How do you use your Klon (or klone)?

Set gain at 9 o'clock, tone at 1 o'clock, volume at 10 o'clock and wait for unicorns to fly out of your amp.

 

Good question, I use a Mythical Overdrive Vintage Spec, I have a very small board( on the floor )only 4 pedals. My Mythical is always on. I set the volume at 10:30 the tone at 12 and the gain also at 10:30. Then I control volume and gain with the volume knob of my tele. It adds a bit of sparkle to everything else and if I'm playing a solo I turn up the volume and get that GLORIOUS warm tweed creamy breakup....it seems to make everything sound better...

Hope this helps...

RJ

 

Here's a demo I did of the Mosky Golden Horse, the cheapest klone. Unfortunately, being cheap means they used a batch of poor quality charge pumps on these pedals and reliability has been a major problem. I had two fail and I've heard from many other people that had the same.



When mine were functioning, I primarily used it as a clean to dirty boost into a modeler (Sansamp or Hotone head) or a Monoprice 5w tube amp.

I'm going higher up on the food chain for my next klone. I'm leaning toward the MXR Sugar Drive but the Wampler Tummus is still in the running.

 

Every time I see a Klon thread, it makes me want a Klondike bar, damnit.

 

My Mythical Overdrive VS sits at the front of my signal chain, Gain fully CCW, Treble and Level at noon, and they might as well have made it without the bypass switch because it stays on. I don't know if a demo on YouTube can adequately convey the intangibles of the sound - how notes feel as though they "pop" and how lively it makes things. Every dirt box downstream of it sounds better, as so saturated preamps.

It's not the only thing that can have this effect. For instance, I have a Tim that can do it but can also do dirtier overdrive sounds that I like a lot more. And the Mythical is certainly not the only klone that can, either. I would use a klone as a stand-alone pedal if I wanted to stay mostly clean or rely on amp distortion, but it's overdrive sound is not great.

My guess is that the internal voltage pump plays a role, and that a much broader mids-emphasis is occurring with no loss of lows or highs, yet with no tubbiness or shrillness either. Completely subjective take, though.

 

I've got the MXR Sugar Drive.

It's great as a clean boost-y thing. Just a touch of gain. Tone in the middle or so. Volume set to desired boost. Adds a touch of dirt and great sparkle.

I also use it when I need more dirt and sustain but not more volume. Adjust gain to amount of dirt needed. Turn volume down to where you're at unity. Adjust tone as desired.

I A-B'd a whole bunch of pedals looking for something that would simply add boost and sparkle. it was the clear winner, only thing close was a Tube Screamer. The fact that it works so well for added dirt without changing amp's basic tone is a bonus.

 

I don't know what it was designed to do. But I use my Sugar Drive with a Tweed. And I love it. It's more "transparent" than a TS, for example.

 

The real Klon is not for everyone, some don't like it, I love my Klon as much as I love my Clark Gainster and my Mythical's. The name " klon " gets thrown out a lot, most of the time the people throwing the name around have no idea what a klon is, have never ever been in the same room as a real klon. The part about becoming muddy with an amp that allows more mids is ridiculous. You can roll mids down both on the amp and with the tone knob on your guitar. Again, this is what Bill Finnegan was shooting for when he designed the first generation of Klons, of which I own two. And I'm telling you that guy's who feel it's too bassy either have a defective unit or they are not using it properly. This is NOT a pedal to use at home unless you can play it LOUD....the amp has to be on the edge of breakup for you to get it's full effect. It is in my opinion a wonderful sound. But, if you've never played thru a tweed Deluxe ( 5E3 ) turned up to 10, then you don't know what your missing. This is what a Klon or klone was/is designed to do.

RJ

 

I got a Soul food recently, don't really care for it, but my amp (Orange) has plenty of mids.

The hype with these is to use very little gain and use it as a boost but as a boost it loses a lot more clarity than a pedal designed to be a clean boost. It has a nasal character. The nasal character is actually worse with the clean channel of my amp. It works best into the dirty channel with the amp on the edge of break up (turned up pretty loud) and with a substantial boost + a little gain dialed into the SF.

And it's perhaps not true with a real Klon but the Soul food definitely makes a little bit of noise.. not bad but the switch pops the first time you turn it on. The OCD is whisper quiet in comparison.

 

Try this one, it has them ALL!! or fast forward to 103.51 for the Mythical, and listen at the end of their time with the Mythical when the fellow who owns the real Klon gives his opinion....it's telling.....



RJ

 

I have a Mythical Overdrive and love it. I have either a Snouse Black Box or a DOD Carcosa (fuzz) in front, depending on how I'm feeling. After the MO is either an Anlogman DS-1 Pro or a Rat clone (depending on how I'm feeling), followed by a Timmy. The MO seems to work well with just about everything, as a boost, an overdrive, or a tone shaping tool, depending on how you twiddle the knobs.

 

Interesting. I have an EHX Memory Boy in my FX Loop, no noise. I've got an Op-Amp Big Muff Pi + the EHX Hum Debugger in the input of the amp and those don't make noise like the Soul Food. I'd be real curious if the noise is more inherent in the Klon design than something EHX is doing with all their pedals. Obviously you can get a Big Muff to make noise but mine doesn't make noise at low gain/volume settings like the Soul Food is capable of, and none of the other pedals make a pop sound the first time you turn them on like the Soul Food.

If you can crank the amp up it seems like the Soul Food's noise level isn't a big deal. Just noticeable on my setup as I'm not playing at big volume levels.