King of Clone 68 pedals kicks pretty hard!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kapo_Polenton
  • Start date Start date
Mickg said:
Looks great! How are you liking it now that you've had it about a month?
Click to expand...

It has it's place. I have not spent a lot of time with it but do plan on flipping some switches and turning the pots inside to explore some more.

From the time I have had it on the board, it works great at taking a JCM800 into rock/heavy rock territory set up in the typical high volume low gain settings. Seems to retain the low end better than an SD1 while still keeping the high end to cut. I still like the SD1 to get thrashy tones though because of the low end roll off.

Setting up one side to be always on and then the other to kick in a lead boost works really well too. For what I paid, I am happy. No clue how close it is to a real KOT but I will keep it around and experiment some more.
 
What I find touchy, is charging $600.00 for a product that costs a fraction of that to produce. The crazy pedal prices started when a guy from France paid $1600.00 for a KLON that I had posted on eBay some years back. I raised the price to a retarded level, because I wasn't sure that I wanted to let it go? I never thought anyone would be so stupid as to purchase it at that price. I was wrong, obviously. By the next morning it had sold. I was astounded! What happened next was as you can imagine... Within 48 hours, every KLON was re-priced (from an average of $365.00 USD) to meet (and exceed) $1600.00 USD. Don't blame me, blame the douche who paid $1600.00 USD. A douche from France... Ironic.

Since the majority of parts used by OEM's vs cloned devices share the same source for components, duplication is expected. I prefer to own OEM, but if someone can build the identical item at a fraction of the cost, I'm in! To me, these items are tools that I use to get the job done, not holy relics. The vast majority of pedals out there are hardly original. ROSS made some damn-fine pedals, many of which are clones of MXR devices. The KLON has its roots in borrowing as well, though not a direct clone of any pedal.

The Analogman King Of Tone pedal is basically a modified double Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal. If it weren't for Tom Scholtz' LED clipping circuit, the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, the Silver Jubilee amplifiers and KOT pedal may not exist as we know them today. If there was anyone using LED clipping prior to SR&D, I am unaware of it? Also, the 68 Pedals KOC is not an identical clone of the KOT. It sports additional gain selection switches that are not available on the KOT. Not exactly innovative, but a welcome addition to be sure. Analogman and 68 Pedals have both borrowed from the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, who borrowed from the SR&D Rockman, who borrowed from no one. Ain't life grand.

I do not condone cloning, but if I need a tool that can do the same job as OEM with equal satisfaction, I'm going choose to that clone every time. There is not a single person here who is not guilty of the same on some level or another. Johnson & Johnson invented the Q-Tip... Do you use J&J Q-Tips, merely because they invented it? Of course not. If ACME produced the same product for less money, you would go with ACME? Of course you would. If it's good enough for Wile E. Coyote, it's good enough for me. :)
 
I've had a while to spend with this pedal and I really like it with my stock Marshall Origin and DSL on the green channel. I like using one side on low and red on high gain. I did play with the internal controls to give more treble response. Awesome pedal for the money. I want to try his klon type pedal next.
 
HEMI Cooper said:
What I find touchy, is charging $600.00 for a product that costs a fraction of that to produce. The crazy pedal prices started when a guy from France paid $1600.00 for a KLON that I had posted on eBay some years back. I raised the price to a retarded level, because I wasn't sure that I wanted to let it go? I never thought anyone would be so stupid as to purchase it at that price. I was wrong, obviously. By the next morning it had sold. I was astounded! What happened next was as you can imagine... Within 48 hours, every KLON was re-priced (from an average of $365.00 USD) to meet (and exceed) $1600.00 USD. Don't blame me, blame the douche who paid $1600.00 USD.
Click to expand...
So the ridiculous hype that offends so many is of YOUR making. :lol:
 
Donnie B. said:
Well, to be fair, it all started with everyone and their brother (including in the US)
ripping off the Japanese IP from the original tube screamers.

Every mid boosted OD pedal since has been a theft of one sort or another.
Click to expand...
To be fair, the TS808 was built "or ripped off" to compete with the Boss OD-1.
 
japetus said:
To be fair, the TS808 was built "or ripped off" to compete with the Boss OD-1.
Click to expand...

Well, then we have to go all the way back to the Maestro FZ-1 box introduced in 1962. :giggle:

Safe to say the original Maxon OD808 / Ibanez TS808 were the big game changers.

You were talking IP theft.
The whole first wave of Tubescreamers were straight up clones of the Maxon circuit.
 
jasonP said:
I've had a while to spend with this pedal and I really like it with my stock Marshall Origin and DSL on the green channel. I like using one side on low and red on high gain. I did play with the internal controls to give more treble response. Awesome pedal for the money. I want to try his klon type pedal next.
Click to expand...
People may be getting tired of me repeating this, but the perfect complement to the KOT pedal is the Cowther Double Hotcake. The Double Hotcake does Eddie Van Halen lower-mid tone better than any pedal I've ever used. The KOT is traditional Marshall in box. I have yet to find two pedals that work so well together. I know they aren't cheap, but I guarantee you'll love the Crowther. It first appeared in 1976 and has had a cult following since. If you get 2 x single Hotcake pedals, you won't have the additional stacked gain option of the double Hotcake, so don't go that route. The Hotcake is not based on any previous design. Both of these pedals work best into a NMV amplifier.
 
Last edited:
The Caline unit looks like it's of cheaper build quality. Not like the other clones.

s-l1600.jpg
 
With the Caline, you can't even access the dip switches unless you take it all apart. That's bananas!
 
Yes my clone clone is definitely well built with good components from what I can tell so there is "some" sort of standard among the cloners depending if they are small builders or big builders like Caline. The Caline probably sounds good too though. In the mix who will really know.
 
Hey Kapo, good news. Check out this vid:



He's got that green Ly-rock board in his. In the comments, he mentions that he prefers it over the actual 68 with the extra switches. He says the ly-rock is more "consistent" (not clear exactly how that is though). IIRC, he says he had the 68, but sold it because those switches were "useless" to him, making the tone "dull" when turning down the drive.

It appears that yours is the "more perfect" one after all. :giggle:
 
Mickg said:
Hey Kapo, good news. Check out this vid:



He's got that green Ly-rock board in his. In the comments, he mentions that he prefers it over the actual 68 with the extra switches. He says the ly-rock is more "consistent" (not clear exactly how that is though). IIRC, he says he had the 68, but sold it because those switches were "useless" to him, making the tone "dull" when turning down the drive.

It appears that yours is the "more perfect" one after all. :giggle:
Click to expand...


LoL I guess it is! Now how long before the more perfect version fetches 1600$ because the guy who makes them gets arrested by the chinese government for mining bitcoin and the pedals stop circulating???? Then it really will have been "perfect"!

I saw that comparison before, it's VERY close. Close enough for me to get a sense of whether or not I would want to spend all that for the real deal. For that reason alone it is always going to be worth it. But if there is a diff, it is in the original having a bit more grit and the copy being a tad more notched in honky mids and hi-fi sounding. If the original was reasonably priced, I think that would be the one that lasts on the board. But really, this is being really picky and listening outside of a mix.
 
Last edited:
jasonP said:
I've had a while to spend with this pedal and I really like it with my stock Marshall Origin and DSL on the green channel. I like using one side on low and red on high gain. I did play with the internal controls to give more treble response. Awesome pedal for the money. I want to try his klon type pedal next.
Click to expand...
I have a duelist clone inbound from 68 Pedals, excited to see how it compares
 
ewill52, could you post the link for buying the duelist clone? I can't seem to find it offered by 68pedals. Maybe because I'm using ebay.ca
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top