Klon KTR?

xHymnal

Does anyone use one as a standalone drive? If so how does it sound with various rigs, do you like it? Has anyone tried one and didn't like it? 

I'm after a decent smooth overdrive: will this fit the bill? 

Just after some opinions more than anything!

ThePrettyDamned

I've tried one.

Smooth - hell no. Bloody awful sounding when you crank the gain, there are plenty of smoother ones - including tubescreamer types, roll the tone down and crank the gain up and you've got a good smooth od. The boss od-3 is my preferred od, it's not the smoothest but it's a nice mix of smoothness and crunchiness.

The ktr I tried sounded quite nasty, with a bright top end. Definitely not smooth, it was going into a clean hot rod deluxe. I think it's magic (lol) is more when used as a clean or slightly dirty boost into an already driven, or near driven, amp.

It's worth noting, although I believe it may be cobblers, that ktr pedals are surface mount components. Whether that matters to you I don't know, but there are plenty of clones that use full size ones which are easier to replace on the pcb if there was an unfortunate breakage.

capo4th

Better pedals out there for £279 IMO

xHymnal

@ThePrettyDamned, thanks for your opinions. I didn't know about the surface mounting: I'd really struggle to justify the expense on something which is surface mounted. I've read some good reviews which do describe it as smooth which is weird! Joe at Joes pedals has been raving about it too. 

When the last batch sold out the resale was above the rrp I think so I can't see buying one being a bad investment even if i don't like it. Do you happen to know how it sounds with fuzz?

Gassage

Cornish CC1 on ebay for £450 right now....do yourself a favour....get one. Pisses on Klons of any description.

xHymnal

A Cornish CC1 has been top of my list for years but i'm still to find myself in a position where I can drop so much on a pedal. The klon would be at the top end for me and even then on the basis that i wouldn't lose much (or any?) money on the resale

darcym

how the klon sounds as a drive pedal really depends on your amp, your guitar and how you play.

it's really a light/mid drive pedal, so if you want distortion you'll be disappointed.

If your amp fizzes when driven hard, the klon will make this worse, if your amp is "smooth" the klon will respond to this. I've found it works well with fender voiced amps and as a boost to classic style marshal amps.

I've not seen it work great with voxes or the more driven marshal amps, but of course it's a subjective opinion.

I think you've got to look at your gear and how you play to work out if this pedal will work with you rather than just "it's a great pedal I'll buy it", I think that's why opinions are so mixed on the klons, if they work for you, they are fantastic, if not they are just an expensive brick to be mocked.

 

xHymnal

@darcym thanks for such constructive feedback. I'm planning on using it with a fender champ type 5w amp with an alnico speaker. It's not an overly smooth amp by my reckoning. I am not expecting distortion or anything but i would be using it more as an overdrive for just a tiny bit of grit for a bluesy tone. Absolutely essential to any pedal is that it cleans up well with the guitar volume knob as i use that constantly to chance between clean and dirty sounds. I play with a gentle touch and don't dig in much

darcym

I suspect you'll get on well with it from what you are saying, that's obviously not fact, but based on my experience, as long as you're not too greedy with the drive knob, you'll probably get a nice sound from it.

ThePrettyDamned

@darcym is probably right - when I was using it, I tried everything from soft picking to my usual heavy style and it's definitely better at the gentle touch stuff.

It worked better into the drive channel but as a standalone od (ie clean amp, all drive from pedal) it was a disappointment. I guess "brash" or "strident" would be the best words to describe it.

Again, a Klone would cost less, get you the mojo parts. And if you believe Internet wisdom, surface mount = bad sounding.

I don't believe that personally but there you have it!

darcym

a soul food is worth a punt, it should behave pretty much the same to give you a cheap idea to if you like it or not.

I've got a soul food and a jhs modified soul food and compare it against my klons, gigging it, I think only I can tell, recording, I can certainly hear the difference in the standard soul food and the klon. but for £40 or whatever it is, it's a good option, especially if you are not going to hit the amp hard with the gain knob.

Wazmeister

Casper, you will be definately disappointed with the Klon imho... i owned a KTR, and they add a little bit 'more' to your sound. But I was thought that they were very average... As ever, ymmv...

