Tone King releases Royalist Preamp pedal

February 26, 2026 · 2 sources

The Tone King Royalist Preamp became available on February 26, 2026¹. Tone King describes it as bringing the sound and feel of the Royalist MKIII amplifier to a compact, high-voltage pedal format¹.

The pedal runs on three 12AX7 tubes at full amplifier voltages, which Tone King says gives it tube touch sensitivity and dynamic response without the volume of a cranked amp¹. At its center is what Tone King calls a Zero-Watt Power Amp, a tube-driven phase inverter circuit that the maker says recreates power-stage compression and interaction¹. Delicious Audio describes the tubes as running at proper amplifier voltages, not the reduced voltages found in many tube pedals, and says one of them serves as the phase inverter².

The Royalist has two independent channels. Each carries Volume, Bass, Middle and Treble controls, a three-way 1964/1967/1970 voicing switch and a FAT switch for added body and punch¹. Delicious Audio lists Reverb controls on each channel and describes the voicings: 1964 for lower-gain vintage warmth, 1967 for the aggressive bite of the Plexi era, and 1970 for increased gain and tightness². It adds that the top channel uses a JTM45/Bassman-inspired EQ and the bottom channel a later British Lead tone stack².

The cabinet simulation uses low-latency impulse responses, with 20 curated OwnHammer IRs and six onboard IR slots, and can be bypassed for use with power amps and cabinets¹. Other features include stereo balanced XLR outputs, up to 128 MIDI presets, a bypassable stereo series effects loop, reverb with assignable routing and trails, USB-C connectivity with Tone King Editor software, and a headphone output¹. Delicious Audio adds 5-pin MIDI, XLR ground lift, jacks for the 4-cable method, and power from an included universal 12V adapter drawing 800mA².

The two accounts differ on the IR selection: Premier Guitar describes six onboard IR slots¹, while Delicious Audio describes a three-way IR switch per channel².