What's the Klon clone to get?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rex Rocker
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Funny story I was telling someone about this weekend. The Klon I built last week sounded better than any Klon I've built or played before, I mean like a lot better. Being that most people run these at lower gain I hadn't really cranked the gain until the next day, at which point when I turned the gain over 3 o'clock would take a volume drop and get some unpleasant blocking distortion. Mind you, up until that point on the control, it was glorious. None the less I had to figure out what was wrong. I tried to do this as close to the original as possible and used a tantalum capacitor in C16 and tantalum are polar and it was reversed,so it was like I omitted it completely. It fixed now, but I don't like it as much:D

Things always sound best before the wheels come off :D I may build another in a generic kit so that I can tweak this part. I just need to limit the signal difference in the last 15% of the dual gain pot, but that’s a complex dual network design.
 
scottosan said:
Funny story I was telling someone about this weekend. The Klon I built last week sounded better than any Klon I've built or played before, I mean like a lot better. Being that most people run these at lower gain I hadn't really cranked the gain until the next day, at which point when I turned the gain over 3 o'clock would take a volume drop and get some unpleasant blocking distortion. Mind you, up until that point on the control, it was glorious. None the less I had to figure out what was wrong. I tried to do this as close to the original as possible and used a tantalum capacitor in C16 and tantalum are polar and it was reversed,so it was like I omitted it completely. It fixed now, but I don't like it as much:D

Things always sound best before the wheels come off :D I may build another in a generic kit so that I can tweak this part. I just need to limit the signal difference in the last 15% of the dual gain pot, but that’s a complex dual network design.
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I only wish I knew a 10th of what you do?
 
Not much help but I have a RYRA clone and a VFE Merman and I prefer the Merman. But I liked the RYRA before I got the Merman.
 
I also like the Steve Stevens Rockaway Archer, it stacks well for both 6 string & bass, can do clean boost & frees up pedalboard space if you want an EQ as well, great flexibility for the size & price.

Another one to consider (bit of a curveball) is the Elektron Analog Drive on its "Focused Distortion" setting, it's out of production but quite a few still floating around used in the $200-ish range, sometimes less. They are enormous form factor (almost 7" square), fully MIDI controllable with presets for every setting (I mean everything- all the parameters), pedal enclosure is huge because they contain 8 discrete analog circuits, nothing modeled. That Pedal Show did a good web demo of it, the Focused Distortion setting goes considerably higher gain than most Klon-style, but has a broad range of gain available and can be dialed in to traditional lower levels. It was ultimately too large & power hungry to live on my board permanently, I do play around with it at home from time to time, worth checking out if you can find one for under $175. Anyone that gets one should invest in a Cioks or Strymon power supply, they will be noisy on cheaper power. EDIT- should add that they are particularly useful if you already have a MIDI controller in your pedalboard, can add very granular presets across all 8 of their analog circuits.
 
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My Decibelics Golden Horse is awesome. I’ve never played a real Klon. Mine is Blue……so it sounds better….lol.
 
#1 - KTR by the man himself.
#2 - Wampler Tumnus (first one, not the deluxe).
 
braintheory said:
Yeah the KTR I had sounded brittle and cold next to the real Klon and the Tumnus just sounded bad (plastic-y, filtered) as all the Wamplers I’ve had have been
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I was actually so excited to try the KTR (hoping) and it was a total disappointment…
I agree, The Tumnus was just awful, cheap sounding, horrible in my opinion.
Some people have a tin ear, or in this case, plastic.
 
For those discussing the CKK scream honey l, I’ve reverse engineered it

? roll

It is a lightly modded TS808. The .047uf cap off the opamps negative feedback is paralleled with another .047uf basically letting through more lowend. The bold switch is for symmetrical vs asymmetric clipping and the hollow switch changes the stock .22uf between the opamps to a 1k/.15uf in series. There you go. Another overpriced, overhyped unoriginal design.
 
I use a Way Huge Conspiracy Theory. I've only heard and not played the Archer ones. I like what the Way Huge does, and it has been good enough for me for what I do. As we say in the south, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" ;)
 
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