Hear how close the EHX Soul Food, J. Rockett Archer, NUX Horseman, Wampler Tumnus, and Way Huge Conspiracy Theory come to nailing the tone of a legend.
It's been more than a quarter century since the Klon Centaur overdrive debuted. So why are we still talking about it?
The Klon became a cult item soon after it appeared, celebrated for its transparent overdrive. “Transparent" isn't exactly a scientific term, but it makes sense when comparing the Klon to the popular overdrives that preceded it—notably the Ibanez Tube Screamer, which to this day provides the template for a large percentage of overdrive pedals.
A Screamer trims highs and adds a prominent midrange bump at around 750 Hz. A Klon's core sound is less highly colored, with clearer highs and greater clean headroom. A Screamer's compression smoothes out note attack, while a Klon delivers faster, crisper transients. Screamer tone never cleans up completely, even with the gain knob at minimum. But a Klon with its gain knob fully counter-clockwise delivers a pure clean boost. (Though it might not sound clean, depending on how hard the Klon's output is slamming your amp's input.) To many ears, the Klon was a sonic upgrade over previous overdrive pedals. When the guitar magazine I worked for in the '90s covered the initial version, I bought the review model. I used that pedal (serial number 309) for reference while exploring our five klones.
Secrets of the Klon Kult
How does the Klon work its magic? Like most overdrives released since the 1970s, it owes its tones to an overdriven op amp, with extra color and compression from a pair of clipping diodes. Klon fanciers tend to focus on those two parts: the TL072, a low-noise, JFET-based op amp, and two NOS germanium 1N34A diodes.
Generally, germanium diode distortion is slightly softer and "spongier" relative to brighter, crisper-sounding silicon diodes and LEDs. But you only hear the diode's character at the circuit's highest gain settings—most of the distortion comes from the op amp. Meanwhile, the TL072 is a common and inexpensive part. But even if it weren't, any number of op amps would yield similar results.
My tests suggest that the Klon's character comes from its ingenious circuit topology, and not from "magic" parts. There's a charge pump that generates 18 volts from a standard 9-volt power supply, and you hear the difference—tones are sparklier and more dynamic, with more clean headroom. The gain architecture is even more innovative. Incoming audio is split into three paths, one of which passes through the distorting op amp and diodes. Another path sends undistorted lows to the output, anchoring the bottom end. Meanwhile, the third path is a relatively hi-fi clean boost. The pedal's gain knob simultaneously controls the levels of both the distorted and clean boost paths. Turning the pedal's gain knob clockwise emphasizes the distortion while lowering the clean signal, and vice versa.
Other factors include an especially nice-sounding input buffer that prevents guitar pickups from loading down the circuit, a handsomely voiced treble-cut tone control, and memorable cosmetics. Original Klons have expensive, custom-cast enclosures with that striking bronze-and-oxblood color scheme. And, of course, there's the sword-wielding centaur icon, usually referred to as "the horsie." (Horsie Klons have the highest resale value.)
Klon vs. Klone
Image 1 — Original Klons obscured their circuitry with black epoxy. That trick never works! The Klon schematic is readily available online.
Original Klons tried to maintain circuit secrecy with a coat of black epoxy (see Image 1).
It didn't work. The schematic is widely available. Copyright law doesn't protect circuits, so the schematic is free for the cloning. On the other hand, copyright law says you can't mimic a product's "trade dress"—the visual appearance that identifies it to consumers. But that hasn't prevented klones from paying "tribute" to the original's gold/bronze enclosure, dark red knobs, and centaur sketch.
The original Klon employed traditional through-hole parts. Our contender klones have modern surface-mount components, which facilitate automated production and keep list prices low. Two of them employ NOS through-hole germanium diodes, while the other three substitute modern silicon ones. All are scaled-down relative to the original, with enclosure sizes ranging from a standard B-sized box down to tiny AAs. There's also a dramatic price spread: from $69 to $199. All pedals run on standard 9V power supplies.
Testing Procedures
To keep things as objective as possible, I recorded the demo clips straight into my DAW with no processing, and then re-amped them through each of the klones. That way, you hear the identical performance through each pedal. Aside from switching klones, nothing in the signal chain changes. For the audio-only clips (see the page at the end of this article) I used a Fender Telecaster Deluxe with Lollar Regal wide-range humbuckers, a clean-toned Carr Telstar amp, and a Royer R-121 ribbon mic, recorded into Logic Pro via a Universal Audio Apollo interface. For the video I used a "parts" S-style guitar with Lollar Firebird pickups and Fender-style Carr Skylark.
