Dude - your Jeff Beck is disgustingly good.

One of the best "demo's"of a Klon of someone who really understands how to use it....the differnce between the real thing and cheaper clones is more between the ears than in the ears 🙂

That "horrible noodling" was my favorite part of the video! I've never had a real Klon, but have a Tumnus. Honestly, for that "waking up the guitar sound," as you put it, I prefer my Timmy. Then I hit the Timmy with a TS mini and that's a nice mid-gain lead sound. I leave the Tumnus near the end of my chain to use occasionally as a boost, in case I have to compete with an especially loud drummer!

I have owned 2 of the silver klon pedals one I bought on ebay and one direct. I never really bonded with them, the first I sold pretty quickly and the second I sold when the used market went over $1K. No regrets they were rarely on my live board. I have a Gold archer and a silver beck modded archer, I think they are both better (to my ears anyway) than the klons I owned.

just put my Notaklon together, sounds really good, thanks for showing how to really get the most out of it

It's amazing how gear in this nutty business can reach "god like" status. People clamouring for vintage guitars and amps because their heroes played them. Nevermind that the gear used to achieve those classic tones were closer to new when recorded. I hear great tone in this video but I suspect that's mostly Shawn's fingers ;)

I love my ikon (picked it up after watching your demo actually). I feel there is definitely more hype than is warranted for the originals, but supply and demand is a real thing…. I have found that if I like my tone in a particular setup, the klone makes it better whereas if I do not, it isn’t the way to go.

Your “jeff beck” is just amazing , bro you should definitely record your tunes and riffs - you just nail it - you have a great collection of riffs and licks

Not sure I'd want a "I'm a Klon steal my pedal board" on my board when gigging. Killer playing Shawn, as always.

I have a silver Klon that I use with a Strymon Timeline and run it into a tweed Blues Jr. I use a Fender Lincoln Brewster strat and go from a completely clean, clear tone to a beautiful, warm, singing tone just by hitting the Klon switch. I set the Blues Jr to clean tones and I set the Klon Gain-3, Treble-9 and Output-9. I also have a Deep Six compressor, EP Booster and Neunaber Immerse MKII in front of these always on. I have the Blues Jr. on a stand about knee high to my right facing across the stage miked with a SM57. I can move closer to the amp or away from it to get the desired dirt, sustain and feedback. I feel the main ingredient is the Brewster strat which has a Master volume push-pull switch, the middle tone knob is a Boost Control and the bottom tone knob is wired to only the treble pickup. It's loaded with two DiMarzio Area 58 pickups in the neck and middle positions and a DiMarzio Area 61 in the bridge. The Brewster Strat compliments the Klon so well I recently bought a second Brewster Strat. Like all rigs this one works for me but it may not be your thing. Just wanted to share my story. Rock on!!!

Your bridge pickup noodling was the best I’ve ever heard a Klon sound on full gain, and I own one. Those magic Tubbs hands again! I also find the Klon a bit mid-barky for my taste, but they do sound good in a mix when pushing a lightly driven sound into something more punchy. I can also recommend kicking it in after a light fuzz, which rounds out the spikyness of the fuzz while keeping the fatness. Obviously all the klones do all of these things as well (or better). And just occasionally, the right mix of guitar, amp and other FX gives you that extra harmonic thing that sounds fab. Great video as always sir.

You have a really high-quality audio on this video. My compliments.

Great demo. I got one of these recently after saving up all my 50 cents for 10 years or so. Worth every penny. It does everything I need from sweeten a clean sound to low gain to no gain-max output. There's so much range in these pedals. It really is the best pedal ever made IMHO. I'd really like to shake the hand of Bill and whoever he worked with at MIT to design this thing. They changed everything forever ..

Hey Shawn. Great video. I really like how you used the Klon in your demo. Yes, it is a killer sounding pedal, but to pay anywhere from $3000 - 5000 American is quite steep. I purchased a Wampler Tumnus after watching your video a while back. I must say that I have managed to achieve similar tones just like the tones from this video with the Tumnus. Also, I really missed having a "Tubbs" tune at the beginning of this video. Take care.

