Kloon

Built a Klon for Tom who wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Built on ye olde Tusk board.

Tears of the Unicorn

Well I wasn't entirely accurate as I kept one klone board back. It's a Pickdropper mini. The theory was that I'd hold onto it and maybe make one more multi with it. It never panned out so I decided to do something different.

Behold! This one has a rotary switch that can select the three different configurations of the tone setup that we know of. First we call silver, because it matches the first Klone ever to be traced, which happened to be silver. The second we call gold because it matches the gold Klon we back-to-backed ours with. The third is reverse, which has some of the changes found in the BYOC silver traced Klon.

Not the prettiest build I'll admit, it's really not made for a box like this. But it's solid and has top mounted jacks, which everyone wants.

TuskFinal

Here it is, the final Tusk. It is a bit more of a homage to the original pedal and people will also be able to argue about which ones are the best as we've changed the mix slightly for these just to keep things interesting. Six of these were made (all the same), using up the last of my batch of prototypes.

I think I may be done with the whole Klone 'thing'. Everything has been said, repeatedly. What I know is detailed on this page. Everything else just just hype, bullshit and repetition as far as I'm concerned and I want no more part of it. It's an OD people, let's retain some sort of perspective.

TuskProto / Small Mexican Dog / TuskProto2

Officially The Best Klone EVER (tm). Rej and I were talking about the ultimate Klone layout and this is the result. This isn't a DIY PCB, it'll be a commercial IDA pedal. Though I'll have one or two of them too, cheers Rej!

Not much to say really, it's a straight Klone in a 1590B form factor. The proto has some random Malleus art on it, the Small Mexican Dog has some art provided by Ian Price, for whom the pedal was made.

Proto2 is actually mine. I was currently kloneless and needed one for the demo stash. Template is nailed on now. Just need to decide how the new ones are going to look now and we can knock a couple out for some capacitor money.

Still motoring through our batch of proto boards. I've made three with the old decal on to sell for capacitor money. The decal doesn't work as well with this layout so I'll have to find something else for the last few.

Uniklone / Small Klone III

Matt's Uniklone. It's another Grind Customs Chimera, this time squeeeezed into as small a Camden Boss enclosure as I can get it into. This is also my all time favourite Klone decal EVER.

However when you actually want to sell one to someone who's not into zombies, monkeys, zombie monkeys, and the like, I have to go a little more traditional. Shame.

I have to say, it's an utter swine to build a Chimera into a 1590B. It took me three hours today just to get the thing in there! That's not counting doing the enclosure or populating the board... Yeah, I suspect if I do any more they'll be bigger or use one of the 1590A boards.

Super Collectable Gold Klones!

When I become famous (on TGP) these will be the collecable ones that everyone pays a thousand bucks for ;) Two of a kind and only two. The goldness of the enclosure will embue these two pedals with mojo that no other Klones have!

Ok the reality of these are that I fancied doing something a little different with these two as I was getting a little bored with making big box Klones :P

The top one is for Frank who bagged a Klone a while back and wanted another, but with a few tweaks. It has slightly more bass and less mids. The bottom one is a stock one for Mark (MrBump on the BKP forum).

Klone III

This is Grind Custom's other Chimera v3 PCB, this time the buffered one.

Not much more to say really, it's another Klone.

...and another two. People seem to be rabid for them again since the KTR came and went. Well it (almost) keeps us in capacitors anyhow.

Small Klone II

Sune decided it was time to try one of these Klone things out, so this was built for him. It's Jimmy's (Beejive Pedals) mental Apis board, again fettled to be buffered bypass.

Nope, it's not in a 1590A. I really wasn't kidding when I said I wasn't doing any more ultra-ickle ones ;)

Klonish III

This is Grind Custom's Chimera v3 PCB. Which is an updated version of Rej's a true bypass Klone.

I'm really rather pleased with this one. It's been a while since I knocked out a Klone and this one on the new board was a joy to build and again stands up to blind listening against our referece Klone. Smashing!

...and two more. Can you tell we're in a fairly major deficit right now when it comes to the pedal fundage?

I thought I'd throw a couple of notes in to this section just to document the only change we make to them and what diodes we use. Just to debunk the unicorn tears you understand as this is a completely replicatable pedal.

The cap that we change is C15 which goes to pin 2 of the tone pot. On the original schematic, and indeed likely on the original pedal that was de-gooped and traced, this is a 3n9. When Phil brought his Klon over to compare to (right at the bottom of this page, this was very early on and all subsequent Klones have this change), ours was missing some mids. We chopped and changed until we settled on an 8n2. At that point it was indistinguishable from Phil's Klon.

The other point of contention are the 'essential' diodes. Most germs work to be fair if you get them with a forward voltage of 260-290mV. We've found that 1N34As seem to be the closest and source ours from Tayda. The last couple of batches we've had have all been in range. But meter them regardless to check.

Mini Klone

What it's based on: Klon Centaur

JimmyBJJ's utterly insane miracle of miniturisation that is his Apis PCB. Yep this is a Klone in a 1590A. *doffs cap* impressive sir, most impressive!

The final two have had buffered bypass added on making the build a complete pain. It seemed like a good idea at the time... For those interested this is how:

Klone

As noted below, this is my Madbean Sunking based colourful Klone rebuilt in standard Klone form and rehoused to flog.

