Klon Centaur
The Klon Centaur is an overdrive pedal made by the American engineer Bill Finnegan between 1994 and 2008. Finnegan aimed to create a pedal that would recreate the harmonically rich distortion of a guitar amplifier at a high volume.
Finnegan struggled to meet demand, and used units sold for inflated prices. He made around 8,000 units before discontinuing the Klon in 2008. In 2014, Finnegan redesigned it as the Klon KTR, which is simpler to manufacture by contracted firms. Numerous manufacturers have created Klon clones. As of 2024, used Klon Centaurs sold for up to $20,000 USD.
Development
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In the 1990s, the American engineer Bill Finnegan sought an overdrive pedal that would recreate the harmonically rich distortion of a guitar amplifier at a high volume.[1] He wanted a "big, open" sound, with a "hint of tube clipping", that would not sound like a pedal was being used.[1] He experimented with the Ibanez Tube Screamer, but was not satisfied.[1]
With electrical engineer friends, including the MIT graduate Fred Fenning, Finnegan developed prototype pedals in his spare time over four and a half years.[1] He added an internal voltage converter to double the voltage, which creates headroom and produces "higher-order harmonic content".[2]
After extensive experimentation, Finnegan selected low-gain germanium diodes for the circuit and purchased as many as he could afford.[1][2] The diodes use hard rather than soft clipping, to "provide a more subtle saturation and a very transparent response".[2] When the user increases the gain control, the bass frequencies are reduced, preventing the pedal from sounding "woofy" or "muddy".[2] Finnegan coated the components in epoxy resin to make the pedal harder to replicate.[1][3]
Finnegan designed the Klon Centaur to be used in conjunction with an amplifier's natural overdrive to add sustain and volume, as opposed to using it as a source of distortion with a clean amplifier.[2]
Release
[edit | edit source]Finnegan began selling the Klon Centaur in late 1994. He was overwhelmed by demand and worked long hours in his home, building, testing, and shipping the pedals himself. Every part was custom-made, including the cast enclosure, knobs, and pots. As it took Finnegan 12 to 14 weeks to fulfil each order, used Centaur pedals sold for inflated prices, which placed more pressure on Finnegan to meet demand.[1] Finnegan later said his profit margin was "not very sensible", and he found it difficult to hire employees and expand the business in Boston, where commercial space was expensive.[1]
In 2008, Finnegan decided the situation was unsustainable and discontinued the Centaur, having built around 8,000 pedals over 15 years.[1] He has declined requests to make more, but has occasionally produced single units for sale, including one for auction on eBay on behalf of a single mother he knew who needed financial support.[1]
Klon KTR
[edit | edit source]In 2014, Finnegan released a redesigned version, the Klon KTR. His goal was to create a straightforward design that could be built by a contracted manufacturing firm and would be easy to repair, among other considerations, while preserving the Centaur sound.[1] The Klon KTR took two years to design and sold for $269.[1] It bears the text: "Kindly remember: The ridiculous hype that offends so many is not of my making."[1]
Legacy
[edit | edit source]The Klon Centaur has been used by guitarists including Jeff Beck, John Mayer, Joe Perry (of Aerosmith), Nels Cline (of Wilco), Matt Schofield and Ed O'Brien (of Radiohead).[1][4] Finnegan said the pedal attracted a variety of guitarists, including baby boomers, younger indie rock musicians and experimental musicians.[1] Guitar World praised the clear, uncolored tone of the boosted signal.[5]
As of 2019, used Centaurs sold for between $1,900 and $2,500 USD.[6] By 2021, the average price had risen to around $4,000.[7] Prices reached $20,000 USD by 2024.[2] According to Guitar.com, which named the Centaur one of the greatest effect pedals, "The Klon Centaur is either the greatest, most useful overdrive ever made, or the worst example of guitarists losing all sense of perspective about how much good tone should cost."[6]
In 2021, Josh Scott of JHS Pedals mocked the Centaur's escalating value by listing his Centaur—the first ever sold—on the online marketplace Reverb.com for $500,000 and promising to hand-deliver it free "anywhere on Earth".[7] In early 2023, Scott published a YouTube video comparing the Centaur against the DigiTech Bad Monkey Tube Overdrive, a discontinued pedal released in 2004. The video demonstrated no discernible difference in sound.[8] Online listings for Bad Monkey pedals rose as high as $11,000, up from an average of $50 in January 2023.[9] Responding to complaints that he had driven the price up, Scott wrote in a statement: "I would like to remind you you had 19 years to buy one, but you never cared ... Learn to listen with your ears and not trends, and you will be a much happier guitarist."[9]
Clones
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Numerous manufacturers have created Klon clones.[1] Finnegan expressed skepticism that they could replicate the sound due to factors including the rarity of the Centaur's germanium diodes.[1] He said the clones damaged his product's reputation and disincentivize engineers from creating innovative products.[1] In July 2024, Finnegan warned that fake Klon pedals were in circulation.[10] In June 2025, he sued the manufacturer Behringer for trademark and trade dress infringement, false advertising and false designation of origin.[11]
Some clones, such as the J. Rockett Archer, integrate some through-hole construction and several of the same components as the Klon Centaur.[12] Other clones include the Wampler Tumnus, the Way Huge Conspiracy Theory and the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food.[13][14] Premier Guitar observed that the clones achieve close approximations even when using different components, such as silicon diodes over germanium, and concluded that the Klon's character comes from its "ingenious" circuit topology rather than its components.[13]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
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