Is The KLON The New Tube Screamer?

Most of us that have peered behind the curtain of our guitar effects have noticed a trend that seems as old as the electric guitar (and its little effects buddies). People have been 'cloning' gear before 'cloning' was even a thing. Before the commercial success of the electronic effects industry, guitarist have been emulating one another in a myriad of ways. In the time before solid-bodied electric guitars, modified arch top guitars plugged into amplifiers were stuff full of rags to eliminate feed back. Amplifiers were modified with 'master' volume knobs to push the unit into situation. Beer bottles were used to emulate the sounds of a African folk instrument call the 'diddly bow'. These ideas were popularized and improved upon. We now owe solid-body guitars, overdrive and slide guitar to these trends. As we think back to a time when the lowly Tube Screamer was introduced, before the host of modifications were made common. One of the greatest guitarist famously used the Tube Screamer to shape his legendary sound. Fast forward thirty years and we see the trend again, only with a new name.

The Klon has an epic back story. Back in the mid 90s Bill Finnegan built the first Klon Centaurs. From there the popularity and mythos behind the pedal blossomed. Many popular players picked up on the pedals lure. The used value of the pedal skyrocketed when production of the centaur stopped. In the following years Bill, in partnership with others, developed the KTR to have the same effect while using surface mounted components. The trajectory of the klon follows that of the Tube Screamer. If we apply the same logic, what does this mean for the Klon? Well, if history serves: clones, mods, and and reissues.

Clones... There are tonnes of clone of the Centaur. A list would be academic, but makers have been producing these since the original has gone out of production. The replications haven't stop since the introduction of the KTR either. Wampler just released the Tumnus which puts the Centaur in a tiny package. Mods are common as well. The originals are still too sacred to tamper with (they are also covered in epoxy). But many mods have become popular for the clones and facsimiles. Reissues my just be an inevitability. At the moment, Finnegan seems unmotivated to produce any more Centaurs in any large amounts.

New Gear Alert: Wampler Tumnus (Klone?)

This morning I woke up to this in my Twitter feed:

Yes, this is a micro pedal from Wampler. It is only the second one, that I know of, from this company. Two things stand out from this picture: 1) the presence of a Treble knob and 2) the half hooven animal/half man image. Anyone who has been following trends in effects would say that it's a Klon copy. It is also described as a "transparent overdrive" by Wampler. So in all likely hood, this pedal will serve the same purpose as a Klon and Klon-type pedals.

Why do we need a new Klone? Well, we don't. Now we have another pedal doing the same thing as other klones, but it's twice the price as everyone's favorite Klone. The thing that this pedal offers is the compact size. I've actually been toying with the idea of a mirco-sized pedal board that's easy to transport. This would be ideal for that application. It would also be the most expensive piece on the board. I'm excited to see how this compares to the rest of the Klones out there. It looks like we will find out a lot more on October 1. That is when Wampler says this will drop!