Holy Klones, Batman

[midwayfair]

This includes the Kingslayer. Brian, if I'm stealing your thunder, just PM me and I'll pull the video until after your demo is posted.

[culturejam]

Nice demo! 

I still feel no desire to build a Klon, however. I just don't get the appeal of it over some sort of much simpler boost. 

[sgmezei]

My favourite part is that you used the same guitar and wore the same glasses and red t-shirt from your profile pic!!

[JakeFuzz]

Haha, I love the little chuckle when you say a boon to anyone who has socketed diodes...

Your playing is awesome. You always hug that edge of breakup tone that has the mellowest vibe. Love it! Thanks.

[somnabula]

Whoa! Great demo as usual!
Now I am getting really itchy fingers to start building the kingslayer. 

[midwayfair]

Thanks guys! Glad some people found the demo useful.

I still feel no desire to build a Klon, however. I just don't get the appeal of it over some sort of much simpler boost.  

I prefer the Fatpants as a pure boost for much the same reason, and I suggest other 18v clean boosts with some tone shaping options to people whenever possible if they think they want a Kl*n(e) just for the boost. Personally I use a fuzz (set up as a mild OD) as the only dirt pedal on my board, so go figure. I can't overdrive my amp with any sort of boost, so any boost would just be a lead bump if I ever decided to use them .... I still prefer to use technique and volume knob as my lead boosts.

I wouldn't try to talk someone into liking something, but I can at least explain part of the appeal: It's versatile (there's a LOT of tone shaping available between the three controls, something not obvious from demos), and the drive pot's behavior in particular offers something that most other boosts don't.

Since it's a blend of dirt into the clean signal, along with a tone shaping device that adds mids, there's a LOT of holes in an amp that can be filled with a Kl*n that a one-knob boost can't fill. A blackface amp want mids, but it also doesn't distort as much, so adding distortion at the same time works. A Vox just wants more input, so flattening out the mids and overdriving it works best. Tweeds, same thing. Just a plain clean boost is better 95% of the time in those situations, but there's also lots of bass in the Kl*n, which keeps the amp from being all upper mids harshness while taming or adding a little bit of treble if needed. You can cart the same boost around to multiple amps. An EQ pedal is actually the best possible tone-shaping boost pedal anyone can use, but almost no one does.

If the Kl*n came out today, it would most likely be just another overdrive in a sea of interesting dirt boxes. It has, as you've so eloquently put it, the stink of TGP. Many of the benefits aren't important for those of us who can build as many different boosts as we need or want, and at no point would I have said it was worth more than about $220 shipped.

A big part of building four of these, to me, was that I learned a lot about how op amps and tone shaping work (especially after building the My Little Klony) and learned something about charge pumps. plus I got to stick it to the man.

[culturejam]

plus I got to stick it to the man.

That's good enough for me.


Oh, and you should launch the My Little Klony as a product just for the name. 

[jimmybjj]

Your playing is awesome. You always hug that edge of breakup tone that has the mellowest vibe. Love it! Thanks.

+1 your playing is awesome

[eldanko]

My favourite part is that you used the same guitar and wore the same glasses and red t-shirt from your profile pic!!

This.  Was thinking the exact same thing 

[midwayfair]

Red: It makes my playing faster.



You guys are too kind.

[eldanko]

In all honesty, my favorite part is the commentary overlays... "cue the crapstorm..."

[pryde]

Tasty chops indeed 
I like your guitar as well.

I never really looked into a klon type pedal. Your demo was informative. I don't think I will be building one as it wouldn't seem to fill a particular need for my rig.

One thing I notice though is the overdriven note decay seams very nice on your demos. I hate when an overdrive sounds good overall but has farty-decay when the notes are sustaining out.

[Vallhagen]

Very infomative video. Great playing as well!

Thanx!

[GrindCustoms]

Awesome clip on every aspects!