I rebuilt it in a new enclosure mainly for neatness and shiny newness. The way we finish pedals now is much more durable too. Also because not many people liked the colourful Klone decal...

Small Klone

It seems it's Klone season again (seeing as the KTR is now out of production). This one has come about by chance. I was over at Martin's (MJW Amplification) doing amp stuff and he gave me a surplus Madbean Sunking board he had. So I decided to build myself a smaller Klone.

My old Klone will be popping back up here shortly as I'm rebuilding it and will be flogging it in the surplus stuff for sale section.

Klonish II

This is Grind Custom's Chimera PCB. Which is essentially a true bypass Klone. Number four and five look a little different because they've had the buffered bypass added back in which the board wasn't really designed for. So they're not quite as pretty. But those two are now essentially Klones rather than Klonishes...

There is a fractional difference between buffered bypass and true bypass when it comes to the sound of this effect. So little that it's not really worth speaking about. But for those that it matters to, this is indistinguishable from our remaining Sunking baseline pedal (one of the two that was back-to-backed with a Centaur).

I bought the boards because, as you can probably tell, it's the pedal I get asked to build more than anything else. So when Rej offered a few for sale, I grabbed a handful. But it seems I've saturated my very small corner of the market (ie friends from the BKP forum) and I had them all surplus. So I built them up and stuck them on eBay.

Kingslayer Rise! / Klone Slayer

What it's based on: Madbean Kingslayer

Ah Madbean's Kingslayer, how we've waited for thee! It's essentially a Klon with all the oddness engineered out and with some sensible stuff added in. The whole circuit now runs charge pumped, not just the last stage as was the case with the original. He's also added switchable clipping in the feedback loop and selectable regular clippers (which can be bypassed completely if you prefer the others).

The result: It's not a Klon anymore. It's certainly got more headroom and is voiced slightly differently. Personally I prefer it, it's the genuine upgrade that the KTR should have been. The Klon is dead, long live the King!

I suppose I should say something about the decal. Yep, it's Eddie (The Trooper). Which has nothing at all to do with slaying kings. Indeed it's about the charge of the Light Brigade, but it's a cool picture that fit really well.

The Klone Slayer is for John (Loopie of TGP). This one is buffered bypass and, has the power jack in the top didn't allow for easy placement of the clipping switches, we've fitted jumpers internally instead. Which is actually a really neat way of doing this.

Klone II

A little bit more Klone action thanks to gtrplaya101 on BYOC having a re-run of his Klone boards of which I managed to snag four before they all were snapped up. These are proper clones like the original Sunking, rather than a work-a-like like the MKC1.

The first goes to Don (D1DSJ). Like a plank, I drilled the stomp too close to the edge to get a battery in. Doh! I suppose it has been quite a while since I built one of these.

Second, with the battery provision sorted and things swapped around to fit better with this slightly larger board (you'll notice gain and vol are swapped now) is for Jean-Claude (Viking).

Number 3 is for Ole (Kiichi).

Number 4 went to Colin (Blue).

Klonish

With Madbean stopping doing the Sunking boards this is a MKC1 board from GuitarPCB.com with a load of substituted parts along the lines of the Klones we've done. The interesting thing is that dispite it now being true bypass and the buffer running at 9v rather than charge pumped, it sounds nigh on the same. There is a little bit of noise when the pedal is completely dimed. Interestingly the original Klones did this too, but it's not quite as apparent. You never run them that way anyhow.

Is this the future of Klones? Don't know yet. It's certainly an option though. It's not quite as compact or as neat to wire as the original Klone. But it's got the tone.

Oh and love the finish on this one. Cleggy has been experimenting once again. This is polished, decalled, then the top has been coated in Envirotex, but not the sides. I think it looks bloody brilliant.

This one is going, along with a Darkside, to Andrew W of the BKP forum in exchange for a project Telemaster for me to play with. Sweeet.

Klonish 2 (actually 2 & 3, the were nigh on identical so I only took one set of pics) are for Wez and Huw. Same as above but made with the last of our ribbon cable. I wish I could source this stuff, it's brilliant. Very high quality Hitachi pre-bonded 24AWG ribbon. Ideal for pedals. Can't seem to find it anywhere (this lot was scavenged from an old hifi).

Klone

Built for Dave (Twinfan) on one of Madbean's awesome Sunking PCB. I desperately wanted this one not to live up to the hype... *sighs* Looks like I'll be making me one.

There were some defects in the casting that we didn't catch until after the decal was applied which show through. In certain light it's more apparent. Bit annoying really, but to correct it would have meant stripping it and starting again.

Update 1: Colourful Klone is mine.

Update 2: Silver Klone is Phil's. Temporoary Telecaster knobs on it.

Phil's Centaur and his Klone

Update 3: Klo(w)n? is Shaun's.

Update 4: Silver Klone 2 is Gary's.

Update 5: ...and another two (only one pictured as they're the same), possibly the neatest yet. They're actually second pedals for both Phil and Dave. After a back-to-back with Phil's Centaur we've made a cap change to the Klone to make it sound near as damnit identical to Phil's pedal. It thickens it up quite a bit.

FWIW I'm not saying it's identical to all of them. Analogue electronic part variances/tolerances being what they are. But we could flip them back and forth and not know which was on against his particular pedal.