Discussing the Klon with David Lowery...

OGG

Master of the Meh
Of Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven.

He posted a pic of one in a music store on his FB page, the discussion is getting good. :)
 
Klon Talk.JPG
 
What's with all the Klon discussions these days (yeah, Help I'm a Rock, I'm talking to you!) For $2500, the thing had better not only make me sound like Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan had a baby, but it had better damn well shine my shoes and give me a pedicure at the same time...
 
What's with all the Klon discussions these days (yeah, Help I'm a Rock, I'm talking to you!) For $2500, the thing had better not only make me sound like Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan had a baby, but it had better damn well shine my shoes and give me a pedicure at the same time...
Ultimate tone is priceless. :)
 
To be honest, I'm not too sure I like the whole Klon thing in the first place. It's interesting that the pedals command so much money and that you can get closer than most people can tell for less than $100 though.
 
Meh -- I can get a BJ anytime I want. OTOH, my wife will rarely shine my shoes or give me a pedi!
 
To be honest, I'm not too sure I like the whole Klon thing in the first place.

I read an interview with the guy who made it. He said he was looking for the sound and response of a Fender tube amp being pushed to volume levels that almost nobody would really want.

That's cool but my own initial reaction was, "But I don't really like that sound."

I know some folks really do, though.
 
I read an interview with the guy who made it. He said he was looking for the sound and response of a Fender tube amp being pushed to volume levels that almost nobody would really want.

That's cool but my own initial reaction was, "But I don't really like that sound."

I know some folks really do, though.

I love that sound. I mean, Jim Campilongo; enough said.

Anyway, I'm not really a pedal guy.

But Greatest Hits Play Faster is currently in my car stereo changer.
 
I read an interview with the guy who made it. He said he was looking for the sound and response of a Fender tube amp being pushed to volume levels that almost nobody would really want.

That's cool but my own initial reaction was, "But I don't really like that sound."

I know some folks really do, though.
In the context of my live rig it doesn't make as much sense. Part of it is that for cover gigs I am always having to stack pedals to make up for strange volume changes in the band I play in the most and the more transparent RC Booster works better for that sort of thing. I really haven't played with it outside of my big rig since thats been the only real playing out I do right now. I originally got it to throw in my gig bag for jams and such.
 
I love that sound. I mean, Jim Campilongo; enough said.

Anytime I've seen Jim play, it's his '59 Tele straight into a Blackface Princeton Reverb or Vibrolux Reverb. No horsies.

@bsman Personally, I'm not a fan of "overdrive". I like boosters and high gain fuzzes and distortions. So I'm the last person to ask regarding an overpriced overdrive. But my impression is that some famous people started using them and the builder discontinued them for more than 10 years. Then he re-introduced them in small batches, driving original prices through the roof. Then the cloners got to it, then EHX finally decided to cash in, and now everyone is in.
 
I'm not a fan of "overdrive". I like boosters and high gain fuzzes and distortions.
What's the difference between an OD and a booster? I thought all a typical OD did was boost the preamp so that you get a sort of natural distorted sound, where distortion pedals and fuzzes were actually changing the wave form...

Anyway, I really like the subtle Klon sound, and I've gone all-in with the craziness about it all. I think it's great that they're astronomically expensive, so that everybody goes nuts and gets all polarized, and most of all, so that there are so many great Klones out there as an end result.
 
What's the difference between an OD and a booster? I thought all a typical OD did was boost the preamp so that you get a sort of natural distorted sound, where distortion pedals and fuzzes were actually changing the wave form...

Anyway, I really like the subtle Klon sound, and I've gone all-in with the craziness about it all. I think it's great that they're astronomically expensive, so that everybody goes nuts and gets all polarized, and most of all, so that there are so many great Klones out there as an end result.

Anything labeled as an overdrive, fuzz, or distortion creates it's own square wave. The real differences are in the topography, filtering, and maximum amount of distortion available. A Klon is like a Tubescreamer in that they don't have a lot of distortion available, even though the circuit does create some. They're best used with the gain down and the volume up, as you described. So they're overdrives.

A boost usually doesn't have both gain and volume controls. The EHX LPB1 is a prime example of a boost. It can color the tone, but mostly it just drives the amp. DOD just reissued the BiFet Preamp, which is a great boost.

My favorite booster is the ZVex Super Duper. One side, yellow, is just a straight booster. I use it as a line buffer. The other side adds a master volume to the circuit. Even though there is no filtering, I would consider the red side an overdrive, because the gain drives the master into overdrive at the top end of the range. There's no "soft clipping" like a Klon, Timmy, or Tubescreamer though. It's a hard clip. Which, to me, is why it works so well on bass. It's an immediate sound.

The larger problem, however, is that most dirt pedals out there are just a tweak of some early circuit, and aren't labelled as such. So you get 1000 variants of a tubescreamer and no real variety. Especially with all of the snake oil in this market, finding out what something is can be frustrating. This is what makes the Klon discussion irrelevant to me. I don't like soft clip overdrives. I learned my lesson with Tubescreamers and re-learned it with the Soul Food. I like a hard clip that's uncompressed and unfiltered with a relatively tight bottom end. Those are few and far between. So it keeps me from wasting money on overdrives and fuzzes. Allegedly. :grin:
 
To be honest, I'm not too sure I like the whole Klon thing in the first place. It's interesting that the pedals command so much money and that you can get closer than most people can tell for less than $100 though.
Yeah, I'm not getting it either. I haven't heard a Klon demo video I've actually liked.
 
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