Tone King Ironman II Attenuator

When using my Origin 20C with the FX loop active, the Iron Man II produces unpleasant metallic noises. However, when connected to my Torpedo Captor, no such issue occurs with the same setup.

Additionally, if you attempt to use the Iron Man II’s line-out with external IRs, the output is extremely low and very dark. While the attenuation is effective, this issues has led me to request a full refund. What a shame, I had high hopes for this device.

Prodotto veramente buono, l’attenuazione è molto progressiva, si può trovare con molta precisione il volume che si desidera.
È molto trasparente, anche con attenuazioni importanti non ho mai dovuto toccare il controllo della Presenza.
Sono riuscito ad utilizzare in casa un valvolare da 50w con il master al massimo.
La possibilità di poter selezionare diverse impedenze per testata e cassa è comodissima.
Discreta anche l’uscita con cassa simulata.
È abbastanza ingombrante, per situazioni live forse punterei a qualcosa di più maneggevole

I purchased this attenuator after giving up on a Fryette Power Station due to an inherent hum issue that it didn't seem possible to fix. I have seen several other reports online about the exact same type of hum with the Fryette Power Station, which points towards a serious, inherent design flaw with those units. Which is a shame, because apart from the hum it sounded really good.

When using an attenuator like this there will of course always be some coloration of the tone, but based on user reviews online this one from Tone King seems to be one of the better choices, so I figured I would give it a chance after the massive disappointment with the Fryette (which I guess isn't strictly speaking an attenuator, but more of a re-amp device).

For clean tones, especially with Fender-style amps, I actually preferred the Fryette Power Station by quite some distance. The tone was noticeably more open and detailed, but unfortunately useless due to the hum issue. The clean tones felt slightly more congested with the Tone King. Not bad, but not quite as nice as with the Power Station.

For more distorted tones I much preferred the Tone King. It seemed to preserve the character of the amp better. With the Tone King a Marshall still sounded like a Marshall. With the Fryette, it just didn't.

The dynamics, "feel" and playing experience was also considerably better with the Tone King. It felt like actually playing the amp. This was simply not the case with the Fryette. I guess part of the explanation is that the way the Fryette is designed, your guitar amp doesn't really "see" the speakers/cab, so you're not really getting the interaction between your amp and your cab.

I do miss those wonderful, detailed clean tones I got with the Fryette Power Station, but sadly it was useless due to the hum. In every other respect I found the Tone King to be far superior.

The build quality of the Tone King seems VERY sturdy, although it is impossible for me to say how robust it is electronically. Time will tell.

I don't like the use of a wall wart with a thin, flimsy cable though. This is very inconvenient, feels like something that can break, and it makes the whole product feel cheaper.

I'm also slightly concerned about the warnings in the manual about changing the attenuation setting while simultaneously playing your guitar. This is something that can easily go wrong if the guitar player is located in a different room when I'm in the control room and dialing in the tone/levels. I dread to see what can happen.... Because this is one of those thing that seem destined to happen at some point.

So far so good, I guess. Tonally I have no objections, apart from SLIGHTLY more congested clean tones than the ones I got with the Fryette.

There are more expensive attenuators out there, but this one has the more superior technology, and takes into account how a speaker operates. Ironman II is the only attenuator who preserves the sound of your guitar despite lowering the volume, as the human ears interpret sound differently depending on the loudness. It does feel great at lower volumes.

It has a Direct Out and a speaker analogue simulator as well, complete package if you ask me. Can't recommend this enough.