So, Klones... Anyone had any experience of this one?

Cacofonix

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Psi-Drive-overdrive-pedal-Klon-Centaur-clone-effects-pedal-/231435524375?ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:GB:1123

TheCount

Casting my critical eye upon it, I notice these things:

Footswitch protruding to far from enclosure making it susceptible to lateral forces, ferrules on jacks do not fit correctly-quite possibly board mount jacks not correctly alligned on the pcb to fit the enclosure. Power jack board mount, unfinished enclosure with sticker on top.

Which means this:

'These pedals have been hand built in England by highly experienced professional boutique pedal builders'

is probably bullshit

Might sound great but I would say it ain't put together as well as most pedals these days.

Edit: I'm 90% sure it's a transplant from another klone or a buy the board type affair and sling it in an enclosure of your choice

meltedbuzzbox

EHX soulfood

same thing but cheaper

joeyowen

meltedbuzzbox said:

EHX soulfood

same thing but cheaper

Yep, a great intro into the world of Klones

EricTheWeary

There's also the FretKing one if you didn't fancy EHX. The Klassic Drive IIRC. I thought someone on here was selling a Fredrics one? You could buy direct from Fredrics but they aren't as cheap as that Klone in the link. You could try Genevieve FX for well built clones ( although no Klones currently on their eBay page) or the makers on here.

RaymondLin

I'd get the Archer, wait until the next sale in Prymaxe, they are out of stock at the moment.  You should be able to get it for about £100.  Well built, top jacks and even the die-hard original Klon fanatics can't tell the difference. 

Sassafras

Do you not incur all kinds of customs duty and handling charges from Prymaxe or any other USA dealer?

SidNewton

As  I said in another recent 'Klon' thread. I bought one of these new through their ebay auctions for £80. How it compares to the original I have no idea but it's a fine pedal nonetheless. http://www.booinstruments.com/guitar-effects/pedals/klon-centaur-kc-boostoverdrive/

RaymondLin

Sassafras said:

Do you not incur all kinds of customs duty and handling charges from Prymaxe or any other USA dealer?

Pick cheapest shipping option, 4 times so far, all went under the radar!

gjonesy

RaymondLin said:

Sassafras said:

Do you not incur all kinds of customs duty and handling charges from Prymaxe or any other USA dealer?

Pick cheapest shipping option, 4 times so far, all went under the radar!

I'll let you know, I placed my first order with prymaxe yesterday

RaymondLin

Keep an eye on the tracking and you can tell if you are lucky or not soon as it lands.

compare to

Cacofonix

meltedbuzzbox said:

EHX soulfood

same thing but cheaper

Agreed, but it's SMC.  Practical repairability is an issue for me.

Thanks for the Prymaxe link.  Safe to say it's fairly comprehensive on pedals.  The ARC Effects clone does impress me after the Burgs demo so that might be one to follow more closely.

Cacofonix

Update:  The seller has sent me a picture of the circuit.  It's very SMC.

But - he has also offered me a guarantee for the lifetime of the pedal while in my ownership.

What do you think?

Pic here:

TheCount

If it's got a lifetime guarantee you have nothing to lose if it goes wrong, as long as the company is still around to honor it.

Board mount jacks and switches are more likely to go south than wired but for the money it doesn't really matter. The KTR has board mount jacks and that costs 250 upwards but that's a blatant rip off in my eyes.

If it was me I'd ask JuanSolo to build me one for a few quid extra and know I'd got something a bit special.

MrSwanson

RaymondLin;459297" said:

Sassafras said:

Do you not incur all kinds of customs duty and handling charges from Prymaxe or any other USA dealer?

Pick cheapest shipping option, 4 times so far, all went under the radar!

@RaymondLin how much do you tend to spend and how long does it usually take??

juansolo

TheCount said:

If it's got a lifetime guarantee you have nothing to lose if it goes wrong, as long as the company is still around to honor it.

Board mount jacks and switches are more likely to go south than wired but for the money it doesn't really matter. The KTR has board mount jacks and that costs 250 upwards but that's a blatant rip off in my eyes.

If it was me I'd ask JuanSolo to build me one for a few quid extra and know I'd got something a bit special.

