British tube amps from the mid ’60s and early ’70s have inspired countless designs emulating their beloved tones. In 2014, Tone King Amplifier Company launched the Royalist, its take on the famed Marshall JTM45/JMP50 “Bluesbreaker.” In ’16, the Royalist MKII brought a change from EL84 to EL34/6L6GC/KT66 power tubes and a unique 6V6GT screen regulator. To mark the company’s 30th anniversary, it has introduced the MKIII.

We plugged into the 1×12 combo version of the two-channel/40-watt non-Master-Volume amp, with footswitchable channels that share a tone stack with Bass, Mid, Treble and Presence. Independent controls for each channel include three-way toggles that switch between era voicings labeled “1964,” “1967,” and “1970.”

The Royalist’s non-master design means overdrive and distortion are generated by turning up its Volume control. With Bass and Mids at 5, Treble and Presence at 7, the 1964 voicing helped our Les Paul and Telecaster produce fat, smooth, low-medium gain tones hinting at a JTM45. The more-aggressive 1967 setting yielded more treble and gain, similar to a classic plexi sound, and the 1970 “Super Lead” voice brought the highest gain with more sustain, treble, punch, and low-end tightness. The MKIII’s ability to emulate three classic tones with the flick of a switch is impressive, and dialing them to taste was easy with the super-responsive Tone controls. Pull Fat (on each Volume pot) changes feel by delivering more low-end frequencies on the first gain stage of the preamp, adding thickness for leads or to fatten single-coils.

The amp’s two built-in/six-setting Iron Man II attenuators offer controls for each channel, replacing the single shared control on the MKII. It works well reducing room volume while still driving the tubes to their sweet spot, and the HF switch brightens tone when the attenuator is doing heavy lifting. Though the Royalist excels at dirty/overdriven tones, beautiful clean tones are remarkably easy to get within any of the voicings by simply easing pick attack or rolling down the guitar’s Volume.

The Royalist MK III is an impressive British-flavored tone machine with the soul and DNA of revered Marshalls at your fingertips – at any volume.

This article originally appeared in VG’s December 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.