There is a Kingsley Constable available locally where I live. Does anybody here have experience using it with CAB m. I know it's supposed to be a preamp section of a Plexi and as that it is meant to be pretty clean drive the power tubes into saturation, so how much gain does it have on it's own? If I drive it hard, will it overload the input of CAB m? I know I could always push it with pedals in front, but that's not the point. Any input would be appreciated before I pull the trigger.
Anybody using Kingsley preamps with cab m?
- Thread starter VladT
- Start date
Dilan - Two notes
Active member
Hello @VladT
I have not used the Kingsley Constable personally, but having tested the C.A.B. M with plenty of different preamps and drive pedals (wampler, Earthquaker, Rockett audio,etc) , I am confident it will sound amazingly well with the C.A.B M. As for the level, the C.A.B. M has a input gain setting to adapt the level depending on the source, so you will have no issue when you will use the pedal with the C.A.B M.
I have not used the Kingsley Constable personally, but having tested the C.A.B. M with plenty of different preamps and drive pedals (wampler, Earthquaker, Rockett audio,etc) , I am confident it will sound amazingly well with the C.A.B M. As for the level, the C.A.B. M has a input gain setting to adapt the level depending on the source, so you will have no issue when you will use the pedal with the C.A.B M.
I haven't had much luck with drive pedals (bogner, way huge etc.) I know others have great results but it's just not working for me. Tube pre, like MP1 on the other hand sounds monstruous, that's the tone! Now I'm just looking for something in pedal format and I'm worried that Constable may not have enough gain on its own, as it's meant to drive the power tubes like a real plexi. Victory preamps maybe?? Suggestions welcome.
I use two Kingsleys into my Cab M. I use a Maiden D for clean tube tone. It's so incredible that it has really made me love playing clean. I like the Two-Notes Colorado cab, or the Twil 15, but there are tons of great options. I figure a great clean tone can be overdriven, but I don't overdrive the Cab M, even if it thinks it's an amp! The warmth of tubes after a few hours of playing is the best, to me.
For overdrive, I've got the Kingsley dual-tube Jester. It's got an amazing clean boost and super smooth overdrive. I don't see how you could go wrong with the Constable, but it's impossible to know if you'd like it until you try it! In the worst case, you could use the Constable as an always-on tube preamp, and get an overdrive pedal of some sort to break it up.
For overdrive, I've got the Kingsley dual-tube Jester. It's got an amazing clean boost and super smooth overdrive. I don't see how you could go wrong with the Constable, but it's impossible to know if you'd like it until you try it! In the worst case, you could use the Constable as an always-on tube preamp, and get an overdrive pedal of some sort to break it up.
Jeff_Greene
New member
I would love to hear a recording of that. Ever since I first saw the Kingsley lineup on TPS, it's been an ever present thought for a future redesign of my rig.
RossJohnDavies
Active member
Morning gents, The Two notes team would love to hear this as well. We have heard great things about the Kingsley line! 
Hello! I too use a Kingsley Maiden D in front of a C.A.B. M+ as the basis for my travel rig. Simon at Kingsley is a stellar human being and spoke with me for a while to help me decide which pre-amp I wanted. I know the OP likely doesn't care anymore since his question is a year and a half old, but I'll offer a couple of thoughts if others come upon this in a search. As I understand it, the Constable is indeed a lower distortion pedal, as the JTM-45 it is based off of got a lot of its distortion from the pre-amp overdriving the phase inverter tube of the power amp section. So on its own the Constable will have some distortion (more than the Maiden for instance), but not a lot. If you want the full "Plexi" overdrive tone you would want to add the Kingsley Hatchet after the Constable. That having been said, I use an EP booster running at 18 Volts before the Maiden D to push it in to overdrive and it gets a glorious tone. All the Kingsley preamps are capable of very large output to drive a power amp, but as @Dilan - Two notes said, the C.A.B M+ has 3 input level options to make sure that you will not clip it, so you can experiment with different combinations of output level on the Kingsley, input level on the C.A.B. M+, bypassing the M+ Preamp, etc...