On this week’s edition of Find of the Week, we are pleased to present you this first-ever Klon Centaur pedal being sold by JHS Pedals owner Josh Scott on Reverb! If you know anything about boutique pedals, you know that the Klon Centaur is basically the holy grail for most people. But this is no ordinary Klon Centaur; this is the first Klon Centaur ever made and sold (#2 serial number). Yeah, that would explain the $500,000 price tag.
From seller JHS Pedals:
“You know what it is.
If you want the best Klon, it’s this Klon. Bill built/sold this #2 first as he sat #1 aside for himself and built it later.
Because of the prices lately here on the Reverb, I think this is a fair price for what it is. I only took one picture because that’s good enough. What you see is what you get, no box, nothing, just the pedal. The pedal will be hand-delivered by me, in-person to anywhere on earth for free. Allow 30 days for me to clear my schedule and get it to you from the date of purchase.”
If this is the unicorn you’ve been searching for to complete your pedalboard, snag it up before it’s gone, and as Josh stated above, it will be hand-delivered personally to you!
But maybe you don’t have an extra half-a-million dollars lying around to spend on this kind of thing. While the Klon Centaur is infamously pricey, we’ve sourced a few other options that might make your wallet a bit happier.
First and foremost, here’s another original Klon Centaur Overdrive from 1998 for $5800 plus shipping! While it may still be a pretty penny, it’s nothing compared to what you’d spend on the first option. Coming from seller TSMA in Minneapolis, MN, the pedal comes with the original box, instructions, business card, receipt, and a few other goodies so that you know it’s the real deal!
Still too much? Here’s another Klon Centaur for $4,566.49 on Reverb from seller Dag in Bree, Belgium! While in slightly less-amazing condition, this is still the real deal and absolutely worth it for any avid guitar pedal junkie. As Dag states about the listing, “The legendary Klon centaur! Books have been written and there is no other pedal in the world that has been copied as much as this one.”
Okay fine, maybe a real Klon Centaur is out of the question, BUT there are plenty of great Klones out there! For starters, this amazing Proanalog Devices Manticore is going for just $355 on Reverb! For way less than what you’d pay for an actual Klon, you can get an incredibly similar sound out of this Manticore, and not have to explain yourself to your wife. That’s a win-win in our book!
Another fantastic Klon alternative is this brand-new Wampler Tumnus pedal, going for $149.99 on Reverb! Marked down from $179, this overdrive pedal is a go-to option for many players out there who want the revered sound of the much more expensive pedal but for a fraction of the cost. Wampler is known for the quality of their pedals, and the Tumnus is no exception!
From seller Coast Sonic:
“The Tumnus, the most mythical and legendary overdrive/boost bought to you in a small, affordable and most importantly…. available!
There is one overdrive circuit to this day has been the most talked about, the most sought after, and the most mythical of them all. It’s big, it’s expensive, and it has certainly earned its place at the table. Wampler has painstakingly and faithfully reproduced that magical tone in all its glory in an unbelievably small package, and its name is Tumnus.
Tumnus is a versatile addition to any setup, any style. Stack it with another pedal to help push or shape the total amount of gain, use it as a stand alone overdrive, or use it as a slightly dirty boost to push the front end of your amp over the edge. You can even use it as a buffer, because just like the original this pedal is not true bypass. Instead, faithful to the original, this pedal contains a buffered bypass tone legendary in its own right.
The Tumnus’ streamlined 3 control knobs (Volume, Gain, and Tone) allow you to quickly dial in your tones no matter what the gig calls for. We aren’t going to sit here and claim it has magical parts, or we sourced out 60 year old diodes that make it perfect, but we are going to say that during our research we looked at everything available and then only used the parts that Brian chose to replicate that amazing tone.
Let’s face it, not everyone has room for a four-legged beast on their board. This slender biped slips in and out of a myriad of tight situations. Now you can have the tone. Now you can have history. Now you can have it all without having to sell your prized gear possessions. The Wampler Tumnus, standing up for that amazing tone, but without the outrageous claims often associated with it.Payment & Returns”
Lastly, our most affordable option (and winner of the Gear Gods Most Delicious Name Award) is the EHX Soul Food Distortion Overdrive pedal from Electro-Harmonix for just $86.20! The compact pedal features boosted power rails for extended headroom and definition, selectable true bypass or buffered bypass options, and is known for its responsiveness and transparency. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more affordable Klon Centaur clone out there with this level of quality, so check it out before it’s gone!
From seller City Music Annex:
“Tone aficionados kept telling EHX’s Mike Matthews about a pedal that had achieved a lot of buzz because it was only obtainable at an exorbitant price. That pedal was the KLON CENTAUR.
A believer in bringing great tools to starving musicians, Mike tasked his trusty team to create an affordable alternative, and that is how the SOUL FOOD was cooked up.
The SOUL FOOD delivers transparent overdrive with great touch and response. Its circuitry features boosted power rails to provide abundant headroom and increased definition. Best of all, you don’t have to be a rock star to own one!”
