Most guitarists would agree how essential a good overdrive pedal is for a pedalboard, and for good reason. Whether you’re a Metalhead looking to push the front end of a high-gain amp, a blues player who wants to add some sustenance to a solo or a jazz guitarist craving a slight boost, overdrive stompboxes will fit the bill.
| Features: | Timmy MXR | Klon Centaur |
|---|---|---|
| Price: | $150 | $2400 |
| Performance: | High | High |
| Frequency Range: | High | High |
| Versatility: | High | High |
Timmy MXR
The Timmy has been hyped by guitarists since its introduction in the early 90s. A collaboration between device maker Paul Cochrane and MXR’s Custom Shop has led to a scaled-down version of the celebrated overdrive pedal.
Hailed for its transparency, the Timmy MXR comes highly deployable as a clean boost to push your amplifier, an edge-of-breakup OD or as a singing overdrive with ample amounts of sustain, responsiveness and harmonics to boot.
The pedal has a three-way voice switch with three distinct clipping modes, giving you all the makings of a truly versatile dirtbox.
Tone
The overdrive is touch sensitive that can work well with your playing, a neutral dealer of crunch and output between your guitar and amplifier. That’s really all that’s meant by transparent. There’s no huge colouration in the tone.
Whether you set the MXR as a clean boost to hit your amp’s front end harder or want to dial in a heavier crunch, the dynamics are exceptional. Rolling back your guitar’s volume control opens up a great range of drive that can work for rock to blues without touching the pedal’s settings.
Performance
Timmy’s MXR operates in a similar fashion to the original units. It has two EQ controls for bass and treble is reversed so that you turn them clockwise to cut the frequencies and anticlockwise to enhance them.
You also have the choice of three clipping patterns, two symmetrical and one asymmetrical. Under the hood, you’ll find an F353 op-amp chip, which helps the MXR perform similarly in a smaller enclosure.
Klon Centaur
Klon’s Centaur ‘Professional Overdrive’ pedal is unquestionably one of the most famous guitar pedals of all time. In recent years, the pedal has achieved an almost mythical status that befits its name.
Created by Bill Finnegan in ‘94, the Centaurs innovative circuit (which uses an IC MAX1044 voltage converter and two germanium diodes) changed how overdrives interact with a guitarist’s rig, and how they are perceived overall.
Design
In my opinion, Klon’s Centaur pedal is one of the best-looking guitar pedals ever made. The centaur is housed in a very large and sturdy metal enclosure, instantly making an impression on any pedalboard.
While its design is simple. It’s very effective, probably the reason sales were so high when the pedal was first released.
Although aesthetics don’t play quite the same role with guitar pedals as they do with guitars and amps, they make a difference. From its sturdy metal enclosure to the size of the pedal, to the oxblood red control knobs, the design of the Centaur is very unusual and captivating, and even now, with all the different boutique guitar pedals that are on the market, the design of the Klon Centaur still stands out.
Tone
The Klon overdrive is particularly celebrated for its ‘transparent’ nature. In essence, this means that the pedal causes your signal to overdrive, without the tone ‘colouring’ in any way. The centaur adds warmth and gain to your tone, whilst preserving the natural sound of your guitar and amp. This sets it aside from a lot of overdrive pedals – the majority of which alter the tone more significantly.
Price
The Klon Centaur was first released in ‘94, and production of the pedal continued up until 2009. The original models of the Klon have now become some of the most sought-after guitar pedals ever made. Not only are they rare, but they’re also very expensive, selling upwards of $3100/£2500.
Whilst it’s fairly common for vintage amps and guitars to sell for an amount exponentially greater than their original value, the same, however, isn’t true for guitar pedals. There’re very few pedals that demand such a high price, and those that do are normally vintage pedals from the ‘60s or ’70s. Pedals like the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and the Dallas Treble Rangemaster. We’re talking about pedals that were used on some of the most famous blues and rock songs ever recorded.
Yet the Klon’s Centaur pedal has driven the same demand as these pedals. Even though it was built more recently, it has played a much smaller role in the history of blues and blues rock.
Does The Original Centaur Have Clones?
As the original Centaur can fetch a lot of money on the used market, there’re a variety of much more affordable options that have been made that try to stay true to the original design. Here are a few that are considered to the best Klon pedal clones. They recreate Centaur’s original tone while maintaining its 3-knob layout.
Way Huge Conspiracy Theory Pedal
This is a pedal that’s newer, more affordable, from a reliable builder. What’s important is that it keeps things simple, and compact, while delivering authentic tones.
Chellee Ponyboy Overdrive V3
Chellee’s Klon Centaur-based overdrive offers both a buffered clean boost with plenty of chime and a rich transparent overdrive for pushing the edge of breakup tones into a singing lead. It has a voicing switch which shifts the frequency range of the Treble control. V3, a new selection of diodes adds new tonal dimension on the higher gain settings and a bass control allowing a little extra tone shaping.
Electro-Harmonix Soul Food
The Soul Food is the epitome of “Klone revolution” pedals. For being under $100, it sounds great, and readily available, it’s pound-for-pound one of the most popular Centaur-style overdrives on the market. The klone has a switchable buffer/true-bypass feature which solidifies it as a contender against the others. Although its overall sound is said to be a little thinner, it works well stacked with other overdrives.