Tone King has unveiled the Imperial Preamp, a “high-voltage tri-tube ... guitar amp brand’s Imperial MKII combo and repackages them in a pedalboard-friendly format. This is a serious bit of kit.

The build starts with an off-the-shelf preamp kit based around two common 6J1 tubes. These Chinese pentode valves come cheap and you can usually get yours hands on this kit for $10 or so.

The design is inspired by the guitar amps of the 1950s and ... single-ended one with a two stage double triode preamp and a single power output tube. The transformers are usually the difficult ...