emerge with a workable light weight rig when I'm done.

At that point, I can sell the Milkman The Amp combo that I've been using. It sounds great but give how lightly I play and how little volume I produce, it doesn't give me nearly enough volume and like the Toneking, the price pretty much demands that it almost perfect to justify the investment. In a perfect world, I will plug the Toneblock into the NY8 and just know that that's enough but we'll see.

On another note, I just received an e-mail this morning telling me that my new custom guitar is shipping today. It's based on my design and specs and being built by Erik Hansen, a small independent builder in Ontario (Thanks to Hammertone for the tip). It's based on a 24 inch scale length like my Mustang but with the wider, finger-style spacing that I came up with at Soloway Guitars (1 13/16" nut width and and appropriately wide spacing at the bridge). It's pretty close to being an entirely Canadian guitar with a custom neck only pickup by Smitty at MJT Custom pickups, also in Ontario. (It has individual magnets for each of the strings and much hotter output so I can actual drive the amp a little harder).

So it's going to be an exiting time over the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll be back with good news soon.

**Jthompson48** · 06-11-2026, 02:23 PM

Interested to hear your take on the Tone King. I am interested in one.

**Jthompson48** · 06-12-2026, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by Jthompson48

Interested to hear your take on the Tone King. I am interested in one.

Well... I looked up the Imperial Preamp on GC and my local store had one in stock. I took my familiar headphones in to check it out and it sounds wonderful. They offered 10% off so I went ahead and brought it home to try in my various applications. I have the TC Deluxe 65, which I like ok, but first impression is that I prefer Tone King by a large margin.

**Jim Soloway** · 06-13-2026, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by Jthompson48

Well... I looked up the Imperial Preamp on GC and my local store had one in stock. I took my familiar headphones in to check it out and it sounds wonderful. They offered 10% off so I went ahead and brought it home to try in my various applications. I have the TC Deluxe 65, which I like ok, but first impression is that I prefer Tone King by a large margin.

I'm trying to decide if I consider that good news or bad news. I have so much new gear incoming that I'm a little taken aback by how much I've spent and thinking how nice it would be if it turned out that the Quilter and my NY8 cab was all I really needed. Especially since I don't really envision playing any of this gear at home much. For that I have a great setup playing through my computer with a bunch of VSTs.

BTW, I also have a Milkman The Amp Combo here that I just bought two months ago. It's really not loud enough for me with my Franken-Stang, but the new guitar might solve that. And in the mean time, I probably got more complements on my tone yesterday using the Franken-Stang and the Milkman than I can remember ever getting with any gear. Damn, this stuff is confusing.