MXR Duke of Tone

[Oscar67]

Personally I’m not into pedals. At all. Guitar, cable, amp is what I prefer. Yet I’d heard really good things about the MXR Duke of Tone so when I saw one in a store I tried it. That lasted about two minutes. Boom, sold. Putting aside its heritage for a minute, basically this pedal is three things rolled into one: boost, overdrive, distortion.

For jazz purposes, the boost function is relevant. The boost doesn’t even have to boost the signal to work its magic. Just switch on the pedal, dial in the knobs to your liking and the tone just got better. A lot. To be specific: low-end wolf notes are tamed, there’s a wonderfully subtle fairy-dust kind of lift in the mids and the transparency of the sound is greatly enhanced. In short, this pedal wakes up your amp, big time, but leaves the character of your guitar intact. I’ve got it almost always on, but it’s also incredible to use when taking a solo or when certain dense song sections come up when it might be harder to hear the guitar in the band mix. It’s doesn’t have to get louder, just turning it on and setting the Tone knob to your liking gets you heard. It unclutters the sound which is very nice with closely voiced chords and/or a muddy sound.

For those who enjoy a hint of breakup, this pedal is it. It can go from clean to just the tiniest bit of baby hair to BB King to Angus in a box, with every shade in between and while staying totally transparent. For jazz I only use the boost, but for electric I use every sound this box can make and it’s just a joy.

About the pedal’s heritage: this is a licensed clone of Analog Man’s infamous Prince of Tone / King of Tone, which has a five year waiting list.

No affiliation at all, just happy.

[Bluedawg]

Nice

I've been seeing videos of guitar players trying out the new MXR versions of the Duke of Tone and Timmy pedals. They seem to be getting favorable reviews.

I picked up a King of Tone back when the wait was just one year ... LOL

I found the Prince of Tone in a local store for sale used.

I also picked up the Timmy with about a 6 month wait IIRC

These are great drive pedals for me, but I'll have to experiment with them as clean boosters. I have a few other boutique booster pedals I could play with as well. Sound like some fun experimentation.

[Jimmy Mack]

Nice review Oscar, enjoy your tones!

[blille]

About the pedal’s heritage: this is a licensed clone of Analog Man’s infamous Prince of Tone / King of Tone, which has a five year waiting list.

Which itself is based on the Marshall Bluesbreaker, to continue with the family tree

[ruger9]

I've got the MXR Timmy, it's great. (and I had previously owned the bigger Timmy).

I expect the DOT is just as good as the KOT (I owned both of those too).

[bluejaybill]

If it sounds the same as a KOT it will be a very useful pedal for jazz, as I mentioned in the "Bit of Drive" thread. It can subtly affect the tone as you mentioned, or you can use it to add a bit of grit. As Oscar said, the enhancing of the midrange is welcome, though for me it only works as an "always on" pedal with certain guitars, in my case a Borys B160.

And of course it can really rock out if you need it to do that.

All of these drive pedals affect the midrange in different ways; I happen to prefer this recipe to others, such as a Klon type or the Timmy, for jazz and blues.

[Bluedawg]

Which itself is based on the Marshall Bluesbreaker, to continue with the family tree

LOL I still have my Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, too.

Great pedal.

[Little Jay]

Rather pricey though…..

For less than half that money you can have three mini pedals on your board, for example a TS(clone), a Klon(clone) and a distortion pedal that can do more or less the same thing with the added advantage of being able to acces all three sounds instantly without needing to manually flip a switch…



And these sound actually really really good (from KOKKO, Klon clone is Mosky).

Sorry to throw in the critical note…. Just offering an alternative….

[Litterick]

Are clones unethical?

[Bluedawg]

Are clones unethical?

The MXR Duke and Timmy pedals are built under license from the original designers so that's seems like a great deal for the original designers.

Other clones are certainly questionable.

On the other hand, small boutique builders also tend to be expensive and have trouble building enough pedals to meet demand.

And sometimes the original designer/builders decide to move on to other things or can't maintain their business for some reason or another.

The guy who built the infamous Klon Centaurs has been having trouble finding the electronic components that were used in the original versions of his pedals. He hasn't been able to reproduce his original pedals to his satisfaction. The original Klon pedals are selling at over $5000. His second generation Klon KTR pedals are going for over $600.


It's one thing to get a clone to save $25 or even $50.

but when you can get a good clone for $50, and the original is $500 ... maybe the clones are not so bad.