1. The quick list
2. Best overall
3. Best budget
4. Best accuracy
5. Best compact
6. Best headroom
7. Best modern
8. More options...
9. Buying advice
10. How we test
The Klon Centaur is often considered the holy grail of overdrive pedals, but like most coveted things, getting your hands on an original is equal parts arduous and expensive – this is where the Klon clone steps in. The best Klon clones – sometimes referred to as ‘Klones’ – emulate the sound and style of the original so closely, the only way you’d know you hadn’t bought a genuine unit is that your bank balance would look much healthier.
Second hand Klon pedals will set you back in the region of $5k – something that even Bill Finnegan, the original Klon designer, finds utterly ridiculous – which simply isn’t achievable for most people. And even for those for whom it is, is any pedal really worth that much money? Klon clones can be a fraction of that price and retain the same ‘transparent overdrive’ qualities.
The best Klon clones should also be readily available to the masses – something the original never really was. If achieving the exclusivity of the original Klon is your aim, we recommend trying to buy the KTR ‘new’ Klon, handmade by Finnegan himself. But with those almost as difficult to get hold of as an original unit, we’ve produced a list of alternative options, from budget to boutique, that you can buy right now and will secure the same Klon tones.
The quick list
Despite the tiny size, the Wampler Tumnus produces remarkably realistic Klon tones. In a blind test, even the most fervent Klon enthusiast would find it hard to hear a difference.
If you want a Klon clone but don't want to spend huge money, we don't think you'll find much better than the TC Electronic Zeus, which is available well below the $100 mark.
If you want the most authentic experience without spending thousands on a vintage model, the Warm Audio Centavo is as close as it gets to the look and sound of a genuine Klon.
The original Klon is a bulky pedal so if space is tight on your pedalboard, we'd go for the MXR Sugar Drive. It's slightly more mid-pushed than the original and is incredible value too.
Using a Klon as a boost is a classic move and the J. Rockett Archer Icon has a doubled power input to 18V, making it a brilliant choice for boosting your guitar tone.
If you want classic Klon tones but prefer your pedals with modern versatility, the Origin Effects Halcyon Gold overdrive has some fantastic additional features to sculpt your sound.
Best overall
Across just about every metric, the Wampler Tumnus is the best Klon clone you can buy. The benefits of the Tumnus start with its comparatively tiny size when placed next to the original Centaur. At less than 2 inches wide, the Tumnus is around a third of the size of the Klon Centaur, which makes it far easier to find room for on a pedalboard.
Whilst the Tumnus differs in size from the original Klon Centaur, the tones it produces are remarkably similar. It retains the warmth and trademark ‘chew’ of the original, providing the scope to take the user from a subtle clean boost to a pleasing overdrive that stacks brilliantly with other pedals. These features make it so close to the original sonically that in a blindfold test, the likelihood is even the most die-hard Klon fan will struggle to tell the difference.
The only real ‘con’ of the Tumnus is its lack of a battery compartment, but that’s also a contributing factor to its small footprint, so it’s hard to complain about. The reality is that even if you can afford an original Klon Centaur, there is a very solid case to be made that the Tumnus is still the better option.
Best budget
The Zeus is a cost-effective way of trying out a Klon-style transparent overdrive. Whilst it doesn’t have the tonal versatility of more expensive competitors, it manages to replicate the general tones and, importantly, feel of a Klon, reacting superbly to dynamic playing. The ‘fat’ switch is a smart addition too, though in practice, to get close to Klon tones, this will be engaged more often than not, as without it the Zeus can feel a little thin.
Despite the accessible price point, the Zeus’s solid metal chassis means this doesn’t feel like a cheap pedal and you can have some confidence in taking it out on a pedalboard regularly – something you probably wouldn’t want to do with an original Klon, or even some of the more expensive Klon clones.
As a first foray into Klon-style overdrives, or if you’re looking for something to throw on your pedalboard, rather than bringing out a more ‘premium’ pedal when gigging, the Zeus is the best budget Klon clone on the market.
Best accuracy
Warm Audio is a master of cloning sought-after musical equipment, though it started primarily in studio outboard gear. In recent years, it has moved into the realms of effects pedals; and if you’re a master cloner, there is one pedal that would be top of the list to clone.
The Centavo takes precision recreation to the max, replicating not only the exterior of the Klon Centaur, but also using premium grade components including TL072 op amps, vintage-style diodes and a charge-pump voltage regulator to get extremely close to the original internally too. Warm Audio has also added something extra to its Klon clone; a MOD switch on the back extends the bass response to produce lower-end drive tones – this is based on the modification requested by Jeff Beck on his original Klon.
