Paragon w/Court Jester mods

[sticky1138]

I finally got around to finishing a long-overdue rite of passage, the King of Tone clone. Here’s a Paragon I built with some of the Court Jester mods for an added challenge. (Shoutout to all on the troubleshooting board for help with my reckless soldering.)

I haven’t played a real KOT or a stock Paragon, so I can’t comment on how they compare, but here’s my take on the mods:

• I didn’t bother with carbon comp resistors. Too cumbersome and I don't expect any impact on tone.
• I did use mojo diodes since that’s the fun of this pedal. I scored some MA856s and BA282s (the 1S1588 sub recommended in the build doc) at a great price. This was a while ago, but I believe they were from GuitarPCB. I probably got lucky because I haven’t seen them since. Do they sound better than 1N4148s? I don’t know, but they secured my bragging rights. You'll find plenty of debate on this topic here and elsewhere on the internet.
• The high/low gain switches are a must. They add a ton of versatility, like having extra pedals in one box. It’s the most difficult mod on the list, but the mod designer engineered them to fit perfectly with the original layout. Just follow the directions exactly and you shouldn’t have a problem.
• The warmth mod is another must. Even with this mod, the pedal is fairly bright. As someone who prefers bright guitar tones, I wouldn’t want even more high-end from the stock pedal, so anything that tames it is a plus.
• I don’t hear much difference between 9V and 18V, so I consider the voltage switch optional.
• I recommend the external hard/soft clipping switches. They are highly interactive with the gain switches, and again it feels like you have even more pedals in one box. They are positioned close to the footswitches, but I’ve never had a problem stepping on them.
• I didn’t use cloth wire, an unnecessary hassle without an audible difference. Plus the original switching board is clean and efficient.

So how does it sound?

I went into this with mild expectations. For me, the hype sets it up for failure and every KOT YouTube demo I’ve seen sounds kind of generic. To my surprise, it’s actually pretty damn good. It does sound neutral, but that makes it pair well with just about any guitar and amp combination. It's smooth and blends seamlessly into your base tone, and doesn’t feel like playing through a pedal. As mentioned before, it is kind of bright, even with the presence trims all the way down, but the tone controls work well enough to keep that in check.

Assuming this accurately reflects how the KOT sounds, would I say the KOT is the be-all, end-all overdrive? No. Would I say it’s worth the price tag and waitlist? Also no. Hype aside though, I place it solidly in my top 10 overdrives and there are few better options for a small workhorse board.

 

[Nic]

Really love you design. I have a couple of theseus (aionfx) boards on my bench and will experiment with BA282, BAS33, 1S1588 and 1N914 ... could not get a hold of MA856.

Aren't BA282 what's used now that MA856 are almost impossible to find (in large batches) or is that a myth?

Well I also never tried one, so thanks for that nice build report!

 

[jimilee]

I love it, that’s a great take on the KOT.

 

[sticky1138]

Really love you design. I have a couple of theseus (aionfx) boards on my bench and will experiment with BA282, BAS33, 1S1588 and 1N914 ... could not get a hold of MA856.

Aren't BA282 what's used now that MA856 are almost impossible to find (in large batches) or is that a myth?

Well I also never tried one, so thanks for that nice build report!

I didn't really go down the rabbit hole of tracking down the diodes and researching all the alternatives. I just stumbled across these and bought a set in case I decided to build a Paragon in the future, which ended up being a good call.