But, try one. You may like it, AND you can flip em all day !

crunchman

Hymnal said:

When the last batch sold out the resale was above the rrp I think so I can't see buying one being a bad investment even if i don't like it. Do you happen to know how it sounds with fuzz?

There has been another new batch.  Joe's Pedals actually filled all the orders on their waiting list and put them in stock on their website.  Charlie Chandler has them listed on his website as of 1 minute ago.

This is the second batch in the last few months.  It seems that there may be a reasonably regular supply so I would image that second hand prices will drop.  I wouldn't be buying one as an investment.

Dave_Mc

darcym said:

a soul food is worth a punt, it should behave pretty much the same to give you a cheap idea to if you like it or not.

I've got a soul food and a jhs modified soul food and compare it against my klons, gigging it, I think only I can tell, recording, I can certainly hear the difference in the standard soul food and the klon. but for £40 or whatever it is, it's a good option, especially if you are not going to hit the amp hard with the gain knob.

That was my feeling. I got mine for like £38 (probably £40 once you factor in foreign transaction charge on the CC). I'm not saying it's necessarily going to be just as nice as the more expensive ones, but as a ballpark thing to let me see if I liked it or not, it was worth a punt at that price (whereas the expensive ones aren't, since I more or less already know what I like in terms of drive pedals).

Have you compared the buffers? Depending on how my boards pan out, it might actually be the cheapest way to get a decent buffer (and it's a fairly small pedal too, though admittedly not just as small as some of those standalone buffers). ) I just looked on thomann and the visual sound buffer is 47 euros (and I haven't tried it so I don't even know if I like it), while the soul food is 48... )

ThePrettyDamned

Dave_Mc;360541" said:

darcym said:

a soul food is worth a punt, it should behave pretty much the same to give you a cheap idea to if you like it or not.I've got a soul food and a jhs modified soul food and compare it against my klons, gigging it, I think only I can tell, recording, I can certainly hear the difference in the standard soul food and the klon. but for £40 or whatever it is, it's a good option, especially if you are not going to hit the amp hard with the gain knob.





That was my feeling. I got mine for like £38 (probably £40 once you factor in foreign transaction charge on the CC). I'm not saying it's necessarily going to be just as nice as the more expensive ones, but as a ballpark thing to let me see if I liked it or not, it was worth a punt at that price (whereas the expensive ones aren't, since I more or less already know what I like in terms of drive pedals).



Have you compared the buffers? Depending on how my boards pan out, it might actually be the cheapest way to get a decent buffer (and it's a fairly small pedal too, though admittedly not just as small as some of those standalone buffers). ) I just looked on thomann and the visual sound buffer is 47 euros (and I haven't tried it so I don't even know if I like it), while the soul food is 48... )

The visual sound buffer is as good as they get really. Quiet, transparent and works.

No such thing as a magical buffer really - just good ones that work well, and bad ones that don't work quite so well.

Dave_Mc

Oh I agree, it's just the soul food one qualifies for those things in my limited trying of it too (plus you more or less get a free pedal as well, compared to the price of the VS one ) ). And I have a vague recollection of someone round here (I thought it was you, but apparently not ) ) saying that the VS one almost overcompensated a little too much i.e. was a bit too bright compared to the straight-in tone.

ThePrettyDamned

Dave_Mc said:

Oh I agree, it's just the soul food one qualifies for those things in my limited trying of it too (plus you more or less get a free pedal as well, compared to the price of the VS one ) ). And I have a vague recollection of someone round here (I thought it was you, but apparently not ) ) saying that the VS one almost overcompensated a little too much i.e. was a bit too bright compared to the straight-in tone.

I don't find that.  Unless you were using quite a bit of cable between guitar and amp anyway  

But I like brightness so maybe I wouldn't notice.  

monquixote

I'd consider a Liquid Sunshine, or a Wampler Euphoria.

Dave_Mc

ThePrettyDamned said:

I don't find that.  Unless you were using quite a bit of cable between guitar and amp anyway  

But I like brightness so maybe I wouldn't notice.  

Yeah. The other thing is, even in principle, I don't know which I prefer. ) The soul food/klon buffer is pretty good because it basically sounds like true bypass but with really short/high quality leads. Which I suppose in principle is what you want. But then I think, "But why have something that's just as good as true bypass if I could maybe have better?" (since some buffers arguably sound even better than the straight-in tone) )