Klon Centaur

Revision as of 09:31, 20 June 2017

An article by Yoncopin
Board Thread

The Story

Our shred instructor Todd Simpson was amazed when he tried this overdrive, which was hand built and gifted to him by GMC member Yoncopin. Yeah. That's how awesome our community is

Todd's thoughts on the pedal

I can't tell you how thrilled I am with this pedal that was hand built by one of our very own GMCers!!! I will keep his name secret until he wants to share. I think he should make these available to people to buy! I actually like the tone better than my PRO TONE MISHA BULB over drive. It responds like a tube amp. Light touch is met by a very tubey sound, dig and it gets more Marshall sounding. Most responsive ovedrive Ive ever tried.

I cant thank you enough!! This thing is my fave overdrive yet and I've tried wads and wads of them. What makes this thing sound ike this? Can you tell us the secret sauce?

Making the Klon Centaur

Yoncopin explains how the guts of the pedal actually work:

Here are a few of the details of what I put together. First, the layout was my standard stripboard, using this design Klon Centaur Silver Edition

I'm going to guess what Todd refers to as the secret sauce is probably the germanium diodes. The design called for a Russian D9E, but I used 1N34's as the original creator eventually revealed were used in the original. Here's some background on silicon vs germanium diodes

Next, I laid out the enclosure in Sketchup.

I almost always do this now, because it's quick and I make sure everything will fit before drilling. Below is the drilled enclosure after I applied the laser waterslide decal. A quick clear coat and assembly and it was ready to rock.

Here's a few more quick shots of it before mailing it off:

Audio Demo by Todd Simpson