Your "Go To" dirt pedals

[snoopster]

I love the Klon (or Klon clone) and I keep one on my board but I use it as a clean boost, no gain at all. I love what it does to the tone. I have a KTR that I never bonded with but my Ceriatone Centura is magic. Good luck with the Stewmac Klon builds and I look forward to the review(s).

[TiffanyGuitar]

I use a Greer light speed and one of the JHS white 3 series pedals. Love the combo. I also have one of the Stew Mac klon kits. Haven’t started it yet. I am about to start refinishing our dining room table. Plan to start the pedal kit after that is finished.

[Al Acuff]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Hi Al,

I'll be interested to hear how you like this Stew-Mac Klon clone pedal when you get it all put together. I studied that kit quite a bit when it first came out, but my eyes have gotten so bad lately, I worried that I'd mess it up.

I hope you enjoy the kit and love the pedal when you get it together!

- Glenn

Hi Glenn. Hi Dru. I turned 69 yesterday. I still enjoy electronics work but these days due to mild cataracts I need good lighting and reading glasses plus a magnifying visor LOL.

Even so it's easy to make a mistake reading the resistor codes on those tiny resistors. I make it a point to check resistor values with a multi-meter and I think it's a good practice to make it a habit even if your eyesight is great.

Thanks guys for letting me know that there's some interest in the kit here. I promise to follow up. Hoping to do the construction later this week or over the weekend.

To be continued...

[Al Acuff]

I found this comparison of a Klon pedal with the StewMac pedal. It might be of interest. For what it's worth I hear a subtle difference and think they sound close enough for an old folkie like me.

PS. I wonder if you compared two vintage Klon pedals would they sound exactly the same?

[Dru Edwards]

Al, I watched part of the video (I skipped the talking). I like his lead tone - that's the way I like mine as well, nice and crunchy.

The two pedals sounded similar; however, I would have liked to have heard the amp on it's own followed by pedal one and then pedal 2. I always like to hear the unprocessed tone first. Perhaps he did it and I missed it?

I think the Stewmac pedal will be great.

Originally Posted by Al Acuff

I found this comparison of a Klon pedal with the StewMac pedal. It might be of interest. For what it's worth I hear a subtle difference and think they sound close enough for an old folkie like me.

PS. I wonder if you compared two vintage Klon pedals would they sound exactly the same?

[FrankHudson]

My history starting a bit over 40 years ago:

In the past I usually some variety of Big Muff, starting with the red&black ram's head model and eventually a recent Triangle reissue. I keep the gain dialed back on them and I don't play a lot of 6 note chords. In such use they can be less overwhelming than their reputation.

However my current electric board doesn't have a Muff for the first time in decades. After years of resistance to the "green box" Tube Screamer thing I picked up an open box Behringer "clone" and really started to dig it. Obviously not going for any connoisseur points with this choice. I tend to use it now for more saturated, gainier sounds.

I used to pair the Behringer green overdrive with the Triangle Muff until I picked up another open box deal on an inexpensive Klon'ish pedal, the E-H Soul Food. Not really a replacement for the saturation you can get with the Muff, but with the gain kept down again, it's rather dynamic.

I sometime miss the Muff option, but the board is full, so no room. On the other hand, I still enjoy playing guitar-cord-amp too.

[PTony]

Archer Ikon Gold
Hudson Broadcast (breadboard version)
Crowther Hotcake (great w/Vox)
RedSeven Alkemy

[73171]

My favorites:

Overdrive: Wampler Clarksdale
Distortion: Weehbo Bas****, Wampler Dracarys, Diezel Herbert
Fuzz: PastEffects M-1-A, Toneczar OTP, Wampler Fuzztration, Amptweaker Tight Fuzz Pro

[redir]

I just built a Stewmac Klon clone and I will vouch for it. It's an excellent pedal by all standards. I have never played a real Klon before but this clone is an instant hit for me. It makes my Fender Twin sound like an over driven Champ at allow volumes. Killer pedal.

Comparing it next to these classics it holds it's own for sure.

[M Sarad]

One of my buddies gave me his Klon clone. He has an original Klon and said he hesrs no difference on the 2.
I didn't like it so it went to a friend whe uses it in tandem with the vintage Ibanez tube pedal modeled on the Chandler, one of which I own.
He gets a great sound for the music he plays.
Too hot for me.

[Dru Edwards]

It's great that you got it built and thanks for the review. Easy to following directions I assume?

Originally Posted by redir

I just built a Stewmac Klon clone and I will vouch for it. It's an excellent pedal by all standards. I have never played a real Klon before but this clone is an instant hit for me. It makes my Fender Twin sound like an over driven Champ at allow volumes. Killer pedal.

Comparing it next to these classics it holds it's own for sure.

[redir]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

It's great that you got it built and thanks for the review. Easy to following directions I assume?

It was very easy to follow. Very well documented. The only potential issue is that some of the components are marked differently then the images in the documentation. They are the proper component only perhaps a different manufacturer so they look a bit different.

I made sure to put every component in it's own individual compartment of a 'tackle box' type box first to not only double check the parts list bu organize and make it easier to build.

It does help if you are handy with a soldering iron.

The only thing I did wrong was mix up a 3.9ohm resistor with a 390ohm one. So it also helps to know how to remove components from a board too.

[Al Acuff]

I'm building two of the StewMac pedals at the same time. As was just suggested––here is an old Mojotone amp kit parts box that I repurposed for the Klone pedal kit parts.

[FrankHudson]

Not to rain flux on anyone's parade here who wants to build a pedal, but I feel drawn to point out that "Klon Klones" already assembled and in smaller, more pedal-board friendly formats are out there.

Some are actually cheaper than the kit. The E-H Soul Food is just a bit over $100 US new, and used goes even cheaper. I got a used one and like it fine, though I haven't used the StewMac one so I can't compare them.

Now again, I realize that there's fun to be had in building your own, and I say everything above only to inform anyone reading "the real thing will cost you multiple thousands and ours is $125" thing and thinking this is some kind of rare chance.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

The one that engages the OD channel on my Bugera V22 - all tubes/all the time, the way it was done back in the day...

This, I dont buy an amp if it cant put out an overdrive sound that I like. That said, my Katana has a "Boost" function that is supposed to simulate a variety of Boss OD pedals pushing the front of the amp, and this does beef up the amp's OD tones really nicely. Maybe I need to revisit the idea of a dirt pedal and just use it a bit differently? Right now I've got it set up so the overdrive is plexi-ish, adding the boost takes it up to where you can pull off occasional metal riffs half convincingly, and running just the boost on the clean channel gives it a nice bluesy breakup.

As far as pedals, while I've tried quite a few I've always liked the plain jane Boss SD1 pedal. I think I've bought 3 of them over the years. While I've owned others that had more tonal capabilities, including the Blues Driver, it usually seems like a great deal of the extra sounds werent really usable, and it just made dialing my tone in more finnicky. The SD1 just sits in a sweet spot where you'd have to try pretty hard to actually get a bad sound out of it, and I've always found getting great tone out of it to be very easy.