Grateful Dead Music Forum

Just read this on a post over at TGP. Made me wonder if Jer would have incorporated this pedal into his rig, or if he wouldn't have needed it since he usually operated in the "loud" range anyway.

"You're potentially going to get a lot of responses, some of which will be helpful, some won't. The "magic" of the Klon lies in what type of amp it is being used with, and how you set it in relation to your amp. A little bit of History, (and this is me paraphrasing and/or using a bit of hazy memory): It was designed to sound like a Fender Twin being Overdriven, but at useable volumes. The pedal's designer, Bill Finnegan, was a guitar player, and he wanted a specific tone he could use in the clubs he was playing. But he knew a Twin's volume being pushed was way too loud for most bars, so he went on the pursuit of making what's arguably one of the most revered Dirt Boxes ever made. Most player's will tell you that if you have a "Black Face" style/voiced amp, that the Klon is a "perfect" match,(much like the Timmy or TS-9 is with a Marshall). Just set your amp right on the verge of "break-up", then use the Klon to push your amp into Tube Saturation."

The first Klons were being made in the early 90s so I don't kow if Jerry ever heard of them.

I'm building a Klone, should be done in the next few days.

I have a mojopedal klone. The other guitar player when I lived in chicago had an actual klon... they were very very close, we could not tell the dif, but weren't exhaustive in our A/B. We both used them as clean boost on amps that were on the edge of break up... it sort of pushes it over the edge.

FWIW - I can get my earth drive to do the same thing. I run them first thing after the guitar and before overdrives and the effects loop... there are shows (rooms) where I clean boost the entire time because our volume needs to be low.

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/N ... al_Effects

Also, Andy Summers from the Police replaced his 2 Klon's with Earth Drives.... FWIW...


www.sarnomusicsolutions.com

hmmmm - if the Earth Drive is run before the effects loop, it then becomes sensitive to the guitar volume knob, and playing with the knob low, won't that negate much of its effect?

bzbz wrote:hmmmm - if the Earth Drive is run before the effects loop, it then becomes sensitive to the guitar volume knob, and playing with the knob low, won't that negate much of its effect?

yes... and that (in my world) is by design. I like the boost to 'see' the pickups, and I like to clean up my tone with the volume knob. (I do not run an OBEL, my effects loop and boost is on the pedal board).

Wow, Brad. That's quite an endorsement. I wasn't aware the Earth Drive was a Klon type overdrive. Is that what you based the circuit on?

Actually, the Klon was not even on my radar. It was a rare pedal that I had no experience with yet. Very different circuits actually, but for some reason Klon people find that the Earth Drive provides a similar result, serves a similar purpose. It was surprised to learn of this actually. I finally got to mess around with a Klon, and really I loved it for some things. I wish I owned one. I think it would be a good companion to the Earth Drive. I do get why the Klon is so loved. It's pretty killer.

When we (my wife and I) developed the Earth Drive, we basically lined up about 12 boutique or revered overdrive pedals in our collection and just listened and took notes. We had a laundry list of things we liked and things we didn't like about each one. Not one of them made us totally happy. So really just from the descriptions and our want list I worked up a circuit to do what we wanted. It took a few rounds of tweaks, but then we felt like it was there. In a way, the Earth Drive is more neutral than most. Many pedals have a real strong EQ, a certain midrange frequency boost, maybe a curve in the low mids and a bass cut and also a treble cut. The Earth Drive is just really simple, more flat than most, simple voicing, a bit more bottom end than some, but no deep low mud, the top end is gently rolled off, not steeply dumped like many. Overall, just kind of a gentle and natural EQ approach. Then harmonically, the actual distortion/clipping harmonic content, that was mostly inspired by a Fender 6V6 or 6L6 push/pull amp driven hard, sort of.

Brad

All I know is I like my ED. Relaced a MAxon and Wampler. Both of which I liked, just like the ED better.