The problem was getting all the in-between tones and lightening the load between gigs! Denis felt that a tube distortion pedal could be the answer. The result was our first tube distortion. It had a bunch of tubes, was bright and brittle sounding, and the beginning of what would one day become Tonebone. Over the years, we developed many different pedals, amplifiers and custom products for all kinds of guitarists.

The Tonebone Classic is a culmination of this experience and inspiration. Denis relates it this way: “In the 90’s I noticed players were beginning to return to their roots and going back to overdriven amp tones – not the type of distortion created by a pre-amp and master volume, but real amp distortion caused by tubes being driven hard. I then remember hearing Robben Ford’s ‘Talk to your daughter’ album… thinking, now that’s tone!

This was the inspiration that lead me to think about how a guitar and amp react together. I soon came to the realization that when the power amp section of a guitar amp is driven hard, it responds much more to the guitar than when the pre-amp is saturated. Less fuzz, more articulation. This led me to develop a circuit that would react like a real tube amp and this became the Tonebone Classic”