01—Klon
Centaur
Inventing the 'transparent overdrive' category and creating the most absurd resale market in pedal history.
Buy the KTR or a clone. The original is a circuit — a perfectly fine circuit — but the price reflects scarcity, not sound. The Tumnus does 95% of it for under $200.
02—On the bench
Bill Finnegan's hand-built, two-stage transparent overdrive — the pedal that invented the term 'transparent overdrive' and the source of one of the most absurd resale markets in guitar history. The Centaur is a clean boost into a soft-clipping op-amp stage, voiced to add gain without removing the underlying tone of the amp and guitar. About 8,000 original Klons were built between 1994 and 2009; values rose from a $329 list price to $5,000+ on the used market. Tonally, the Centaur sits behind a dirty amp the way a magnifying glass sits behind a candle — it makes the amp louder, slightly thicker, and slightly more aggressive without altering its character. Famously, Finnegan poured the circuit in resin to discourage cloning, which slowed but did not stop the dozens of clones (Tumnus, Soul Food, Archer, KTR, etc.) that now define the market.
- 01transparent — adds gain without coloring the amp
- 02treble knob is more useful than the gain knob
- 03stack-friendly as either pre or post boost
- 04the 'magic' is in the soft-clipping op-amp stage
- 05indistinguishable from clones in a blind test (probably)
03—In the room
Where else this pedal lives.
- John Mayer
- Joe Perry
- Jeff Beck
- Matt Schofield
Wampler Tumnus Deluxe — same circuit, modern format, EQ added, one twenty-fifth the price.