Effectslayouts Cossack-klon Centaur

Guardians of the analog

Guardians of the analog

Papi Fuego
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
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Here we are, the Klon Centaur...it's was inevitable 🤣 it's easy to shit on this pedal, all the hype, myths, lies, famous users and inflated prices...and the legendary jackass who made the damn thing 🙄. Anyways, I actually like it in the context it was designed to be used, as a boost pushing an amp. I mean I really like it.

The past couple months I started to dislike certain things about my rig, one of which sent me on this drive pedal journey, was my boost pedal sound. Sure the 808 and SD-1 sound good, but I felt they cut too much bass. I understand that that's to keep things tight and that is perfect for high gain chugging but I'm not Ola and I wanted something more natural. And that's where the fabled Klon comes in. Its been a long time since I used a klon and haven't yet with my current rig. I wish I had sooner.

Reading the electro smash analysis of the circuit it makes total sense why I like it. The blend between the clean and drive lets me keep my pick attack and transients, the higher headroom let's me.keep my amps feel, and most importantly the mid peak is 1khz like my trusty sd-1. I'm not crazy about the 700hz peak of the TS. Also the treble knob is far better as well. Lots more volume on tap. I like to keep the gain at 9 o'clock, treble at 1 o'clock and output around 2 o'clock. Man it sounds good in my rig, it's like my amp but just more of it. The bottom end is still there, but not mushy. Not overly compressed, thin and that brittle texture like my other drives. For heavy chugs those work far better, which I wouldn't use the Klon for.

The enclosure is a bare 125b with film free decal. Used a free centaur vector and kept it simple. Real oxblood Davies knobs because it had to look right. Onboard relay bypass. Used some D9k diodes from stompboxparts with .34 and .35fv. this got Velcro immediately and is on my board.
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I built one about five years ago and it's progressively grown on me since then. I actually like its drive too, not just the boost. It must have to do with that 1khz peak--the klone has become my go-to for leads if I'm going through chorus, delay, etc. I can just hear it all distinctly, if that makes sense. And yes, those knobs!
 
Bret608 said:
I built one about five years ago and it's progressively grown on me since then. I actually like its drive too, not just the boost. It must have to do with that 1khz peak--the klone has become my go-to for leads if I'm going through chorus, delay, etc. I can just hear it all distinctly, if that makes sense. And yes, those knobs!
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I love it for leads as well, it's like a laser cutting through everything. But also, and I hate saying it, it's more amp like in response as a boost than most of my other OD pedals
 
I had the perfect buffer for you but drats, it requires 3-phase power... if only someone would create a buffer than can be powered by a wide range of voltages....

Awful, just awful. All of it. The impeccable graphics, mirror-like soldering, and tidy wiring. Yuck. Do better man. :)


(I was going to quote you but I'm not allowed to say his name)
 
Always nice seeing a gota-level clean build. 🧑‍🍳

So far I’ve built the klon twice and gave it to a friend both times. Maybe someday I’ll connect with it 🤷‍♂️

I’ve been on a boosty journey lately. Still trying circuits. Two that have been speaking to me lately are the Okko Holy Grit, and the Broadcast. There’s enough range on them to run as clean boosts and they sound quite nice in that context.
 
Well that TS and SD-1 info checks out, here's a quick and dirty Spice I did worked off some other similar circuits I had already modeled. At Tone=50%, TS is indeed ~720 peak and SD1 is ~1k peak. I know tyou already posted graphs of both, but I wanted to see them side-by-side in the same format. (Take mine with a grain of salt, but they're in the ballpark of the postings). But it's clear the simple single pole cut-off frequency calcs don't capture the interaction with the tone filter.

I've not built and SD-1, I guess I always thought it was more similar to the TS (with assymmetric clipping) than it actually is, now I'm more interested.

The graphs show how the TS / SD-1 tone control shifts the mid peak. Whereas that shelving treble knob on the Klon should actually raise up high frequencies more I think.

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