There's Something About Centaur Three: Newest Addition

One more pedal earns it's Kali stamp of approval, and once again it's a Klon Centaur clone. Well, to be more accurate this one is a Centura clone. Since I built the first two Centaur clones I've continued looking for options just to see how, if at all, different they may sound. I understand differences could be contributed to components, but knowing that is part of the fun in building guitar pedals. While searching for different Centaur layouts I ran across a clone of the Ceriatone Centura board on Amazon, so I figured why not? As with all of the projects I'm excited to get finished I lagged quite a bit, so this project took a few weeks for me to put together, and even beyond that a few more to get wired up and finalized.

I purchased another 1590XX (aka 1790NS) enclosure and drilled it as closely as I possibly could to the original I had built. I do have the intention of painting this enclosure, but that's not really a priority. When all was said and done there was still precious little room to fit the board inside, but it did fit. Only just! On initial testing with the little practice amp the only difference I could determine between this and the one I built from scratch was that the clipping diodes seemed to kick in with the gain knob just barely turned up, as where the from scratch build starts somewhere between 10 and 11 o'clock. I did socket the 1n270 diodes on this build as I really do want to see if there is any difference once I can find an authentic pair of 1n34a diodes.

Once the new pedal reached the Kali testing phase something interesting happened. I didn't want to dirty the test so I plugged each pedal in on its own and did a basic A/B comparison by plugging and unplugging them as quickly as I could. I set both pedals with the treble at noon and the output just a tiny bit above 9 o'clock, which feels to be unity for both pedals. From there I would fiddle with the gain to see where the clipping kicked in and what the maximum distortion sounded like. The first observation was that the new pedals clipping does kick in a bit earlier, but through a genuine tube amp it's now around 10 to 10:30. Secondly I found out that this pedal has bass! Neither the kit, nor the one I built from scratch seemed to have any bass with the treble set at noon, but this one does have a kick to it. Otherwise everything seems to be just about the exact same, which is good.

I'm enjoying that all three pedals are essentially the same, but each have their own personality. I have an even greater respect for Bill Finnegan for painstakingly keeping the Klon Centaurs he built as close as he possibly could. Personally I enjoy building a pedal and knowing it has its own thing. Clearly I want my creation to sound close to what I was originally aiming for, but through using a mixture of pre-aged and new components they have a personality all their own. As you can see in the photo above my clone family is quite happy, and growing. I know I don't need hundreds of the things, but I'm having fun. Oh, what's the smaller one on the right, you ask? Well, that's for another day my friend, that one isn't done yet. Stay tuned...

There's Something About Centaur

After I refurbished Kali, my Kalamazoo Model 1, I started feeling the need to expand my effects pedal collection, which at that point was merely two pedals and a Zoom 506. Eventually the DIYer in me decided it would be more fun to just build clones of the pedals I've always wanted on my own. Once one pedal was done I would often research for hours on end, trying to find out which pedal I wanted to build next. It has to be said that no other pedal has taken up more of my research time than the legendary Klon Centaur.

Admittedly I was completely unaware of this pedal's existence until after I started building pedals. The more I researched the Centaur the more intrigued I became with it. One man's quest to replicate the way guitar amps sound when they have reached harmonic perfection, while doing so at any volume, at any venue. After years of testing and help from engineers the Centaur was born, all according to legend. Although I'm nowhere near that level of pedal builder, still I connected deeply with the one-person operation aspect.

I will most likely never even see a real Klon Centaur pedal, let alone own one, so my DIY pedal builder instincts kicked in. I started researching what would be the most accurate Centaur clone that I could build for myself. One option that kept coming up was the LandTone clone, often purchased from Wish.com preassembled and ready to go. I watched as many comparisons as I could find of this pedal beside either a real Centaur or highly accurate clones. Even through youtube I could tell the inexpensive little pedal wasn't a 100% accurate recreation, but it did sound fairly close to what the comparison pedal was doing. So close that I decided to purchase the pedal kit from Amazon and build one for myself.

I've gone over my building of the clone kit before, so I won't bother with that here, but I have to say I've become enamored with what the little pedal does. From clean boost, treble boost to an overdrive that is super dynamic depending on your pick attack. This pedal really seems to offer a lot in one pedal, and that's just the clone pedal I've built. I can only imagine what a real Centaur would offer, which I feel would have to be better to some degree.

For the longest time I felt the tube screamer was the cream of the crop, and while I still love the TS808 clone I built, I think this Centaur clone kit just opened a completely new door. There is just something about the Centaur that I really connect with tonally. The blend feature, I think, is really where the magic is, allowing this pedal to go from clean boost to all out overdrive, with the aforementioned other features allowed to dwell within that spectrum. Of course I'll still use my TS808, Boss OD-1, DOD 250 and whatever other drive clones I've built when they're needed, but I have to keep saying there is just something about the Centaur that sets it apart in a great way.

Pedal Building: The Centaur Clone

My guitar pedal building season 2022 started Monday March the 14th. It was a blustery day and the shade of the back deck made it almost unbearable, but I knew I had to get started sometime. My first pedal build was the Klon Centaur clone kit that I had just gotten a few days prior. I put this one ahead of my other builds as I felt time was important. Should there be any parts missing or issues arise with this pedal I would need to contact the seller as soon as possible. At present everything seems to be fine, for the most part.

My workspace on the back deck.

I started off as I always do; lowest components first and work upwards from there. I tested one of each component to make sure they were all labelled correctly. Can't be too careful! Everything was well marked on the main board, with the exception of one of the 100k resistors and the 821pf capacitor being a bit off, but I knew where they went after everything else was soldered up and they were the only parts left and their slightly misaligned places were left empty.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Once the main board was populated it was time to put everything into the housing and do some wiring. Wiring has to be my least favorite part of pedal building, but it has to be done. My distain for wiring was compounded by the fact the provided instructions are extremely vague on what wire goes where. I've wired up enough pedals to know how to wire up the input, output and DC jacks, but where on the board they go is the main mystery here. After doing some research I felt I had a good enough grasp on what went where and I went to work soldering it all up.

Stage 4

The problem is, I was wrong. Even after watching a few videos of people building it from start to finish and reading through some tutorials I still managed to get the output jack wired wrong. Once that was all squared away I had built a really nice pedal. Now, the elephant in the room is that this is a clone of an extremely well known and exceedingly sought after pedal that costs more than a decent used vehicle. That's exactly why I decided this was a project I was more than willing to tackle. I'll never own a real Centaur and even if this pedal doesn't replicate the tone exactly, what this pedal does still sounds pretty good to me. That means it's time for me to start my next project. Stay tuned!