A friend wants a "flat mids" mod for his Klone...

[HamishR]

A friend of mine is curious about adding a switch to his Klone to flatten out the midhump. I suggested that it might be a bit tricky because as far as I can see there is no one part creating the mid-hump. In a Big Muff you can pretty much add a switch to bring in another cap at the third gain stage to add some mids, but I can't see where you do do something similar to reduce mids in a Klon.

Is this doable?

 

[Barry]

Isn't that the purpose of a Klone?

 

[HamishR]

Ha! Yes I would agree! But I promised him I would ask the question.

I think the whole point of the Klon is that "amazing mid thing", but it doesn't really do anything for me. And I think there are far better ODs to use if you want flat mids. But if that's what he wants I will ask the question for him.

Rockett make a "Klon" with a graphic EQ and I think it sounds terrible! But Steve Stevens likes it.

 

[jeffwhitfield]

The Klon has a mid hump? It definitely isn’t transparen but I never felt like it has a mid hump. If anything, my complaint is that it a bit too bright. I switched out the 3n9 cap for a 6n8 which, to my ears, curbs off just enough brightness to smooth it out a bit. You could use 8n2 as well if you want to curb off a little more treble. It’s right off the Treble pot so it’s the easiest cap to experiment with.

I also opted for D9E diodes instead of 1N34A’s. They sound a bit smoother to me. Between that and the cap change, everything sounds just a bit softer.

 

[Big Monk]

The Klon has a mid hump? It definitely isn’t transparen but I never felt like it has a mid hump. If anything, my complaint is that it a bit too bright. I switched out the 3n9 cap for a 6n8 which, to my ears, curbs off just enough brightness to smooth it out a bit. You could use 8n2 as well if you want to curb off a little more treble. It’s right off the Treble pot so it’s the easiest cap to experiment with.

I also opted for D9E diodes instead of 1N34A’s. They sound a bit smoother to me. Between that and the cap change, everything sounds just a bit softer.

This has been my impression as well. It's really bright but I never got the impression I get from a TS or my SD-1, which is very mid-forward. I'm going to play around with that 3.9n cap now! Thanks!

 

[JamieJ]

Coda Effects: Klon Centaur mods and tweaks

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I have shared this before but it might be helpful again. You could try and play around with C14 and also changing the bass response through C7 might help.

You could build a standard Klone apart from those two caps and uses sockets to tweak the caps with your friend present to see what time he prefers?

 

[dpsnacks]

Klons are more of a lower mid bump I believe where as the ts is more upper mids.

The Klon has a mid hump? It definitely isn’t transparen but I never felt like it has a mid hump.

The Tubescreamer bump is around 720Hz, the Klon bump is around 1k.

 

[dpsnacks]

What was the gain set at on this?

I'm not sure but the source link is here, this may have the answer (I just plucked the image) https://www.electrosmash.com/klon-centaur-analysis

 

[JamieJ]

That was my understanding too that the TS was 700-800Hz and Klon was 1kHz

 

[phi1]

Turning the Gain knob all the way down gives essentially a flat eq to my ears. It’s convoluted since there’s a Low pass filter in the feedback loop of the mixing stage, so I guess it basically cancels out whatever stuff is going on the the ‘clean’ path?

If he wants flatter eq as the gain gets turned up, reducing C8 will pass more highs, and increasing C7 will pass more lows. You can also mix in more lows by reducing R14 (vfe merman uses a pot here). I think these mods would help, but not sure it would be the desired sound.

I’d say a sea monk (merman) build with a switch for different C7 values ( C7 on Seamonk is equivalent to C8 on kliche). But honestly its hard to say for sure if that would hit the spot

 

[HamishR]

Well as Barry pointed out, the whole point of the Klon is it's particular tone. I doubt messing with it too much, especially in the midrange, will produce wonderful results. For some it's nirvana, for other it's meh. I quite like the sound but have many ODs I much prefer. Doesn't mean I'm right, just means I know what works for me!