Klon KTR

The Klon KTR is an overdrive pedal released by Bill Finnegan in 2014 as the third Klon model, following the original gold KLON Centaur and a second model¹². It carries the same circuit as the Centaur in a smaller, cheaper, contract-manufactured build, and it is the pedal Finnegan designed to be attainable where the hand-built Centaur had become a collector's item³⁴.

For a player, the KTR is the practical route to the Centaur sound: the same three controls, the same clipping approach, and a switch that lets you run it buffered like the original or true bypass, something the Centaur never offered⁵⁶.

The Centaur circuit in a smaller, cheaper build

The KTR is a surface-mount redesign of the Centaur circuit. Finnegan began the ground-up redesign in 2008, and the work took years: he spent almost two years listening to surface-mount capacitors and parts before settling on the final build³. Except for the clipping diodes, everything is surface-mount, which takes less space on the board; there are no hookup wires, the footswitch is a modular assembly, and the whole pedal sits in a standard enclosure considerably smaller than the Centaur³. GuitarPlayer's Dave Hunter describes it as a pedal whose production could be outsourced more affordably and in greater numbers, partly through the use of surface-mount rather than through-hole components². Coda Effects puts it more bluntly: the KTR is not handmade, but made by robots¹⁰.

The payoff is price. The KTR costs significantly less than an original hand-built Centaur on the used market, where Centaurs have sold for as much as $8,000². It launched at around $300, designed to be attainable at a similar price to the original, and carried a $269 retail price as of Finnegan's 2023 interview⁸³.

The controls and the buffered or true bypass switch

The control set is the same three knobs as the Centaur: gain, treble and output, plus a metal footswitch⁵. On the front side is a mode switch that alternates between buffered and true bypass⁵. That switch is the one real circuit difference from the Centaur: it lets the player choose the buffered output of the original Centaur or a true-bypass output³. The original Centaur itself ran buffered bypass through a Carling DPDT switch, not true bypass¹¹.

The KTR's switching circuitry was designed by Paul Cochrane, of Tim and Timmy pedal fame, whom Finnegan describes as the good friend who handled that part of the design³.

How it was built: surface-mount parts and contract manufacturing

The first production run was contract manufactured by Rocket, as recounted on the JHS Show¹³. Finnegan was impressed enough with J. Rockett's Archer, a Centaur-inspired pedal, that he consulted with JRAD while developing the KTR¹⁴. The design intent, per GuitarPlayer, was a pedal that could be produced in greater numbers than the hand-built Centaur ever was². By the time of Finnegan's 2023 interview, the unit was expected to be widely available through dealers in the U.S. and various other countries³.

History: the third Klon and the replacement diodes

The KTR originally used the exact same NOS germanium clipping diodes as every Centaur did³. In 2021, that supply of new old stock diodes began to run dry, and Finnegan found a workaround: a substitute diode of a different model, with circuit alterations to compensate¹⁵¹⁶. As he told Guitar.com, the rework was hard work over the course of maybe three or four months¹⁵.

The new diode was already in one of the KTR pedals demoed in a September 2021 livestream, in which Matt compared three Klon pedals using a mid '70s Gibson Explorer and a 1970 non-master Silverface Fender Twin, and Finnegan deliberately avoided pointing out which one⁶. Going forward, KTRs would carry the different clipping diodes¹⁷.

Production has since stalled. The company Finnegan contracted to produce the KTRs closed down and returned all the parts, components and enclosures to him, with no timetable for a new producer, per an email relayed on the JHS Show in December 2022⁷. A KTR v2 was announced but never hit the market⁷.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar, covering the 2021 diode change, reported no detectable difference between the new production run KTR and the others in the livestream demo: "We're certainly impressed, if there's a difference we're not hearing it here"¹⁷⁶. Finnegan's own framing was that if you could not hear a difference, that means he had done his work¹⁶.

Delicious Audio's Adam Lippman noted there is more than one clone of the Klon on the market, but advised finding and affording an original if possible⁵. In a later Delicious Audio interview, player Vaughn described the KTR's range: it can be used discreetly on riffs for a classic rock vibe, or cranked for feedback and fuzz-like solos¹⁸. Josh Scott of JHS has kept a KTR on his own board for years¹³.

On price, the picture has moved. The KTR launched at around $300, and by October 2021 some sellers were achieving more than double that⁸. In December 2022, Scott noted KTRs themselves being cloned and selling for around a thousand dollars⁷. Even so, gearnews observed that the KTR does not sell for anywhere near as much as original Centaurs¹⁹.

The text on the lid

The KTR famously carries an inscription on top: "Kindly remember: The ridiculous hype that offends so many is not of my making."²⁵ Finnegan has said the text has caused controversy with some buyers¹. The KTR name is a registered trademark of Klon²⁰.

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