J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer

The J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer is an analog overdrive and boost pedal from J Rockett, built as a tribute to the Klon Centaur. The maker describes it as "an exact tribute to the legendary Klon featuring germanium diodes," and it uses the same type of NOS germanium clipping diodes as the original, the component often called the Klon's secret sauce¹²³. It was the first product of the company's Tour Series line, announced on 3 September 2014 with a $179.00 street price⁴.

For a player, the Archer covers the same ground as the pedal it honors: everything from a clean boost to a mid-gain overdrive, with the treble control shaping the top end. MusicRadar notes its external controls are exactly the same as the Klon Centaur's, and that it offers "a remarkably amp-like experience that adds width and fatness to any kind of guitar"⁵. Guitar World counts it among the pedals that made Klon-style tones affordable, with an Archer available first-hand for as little as $229 as of May 2025⁶.

A Klon-style boost and overdrive

The Archer belongs to the category players call Klones: overdrives that emulate the famously expensive Klon Centaur³. J. Rockett's connection runs deep. MusicRadar reports the company "worked with Klon designer Bill Finnegan on the first versions of the post-Centaur KTR," which gives its take on the circuit a direct lineage⁵.

The pedal is also far more practical on a board than the original. Premier Guitar's reviewer measured the practical difference in size and price⁹:

Construction reflects the price point. The pots, jacks and footswitch are board-mounted, but Premier Guitar found the circuit board's secure mounting within a hefty folded-steel enclosure made board damage hard to imagine, and noted the Archer employs a common barrel-type power connector where the original Klon uses a 1/8-inch jack⁹.

The controls: Gain, Treble and Output

The Archer has three knobs: Output, Treble and Gain, the same control set as the Klon Centaur⁵⁸. The Gain control is the interesting one. Guitar World explains that Klons are wired so that turning up the gain simultaneously turns down the clean boost, with a meeting point in the middle that defines the pedal's sweet spot⁶.

In a Sweetwater demo, Don Carr found that reining in the interactive Gain and Treble controls yields a mid-gain crunch and smooth lead tones, and that the pedal can serve multiple functions in a rig¹⁰. Guitar World's writer described the gain at maximum as "a mid-focus that almost reminds me of a Plexi without the top-end punch"⁶.

In that Sweetwater video, Carr demonstrates the Archer's range from clean boost to driven tones, noting it accepts battery or PSU power and can be placed in a signal chain to do multiple jobs¹⁰.

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Archer versions: Select, iKon, Jeff Archer and more

Guitar World counts four versions of the Archer: the original, the Archer Select, the lower-gain iKon, and the Jeff Archer⁶. The family has grown beyond that, with a Rockaway Archer variant and an Archer Clean also appearing.

The Jeff Archer came out of a modification process. Guitar World quotes the backstory: "I replaced some of the components in the audio path with NOS parts," and the writer found the Jeff version "a little warmer, thicker, and more musical but still subtle" compared with the standard pedal⁶. On That Pedal Show, Mick Taylor described it as "another kind of modified K style clone style overdrive," and found it has more mid-range than his own Klon Centaur, while the standard Archer feels softer in its clipping¹⁷.

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The Rockaway Archer, paired with Steve Stevens, is essentially a Klon-style transparent overdrive with an added six-band EQ section, which Delicious Audio calls "a great way to hit the front end of an amp harder than a stock Archer"¹⁵¹⁶.

Archer vs Archer Select

The Archer Select, released 28 March 2023, is the deluxe version of the line. MusicRadar calls it "a deluxe K-style boost and overdrive with 7 selectable clipping options"¹⁸. It combines the diode setups of the previous Archer, iKon and Jeff Mod Archer plus four additional diodes, including LED¹²¹⁹. It also carries the same Output, Treble and Gain controls, with the Treble knob allowing more high-end than before¹⁸¹⁹.

Two features set it apart:

• Seven selectable clipping diodes, including NOS germanium and red LED options¹⁸
• A 1/4-inch DI output on the side with speaker simulation, a first for the Archer line, based on a British 4x12 cabinet¹⁸¹⁹

In Sweetwater's Archer Select demo, Don Carr said the Archer series pedals are "some of the best sounding k-style overdrive pedals out there," and found that the differences between the diodes are subtle, with the biggest differences in the feel and the output level²⁰. The Select comes in a standard gold finish and a deluxe, limited KTR Red edition sold exclusively through Reverb¹².

What reviewers said

The Archer has drawn strong press since launch. Guitar.com named it winner of the Best Effects category in its 2015 Gear Of The Year awards²¹, and MusicRadar has called it among J. Rockett Audio Designs' most beloved pedals¹⁶. Pedal of the Day notes that the Archer, in all its iterations, "has steadily been one of the go-to clone units since its release"²².

Premier Guitar's roundup review was the most direct on the clone question:

The same reviewer found the pot tapers vary slightly from the original Klon, so the knobs must be set slightly differently to create matching sounds, and that there were no Klon tones that could not be duplicated with the Archer⁹. On value, the review noted cheaper alternatives, notably the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food, which sells for well under half the price of the Archer, while crediting the Archer with heftier construction and greater accuracy⁹. Pedal of the Day's take on the Ikon framed the whole line's appeal: an affordable and space-saving alternative to the Klon Centaur for players who want those tones without selling a car to get them¹³.

Videos

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Questions