Any Klon users found anything you like better? I've got Z.Vex SHO, P.E.Germ, & Fatboost, among others, all of which do certain things better than others, but none covers as much territory for me as the Klon.Klon-bashers welcome here too, just for grins.

Hi

I agree with you, have also all those you have plus a Rangmaster and a Rangmaster clone. They all do something that the others do not do.

Friend of my from Austria have a Banzai Cold Fusion, I tend to prefer this one to the Klon, but not in all applications. I usually stick to the Klon since I have used it for several years and know how it reacts and interacts with the rest of my gear. So a Cold Fusion would be in my future, but so will a BabyPink Booster as well ...

Later
Sofus

I have the BPBooster that i got toghther with my BB-OD, and I seem to be using the booster more than the OD. As I use a switching system I prefer pedals that do 1 thing, so I prefer to have boost and OD in sepereate pedals. I have therefore stayed away from pedals like the FD-II and the Klon and others, might be my loss though.

But Corleone - since you have a SHO, a germ and a Fatboost which are all supposed to do the same thing. Can you give me a quick review of the difference between them.

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Originally posted by Corleone:
Any Klon users found anything you like better? I've got Z.Vex SHO, P.E.Germ, & Fatboost, among others, all of which do certain things better than others, but none covers as much territory for me as the Klon.Klon-bashers welcome here too, just for grins.

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The Klon is simply amazing. And I agree the Klon covers a lot of ground. I've talked about the Klon before on this forum and I've mentioned that the Klon is the most misunderstood pedal out there. It's very interactive with different guitars and amps and the controls on the Klon are very interactive with each other. It totally goes against the common stompbox application which is: set the controls to the one sweet spot and stomp on the switch. There's a sweet spot all over the Klon. It's a great pedal for guys who aren't afraid to work the volume and tone pots on the guitar, or the controls on the amp. I tweak the controls on the Klon from song to song, pickup to pickup, guitar to guitar. You can always dial it in. Always.

I really think the Klon is in a category by itself. It's not an OD. It's more than a clean boost. I'd describe it as a tone control more than anything. It's subtle. It's beautiful.

I agree with TYP. My Klon out TS9s my TS9s, out cleanboosted Austin Soul-O-Stomps, and out treble boosts a Diaz Texas Ranger. The pedal is simply the most versatile CleanBoost, overdrive, tone shaping pedal I have played (only through quality tube amps and quality guitars, though..probably would sound shitty through a shitty amp). That being said, i sold mine last week =)

Good Point---- Basic Q --- what is the Klon really,,, what is it advertised to do, and what does it do and how --- is it a silicon/germ clean boost mixed with a TS9 does it over drive itself much?? ,,, I dont know. could some one in the know pop the top on theirs? or explain what it is doing????

Gluke, One of the great things about this forum is that many of the reviews are dead on, but I'll put my spin on it: Z.Vex SHO: I'll agree with others that have said that this box is one of the best for pure boost and that it adds "sparkle". My pedal of choice for chicken-picken Tele stuff and jangly pop. Does a respectable job on faux-archtop neck pickup jazz lines. Doesn't do it for me on blues. P.E. GERM: To me, this is the perfect boost for rock players. Channel one is capable of respectable above unity gain clean boost, but where this box really shines is in channel two, which has been compared to maxed Hiwatt. If you've ever tried to dial in a really articulate grind for rock rhythm and your fuzz, OD, or boost didn't get it, this is the one that does it for me. I really wish P.E. wouldn't label their knobs with words like "growth", "multiply", "hair", and "more", though. I have to re-train myself if I've been away from the pedal for a while, 'cause I'm used to knobs called "gain" or "volume". A minor irk, though. FATBOOST: Others have called this box "dark" sounding and I agree. It just didn't do it for me with Strats and Teles, but is currently living on my acoustic pedal board. My Larrivee has a bit of "slice" to it and the Fatboost is perfect to push leads while rounding out the tone, whereas the Z.Vex SHO didn't work with the Larrivee'. As for the Klon, I couldn't say it any better than TYP. Bill Finnegan does call his design a "true overdrive", though.

Corleone - thanx man. I read a similar commet about the SHO from Johan when he compared it to the BPBooster. To me the BPB sounds fairly even, it is neither bright or dark sounding.

One of the things I like the most about this board is that it is easy to get in touch with people like yourself have tried and compared some of these pedals that if you read the description of them from the manufacturers should sound exactly the same. It is a similar with alot of other pedals like fuzzfaces or TS9/808 pedals. There must be 50 pedals out there that clain to be exactly like a TS9/808 and dont try telling me they all sound the same either.

I have a rather bright setup and think the SHO probably would be to bright for me. I have a Red Llama and that's a bit to bright sounding for my setup at the moment.

hey gluke -

i have a red llama as well, and it was way too bright for my tastes until i put a TS9 after it. now it's a perfect second stage of overdrive, instead of the bright quasi-fuzz sound it has on it's own.

Hey Corleone . I use my Fat Boost more with my acoustic as well . ( Arch top too ) . So far it's the best " pre - amp " for acoustic that I've found - into PA or amp .

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Originally posted by Gluke:
I have a rather bright setup and think the SHO probably would be to bright for me. I have a Red Llama and that's a bit to bright sounding for my setup at the moment.

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Gluke, try the SHO. When people say it adds a little sparkle it's not like it's super bright. The SHO is not a treble booster. It more like...when you boost, you push your tubes a little (sometimes a lot) harder. This tends to roll off high end. The SHO seems to compensate for the high end you loose when pushing your tubes more and more into distortion. But the SHO doesn't add any more high end that you had to begin with - it's not that complicated of a circuit.