The Jeff Beck part sounded awesome 👏

The way you blend jazz and blues in your licks is incredible

I miss that sound. I played a Bondi Sick As and Archer Ikon into my hotrodded JMP (Dirty Shirley clone) and man what ride that sound would take you on. Today’s rig is clean with a bunch of pedals and tones for covers.

Seems to me it is all about the application. The Klon and the army of clones have their place. I am reasonably certain you could pull all the tones you just demonstrated using that amp and the volume control of your guitar, no Klon or clone necessary. The pursuit of great tone is and always will be an adventure. Cheers!

I run a soul food and love it. Keep the Gain around 25%. I used to run a clean boost into it but changed to a Mooer Yellow comp which does have a boost function as well as EQ. worth a look!

More beef yet still crystally crisp, I see, Klon is something indeed for clean channel.

Incredible thank you for sharing your thoughts and settings. Those Klons always inspire new riffs out of me as soon as I plug in! Awesome playing too Shawn! “Horrible Noodling” my ass lol. 😂

I bought a silver Archer because of your demo haha ! Still one of my favorite pedals. I actually had a KTR and a gold Archer before that, but the silver always sounded and felt best to me. I’ve played an OG silver Klon and like the Archers way more than the KTR I had.

I built one from a Chinese kit. No clue how it really compares with the real thing, but it was a fun project nonetheless.

Omgosh i realy love this video ... Finly someone goes threw this pedal ..now i know ... When i put the gain and volum all up n tone in da midle its my magic ..absolutly worth the money .... Thanks for this video😁

I passed up on a used non-horsey silver Klon for $1200 a few years ago... man... still can't believe they've gone up so fast!

I grabbed one in around 2006 for 1200$. I love it. I use like you did as a sweetener low gain boosty deal but i love the gain cranked too.

To my ears, the Klon is one of the worlds finest treble boost pedals. It does a rare thing. It does not take away anything.

Great playing. Jeff beck noodling shows us tone in the fingers 👍Not gone down the Klone rabbit hole yet. Seems to be an expensive eq pedal. So many other types of pedals open up the guitar sound.

Very well played, excellent sound. The Revv 100P also does a good job.

Great demo great sound great combo

I have the KTR and use it exactly as you showed for the Jeff Beck stuff

I use my Klon Clone to smack the front end of my amp (set to just before breakup) into overdrive when needed for solos. Just a simple stomp and go for that extra push when needed. The myriad of clones out there work just fine for this purpose. The original Klons are just collector items now but we should all thank Bill Finnegan for developing this circuit for all of us electric guitar players to use and enjoy for bargain basement prices. Thanks Bill !

I own a silver one I also bought from Bill. I’ve never heard a pedal that comes close, but that depends upon how you’re using it. I use it as a tone enhancer, very little gain if any. It seems to tickle some magic frequencies to make your tone sound bigger, fuller, richer.

Great vid. I use the circuit as a “more box” too.

On bass I use my Bass Soul Food Klon-ish pedal strictly as a boost into my JHS Morning Glory and Jive Reel Saturator. It does have some good sounds on its own for bass but just not for what I play. With just the BSF as a boost going into my Jive with no toggles on and gain at about 9:00 with volume at about 11:00 produces a great fat bass yet very clear sound through my Ampeg SCR DI with my Empress compressor set for light compression and is my always on sound. I record a lot of movies and tv shows in Thailand where I now live and it sounds amazing as well as for live shows.

I use the Warm Audio Centavo clone, running with an old Tubescreamer 808. The Klon clone just wakes up a Marshall head adding "more" with the 808 pushing the gain. I run Les Pauls with lower output PAF pickups. The Klon circuit has always been a favorite of mine since Bill started making them in 94, combined with the volumes on the guitars I can clean the sound up or just hammer it for good classic crunch. Great insights on it from you.

I find running my Timmy last in the chain s an always on pedal really brings back out the high end and low end from the klon and doesn’t add as much mids

I think it sounds fantastic

It sounds pretty cool, yet subtle.

Amazing tone and amazing player! love you Shawn

Nice video and guitar playing. I just completed a klon build (ggg) and wasn't sure if it was working properly. Turns out that it is fine and that I just need to learn how to use it.