It’s fair to say, very little creativity has been exerted in the design of this pedal; from aesthetics to circuitry, this is a clone in the truest sense. Whilst almost every manufacturer has released their take on an existing circuit before, the issue some have with Warm Audio is that their clones verge on plagiarism. In the eyes of copyright law, they’ve done nothing wrong, and in terms of the audio that comes out of their pedals, it’s also hard to criticize – however there will always be some who think Warm Audio’s ‘homages’ take it a step too far.
Read our full Warm Audio Centavo review
Best compact
The MXR Sugar Drive doesn’t play on any pony-themed puns, nor does it go for the classic golden color of the Klon, but make no mistake, beneath the surface of the Centaur is from where the Sugar Drive takes its inspiration.
Unlike some other Klon clones, the Sugar Drive does feel more of an homage rather than an outright copy, with a slightly different EQ curve to the Klon, featuring slightly pushed high-mids, which means it does have some crossover into the Tube Screamer realm of overdrives, though the mid boost isn’t that pronounced. Users of classic Fender tube amps should seriously consider the Sugar Drive as it will work really well with the classic, scooped profile of your amp. It also differs from the Klon by having a switchable bypass taking you between buffered or true bypass – where the Klon is only buffered – so both Klon purists and true bypass fans are catered for.
The Sugar Drive doesn’t have crushing high gains, though it does feel like it has a bit more to play with than some other Klon clones. With the drive knob turned all the way up and using some humbuckers, the Sugar Drive has a thick and chunky gain, which could be an awesome rhythm tone for anything from classic rock to punk. Given its modest price point, and for those looking for something a little different from your run-of-the-mill Klone, the Sugar Drive is well worth a go.
Best headroom
The Archer from J. Rockett Audio Designs (JRAD) is one of the stalwarts of the high-end Klon clone market, with the original Archer design hitting stores in 2014. The pedal was an immediate hit, but some felt there were some tweaks that could improve it – enter the Archer Ikon.
Whilst ‘girth’ may not be what you are looking for in a Klon, the Archer Ikon addressed some concerns that the original Archer lacked low end, meaning the Ikon is generally warmer at low gain, whilst at higher gain it is more reminiscent of the original Klon. It is worth noting that the Archer Ikon has slightly less gain than its silver sibling (the Ikon is gold in color) so for those looking for bags of gain – which even the Klon has never been famed for – this is not the pedal for you.
Built with germanium diodes and featuring an internal charge pump, the incoming 9V power supply is doubled to 18V, which gives the Archer Ikon plenty of headroom, making it among the very best pedals you can use as a clean boost. At one point, the Archer was considered by many as the Klon clone to beat in all areas, but others have gotten closer in recent times – and in a congested market it is not the clear champion, but it’s still one of the best on the market.
Best modern
Origin Effects has a unique ability to elevate just about every pedal/circuit it tries to recreate, and this is no different when it comes to the Halcyon Gold Overdrive, its take on a Klon Centaur. From first viewing, you can see that the Halcyon Gold has an additional knob to the classic 3-knobbed Klon – a ‘dry’ knob, to blend in your unaffected signal, as well as two additional switches, one for voicing and the other an ‘adapt’ switch that allows the player to alter their tone from mid-pushed to transparent boost without adjusting their settings.
The dual voicings are the standout of this pedal, with the ‘KLN’ setting offering quintessential Klon tones, while the MOD setting unveils a more gentle overdrive with a wider mid hump, perfect for Strat players who typically have their guitar amp set to clean.
The Halcyon Gold is a fantastic overdrive pedal, and labeling it merely a Klon clone seems somewhat of a disservice to what is a brilliant feat of engineering. However, if you are looking for a simple Klon clone that will deliver classic tones without complications, this may have one too many layers of complexity for you.
More options...
In terms of footprint and styling, the Centura – from boutique manufacturer Ceriatone – is incredibly close to the ‘real thing’, and this extends to the way it sounds. The internal circuitry has been carefully recreated to ensure that it has the same broad tonal options as the original Klon, and when engaged it has that same intangible ‘magic’ quality that cheaper replicas can miss out on.
Whilst the Centura can be ordered in one of the classic Klon colors (silver or gold) from several major retailers, you can also order directly from Ceriatone and get it in some more radical colorways, including purple or black – in these options, the Centura is undoubtedly the best looking Klon clone on the market.