I don't like responding to these threads as it looks self serving... Anyhow, I've been invoked so I will

Board mount stomps/jacks are a bad idea when it comes to reliability. The fact its SMT wouldn't bother me. Commercially, what isn't these days? The likelihood is that the boards are made in China and populated there by machine (too neat and to much of a PITA to do SMT by hand commercially), and when it comes to the UK it's in the form of the pic and assembled here. Again, that's how most things work now.

You can repair SMT pedals... Well I can't because I can't see the little bastards, but people with decent eyesight and a steady hand can certainly fix them and he'll stand by his product while you own it. So why not go for it. I can tell you now that it's cheap enough that after fees he'll be making very little per unit on those. Shame as it creates unrealistic expectations when it comes to pedal prices that people not prepared to make 'em cheap and fast can't compete with.

RaymondLin

MrSwanson said:

RaymondLin;459297" said:

Sassafras said:

Do you not incur all kinds of customs duty and handling charges from Prymaxe or any other USA dealer?

Pick cheapest shipping option, 4 times so far, all went under the radar!

@RaymondLin how much do you tend to spend and how long does it usually take??

I tend to get one pedal at a time, around $200.  Usually take around 10 days.

dano

juansolo said:

TheCount said:

If it's got a lifetime guarantee you have nothing to lose if it goes wrong, as long as the company is still around to honor it.

Board mount jacks and switches are more likely to go south than wired but for the money it doesn't really matter. The KTR has board mount jacks and that costs 250 upwards but that's a blatant rip off in my eyes.

If it was me I'd ask JuanSolo to build me one for a few quid extra and know I'd got something a bit special.

I don't like responding to these threads as it looks self serving... Anyhow, I've been invoked so I will

Board mount stomps/jacks are a bad idea when it comes to reliability. The fact its SMT wouldn't bother me. Commercially, what isn't these days? The likelihood is that the boards are made in China and populated there by machine (too neat and to much of a PITA to do SMT by hand commercially), and when it comes to the UK it's in the form of the pic and assembled here. Again, that's how most things work now.

@juansolo - it's never self serving, your depth of knowledge is well known and appreciate don this board.

Just to echo Senior Juan points above, the picture shows he isn't bothering to use a washer between the nut on the switch and the enclosure, this is bad practice. When you click the switch a significant amount of force goes into the switch body and PCB.  With a washer under the nut a lot of the force is (correctly) dissipated into the enclosure rather than the switch body  board. The lack of washer will affect the reliability and lifetime of the switch.

Plus in the ebay listing the nuts aren't screwed in flush to the enclosure, so something is on the piss. With multiple jack plug insertions / removals this isn't ideal.

PCB layout looks OK, but I'd question the layout around the charge pump, I can't see the caps around the charge pump, these are used for noise filtering (and charge pumps by their nature generate >10kHz noise)  which are needed for noise
 
For them to be able to produce this Klone for £60 shipped to your door they are either producing it very cheaply (not necessarily a bad thing if the quality is good) or content with making a fairly low net profit.

TheCount

Dano said

For them to be able to produce this Klone for £60 shipped to your door they are either producing it very cheaply (not necessarily a bad thing if the quality is good) or content with making a fairly low net profit.

They can't be paying any more than about 25 quid for a pedal in parts. A bit in fees and post and they might be making 20-25 a go, something like that is easy to knock out in 20-30 mins if you batch build so not too bad.

Cacofonix - It's been critiqued by us nasty bastards on here, I think like most things, you get what you pay for to a degree but for 60 quid it's worth taking the chance i suppose, maybe go a bit more and get a soul food, probably be closer to the real thing but ehx aren't known for build quality. Next level up is hand made or hyped silly like the archer (still board mount jacks but £150) then KTR

(still board mount jacks but £300) and finally the real thing

To be honest other than quality of build they all sound within a gnats whisker of each other so I'd just go with the one you like the look of most

ThePrettyDamned

Isn't the ktr surface mounted components too?

thermionic

juansolo said:

You can repair SMT pedals... Well I can't because I can't see the little bastards, but people with decent eyesight and a steady hand can certainly fix them and he'll stand by his product while you own it. 

I doubt he'll attempt to fix one, he'd just throw away the defective board and put a new one in the enclosure. 

Oh hang on, he's a professional boutique pedal builder, of course he'd fix it <rolls eyes>

If you're capable of soldering two wires together I'd get a FuzzDog kit and be £15  and a sense of satisfaction richer.