Way Huge Deep State

The Way Huge Deep State is a limited-edition overdrive pedal that Way Huge built in collaboration with Joe Bonamassa and released in August 2024. It is a Klon Centaur-style circuit, and press coverage at launch called it, in Way Huge's own framing, the "ultimate Klon clone"¹². It was sold exclusively through the Official Joe Bonamassa Reverb Shop in a run of 550 numbered pedals, and all 550 sold out on the day of release¹.

The pedal is not an entirely new design. It is Way Huge's second attempt to replicate the Klon sound, following the Conspiracy Theory of 2019, and it started life as a modified version of that circuit¹. Bonamassa, who owns an original Klon Centaur, judged the finished Deep State to sound "virtually identical, and I'm not just saying that!" to his 1995 original².

A Klon-style overdrive

The Deep State belongs to a family of pedals built around the Klon Centaur, the overdrive designed by American engineer Bill Finnegan that has become one of the most copied circuits in effects history. Guitar World's history of the pedal notes Finnegan originally set out to design an overdrive that could realistically recreate the harmonic content of an overdriven tube amp⁴. On the technical side, the Klon is a hard-clipping overdrive, a point pedal designer Brian Wampler made to MusicRadar when arguing that the common description of the Klon as "transparent" is mostly a myth⁵.

Way Huge's route to the Deep State ran through the Conspiracy Theory. Released in 2019, the Conspiracy Theory is a Klon-inspired overdrive that, like the Klon, preserves the character of the tone with a pleasing midrange boost¹. Guitar Player's buying guide to Klon clones describes it as "an on-the-nose take on the Klon clone"⁶, and when Paul Riario reviewed the Smalls Conspiracy Theory Professional Overdrive for Guitar World, he concluded it was "pretty darn close" to the real thing⁷.

The Deep State sits alongside the rest of Way Huge's drive lineup, which gearnews counted at around six or seven overdrives, including the Red Llama, Pork Loin, Green Rhino and the Camel Toe twin overdrive, plus the Swollen Pickle fuzz⁸.

A limited run for Joe Bonamassa's Reverb shop

The Deep State was designed in collaboration with Joe Bonamassa and sold exclusively at his Reverb store³. Way Huge's own product page describes the run plainly: each of the 550 pedals is numbered and signed on the inside by Bonamassa's own hand, and "Once these pedals are sold out, they're gone for good"³. That proved accurate. Guitar World's launch story noted that with only 550 available it was bound to sell out quickly, and an update on August 2, 2024 confirmed all 550 had sold¹. A similar Bonamassa-linked Way Huge limited edition, the Conspiracy Theory Joe Bonamassa Special Diodes, had already sold out very quickly before Guitar Pedal X could even cover it⁹.

To demonstrate the pedal, Bonamassa set up a six-figure rig consisting of his Klon Centaur, a vintage Burst and a Dumble amplifier, and compared it against a $1,400 setup built around the Deep State, an Epiphone Lazarus Burst and a Fender Sidekick Reverb 25¹. His conclusion, as reported by Guitar.com, was that the two pedals sound "virtually identical, and I'm not just saying that!"²

By November 2024, a Guitar Player rig rundown showed the newly released Deep State sitting on Bonamassa's pedalboard alongside his original Klon Centaur, with the Deep State described as an "extremely good" Klon copy with a brighter midrange¹⁰.

How it differs from the Conspiracy Theory

The Deep State is a modified version of the Conspiracy Theory Overdrive rather than a fresh circuit³. The change came from Way Huge designer Jeorge Tripps, who discovered a diode with what Bonamassa called a truly magical-sounding voltage drop, then implanted these diodes into his Conspiracy Theory Overdrive¹. Way Huge promised the result would deliver "smooth, velvety clipping" that is super-responsive to playing dynamics¹.

The control set carries over from the Conspiracy Theory family. Way Huge's page for the Smalls Conspiracy Theory Professional Overdrive describes the two main knobs¹¹:

¹¹

For a sense of what the underlying circuit sounds like in use, Sweetwater's demo of the Conspiracy Theory Professional Overdrive walks through the pedal's Klon-style gain structure and midrange character on a range of settings¹².

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Price and availability

Guitar World reported the launch price as $189¹. Later coverage dated November 11, 2025 gave the price as $199, so the price moved between the announcement and that later listing¹³.

Players who want the same basic circuit in current production can look at the Conspiracy Theory and its Smalls versions, which remain the standard Way Huge take on the Klon circuit⁶⁷.

Videos

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Questions