Tone. At Home.
I recently picked up another of the Boss Legend Series pedals: the FDR-1.
Is this dinosaur of a pedal a dud or a delight? As with its sister pedal the FBM-1, it all depends on what guitar you play … and what you want to use it for.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Boss FDR-1 Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Overdrive Pedal”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what pedals I’m using, and why.
Previous posts in the series: [2019]
Continue reading “2020 Review: Pedals”Back in May 2020, my pre-ordered Mythos Lark drive pedal arrived. It’s been on the practice board most of the time since then, sharing time with various other tweed-tone pedals that I’ve been looking at.
How has it gotten on? Here’s my First Impressions of this drive pedal. It’s a bit of a long read …
Continue reading “First Impressions: Mythos Pedals’ Lark (Rhett Shull Signature) Overdrive Pedal”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what pedals I’m using, and why.
Continue reading “2019 Review: Pedals”This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.
Good morning! If you’re here in the UK, I hope the terrible election result and biblical rain hasn’t dampened your weekend completely. I’ve got another #CoffeeAndKlon for you this morning, and I want to talk about the *other* graphic on the KTR today.
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 24: The Klon’s Buffer”This conversation was originally posted to my Twitter feed.
Good afternoon! I’m a bit late with this week’s #CoffeeAndKlon. There’s a couple of reasons why. And one of them does involve the Klon.
I’ve been a bit flat for most of this past week. Delivered a couple of workshops and a talk on the Saturday and Wednesday, and didn’t have much left in the tank after that.
So Thursday and Friday, I’ve mostly been finishing off the home studio revamp. A bit of upgraded gear, and mainly about getting the gear I already have back into use.
Continue reading “CoffeeAndKlon #22: Who Needs Pedals When You’ve Got A Great Amp?”This conversation was originally posted on my Twitter feed.
Good morning! It’s a (rare!) sunny day here. I hope it’s nice wherever you are too. For this week’s #CoffeeAndKlon, I want to talk about how I’ve been using my Klon these past few days.
Continue reading “CoffeeAndKlon #21: Fender Elite Strat And A Klon”This conversation was originally published on my Twitter feed.
Good morning! I hope you’re having a great weekend so far. This week, I’ve been thinking about my Desert Island rig … and whether or not a Klon / klone would be part of it. #CoffeeAndKlon
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 9: Would You Take A Klon To A Desert Island?”This conversation was originally posted on my Twitter feed.
Good morning, and welcome to #CoffeeAndKlon. Starting off with this question from last night: can the Klon make the Mojomojo sound any good? (PS I’ve dusted the Klon for y’all this morning)
The Mojomojo isn’t a ridiculous pedal like the Metal Zone or Digital Metalizer are. (See last night’s thread for context). It’s probably the worst drive pedal I’ve got to hand right now.
Can the mighty Klon help it out?
Continue reading “#CoffeeAndKlon 1: The TC Electronic Mojomojo”Chappers and The Captain have done a shootout between ten Klon-like pedals.
If you’re not sure what all the hype around the Klon is all about, let me explain …
The Klon is low-gain pedal that (in its day) did something unique. Set as a clean boost, it lifts the guitar in the mix (or in a live setting) thanks to the way it increases the upper mids. And yet – it also does something to the bass response that makes clean tones sound fuller, without making drive tones muddy or boomy.
The hype is partly because, for many years, the only way to get this tone was to get a Klon Centaur. They were hand-built by Bill Finnigain, and due to limited availability they started changing hands in the second hand market for eye-watering amounts of money.
Eventually, klones (with a ‘k’) started appearing. Bill himself created the Klon KTR as a mass-production version of the Centaur, did a deal with JRAD to make them, before JRAD went on to create their own klones.
The most important klone is the Soul Food. It wasn’t the first klone, and I’d argue it is amongst the worst, but it did bring awareness and availability to the mass market. Since then, there’s been an explosion of interest in klones and the Klon thing. Today, there’s plenty of choice to suit all tastes and budgets.
I’ve got three of these on my boards, including the (for me) unmatched Klon KTR. It’s the only one that I’ve tried that doesn’t add a huge bass bump to overdrive tones. That’s something that doesn’t come across in this demo, to be honest.
Watch the video to choose your favourite, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment..