Klon(e) - only good for old or second-rate amps ?

Fusionista

Tried a Klone recently and noticed that it did 'fatten up the tone'.  However my thinking was that if that's the tone you want, it should be in the amp in the first place.  Thoughts ? 

ThePrettyDamned

Same as any pedal - it's more about the interaction of the pedal with the amp.

I tried a Klone once, and thought it was a really boring pedal.  No character at all.  

I'd much rather a pedal add colouration to my sound, and find a nice basic tone from my amp (maybe you're the same?).  Some people like finding a basic tone using a pedal as a big component.  Such people are, oddly enough, often valve snobs and tone hounds! So their base tone is hybrid, then they add to it.  Which is fine, because it can sound ace, too.  

[Deleted User]

don't think thats really true,

I use a klon with a modern high end amp that sounds fantastic on it's own, however I've used the klon in two different ways with it.

1.) as an overdrive, which basically allows me to keep my amp super clean how I like it and then push the amp + adding gain with the klon as an overdive pedal. I stopped using it this way as I found better more versatile ways of using it

2.) as a boost + less drive, I love the way the amp sounds on it's own and add other pedals like a tube screamer, a blues breaker a zen, etc to it using the klon as a boost + a little bit of gain gives it a superb low gain driven blues sound on it's own, or drives the selected sound (eg: tubescreamer + klon) to a really good little boost and little gain boost without actually changing the sound to the eay, but giving you a little bit of room to hide a mistake and stand out in the mix.

I've tried it with some other amps too of lesser quality and got good results, where I didn't get any benefit was from brittle / harsh sounding amps or the more "rockier" sounds.

I don't think it's "old" or "second rate" amps it works with, but I think it works better with certain voiced amps and style of playing than others.

ICBM

However you get the tone you want is fine. Many, many classic guitar tones were made using pedals into amps.

handsomerik

I love the sound of my fairly modded blues junior. I was always happy with it as it was until I stuck a klone in front of it.
Now I'm even happier with it and the klone stays on always. To me its like fairy dust and I say that not because of all the hype but because I like it so much. I've built around 35 raved about highend circuits in my quest for tone and 3 remain on my board. (The klone, a boiling point clone and a Plexitone clone that runs on 9v normal power but is internally boosted to 12v. Covers all I need).

citizen68

I've had a klone for almost two years now. Didn't really get it at the start but it did do a really nice fat clean boost - over the last few months I've gradually added more on the gain knob - up as far as 12/1 o'clock and the pedal has really come alive for me - much more noticeable and nice at gig volume but it also stacks beautifully with other drive pedals for more home friendly tones - current favourite is the Timmy into the klone. I'd happily use it as my only drive pedal on a gig.

stickyfiddle

I use mine into a Mesa Express and it's fantastic. I was skeptical, as with anything TGP rave about, but it really is just a great pedal, either as a clean boost or used to add grit.

I'd say it's even overtaken the liquid sunshine for my main affections as a low-gain OD

ToneControl

My Sunking klone is set to add a small bit of grit and slightly crisp up the sound - so not only a fat clean boost is possible

Being purist about getting all the OD from the amp was the dogma I was brought up with in the 80s/90s, it was probably an over-reaction to some of the nasty OD pedals in circulation back then.

Now I know from my own experiments  that the best modern pedals are so refined that they can offer far more variation, and of course you can have more than one in the same rig.

Contrary to popular belief, some valve amp OD is not very attractive, most single ended amps sound rough, various amps with poor design Phase inverters sound rough, and many amps lose some of their subtle & desirable characteristics when run flat out.

Hence using top-notch pedals to build on the amp's sound can give the best of both worlds, e.g. the crispness and character of a tweed twin, but being able to add the smoothness and fullness of a HoneyBee or a Zendrive, whereas turning up a Tweed twin just gets flubby for me, and the Jensens in mine break up in a nasty way 

Fusionista

What I noticed was that my 'best' amps - the ones with the fullest/clearest tone - didn't really 'gain' much from using the Klone.  Some of the others got 'fatter', but it wasn't 'better' as much as 'different'. 

