What circuit is in the Klon?

What circuit is in the Klon?

Klon Centaur Circuit. The circuit is quite original, showing a mix of academic electronic design together with pure experimental/think-out-of-the-box blocks.

What makes the Klon Centaur special?

The Klon is particularly celebrated for the ‘transparent’ nature of its overdrive. In essence, this means that the pedal causes your signal to overdrive, without ‘colouring’ your tone in any way. It adds warmth and gain to your tone, whilst preserving the natural sound of your guitar and amp.

Is the Klon Centaur a transparent overdrive?

One of the most sought-after pedals of the last 30 years, the Klon Centaur is a transparent overdrive designed by Bill Finnegan.

What type of overdrive is the Klon?

While we’re used to seeing expensive boutique pedals today, the Klon Centaur was one of the first boutique pedals to come out. Transparent overdrive pedals like the Klon Centaur can be very effective in adding sparkle and character to your tone.

Does a Klon have a mid hump?

Although in truth it does have a slight mid-hump which will cut through the mix, not unlike a Tube Screamer. But in retaining the bass and increasing the headroom, the Klon has a far more natural and “open” sound, perfect for those who never got on with the Tube Screamer.

Is Klon a germanium?

The Klone lacks the Germanium diodes and buffered bypass of the original. But if you want the core of the Centaur’s magic in a boutique package at a sub-$200 pricetag, this is the pedal for you.

Is Klon Centaur distortion?

The Centaur also contains germanium clipping diodes, as opposed to the cheaper and more common silicon diodes. Germanium offers a smoother and more harmonically rich distortion. Another unusual feature of the Centaur is that it contains a “hard clipping” circuit, rather than “soft clipping”.

Is the tumnus a Klon?

As a result, the Tumnus Deluxe offers both Klon like tones, as well as a whole range of beautiful and warm overdrive tones. So if you are looking for a Klon clone, and you also want lots of tone tweaking possibilities, the Tumnus Deluxe could be a brilliant choice.

Is Klon Centaur soft clipping?

Basically, just know that the Klon Centaur is a hard clipper.

Is tumnus a Klon?

Tumnus nails the original Klon tone with great accuracy. This is interesting, given that it employs surface-mount silicon diodes in lieu of germanium.

Does the Klon use germanium diodes?

Indeed, the klon centaur’s diodes are germanium, whereas the Soul Food uses Schottky silicon diodes! The diodes are hidden on the top part of the PCB, in order not to scare the klon maniacs I guess.

Is Klon Centaur hard clipping?

Just like all great guitar pedals. Basically, just know that the Klon Centaur is a hard clipper. If you turn the gain up or if you don’t, at the end of the day it’s a really fancy boost pedal that sounds awesome. There are several other great versions of this pedal.

Is the tumnus a Klon clone?

Tumnus’ from the fictional series The Chronicles of Narnia – is a very affordable and compact clone built to recreate the tones of the original Klon Centaur. Although stylistically it looks quite different to the Klon, the Tumnus faithfully recreates the Klon’s tonal profile.

What does a germanium diode do?

The one big advantage of germanium diodes, which could be a real game changer for a circuit, is that they have lower threshold voltages and, in combination, lower voltage drops in a circuit. The threshold voltage is the voltage required for the diode to conduct current across from its anode to its cathode.

Is overdrive the same as clipping?

In order to distort the signal, or overdrive it – or force it through the hole that it’s too big for, we ‘clip’ it. We take the top off, take the bottom off, usually take them both off.

Which is better silicon or germanium?

In present, Silicon is preferred over Germanium for semiconductor. Why is Silicon preferred over Germanium for semiconductor? The reason is, Silicon can be worked at a higher temperature as compared to germanium. The structure of Germanium crystals will be destroyed at higher temperature.

How can you tell if a diode is silicon or germanium?

You can easily distinguish Silicon and Germanium Diodes. Silicon diodes should read approx 0.7V and Germanium diodes should read 0.3V. A little difficult to distinguish Schottky diodes though. They should show approx 0.2V which is close to 0.3V.

Can you use overdrive as distortion?

Yes, overdrive and distortion can be used together, this is known as gain-stacking (adding more than one pedal that adds gain). However, you need to properly dial in your controls to make the tone actually sound different.

What is Klon Centaur overdrive?

The Klon Centaur in an overdrive guitar pedal designed by Bill Finnegan with the help of 2 MIT Electronic Engineers between 1990 and 1994. The initial idea was to improve the TubeScreamer transient response and the midrange-bass frequencies in order to create a big open sound with a hint of tube clipping: the so-called transparent overdrive.

What is a centaur overdrive pedal?

The Centaur has inspired numerous clones by different manufacturers. In the 1990s, American engineer Bill Finnegan sought an overdrive pedal that would recreate the harmonically rich distortion of a guitar amplifier at a high volume. He wanted a “big, open” sound, with a “hint of tube clipping”, that would not sound like a pedal was being used.

Is the Klon Centaur the most hyped pedal ever?

For those who do not know the Klon Centaur yet, it is an overdrive created in the 90s by Bill Finnegan and MIT engineers (yes!), that is probably the “hypest” pedals of all. It was used by many guitarists, including Jeff Beck for instance.

What is the difference between different Klon Centaur models?

Klon Centaur Models: Gold vs Silver – During its 15 years of production, the Klon enclosure and circuit had some variations in color and graphics, but in theory, the minimal variations between the years do not affect the sound: “The fact is, under the hood they’re all basically the same.