Great playing!

I run a cornerstone antique v2 into a tumnus deluxe in to a marshall bluesbreaker it sounds great

I run my gold archer into a fulltone fat boost and man it's incredible. I traded a ts9 for mine.

If you're willing to do some hunting, you can find the article where Jeff Beck's guitar tech talks about a cheap Klon clone that is 1:1 in terms of sound in performance to an actual Klon. The seller uses a name like weekend 2087, or something like that. Between the article, I think it was in vintage Guitar, and discussion of it on the Gear Page, you can find all the details to chase one down. Frankly, I don't care for the sound of a Klon. I have several pedals I prefer much more, and that's what I use.

I’ve built a handful of the BYOC Silver Pony for myself and friends. Mostly, they get used as always-on “that’s my tone” right before the amp, and then another Silver Pony as a push box. There is definitely a specific tone with them and now, because of this video I need to try one in front of my G120 MK III. :)

I’ve owned a Tumnus Deluxe and an Ikon. I’ve more recently (well about 5 years ago) settled on the Chellee Ponyboy 3. To my ears similar to the Ikon with more options. Like you I ran it as a cleanish boost. I had a Source Audio EQ2 lying around from another use and now have that on my board having set up a similar tone curve. I now find myself preferring the EQ2 - on which I have also set up a preset of a Rangemaster. I also run it in front of some pedals and behind others. I think what I am trying to say is that the EQ2 is possibly more deserving of space on the board. Like you I think the Klon is great but perhaps overhyped.

Thanks for the examples with various levels of gain on the amp and pedal Shawn. The higher gain examples made me think of Pete Thorn's base tone as he used to slam the front of his PT15 w/ the Jeff Archer. I don't have my Archer on my main board anymore, but I like to stack it with a Timmy on some rigs. BTW: Thanks for the D20 videos. I've been loving that amp for the past year and a half. Cheers!

Love them! I have the Tumnus, and I use it with a dirty amp, the amp I use it with is a Boogie jp2c, sounds great!

I have a $35 Wish klone and a tumnus both, and they sound just about exactly the same.

The tumnus deluxe is a great alternative

Sounds great

I have a KTR, only ever use it to stack with another overdrive and/or fuzz, and the few times I'm using a dirty amp. The fat clean thing works, but it requires a huge volume jump which is usually a pain in the ass.

Thank you for sharing very informative. Huge fan of what you do man. Loved what you and your brother contributed to the Violet Burning. You guys truly inspired me to become a musician, and encouraged me to get better at my craft. Much love ✌️

Mythical overdrive by rimrock pedals is all the klon I need.

I think that there’s something sweet about the tone delivery of that pedal but yeah it’s everywhere these days. At least various versions of that tone are all over the place.

They really do sound great as Rock should.

Would the Klon (or variants like the Greer Lightspeed) be okay to thicken up a clean Blues Junior (with a Telecaster)? Or is Tubescreamer variant better for that? Cheers, and loved the video!!

The KC improves any tone, clean crunch, gain push, whatever. Other pedals can do this also, but none with the magic of the KC. It's a "more box" in every way, for sure. Pity it costs so much. It's actually worth a few bucks more than other ODs but, 7-8,000 of them? I think not.

I normally hate listening to hardware builders noodling on guitar (one pedal maker and his merry men, in particular) and skip through it after I hear the tone and get the idea, but listening to you play guitar is genuinely fun. There are very few people I could just sit in a room with, listening to them play, and be genuinely be entertained (Dale Flood, from Unorthodox, who I got to hang out with a few times, is another), You are great, man! Super legit.

Hi! If your ears have shifted away from the klon circuit for overdriven sounds and compressed clean sounds, where have your ears shifted to? I have slowly gravitated towards it over the years, rather than away from it

The clones are good . A friend let me try his Klon . I looked at him and said are you nuts ? Lost a friend that day .

Great video! The clean boost methodology is very similar to how I use my TS808 but when you apply gain this pedal sounds obviously very different from the TS808. But yeah, gives you some color and some push and adds life to anything. So, $5000? 🤣👍

Mmm that Jeff Beck feel, my ignorant fingers soo need to learn some of that Rocken finger style.

