User:JacksonBell/sandbox

Klon Centaur From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Klon Centaur is a guitar pedal overdrive developed by Bill Finnegan, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, between 1990 and 1994.[1][2] The pedals were made manually by Finnegan.[3] Finnegan designed the Centaur circuit in collaboration with Fred Fenning, an electrical engineer and an MIT graduate.

About 8,000 units were built between 1994 and 2000. Guitarists praised the clear, uncolored tone of the boosted sound.[4][5] The circuit had unique characteristics, most noticeably the use of a IC MAX1044 voltage converter. Depending on the position of the knobs, the overdrive effect could be created in the amplifier instead by the circuit itself. The circuit had two germanium diodes which generates an internal signal clipping. The "gain" knob is a double potentiometer (a "dual-ganged gain pot"), which controls bass and middle frequencies. Other knobs are treble and volume. Nowadays, original units cost upwards of $1500 [6] and are considered collector items. The Klon centaur is often used as the standard to compare new distortion pedal designs.[7][8]

In 2012, Finnegan sold the same effect under the name "KTR".[9] The KTR features the same circuit, but uses surface-mount technology to make the pedal smaller than the original, and to make it compatible with mass production. The diodes, however, are still the same as the original pedal. Screen printed on the front of the KTR are the words "kindly remember that the ridiculous hype that offends so many is not of my making", in response to the cult following garnered by the original Centaur.[9]

Klon Centaur input signal around 1 V, using an electronic audio signal generator

Klon Centaur output signal around 3.5 V Among the guitarists who use the Klon Centaur are Jeff Beck and Jason Lamont, as well as Warren Haynes, Britt Daniel (Spoon), and John Mayer. Nels Cline of Wilco once said, describing his Klon "...It's an amp in a box. No more worries in the world of 'amp du jour' about overdrive tone.  It will be OK.  The Centaur will take care of it..." [9][10][11]

12.