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Bluetone’s new combo, the Black King 15 Reverb (prices start from 1,440 €), is a compact and lightweight (9 kg), handcrafted single-channel all-valve guitar amplifier. It’s the small brother of the Black King Reverb, offering 15 watts of output power from a pair of 6V6GT-valves.
The Black King 15 Reverb’s sound takes its cue from a rather rare Fender combo, the Vibro King, which was in production between 1993 and 2003, and which has become The Who’s Pete Townshend’s favourite live amp.
In terms of its sound and touch sensitive behaviour, the most crucial feature of the Black King 15 is the preamp’s gain structure and character, which is more aggressive than, say a Fender ”Blackface” amp, putting the new Bluetone combo squarely in the middle between ”Blackface”, ”Tweed” and Marshall-style amps.
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Bluetone’s Black King 15 Reverb comes in a Fender-type combo cabinet of approximately the same size as a 1960s Fender Princeton combo. The fetching Country & Western covering, as well as the wheat-coloured grille cloth come as standard.
In addition to the Volume-control the front panel gives you access to a three-band EQ-section with two additional switchable boosts – Bright and Fat. There’s a control for the spring reverb, as well as for the (post phase inverter) Master Volume.
In addition to the Power On/Off-switch the back panel gives you a switchable internal dummy load that makes it possible to record the amp direct via its line output with the speaker turned off. There are also two outputs for external speakers, as well as an on/off-switch for the spring reverb.
The combo we got for review came with a ten-inch 20 watts Warehouse Speakers Veteran speaker. You can also order your Black King 15 Reverb with a model G10-C/S from the same company.
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The Bluetone Black King 15 Reverb exudes an air of top-notch quality right from the get-go. Switching the combo on you’ll find an extremely low noise floor – the mark of a well-made boutique amp. Low self-noise is a direct result of careful planning, low-tolerance components, and the sensible placement of hum-inducing transformers on the amp chassis.
The Black King 15’s 6V6GT-powered power amp naturally adds a nice dose of Fender-ish character to proceedings. There’s a healthy amount of clean headroom to be had from this combo’s preamp, but tasty break-up sounds start entering the picture earlier than in a typical ”Blackface” amplifier.
In the ”break-up zone” the Black King Reverb 15 is very touch sensitive and dynamic. The more you put in the more distortion you get out.
The Black King 15 Reverb offers plenty of distortion, which can be had at low volume levels, thanks to the master volume control. This combo also likes effect pedals.
Thanks to the preamp’s excellent EQ-section and the additional boosts, dialling in a wide range of sounds is easy, making the Black King 15 suitable for many different musical genres.
If you’re looking for a combo with more aggression than a ”Blackface” has to offer, you should definitely try the Bluetone Black King 15 Reverb. This amp offers boutique-grade quality a a very reasonable price.
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