I use mine the same way you describe using it mine is a kit I bought and I completely put it togeather my self I think I have 35 dollars in it and I can’t tell the difference listing to it from an original

I built my own klon. Is it normal if you put the output and gain high that it just gets extremely loud quickly?

I'm not sure if I regret selling my Klon or, if I regret selling it when they were "only" fetching $1200...

I was curiouse wich pedals are you using now :D

It is clear to me that this is an ad for REVV amps. This amp is very capable. When I plug into my Deluxe Reverb, I use a pedal. I don't think a pedal valued at several thousand dollars adds much to the REVV amp, guitar and your playing. By the way, I use to be an engineer at DOD/Digitech. I do not work for REVV.

Does it sound good with a metalzone? LOL

The KTR is now discontinued and going up in price. Insanity. Scott Henderson, I believe it was, has suggested getting some Chinese knockoff. I don't have a problem with that, though it does look quite a bit like a real Klon, so I'm not sure what the legality is on importing that from China. It even says Klon Centaur on it.

@Shawn Tubbs Loving your videos with the Revv Generator 120 Mk III. Would love to see you do a video using an effects modeler in 4 cable method with the Revv. I own one myself and use a Line 6 Helix but seem to have trouble determining the correct Send and Return level settings on the Helix to use with the Revv. Is the Revv’s FX Loop a Line level or Instrument level loop? Someone at Revv once told me it was Instrument level but setting it up that way with the Helix really drops the volume and I find I really have to crank up on the Revv Master volume to play at rehearsal level.

wonder what it will do for keyboards-?/

I have a KTR which I use as a clean boost. Since I switched to using Zendrive and Mosferatus I get all the nasal mids I want while retaining low end. The Klon cuts too much low for me.

anything below two o' clock on the drive doesn't give you "the klon sound". it'll literally be any given generic od but not the mythical circuit you're paying for. yes, you can use a klon as a boost but it's not what it was built for and there's better pedals for that very function.

What has your ear shifted towards now?

Nice

How to use a Klon correctly: 1) Buy it for as cheap as you can find. 2) Sell it for as much as you can get. (Never less than bought it for) 3) Repeat

Thumbs up. It’s a more pedal. I like that you said that. Basically a B O O S T right?

I don't care if a clone sounds close. It has to be exact! Even though I've never played one and don't know what they sound like and even if by now it's been improved upon...non of that matters at all. It has to be exact! Not close...not even close...Exact! Come on! Doesn't anyone understand that the moment that design was finished that all time stopped! Nothing will ever beat it. Nothing can ever beat it. I have a plan to capture the smell of it (the sweet smell of success) and permeate bits of cork with that smell. And sell that cork so that people might place a chunk in each nostril and in this way all may enjoy sniffing the cork of the Klon.

There are no level numbers on the pedal so technically they go to "infinity" ....which is clearly more than 11.

I've bought a AUD$40 clone and that was pushing it.

Why is nobody talking about the DSM Humboldt 'Silver Linings? Much better than the KLON.

Jimi didn’t have one & he sounded ok to me…….. just saying 🙃

The secret way of using a Klon is not buying it and spending your money on a cheaper pedal that will sound the same.

I think the number one use would be trying to impress someone. No? How important are they to the history of great classic music? I would say they are not at all.

A day in the life?

No offense Shawn, but that clean tone does not need any help. It sounds better without the klon. Lol. Most amps would of course benefit though.

wow sounds like a tube pedal

I'd pay for this pedal $100 maximum

Vntage tone Prometheus is awesome klon type

I can't believe people spend that kind of money on a pedal lol. I have a 100$ RAT pedal and a $100 Tube Screamer. All you need!

Pedals have nothing to do with playing guitar.

Oh cool. An overpriced EQ.

The best way to use a klon is to sell it to some dumba$$ who thinks its worth thousands😁 I did!

Over rated. I had a silver klon and never found a sound I liked

Could you maybe smack your lips a couple more times a second please? Cause it’s not ultra annoying at all. Awesome player by the way, just work on speaking bro.