In the audio-only clips you'll hear four audio comparisons arranged into four playlists. First, there's a 1:23-long passage with all pedal knobs set to noon. Next comes a gain test: You hear each pedal, first with the gain control at minimum (that is, in full clean-boost mode) and then at maximum. The third comparison displays the full range of the tone controls, first at minimum, then at maximum, and then back to the noon position. The final test compares the output controls. First, you hear the passage with a low output setting, with the knob around nine o'clock, and then at maximum. The low output setting is too quiet to overdrive the amp, isolating the distortion color produced by the pedal, as opposed to how that sound interacts with an overdriven amp.
Image 2 — A spectral comparison of a passage played through the original Klon and through the EHX Soul Food reveals that their EQ curves are nearly identical. Other comparisons yielded similar results.
In each case, you hear the original Klon first, followed by the five modern pedals in alphabetical order, from Electro-Harmonix Soul Food through Way Huge Conspiracy Theory.
Spoiler alert: These pedals sounds remarkably similar, and that's not just a subjective impression. Consider Image 2, which compares the spectrum (EQ curve) of a passage recorded through the original Klon and through the EHX Soul Food.
The orange portion depicts the Klon, the blue portion the EHX. Their EQ profiles are superimposed in the main window. The orange and blue lines track so closely that it's sometimes hard to discern two separate measurements. Comparisons between the Klon and the other contenders yield similar results. In other words, prepare to listen for very subtle distinctions.
Diodes to Die For?
Finally, a word about those germanium diodes: Judging by the online forums, this is the crucial feature separating the Klon from the klones. Even Klon founder Bill Finnegan cites particular germanium diodes (from his stash of NOS 1N34As) as the most important ingredient in the Klon casserole.
I think the audio suggests the opposite.
Klon vs. Klones by premierguitar
RatingsPros:Great price. Excellent overdrive sounds. Adapter included. Cons: Keen ears might miss low-end weight. Street: $86 Electro-Harmonix Soul Food ehx.com | Tones: Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
Electro-Harmonix Soul Food
Priced at a modest $86, EHX's Soul Food is the second-least-expensive pedal among the five competitors. It lives in a standard B-sized enclosure large enough for a battery compartment. You can also use standard 9V power supplies. (Soul Food is the only pedal in this roundup that comes with an AC adapter.)
The Soul Food circuit board employs mostly small, surface-mount components, with the exception of several capacitors and the clipping diodes. The latter are silicon in lieu of the Klon's germanium. Still, as Image 2 above shows, the Soul Food's tone profile matches that of the original Klon almost exactly. At heavy settings, I think I hear slightly more compression and gain from the Soul Food, but I'm not always certain. We're quite close to Klon here.
Hear for yourself: As mentioned, most of the Klon's overdrive comes from the TL072 op amp. The clipping diodes are only a factor at high-gain settings. For the clearest comparison of diode color, listen to the second halves of the clips in the Gain Control playlist, where the gain knobs are at maximum. Even here, the two tones are quite similar. The Soul Food is a little brighter at the very top end, and the Klon has a wee bit more weight under 100 Hz. But these differences are far from dramatic.
Soul Food has a secret trick: a small internal switch to select between true bypass mode (the default) and buffer bypass mode. Again, the differences are extremely subtle, unless you're connecting a retro-style fuzz downstream from Soul Food. (A germanium Fuzz Face, for example, is likely to sound too thin and bright when placed after a buffered effect.)
RatingsPros:Exceedingly accurate Klon sound. Germanium diodes. Extraordinary build quality. Cons: Relatively costly. Street: $199 J. Rockett Archer rockettpedals.com | Tones: Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
J. Rockett Archer
The Archer, a klone from J. Rockett, stands out from the herd even before you plug it in. While all the pedals covered here sound convincingly Klon-like, the Archer clearly aspires to the original's build quality, too. Measuring 4" x 2.25" x 1.25", it is slightly smaller than a standard B-sized box. The top-mounted jacks will suit overpopulated pedalboards, but there's still enough room for a 9V battery. The enclosure isn't quite as deluxe as the original Klon's sculptural, custom-cast shell, but it has a similar heft. The Archer is this roundup's most reassuringly solid stompbox. And at $199, it's the most expensive.