It's a great pedal that's worth checking out. And it works great after the Klon as an lead boost.

klasaine, I've had surprisingly good results on acoustic with MXR Micro Amp, as well. Go figure!

as for acoustic embellishment- Ive used a Blue Tube with great results- It really warms up a piezo, and the freqs on the tone controls are great for an acoustic ( I believe it was designed for bass and keys ) really gives a natural response, nice warm round bottom and takes out the high harshness while leaving the sparkle......and used they are well under a 100 bucks

sure,

if you got money to burn then of course the Klon is all you want. but anything that sounds better i dunno? better values, well, there are lots. First thing that comes to mind is PE's Germ. incredibly transparent. Secondly, there's zvex's SHO but even better is the Super Duper 2in1, which is essentially two cascaded together. That's two pedals in one that only costs $275 versus, the $500 klon. at least, you wont worry about it as much during the gig.

i personally love the Super Duper. i was never a fan of Zach's stuff cause i always thought them as special effects, but the SuperDuper is one helluva pedal. Push the 1st channel, hit the second and tame it with the master volume, and BAM, singing tone that kicks my TS-9 mod on it's ASS. my fav pedal of my whole board.

Seriously, is a Klon goin' for that much these days? I got mine new quite a few years back and paid about half that. Yeah, I don't blame you, I wouldn't pay that for Jesus' personal clean boost, even if it had a footswitch labled "talent".
I agree with you about Z.'s stuff being wacked. Just lookin' at some of that stuff gives me option anxiety. Gotta hand it to the Man, though, he's an innovator in a world full of clonies. I'd love to have a Fuzz Factory, but I base my gear decisions mostly on live use and I like to tweak. Hell, I'm afraid I'd hurt somebody with that thing. But I've always kept a few sonic deviants around the house, such as the P.E. Experience, should their twisted little services be required. I just never could get 'em to work for me for the live thing.
One thing puzzles me about the SuperDuper, though. I never cared for the sound of a boost pushin' another boost. That's the deal, right? On one of my boards, I've got a Germ and a SHO for different shades but they sure don't play well together, at least to my ears. Maybe Z. has got the circuit tweaked accordingly.
Still, I'd love to hear the Super. And would probably love to have one. But for now, I'm still workin' on my " must have " list and I'm not adding anything to it. 'Til somebody talks me into it.

for the record the KLON new is $280 Not $500.....i don't know where that came from

LOL,

then i reeeaaalllly feel sorry for that guy on ebay...

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Originally posted by Corleone:
Seriously, is a Klon goin' for that much these days? I got mine new quite a few years back and paid about half that. Yeah, I don't blame you, I wouldn't pay that for Jesus' personal clean boost, even if it had a footswitch labled "talent".
I agree with you about Z.'s stuff being wacked. Just lookin' at some of that stuff gives me option anxiety. Gotta hand it to the Man, though, he's an innovator in a world full of clonies. I'd love to have a Fuzz Factory, but I base my gear decisions mostly on live use and I like to tweak. Hell, I'm afraid I'd hurt somebody with that thing. But I've always kept a few sonic deviants around the house, such as the P.E. Experience, should their twisted little services be required. I just never could get 'em to work for me for the live thing.
One thing puzzles me about the SuperDuper, though. I never cared for the sound of a boost pushin' another boost. That's the deal, right? On one of my boards, I've got a Germ and a SHO for different shades but they sure don't play well together, at least to my ears. Maybe Z. has got the circuit tweaked accordingly.
Still, I'd love to hear the Super. And would probably love to have one. But for now, I'm still workin' on my " must have " list and I'm not adding anything to it. 'Til somebody talks me into it.

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well, its not just a clean boost pushin, another one. I'm talkin about a CRANKED clean boost pushin another CRANKED clean boost.

SHO's to me sounded best when you maxed them out. i nevered used em as clean boosts. i wanted huge sound with that slight breakup. Of course, you'll blow a speaker and your ear drums doing so. Tonally, tho it's like pushin the power section of an amp enough for that glassy, juicy, slight breakup, but without the distortion or overdrive.

With the SuperDuper, you can do that in spades with the help of the master volume without the blown speaker. two SHO's going into each other really juices the tone even more for a juicier feel. It's hard to explain, but it's just got some mad mojo. Like i said before, it just makes your tone bigger and 3D like.

Try it and see. its best by using both channels on, maxing out the regular SHO channel, the 2nd SHO channel at about 12 o'clock, and the master at whatever you want past 10 o'clock. It takes some tinkering, but once you hit it, you'll know. Ooooo, you'll know...

It's an overpriced/overrated clean boost. Used as an OD, it has a gritty mid quality and no real gain available. The rave remarks are from guys who need to justify having just blown $300 on a pedal that basically does nothing.
To the guy comparing it to a Rangemaster...on what planet does the Klon sound like a Rangemaster.
I just won one of these on Ebay. Check the clips. Tell me a Klon gets that.
http://www.treblebooster.com/

quote:

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Originally posted by Carl:
It's an overpriced/overrated clean boost. Used as an OD, it has a gritty mid quality and no real gain available. The rave remarks are from guys who need to justify having just blown $300 on a pedal that basically does nothing.
To the guy comparing it to a Rangemaster...on what planet does the Klon sound like a Rangemaster.
I just won one of these on Ebay. Check the clips. Tell me a Klon gets that.
http://www.treblebooster.com/

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The cool thing about blowin' your money is that nobody can say for sure if you've blown it but you. I've certainly never held on to an item just to " justify " an expensive purchase. For instance, I tried the boutique guitar thing a couple of times over the years and sold them all. I've yet to hear one that has the vibe and character of a Fender or Gibson. IN MY OPINION, that is. Want to spend $3500 on an amp? Fine. If you're happy, I'm happy for you.


I guess I place a certain amount of value on the phrase "IN MY OPINION" when speaking out with "conviction".