It works for me at any gain setting, but I suppse Level MAX, Tone 5, Gain 1.85 is the sweetest spot with an edge-of-breakup Band Commander and my Texas Specials.
Pretty good sign it is very much Klon-like.
First test for any Klon copy for me is Gain 0, Tone 5, Level 2. Somewhere around there the original is almost completely neutral, doesn't do anything much, but has a cool vibe about it somehow. Once I have found the sweet spot of that, start turning up the level to see if it boosts clean signal like a Klon. They have a LOT of headroom, so can drive anything pretty hard. Then back down to Level 2.5ish and start winding some gain in. They are bit mushy, but great for a wash on gritty chords that support while staying back in the mix. Truth be told, they don't do too much else all that special, it's just that they do it all so very well. Certainly no massive screaming high gain drive or anything, just a really pleasant overdrive sound that doesn't clean up all that well, but is such a cool and high quality driven tone, why would you care? Most importantly, whatever you do with the controls, the tonal characteristics of the guitar you are playing always makes it through, so there's something really "natural" sounding about them.
Tiny bit of grit from the Klon, with level well up to drive a tube input section is what they excel at, and you found it
@Dr. Faustus! They are as good with humbuckers as single coils, in fact possibly better for dirty rhythm, and have some great clean headroom. I guess a load of people will try this new Drive model and think "so is that really what all the fuss was about?" Truth is, there's no real magic about them. They have for many some exceptional qualities, but importantly they have genuinely unusual circuit architecture, which means Fractal must have put a lot of work into modelling so accurately. And given a few of us have known and loved the originals, clones and copies, it must have felt like the bar was raised pretty high.
I'll have to see if I can remember where I put my last home-build clone to compare, as I have directly compared that one with a Silver Horsey original, and they were really, really close. I put the new drive model into a Princeton Reverb preset that models an amp and pedals that I still use occasionally. From memory, it's an absolutely perfect rendition. I knew exactly where to set the controls for different sounds I have used it for over the years. As far as I'm concerned, Cliff has absolutely nailed this one (just for a change).
Trying the new Drive model reminded me of something. Over all the years I messed with clone building, I never managed to keep one of them on the pedal board for more than 1 or 2 gigs at a time. TS-10s have been the "old faithful" Swiss army knives for years. But then by the time I found more space on the board for a scalp removing "hard" fuzzy drive (RAT 2), and a fully gut churning "fat" fuzz (Colorsound Supa Tonebender or Big Muff Pi), there wasn't often space for another drive pedal. For live use, they never quite made the cut for me, and I'd more likely end up with a Fulltone OCD or Zendrive clone if I had a spare slot. Didn't love either as much as a Klon, but they were somehow of more utility on stage. However I could always see why, for years, a lot of studio session players wouldn't leave home without a Klon Centaur.
So today feels like a pretty big day for me, because I no longer need to think about finding a slot on the board for one of my all-time favourite pedals, but one that found its way out to very few gigs. It will be going with me everywhere now, just housed in the Axe FX III. Bet I find more live use for it now than I ever did with the physical pedals.
Liam
