What do you think of the Klon?

I'm not a Klon (or drives in general) expert in any way, but I tend to go to it when I want to drive an amp's input without much added color, and/or to mix in added distortion that does not change the amp's distortion character too much. The Klon style seems to do that in scenarios where I've used it, as opposed to the tube screamer like drives that add a definite frequency bump. A RAT with the filter all/most the way on seems to do a similar thing. I would agree with the mention above about what any given drive is going into and how that target is set up making a possibly big difference in one's opinion about what that particular drive does (particularly when running drives into eob type tones which I enjoy doing a lot of recently). I am amazed sometimes how a given drive on a given setting can be impossible to for me to get anything useable out of with AMP A set up a certain way, but into AMP B set up a certain way that same drive at same setting yields a very different and useful result.

Edit: From what I've seen / experienced I really don't understand the Klon hype. It's a drive pedal, it does its certain something like all the other drives do their certain thing. Why a real one sells for $1k is another one of life's mysteries to me .

Edit2: The Klon model is one of the ones where I like to set the drive GEQ to "Pre" position and experiment with "boosted boosts" by tweaking those GEQ sliders. Love that feature - makes for infinite possibilities with some drive models.
 
Last edited:
Edit: From what I've seen / experienced I really don't understand the Klon hype. It's a drive pedal, it does its certain something like all the other drives do their certain thing. Why a real one sells for $1k is another one of life's mysteries to me .
I thought the originals were at least $5K? Let me know if you find one for $1K, I'll buy it and resell it! :p
 
In the old days, when you'd order a Klon, you'd call up Bill F. and have a conversation about the pedal, your rig, and how it was best used. I spoke with Bill for probably a solid half hour when I ordered mine (which is long sold, btw). He definitely stressed that the pedal was used as a dirty boost- at it's best driving an amp close to overdriving already, and adding in gain as a flavoring. For that, I really love the model- if I need a boost, that's usually what I go for. It cleans up nicely too. I wouldn't put it in front of a squeaky clean amp though- too much volume boost if the amp isn't already breaking up and compressing some. I really like it, and use it often. For the record, I enjoyed talking with Bill, and found him to be helpful and friendly. Nice guy in my experience.
 
I've found it to be super useful as a boost in almost everything I use these days. It's a very smooth, musical saturation when gained up, but also a great low gain boost. Awesome drive!
 
It's a nice addition to the Fractal drives for sure and shines as a boost rather than a traditional overdrive. I use it on lower drive settings into edge of breakup, mildly crunchy amps. I never bought into the klon hype so my expectations were tempered.
 
In the old days, when you'd order a Klon, you'd call up Bill F. and have a conversation about the pedal, your rig, and how it was best used. I spoke with Bill for probably a solid half hour when I ordered mine (which is long sold, btw). He definitely stressed that the pedal was used as a dirty boost- at it's best driving an amp close to overdriving already, and adding in gain as a flavoring. For that, I really love the model- if I need a boost, that's usually what I go for. It cleans up nicely too. I wouldn't put it in front of a squeaky clean amp though- too much volume boost if the amp isn't already breaking up and compressing some. I really like it, and use it often. For the record, I enjoyed talking with Bill, and found him to be helpful and friendly. Nice guy in my experience.
This times 100. Very similar to my experience with Bill F. as well. Over a few years I bought three from him. I kept one - a gold one without a horsie that he had, last gold one at the time (he was doing silver).

The Fractal model sounds exactly like my own real pedal, I did the A/B test. At low gain (clean boost) settings I do set the advanced page second Bass control to 5.5 to match mine rather than 5.0 default, but if I add more gain the. i use it at default 5.0. I love it on everything and it is now a Drive2 channel in all the Live Gold or Naked Amp presets.
 
Maybe I'm new/naive/not overly critical but I would call it a Klone - a Tumnus, an Archer etc.

Similar to the Andertons blind test video, we all have ideas about what a Klon(e) should be and they don't always match what the effect itself does.

I, for one, am grateful it's there as it's been a real-world mainstay on my board for years.
 
I use it on a edge of breakup Bassguy bass and it’s just huge.

seems to work best with edge of breakup type of tones. Pushes too hard on clean tone and it brings up a little too much complexity on already gained tones,
but I’m gonna tweak it and try to make it work for high gain lead, cause I just love the tone.

Any guys using it as a boost for high gain leads?
 
Really like it - to my ears it as good as the "klones" I've tried over the years. Never played the original though.

Easily my favourite in-the-box boost now.

Plus, no heterodyning!
 
Had a real Klon a few years ago, got it because Jeff Beck was using a gold one as a boost on a JTM45 and it sounded great. He had that and a lexicon Alex for reverb at rehersal. The axe one is ok but it's not sounding like the original and a vintage Marshall at my house but I blame the amplification. It really does add touch sensitivity and sustain to the core sound but you need to be in the room and playing to get it. Unfortunately this analog in the room experience is not replicateable with the amplification you would play the axe through.
 
I've got some Klon style pedals and depending on the rig it can make distortion sound goofy almost 8bit, it just seems to play better in some situations than others. When I compare my pedals in the front of the FM3 vs the Drive Block Klon it gets the overall same effect on the amp. I'm super happy with the FAS recreation of it, I just think its the general use of it can be hit and miss with different amps/gain levels.

Something like the TS style boost (in my uses) seems to be a lot more universally good at boosting amps, the hitrate of sounding "better" is higher.

All that said when the klon does its magic to something its unique and a great addition. I dont think it deserves the fanfare it gets but its a great choice we have now. As a side note im a recent convert to the FAS Boost, great stuff as well.
 
It crashes the unit if a pitch follower is attached to Drive knob.
Damn! And I already gave up on channel B on my drive block where it lives. Didn't realize it started after I attached the pitch follower there, I though it just happens due to some cpu limit as I run it close to 8. Removed the modifier and it works now. Thank you!!
You should probably log bug report if not yet :).
 
I go back and forth on Klon-style pedals. I've had several hardware clones (Tumnus, Ryra, some Chinese/Amazon thing, etc.) and played a couple more. I don't really like them as a boost, especially compared to a PEQ block, and I sold all my hardware ones a while ago (before the Chiron).

As a mid-gain drive, I think they're pretty cool....different texture than a TS, which has been my go-to for a while.

The Chiron is really freaking loud, though, even louder than the hardware clones based on knob position. I've been running a Tweed Twin on 3 (which does breakup nicely with PAF replicas) and have to turn the Chiron volume down to just over 1 (Gain and Treble both around 6) to get the change I want when I step on it.

Plus, no heterodyning!

Do you mean this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterodyne

Are you talking about intermodulation distortion, or am I missing something?
 
Back
Top Bottom