Jesse Davey further enhances his King Tone Duellist Dual Overdrive with external and additional V3 /2022 playback options along with new Split Mode

I’ve noted before that there are numerous sort of Blues Breaker plus Tube Screamer / ODR-1 dual overdrives on the market in similar format - where the Analog.Man King of Tone kind of set the pace on that back in 2003, nearly 20 years ago.

King Tone’s Duellist followed in that wake along with the Browne Amplification Protein, VS Audio Royal Flush, JHS Double Barrel, and Keeley D&M Drive. The King Tone Duellist has had a lot of traction over the years with several players preferring that to the King of Tone. I have the King of Tone in Josh Scott’s smart JHS 4-Star Mod edition - where he externalises the 4 dip-switches and 2 presence trimmers - for the ultimate version of that pedal.

I always thought that since I had that I did not really need any of the other fairly similar variations - while this new 2022  / V3 version has sort of persuaded me that I really need this edition of The Duellist too! Seems like Jesse has learned form Xotic Effects and Studio Daydream in externalising those former internal dip-switches - so that we now get the original 4 with 2 new additions on the outside of the pedal (right edge) for immediate deployment and instant satisfaction - and alongside a channel A|B order switch. New for 2022 is also the ability to deploy TRS cables for ’Split Mode’ such that you can operate the two sides of the pedal as independent entities - useful for precision inserts - and smart MIDI / Looper manipulation.

The Duellist has always had those handy 3-way voicing toggle-switches (Fat | Stock | Glass) - while the new options make it even more expansive and extended-range - and significantly elevates its status among the chasing pack so to speak.

I’m a huge fan of these sorts of innovations, and with the plethora of pedals out their still with essential tone controls rendered as internal dip-switches - meaning the need for removal of the backplate for adjustments - this really is a breath of fresh air and proper smart thinking.

With all these elements now present this is surely the leading contender for this genre of pedal - and for those who hesitated before surely this is the step that will get it over the line.

This kind of thing is very much the essence for me of modern pedal making - improving the usability and user-experience and extending the playback prowess of the pedal - making it more potent and versatile than ever.

Controls - String-Singer Side-A } Drive, Volume, Tone, Voicing : Fat / Stock / Glass, Side-A Footswitch, Side-B } Drive, Volume, Tone, Voicing : Fat / Stock / Glass, Side-B Footswitch, Dip-switches : Side-A : Vintage TS / SRV Mod, Classic / Amp-Like, Symmetric / Asym-Clip, Side-B : Classic / Amp-Like, Distortion / Overdrive, Symmetric / Asym-Clip, Channel Order : A-B / B-A.

Even with this plethora of features the price holds steady at $349, and while there currently seem to be none in stock anywhere yet - I’m pretty sure these will fairly soon be available for delivery and starting to come into dealers properly within the new few weeks or so of the re-stock. You can sign up to be notified on King Tone for when these are  back in stock - and pre-orders don’t yet seem to be enabled.

It’s funny for me how a few smart touches elevate a pedal from ’nice-to-have’ to ’essential’ status. Readers will know that these are exactly the sort of innovations I am a fan of. So what’s not to like here - just all-round great improvements to an already stellar pedal! Note that I’m assuming the move to top-mounted jacks was V2, making this the V3 edition. I will most likely be getting mine from Peach Guitars - who were the first to drop a demo of these new features - per the below YouTube video!

Are any of you as tempted as me?