The standout offering from Ceriatone is the ability to buy the Centura as a parts set with instructions so you can build it yourself, which tinkerers will love. You can save a little bit when purchasing the Centura as a kit too, though it’s still more expensive than the majority of its rivals.
The Klone from RYRA nails the balance of making it clear that it is inspired by the original Klon Centaur without being an identical unit. The design is similar, though smaller, and comes in a range of colorways that either look very similar to the original Klon (silver and gold) or strikingly different (black cherry and seafoam green).
Whilst The Klone is fairly open about its influence through its name and styling, the best homage it pays to the original is its tone. RYRA has managed to capture the super-analogue nature of the original Klon Centaur, including its trademark characteristics – namely its crystal clear transparency. The gain knob reacts exactly as you’d hope, taking you from boost when rolled all the way back to a sweet, musical overdrive when cranked.
RYRA is boutique in the most traditional way, with one-man-band Shane Logan building and quality checking every Klone pedal by hand himself in the USA. This is what contributes to a fairly substantial price point, but it embodies the spirit and ethos of the original Klon in many ways, which is admirable.
The Conspiracy Theory from Way Huge is an on-the-nose take on the Klon clone; everybody knows that Klons are being copied by just about every pedal manufacturer, so why not crack a joke about it? The tone of the Conspiracy Theory is no joke, however. It preserves the character of your tone – as you’d hope from any good Klon clone – but can take you from a fairly subtle boost up to a tasteful mid-gain.
The ‘treble’ control isn’t the most powerful, but it does mean you can dial in a bit of brightness for darker amps, or roll that back if your amp is getting a little fizzy. It’s subtle, but very usable. The whole pedal is very usable, in fact. It’s rare to find an overdrive where, across its range of tones, it is all useful and musical, but the Conspiracy Theory is just that.
Whilst the Conspiracy Theory stays in line with the general color scheme of the classic Klon – gold chassis with red knobs – it isn’t exactly a looker. With several different fonts used across the unit, it does look a bit messy and there are a lot of more aesthetically appealing options available; however as part of Way Huge's ‘Smalls’ range, the pedal is tiny and won’t take up much pedalboard real estate.
The Soul Food has been around since 2013, and whilst more and more Klon clones have hit the market since, the Soul Food has endured as an excellent budget option – though prices have steadily climbed since its launch. It’s quite nice to have a Klon clone that doesn’t have any puns in its name to not-so-subtly point to its muse, but rest assured, it is very much derived from the original Klon Centaur.
Despite its competitive price, the Soul Food uses the same TL072 op-amp and dual-gang gain control that the original Klon uses, so the company hasn’t skimped on the components. Thanks to its use of these components and the work the EH team has put in to voice it as closely to the Klon as possible, it works really well as an additional pedal in your chain alongside other drives – and given its price, you may well be able to buy two or three pedals to use it with, rather than having just one boutique Klon clone.
In practice, it’s not quite as ‘transparent’ and has a slightly brighter high end than the original Klon Centaur, which can be a little shrill. This doesn’t make it a bad pedal, by any means, but in terms of the most accurate Klon clone, it falls a little short of some rivals.
Buying Advice
What is a Klon?
The Klon Centaur is a pedal created and hand-built by Bill Finnegan from 1994 to 2008 and is often characterized as a ‘transparent overdrive’ with the ability to be used as a clean boost to add additional harmonic content to your tone. Undoubtedly a brilliant feat of engineering, the Klon gained mass recognition and traction after players such as Jeff Beck and Mark Tremonti began using it. Though production ceased in 2008, the love for the Klon had only grown, with modern guitar heroes like Joe Bonamassa and John Mayer adding it to their boards. Everybody wanted to get their hands on a Klon… or at the least, the same tones.
Despite rumors that the Klon was made of magical components that no longer exist, the truth is that many of the original Klons varied in terms of their specific parts, so creating an identical clone is near impossible. What is clear is that the general design of the Klon Centaur – which was entirely unique rather than copying an existing circuit – was built around a gain stage utilizing four op-amps with germanium diodes between stages that feed into several signal paths, which are then split into overdrive and clean signals, before being mixed together again at the output stage.
If that sounds complicated to you, you won’t be surprised to find out that this circuitry was designed by MIT graduates. To add to the mystery of the original Klon, the circuit was ‘gooped’ – coated in a black epoxy resin – that made it extremely difficult for other manufacturers to copy, until a non-gooped version by Bill Finnegan was released in 2014 under the ‘KTR’ brand, five years after production on the original Klon had ceased.
