Cool. I tried a bunch of different Klones when I was deciding on which one to have on my giant board (that board I wanted the "most accurate representation").bigtone23 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 20, 2023 4:41 amSounds like what I'm after. I don't have a legit Klone of any sort. This will be my intro to this type pedal.
It's funny, I almost never use pedals for my grit tones, but I do have a LOT of drives/distortions/fuzz... and often have one in the chain to push my crunchy amp a little crunchier. I'm also a bridge single coil guy, so the Han-Taun seems great for this application!
A few things about the circuit in general... (sorry if you already know this)
The originals were buffered and it is a very good buffer. The later KTR was SMD and had a buffered vs. true bypass switch labeled "almost always better" (buffered) and "almost always worse" (true bypass). Most Klones will be one or the other, but a couple of them will have a switch between the two (sometimes internal). I find the biggest difference between the buffered/tb is the pick attack. True bypass ones have a much sharper pick attack that can border on harsh while buffered ones are a bit smoother and chewier.
The originals used germanium clipping diodes. Most of the sub-$100 klones use silicone.
There are silver and gold circuits. The silver tend to have a bit more dirt/compression in them (although not much of either). The gold tend to be a bit more responsive. I know there have been klones that can be switched between the two, but this is rare.
The circuit has an ABSURD amount of volume boost available. I primarily play medium to hot alnico V bridge humbuckers and unity is at around 9 o'clock for me. From my experiences the pedal sounds significantly better with the volume set louder than 12 o'clock. I know a lot of people use it as an always on pedal because of this, where they turn their amp down and set the pedal volume to like 2 o'clock or higher.
There are a lot of people who run the gain at 0, but this completely removes the mid sculpting of the drive portion and on some klones can cause op amp oscillation issues due to the circuit design. This can be solved by setting the drive to 0.1 rather than 0.
In general, most Klones do not have a lot of available dirt in them. Like, the gain maxed being in the ballpark of an SD-1 with the gain set to 9-11 o'clock.
At any given time, there is usually a Klone that the internet has decided is supposed to sound most like the original. Over the past couple of years it was the Mojo Hand Sacred Cow (true bypass), but I believe there is another one that recently took over that role but is fairly expensive (~$300). A lot of the past Klones that held this distinction have been discontinued (e.g. the Chellee Ponyboy). The EHX Soul Food is probably the least accurate one that a lot of people use. The J Rockett Archer is apparently extremely close to the KTR since they were going to be the ones that produced the KTR but that deal fell through at the last minute, after the pedal had been designed, but general consensus is that it is a good KTR version, and not as close to the original Centaur. As for "highly tweakable" klones, the Bondi Sick-As generally has the rep with this (with the Manticore/Sericon being in the conversation as well).
I know if I was giving a recommendation for someone exploring Klones for the first time, I would suggest trying to find a store with a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe since that has a toggle for a fat boost and a button on the side to switch between buffered and true bypass. While it isn't my favorite Klone, the experience will help narrow down options pretty significantly. For me, I prefer playing ones with a fat boost (or having it hard-wired into the circuit like on the Han Taun) and are buffered.