The Steel Guitar Forum

The Klon Centaur type pedals get a lot of comments for being "Transparent" while adding overdrive. Anyone use this type of pedal with steel guitar? Thought?

I use one that I built, with my lap steel (Melbert 8 with George L's SS-10). The Klon design includes a very good buffer that's always-on even during bypass, some people use it just for that. Low gain and pleasant sound, it reduces the low frequencies a bit more than I'd call transparent, but that is generally a good idea in an overdrive, the low end can get flabby if there's too much of it. There is a mod to add a bass knob which makes it closer to truly transparent.

Thanks for the reply. The EXH Soul Food is supposed to be close to the Klon Centaur and reasonably priced. I can't believe the prices on the original Klon pedal.

I have and use a Klon KTR, which is Bill Finnegan's surface-mounted version of the original Klon Centaur, which btw was built in the same general neighborhood in Brookline, MA that I spent high school years in. I've played but not owned a couple of Centaurs. They were very good, but I actually prefer the KTR. The biggest issue for me is the KTR's switchable buffered/true bpass operation. The Centaur is buffered-only, which is pretty much a non-starter for me, I'm glad he put the switch in. Otherwise, my take is that tonal differences from parts tolerances are probably bigger than actual differences in the design and build.

As far as I'm concerned, the Klon does some very specific things well. It is not a hard distortion unit, but a pretty nice overdrive. The way I use it, it fattens things up very nicely and pushes a fairly clean tube amp in a way that I like for certain things. If I want more than that, I either use something totally different, put something in front of the Klon to drive it harder, or put something after it to fuzz it up more.

As far as I know, the Klon KTR can still be had new for $269 if you're willing to wait for a batch to be available - they do sell out pretty quickly. I have a pretty hard time understanding how people on Reverb think they're gonna get $450-600 for a used one, but perhaps some people are extremely impatient. But I absolutely don't get it, nor the ridiculous prices for original Centaurs and new ones - Bill does build them on a very limited basis again.

I think a lot of the hoopla and prices are partly hype, partly rarity, and the resultant collectibility. The Klon is a good pedal if you know how to use it, but no tonal panacea IMHO. I know guys who play one and say, "What's the big $#^*&@ deal?". I also have and use other overdrives like the Mad Professor Simble, Analogman Prince of Tone (slightly scaled-down, non-hand-wired, small-box version of the King of Tone), Brad Sarno's Earth Drive, both versions of the Duncan Twin Tube unit, as well as other assorted overdrive/distortion units that I think are also very good but different.

I have an original Klon and a KTR (the newer version)

call me crazy, but I think the KTR sounds better. They both add something in the mids that can be fun on pedal steel, but I have to admit that I mostly use it when I plug in the 6 string.

I think the original idea for this pedal was to make a Twin Reverb sound good at low volume. Bill was gigging around Boston with a Twin and he was not able to turn it up, so he designed this circuit to compensate. By that logic, I think if you have a Twin and you want to get more of a full sound with pedal steel rather than guitar, I think the Klon will be your friend.

keep the buffer on

I use a Tone City Bad Horse overdrive pedal, which is an inexpensive clone of the Klon Centaur. I like it a lot. On six string guitar I use it with a tube amp and it really does keep the integrity of the sound of the amp, but makes it clip at a lower volume. When the gain is all the way up you can get a mild distortion out of it. I have used it with a Super Reverb before to get it to sound like its turned up to 7 or 8, but at a lower volume, and it worked great. It's the only overdrive pedal I've ever used that I will play 3ds with. I use it for Blues on steel, and to get more of a mild overdrive sound. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't use batteries, but I just use a One Spot and that works great with it. https://reverb.com/p/tone-city-tc-t9-ba ... -overdrive

I have a Bad Horse as well. I think I paid something like $25.00 for it new. I don't own a Klon so I can't A-B compare them but I love it.

I've used an original Centaur in the studio with a Fender. It sounded great, really warm and rich. It belonged to the studio. I could never afford the original but I hear the clones are good.

Well this weekend in Massachusetts is Tax-free weekend so I'm going to spring for the EHX Soul Food pedal that
gets good reviews for being a Klon type pedal.

Len, +1 on the Soul Food, it's 95% or closer to a Klon at a fraction of the price.

Len, please let us know what you think of it.

I’ve never played an original, but spent some time with a KTR. I am baffled by any comparisons between it and the EH Soul Food. They don’t sound much alike nor feel the same either. EH is a lot brighter, and compresses differently.

I bought the Soul Food years ago and never really gave it a twirl and stuck it away & forgot about it until I read this thread. I put it in front of my Kemper and I don't know from Klon clones but this is really useful I think if used sparingly. I'm not a fan of dirty distortion so just kept the drive almost all the way down. The "treble" dial is neutral when straight up so you can add bass or treble. It brings out mids and gives a smooth pleasing boost without much adjustment. I'm too lazy to drag out an amp and try it but have been told that Kemper profiles react pretty much like the amp would with pedals in front of them. I'm using it in front of the Kemper Lil Willie profile (Little Walter). If this makes it through the honeymoon I may rivet a leg clip on it.

Don’t know about Klon with PSG but there is appreciable difference in one unit to another in the early ones. There are now numerous “klones” being made, many based on the sound of a particular early Klon

Check out Archer (3 variants), Wampler Tumnus, Vemuram Jan-Ray among others. I find my EH Soul Food a bit noisy but under $100 it’s worth a shot

Check out That Pedal Show on YT. Those guys are knowledgeable and funny. They have done several episodes on these pedals.

I’ll try and find a link and post

Start here. The similar episodes should pop up on the right hand list

https://youtu.be/jWsxWuIiCf8

And I was wrong about the JanRay. I think it’s a Timmy clone. Also a fine pedal. Buy the Timmy and support Paul Cochrane