Complex though the circuit may be, it hasn’t stopped countless brands attempting to create near-identical clones. However, the best Klon clones won’t necessarily replicate a specific Klon part for part but be painstakingly engineered to reproduce the perfect Klon sound and response with consistency across the pedal’s production.
What does transparent overdrive mean?
The Klon Centaur is referred to as a ‘transparent overdrive’, but what does that really mean? A transparent overdrive should add gain and additional harmonic content without vastly shaping your existing tonal shape (EQ). That’s not to say that a transparent overdrive can’t have tonal shaping of its own – the Klon has a treble knob to add brightness – but in general, transparency relates to not producing large frequency boosts.
The opposite of this would be a non-transparent overdrive, such as the Tube Screamer, which has a distinctive mid push. The Klon itself has a slight mid-forward EQ which helps with clarity as you add dirt rather than drastically altering the character of your sound – though this should not be confused with the likes of a Tube Screamer, where the mid push is far more obvious and intended.
Despite its almost holy status, the Klon doesn’t actually have a wildly distinctive character of its own like the aforementioned Tube Screamer, rather it should be viewed as a device that improves what you already have, drawing out additional harmonic content from your guitar and amp, rather than imbuing your sound with a vastly different sonic profile. Some use a Klon (or Klon clone) as an ‘always on’ pedal, something that becomes intrinsic to their sound. This is often done by rolling back the drive, leaving you with the desired additional harmonics, without much dirt.
Why should I buy a Klon clone?
The main reason, put simply, is that it is pretty unlikely that most mortals can afford to put an original Klon Centaur on their board. Fetching upwards of $5000 on used websites, even those who can stretch their budget to that price would struggle to justify that sort of outlay for an overdrive pedal. With Klon clones spanning the market from budget options such as the TC Electronic Zeus, up to high-end boutique copies like the Ceriatone Centura, every player should be able to find a Klon-style overdrive they can afford to put onto their board.
Price isn’t the only reason to look for clones however; the Klon needs to be powered with reversed polarity which means you need to be extremely careful when powering from a power supply – don’t risk daisy-chaining it alongside your other pedals. If you see players using a genuine Klon now, you may notice that many choose to use a 9V battery to remove any chance of them blowing the pedal up – that would be pretty upsetting after a $5k+ outlay. The majority of Klon clones will happily be powered from your average 9V supply, but it is always good practice to check precisely what power requirements your pedals have before plugging them in.
The size of the Klon is also a big no-no for some. Over time – even since the ’90s when the Klon was first released – pedals have gotten smaller and pedalboard space has become a premium for most. The Klon has a huge footprint, taking up a comparable space on a pedalboard to some of the larger DSP-powered effects from the likes of Strymon, which tend to have vastly more tonal options comparatively to the Klon.
The likes of the Wampler Tumnus have addressed the sizing issue of the original Klon, cramming identical tones into a pedal a third of the size. But for those for whom size isn’t an issue, and mimicking not only the sound but the style of the Klon is key, there are a number of Klon clones that don’t just emulate the tones of the original, but also its looks, with the Ceriatone Centura and Warm Audio Centavo choosing to closely replicate the Centaur’s chassis to the point that the average pedal fan may not even notice the difference.
How we test
When testing a Klon clone, we're comparing it against a very famous, and very expensive icon of the guitar pedal world. That means the clone has a lot to live up to, even if a Klon is a relatively simple pedal. Nearly every major pedal manufacturer has a Klon clone too, so narrowing the field down takes some doing.
First and foremost, the pedal needs to sound like the original. We're not expecting that it will be exactly the same, but ultimately guitarists who want a Klon clone are looking for that same sound minus the huge fee. Klon clones need to be transparent, retaining your original tone whilst simultaneously boosting it or adding gain when required.
We'll test any Klon clone into the front of an amplifier on its own, as well as putting alongside another pedal to see how it reacts. A classic example is running a Klon into a Tube Screamer, or vice versa to get a range of tones. We'll also test it alongside other effects like reverbs and delays to see how it reacts.
We'll then look at any extra functionality, whether that's additional modes or controls. Many Klon clones offer extra modes that change the EQ profile, making them more flexible than the original. Of course some guitarists may want the pure Klon experience so this can also be a negative, but we're essentially looking to see how much value is added by these additions.
Read more on how we test gear and services at Guitar Player.
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