Klon Klone!

[duhvoodooman]

EDIT 9/21/11: SOLD!!

This is not my pedal, but is being sold by the same fellow I mentioned in THIS THREAD (http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php/19115-Bunch-of-pedals....). The guy (his name is Rob) is a fellow moderator at the BYOC forums and does stellar quality work. He has this pedal up for sale over there, but PM me here if you're interested and I'll put you in touch with him.

If you're into pedals, you've probably heard of the Klon Centaur, which enjoys a reputation as one of the premier boutique overdrives of recent years. A new PCB called the MKC1 Mini-Klon (http://www.guitarpcb.com/apps/webstore/products/show/2556712) has recently been introduced by GuitarPCB.com (http://www.guitarpcb.com/), and Rob worked closely with Barry, the site owner, to develop & debug the circuit. They made a couple of nice simplifications to the original circuit that reduce the build complexity and component cost while making no discernible tonal impact. I built one a couple of weeks ago, and it's a really nice sounding overdrive--very warm, smooth tone. The originals go for $350 and up (w-a-a-y-y up, mostly), but Rob is selling this pedal for $80. This is the very same pedal used for the demo clips posted on Barry's main webpage (near the bottom), linked above.

Here are photos, linked over from the BYOC F/S thread. Some beautiful workmanship here:

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk6/dcountry13/DSCF7403.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk6/dcountry13/DSCF7402.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk6/dcountry13/DSCF7404.jpg

If you want to read Rob's posting at the BYOC forum, it's here: http://www.buildyourownclone.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=32613

SPECIAL OFFER: As you can see, the pedal is not labeled in any way. Buy it and I will decal & clearcoat it for you at NO CHARGE. We can agree on a design together, but I can put together a variant of the design I used very easily. Here's what mine looks like (it has an extra gain control, which turned out to do not so much):

http://duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/Mini-Klon_top.jpg

[piebaldpython]

Just curious.......but how does the Klon Centaur compare/contrast with some of your overdrive pedals.......like OD2.....British Blues OD.....ZYS???

Does the KC do anything the others don't?

[duhvoodooman]

The circuit is quite a bit different from the either the Tube Screamer type used in the OD2/ZYS or the Marshall Bluesbreaker design used in the BBOD. It's an interesting double dual-opamp design (i.e. 4 total IC gain stages) with a pair of germanium diodes clipping signal to ground between the second and third stages. It has a warmer and smoother tone than those pedals, at least until the gain is turned way up. But where many OD's that are described as "warm" tend to be dark sounding and lack treble, this one still manages to have a good, balanced top-end. I would never drop $350+ on an OD pedal, but after hearing this circuit, I can at least understand what the Klon hype was all about, because it does have a pretty unique character. Here's a chance to check it out for a tiny fraction of the cost of the original.

[Eric]

Dude, the inside of that pedal is amazingly tidy! I seriously seriously considered this, but I really have no idea what I'd do with it.

[duhvoodooman]

I seriously seriously considered this, but I really have no idea what I'd do with it.Ummm, you plug your guitar into one side and your amp into the other, attach a battery or 9V AC adapter, and then play your *** off through it. :poke ;)

[Eric]

Ummm, you plug your guitar into one side and your amp into the other, attach a battery or 9V AC adapter, and then play your *** off through it. :poke ;)
Hardy har. What I meant is that already have more dirt pedals than can fit on my board (4) and of the 3 on my board, most recently I alternated between 2 of them while playing. I suppose I could kick the Bad Monkey off my board if I bought it, but right now I like the Bad Monkey. I'll still consider it until someone else buys it, which is what I typically do. So there.

[Ch0jin]

H'mm, I've got a KoT build underway right now (just waiting for the fancy diodes) but I've always been curious to hear one of these too. Pity about the side mounted jacks though. That's an absolute deal breaker for me, especially when it could have been made with top mounted jacks looking at that gut shot. I just don't understand this "trend" of side mounting when you don't have too (like this) or side mounting because you used a case that's too small for the job (anything in a 1290NS).

Give me top mounted and maximum board real estate any day.

[duhvoodooman]

Interesting you should mention that, because I gave the same feedback to Mammoth Electronics about the pre-drilled case I purchased from them for that "Klone of my own" that's pictured above. I would much rather have the I/O and power jacks all at the top--saves a ton of space and is much more "pedalboard-friendly". Keith Vonderhulls at BYOC has pretty much gone to that jack configuration now for all his new pedals, unless there's some unusual layout factor that prevents its use, and GGG has used the top-mounted jacks in their kits for years. I don't know why the side-mounted jacks persist some places....

[Robert]

Looks like this Klon-e is Gon-e ... :)

I'd be interested if a new one pops up.