What’s more, some of these effects take the sound and features a step further and in interesting directions. There is a great variety of pedals that can get you close to that sacred Dumble Overdrive tone at a much more affordable price – and some cheaper options that do a decent job as well. The Steel String Singer is renowned for producing subtle feedback, something that’s unusual for clean amps.īEST D-STYLE PEDALS (Voiced after the Dumble Overdrive) The Steel String Singer is a clean, single-channel amp with reverb and several tone-sculpting features, including three-channel EQ, Low and High filters, three tone switches (Bright, Deep and Rock/Jazz), Reverb with Send and Return controls and Volume and Master controls No two models are alike, but common characteristics include 6L6 or E元4 tubes (associated with Fender and Marshall style sounds, respectively) and a large amount of tube distortion in the Overdrive channel. amp head with cabinet, while other are just amps with no cabinet. The latter “cascades” from the clean channel, adding a tube saturation circuit that causes the signal to become overdriven. The Overdrive Special is a tube amp with Clean and Overdrive channels. The 15 Best Distortion Pedals Reviewed.Dumble built a few amp models over the years, but the two most popular by far are, in order, the Overdrive Special and the Steel String Singer.12 Best Tube Screamer Pedals And Tube Screamer Clones.After all – tone is completely subjective and it’s ultimately your opinion that matters most. It wasn’t the first and neither will it be the last.Īnd while I don’t believe this level of hype is warranted, Klon style pedals are one of the best overdrives I’ve ever heard. The Klon Centaur is one of the most hyped guitar pedals in existence.
So, in this list, I’ve focused more on overall tone (yes, it’s subjective, I know), value for money, affordability, build quality, etc. Scour online forums and you’ll soon find that if you were to A/B test two gold Klon’s, they wouldn’t sound exactly the same. I mentioned earlier that there were two different original types of Klon Centaur pedals – typically known as ‘horsie’ and ‘non-horsie’ (or silver and gold). This isn’t simply a list of which pedal sounds most like a real Klon.
With the exception of the KTR which allows the buffered output to be disabled.Ĭheck Today’s Price on Amazon How did I arrange this list? In a shootout between two original Klon’s and a newer version known as the KTR, Bill states that all of them have the exact same circuit. So, what’s the difference? Not much as it turns out. Silver with no graphic – otherwise known as the ‘non-horsey’ version.Īnd while these are the most common variations, Bill Finnegan also made a gold version with no graphic and silver version with centaur graphic.Gold with horse graphic – otherwise known as the ‘horsey’ version.There are typically two main variations of the Klon Centaur that you’ll see on the pre-owned market. Gold vs silver Klon? What’s the difference? The Klon doesn’t have huge amounts of gain available so if you want a high gain pedal – this isn’t it.īut if you want a low-medium gain overdrive pedal that is fairly transparent – a Klon Centaur style pedal is a great option. In the case of the MXR Sugar Drive, you can switch between buffered output and true bypass via a switch on the side of the pedal. Most variants of this pedal have a buffered output. But remember – you still power it with a 9v adapter. This offers a significant amount of headroom. The pedal circuit uses hard clipping and has an internal charge pump that boosts the 9v power to 18v internally. In a way, it feels more like an amp would feel when it starts to break up. This is partly down to the fact the pedal is blending your dry signal with your overdriven signal. Just grab a nice clean amp and you’re good to go. Some consider it to be an amp in a box and I’d agree – you don’t need to worry about your overdrive tone with this sort of pedal. Although it does have fairly pronounced mids. In other words – a fairly transparent overdrive pedal. The pedal is known for its ability to add gain without coloring the tone of your amp too much. Since then, these pedals have been used by the likes of Joe Bonamassa, Jeff Beck, James Hetfield, Stone Gossard, Noel Gallagher, and many more. The seemingly mythical Klon Centaur circuit was first developed by Bill Finnegan in the early 1990s.