The Archer's circuit board features a roughly 50/50 mix of through-hole and surface-mount parts. The op amp is a TL072, while the clipping diodes are NOS germanium. Clearly, the Archer aspires to be as Klon-like as possible, as if that weren't already clear from the round oxblood knobs and a weapon-wielding mascot with hooved hindquarters. Mission accomplished! While all five of these pedals get close to the Klon sound, Archer is one of the nearest dead-ringers. I wouldn't be able to differentiate the Klon and the Archer in a blind listening test.
RatingsPros:Absurdly low price. Dual buffer and gain modes. Good tones. Cons: Klon-like, but not quite as Klonic as some options. Inexpensively made. No battery compartment. Street: $69 NUX Effects Horseman nuxefx.com | Tones: Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
NUX Horseman
Original “horsie" Klons currently fetch $3,000 on Ebay. For that price, you can buy 43 1/2 NUX Horseman pedals. Yup—this klone sells for a mere $69. It's the only contestant to be built in China. (All the others are made in the U.S.)
The Horseman's stable is a tiny AA-sized enclosure, which means there's no battery compartment. That makes it about 1/6 the size of the original Klon. It's a bit surreal to see that legendary circuit crammed into a device requiring only a sliver of pedalboard space. Unsurprisingly, given its low cost, the parts and build quality don't quite match those of the pricier options. But you can't argue with the Horseman's excellent tones.
The electronics layout is interesting, with two circuit boards facing in toward each other. Silicon Schottky diodes replace the original's germanium parts. Compared to the Klon, the Horseman's tones are marginally less sparkly and a bit boomier below 200 Hz. Transients are slightly less crisp. But even if this pedal's sound is the easiest to differentiate from the vintage Klon, it's still awfully close. I'd have no qualms gigging with this bargain-priced burner.
The Horseman can do a few extra stunts. Like the EHX Soul Food, it offers a choice of true or buffered bypass, depending on whether you hold the bypass switch down during startup. Again, the sonic differences are usually negligible, though the setting can affect the tones of retro-style fuzzes placed after the Horseman in the signal chain. You can also press the footswitch for a few seconds to select between “gold" and “silver" modes. According to NUX, gold mimics the gain character of the original bronze Klon, while silver evokes later silver-colored models, which are a bit gainier. Yes, high-gain silver mode settings are slightly more distorted than the same settings in gold mode, though the distinctions remain subtle. A small secondary LED indicates the status.
RatingsPros:Highly accurate Klon tones. Excellent build. Ultra-compact. Cons: No battery compartment. Street: $149 Wampler Tumnus wamplerpedals.com | Tones: Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
Wampler Tumnus
Brian Wampler's pint-sized klone replaces the horsie with a goatie. The pedal is named for Mr. Tumnus, the friendly faun from C.S. Lewis's Narnia books. It occupies a tiny AA box like the NUX Horseman, but it's even a bit smaller. (Obviously, there's no battery compartment.) Tumnus's build quality is superior, as you'd expect for a pedal costing twice as much. It's also attractive, with its enclosure painted a deep gold color and bedecked with subtle figuration.
Tumnus nails the original Klon tone with great accuracy. This is interesting, given that it employs surface-mount silicon diodes in lieu of germanium. Clearly, you could argue that it's a further refutation of claims that rare diodes are essential for Klon-like tones. Again, I refer you to the second part of the relevant clips in the Gain Control playlist, where diode color is most evident. Even here, the two sounds are almost indistinguishable.
Wampler also loaned us their newer Tumnus Deluxe pedal. We don't have space for a standalone review, but we can summarize what it brings to the party: The control layout on the relatively large 125B-sized enclosure retains the usual treble-cut tone control (which functions just as it does on the original) but adds active bass and midrange controls. There's also a buffer bypass switch and a “hot" switch that boosts gain.
The Deluxe model can sound as Klon-like as the mini version, but it can also veer in different directions. The bass control can add thudding lows and low mids that you won't get from a straight klone. The midrange control also unlocks many new sounds. At extreme settings, this filter gets nasal and resonant, almost like a notched wah pedal. There's a demo clip in the Extras playlist called 1. Tumnus Deluxe (various settings), where I work the tone controls while the demo riff plays. On a Klon, it's hard to dial in a bad sound. The Tumnus Deluxe makes it easier—underscoring the balance and smart design behind the original control set. Of course, those “bad" sounds may be perfect in context and represent interesting possibilities. Notice how thrashy everything gets when I flick on the high gain switch at around 1:08. At $199, Tumnus Deluxe is perfect for a player who wants great straightforward Klon overdrive and many usable variants.