So the conclusions I derive from your very kind contributions above are:

1. Klon(e)s work better with some amps than others

2. As with all pedals, they give you access to different sounds without buying another amp

That said, with the price of the 'original' what it is, you might as well buy another amp ;-)

frankus

I flogged my Zendrive when I swapped out the Lovesqueeze compressor for an Analogman BiComp... when the bicomp was switched on, the Zendrive didn't seem to add much to the mix... now a few years later, I miss the Zendrive and bought a Zenkudo because I like the sound and just have to remember to switch off the compressor

It might just be the case that in your current set up with the presets you've got, it's too close to other sounds.

Misty

When I was buying my silver Klon some years ago I had several email exchanges with Bill Finnigan who emphasised that the pedal works best with an amp which is already just breaking up. He said that if you can't get your amp to do that at the volume you play at then you have the wrong amp and the Klon wouldn't do its stuff. He was right, I had a Fender Vibroking at the time, wonderful amp but too loud, and at gig volume the Klon didn't add anything that I liked, so I sold it. Now of course I wish I hadn't, though my Golden Eagle does a very similar, if not identical job.

juansolo

It's an OD. You use it to push the front end of your amp into distortion like you would a Tube Screamer or any other OD. You don't really use it as a distortion (though you can add a little distortion with it). Though it does work as a clean boost. It's a bit of a waste to use it as that as there are simpler circuits out there that can do that for you, but it can do that too.

It's a great OD. It's no better or worse than a TS though. Just different. The prices people trade them for is stupid considering you can get a custom built amp for less!

Fusionista

Being in a covers band I use a 60's Marshall-style amp, with strat main axe, tele backup, borrow the singer's LP for Teenage Dirtbag. So I need versatility not a 'signature sound'.

My go-to OD for years has been the Lovepedal Eternity (works IMO with any amp, any guitar, any level).  Never quite got up the guts to sell my Zendrive, but IMO it works best with single-coils.  Been experimenting recently with the Wampler Dual Fusion which is another fantastic pedal.  However the latter are what I would call 'focussed' rather than all-purpose, as the Eternity.  

What none of them do is make a poor amp sound better, which I think Klones may be able to achieve.

stickyfiddle

juansolo said:

It's an OD. You use it to push the front end of your amp into distortion like you would a Tube Screamer or any other OD. You don't really use it as a distortion (though you can add a little distortion with it). Though it does work as a clean boost. It's a bit of a waste to use it as that as there are simpler circuits out there that can do that for you, but it can do that too.

It's a great OD. It's no better or worse than a TS though. Just different. The prices people trade them for is stupid considering you can get a custom built amp for less!

Have a wisdom for that. My Alembic Stratoblaster clone has about 12 components and it's every bit as good a clean boost as the klon.

hugbot

Why should it be it the amp?

mike257

My main drive is a Big Bite, which I believe is Klon-based but has a second channel with extra gain. I've used it with a few different amps now and found it does different things well with each of them.

With a Valvestate AVT150 set clean it did a pretty decent job as an all-round drive pedal. It shined with my Carlsbro 50 Top head/Orange PPC212 rig - the 50 Top is a super clean, super loud non-master volume monster and the pedal was great as an always-on to give a subtle breakup rather than the cleaner-than-clean base tone of the amp.

I'm using into a Genz Benz Black Pearl 30-212 now (think Vox/Matchless) which has a nice natural 'on the edge' tone anyway so the pedal is my main drive sound for chunkier rhythms or solos. Great articulate tone, doesn't drown out your playing dynamics (not that my playing could ever be called dynamic!).

So, the short answer is that its pretty workable into anything but it all depends on how your rig sounds to start with!