This is the first Tone King to appear on here: an Imperial II combo that came in with intermittent volume problems and a damaged speaker.
Here were the symptoms, in the words of the owner:
- “Dropping in volume quite significantly completely at random, and then I go to adjust the volume and it comes back unbearably loud”
- “The speaker has a hole in it as I could see the light coming through the back of it”
- “Eventually the amp completely cut out on me”
When it arrived, the amp was working as expected on both channels, with the vibrato and reverb working fine. To try to catch the volume drop-outs, it was soak tested for two hours and then play tested, but the fault never showed up. The valves were tested and the output was checked, and no faults were found, so electronically this one was no fault found (NFF).
The speaker was a different story. There was a clear hole in the cone, and its shape followed the angled profile of the footswitch. There was also a big scratch along the footswitch and dust on the metal speaker frame next to the hole that had clearly come from the pedal. It looks like the footswitch had been stored in the back of the amp and the amp had then been tipped onto its front, pushing the pedal into the cone.
The speaker was replaced with a suitable new 12″ speaker, and the amp was PAT tested before it went back.
A tip for owners of any combo: if you carry the footswitch or leads in the back of the cabinet, take them out before moving or tilting the amp. It only takes one tip forward for a pedal to go through a speaker cone.
If you’re in need of a Tone King amp repair, please contact me.