Among pedal enthusiasts, there is one overdrive that stands above all others. The Klon Centaur. Like its namesake would suggest, it’s a mythical beast and since its release in 1994 the pedal has gained a reputation for a rich midrange and ultra-responsive dynamics.
The Klon Centaur is a mythical beast in the world of overdrives that has been lost to history for almost a decade. But now, it’s back…
Part of the legend of the Klon Centaur is due to the fact that developer Bill Finnegan ‘gooped’ the innards to prevent other manufacturers from copying the legendary circuit board. This only led to more online speculation, as people tried to remove the goop and reverse engineer each component.
There have been many reproductions of the unit, still, purists claim that nothing beats the original. No doubt this has been a factor in the pedal’s mind-boggling price, which often sits northwards of $3000 in the used market.
In a recent twist to the Centaur fable, Finnegan has announced that he is to start production again and sell the unit as a new direct run via eBay. I mean with a demand like that, it would be silly not to really.
“I’m Bill Finnegan, designer of the original Klon overdrive circuit, designer of the Klon Centaur Professional Overdrive unit incorporating that original circuit, and also the hand-builder of every single Centaur unit from the beginning of Centaur production in late 1994 until the end of that initial production a few years ago,” he stated.
“Now, on a small scale, I am again hand-building a few Centaur units for sale by my company Klon LLC. Given the many demands on my time these days, and also given the labour-intensive and time-consuming nature of building Centaurs, it’s inevitable that I will be able to build only a small number of these units, but I hope and expect to continue to be able to do so on a regular basis for some years to come.”
The first unit of the new series, Centaur #3888 was listed with a starting bid of $100. A bargain you might say, until after 27 bids, the pedal hit $2,026 US, or $2,829 AUD. So not a whole lot of a discount then.
If you’ve got some deep pockets for an overdrive, head on over to the Bill Finnegan’s eBay shop.
