Friday, March 20, 2020

Klon Clone.

Unknowingly, I recently was in the market for a Klon Centaur overdrive pedal.  By unknowingly, I mean I stumbled upon a super cheap Chinese clone kit version on amazon (https://www.amazon.com) for a mere $46.  I had reservations about it, especially being on amazon, but for that price I didn't have much to lose.  Considering real Klons are going for prices upwards of $3000, I had to try it.  Seems every famous guitarist I like has one these days after all.  
 
I'd seen the complaints about the instructions being unreadable among other things that seemed like beginner problems in the reviews.  Granted they weren't easy to read when the package arrived.  But with a multimeter, and some basic electronic knowledge, you should have no problem.  Only mix-up I had was with the two ceramic caps.  That was easy to mix up.  I got it running on the first try, but I wouldn't recommend this for someone just starting out.  However it really is paint by numbers with the values printed on the board.

Overall I couldn't build this from parts for the cost they are selling it at.  The components I counted compared to the schematic floating around online and it was spot on.  Other then and extra resistor which I think was a foot switch pop filter.  Sounds damn good, and close to every Klon demo I've heard.  The enclosure and paint job alone are worth the price.  No idea how they're making money off this in China.  It's on one of my boards now. Go slow, double check the values, and polarity.  Also the slop or notch on the audio jacks are the ground. There are other Klon clones on the market going for a lot more money.  As well as some Klon inspired pedals like the EHX Soul Food, which is pretty affordable.  But I have to hand it to the guys to threw this together.  For the price is it hard to beat it's value and sound.  Plus it was fun to solder it together for an afternoon.

The simple snobbish punk rock board.