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In 2005, Jim Weider produced what would become one of the era-defining overdrive/distortion pedals: the King of Tone. Built as a modified Marshall Blues Breaker (yet distinct in terms of diodes, chips, capacitors, and other components), the pedal is actually two overdrive pedals in a single box, giving guitarists a way to preserve their guitars’ tone clarity while adding substantial amounts of overdrive. To this day, the King of Tone remains Analogman’s most popular pedal.
To gain an audience with the King, though, musicians have to wait their turn. The demand for the King of Tone far surpassed the supply, not to mention the price. These days, a used King of Tone can sell for upwards of $1,700. Then, in 2012, Analogman released the Prince of Tone to help meet demand. Using the KoT’s higher gain circuit option as its base, the PoT maintained its predecessor’s transparency, and its natural-sounding, smooth, tube-style distortion made it an instant success. Today, though, the PoT itself is often out of stock, and Analogman is currently limiting customers to one unit each.
Enter the Harby Pedals Noble Tone. A faithful replication of the original circuit board and schematics, the Noble Tone shares the rich sound that makes both the King and Prince of Tone so desirable. Compatible with almost any amp, the Noble Tone pedal is responsive and lends itself to a wide variety of sounds and applications. Use the low drive settings to clean up the modes and maintain an even level when playing softly, or put it on a higher drive setting to get a brighter, crunchier effect, especially when using the distortion mode. It can easily be stacked with other pedals, but it can also be used by itself to create smooth harmonics.
Just Like the Original
The Noble Tone, like the Prince of Tone, has two internal DIP switches, which add some subtlety to the knob settings and modes. This pedal also employs the internal treble trimpot to add high-end, as well as the JRC4580D IC (integrated circuit) New Japan Radio, Co., Ltd. chip.
Modernized
The MA856 silicon through-hole clipping diodes found in the original Prince of Tone are no longer available or in production. So Harby uses the closest diode currently available for the Noble Tone, the BAS33 silicon through-hole clipping diode. Like the MA856, the BAS33 clips at approximately 0.82v. After comparing the curves on a Peak DCA75—across the current test range—they can confirm that they are a close match to the MA856.
Capabilities
The default position of the internal treble trimpot is turned completely counter-clockwise, but as you turn it up, it will add high-end. The Internal Mids DIP switch will add low-mids to your signal by increasing the filter frequency of the first op-amp gain stage, while the Internal Gain DIP switch (the Turbo switch) will double the gain ratio of the second op-amp stage so that the diodes will clip more easily. The gain modes work just like they do on the Prince of Tone.
Technical