RatingsPros:Excellent overdrive sounds. Quality build. Germanium diodes. Cons: Ever-so-slight bump in low-mids might distract some original Klon purists. Street: $129 Way Huge Conspiracy Theory jimdunlop.com | Tones: Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
Way Huge Conspiracy Theory
Way Huge's Conspiracy Theory is yet another fine-sounding Klon klone. It uses modern surface-mount parts, except for a pair of NOS germanium diodes. The op amps are TL072s. Its folded-metal enclosure matches the scaled-down proportions of the J. Rockett Archer, but the material is light aluminum rather than heavy steel. (At $129, the Conspiracy Theory is $70 cheaper, too.) Red pointer knobs and a gold finish evoke the original Klon design. The scaled-down enclosure is still large enough to accommodate a battery.
The Conspiracy Theory's voice is ever so slightly warmer/darker than that of the original Klon, with just a hair more low-mid weight under 500 Hz or so. I still gave this pedal a maximum tone score, because the differences are extremely subtle, and some players will probably prefer the Conspiracy Theory's slightly warmer character—if they notice it at all.
The Verdict
All five of these effects get very close to the sound of a first-generation Klon Centaur. In other words, they sound terrific! Reviewing them taught me a lot about the original—most notably the fact that its character has little to do with specific clipping diodes, despite countless claims to the contrary. The J. Rockett Archer uses old-school germanium diodes, and it's nearly indistinguishable from the Klon. But then so is the Wampler Tumnus, which substitutes silicon surface mount diodes. As far as I'm concerned, the germanium clipping diode is a big, fat red herring.
The Electro-Harmonix Soul Food gets close to Klon despite using silicon clipping diodes. At $86, it's a steal. At high-gain settings it's ever so slightlybrighter than the original, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It even comes with an adapter.
J. Rockett's Archer, with its germanium clipping diodes, is the Klon's sonic twin. It's easily the most rugged of the klones, with a reassuring heft that evokes the original. But quality isn't cheap—at $199, the Archer is the most expensive option. If cost is no object, it's my No. 1 pick.
Nux Effects' Horseman sells for a remarkably low $69. Of the five pedals, it's the easiest to distinguish from the original Klon, but that's not saying much. It still gets quite close, and some players may even prefer its slightly rougher sound. Its AA-sized enclosure is a panacea for overpopulated pedalboards. This is the no-brainer bargain pick.
Wampler's $149 Tumnus is pretty and petite in its tiny AA enclosure. It rivals the Archer for most authentic Klon sound, even though it employs silicon diodes. The construction is lovely. We also took a quick peek at the $199 Tumnus Deluxe, which adds a high-gain mode and 3-band tone stack that yield many variations on the famous formula.
Way Huge's Conspiracy Theory also gets extremely close to the Klon sound. It sometimes sounds a wee bit warmer/darker, but some players may prefer this profile, assuming they ever notice it. It's the least expensive option to include germanium diodes.
Admittedly, it sounds terminally wimpy to conclude with, “Gosh, they all sound great." But it just happens to be true. (Well, they are clones!) I'd use any of these onstage or in the studio without hesitation. Your choice may be more about price and pedal size than any minor tonal discrepancies.
Oh, one last fun detail: After recording all the re-amped examples into a single Logic Pro session, I thought it might be fun to hear the Klon and the five klones simultaneously. That's the last item in the Extra playlist (All at Once!.mp3). I panned the six tracks in stereo, but there's no additional processing. I expected a bloody mess. But it sounds pretty much like a Klon—just like everything else here.
Other Affordable Klone Options
Chellee Ponyboy, $119 street, chellee.comJoyo Tauren, $54, joyo.com
Keeley Oxblood, $199 street, robertkeeley.com
MXR Sugar Drive, $120 street, jimdunlop.com
[Updated 9/10/21]
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An ode, and historical snapshot, to the tone-bar played, many-stringed thing in the room, and its place in the national musical firmament.
Blues, jazz, rock, country, bluegrass, rap.… When it comes to inventing musical genres, the U.S. totally nailed it. But how about inventing instruments?
Googling “American musical instruments” yields three.
• Banjo, which is erroneously listed since Africa is its continent of origin.
• Benjamin Franklin’s Glass Armonica, which was 37 glass bowls mounted horizontally on an iron spindle that was turned by means of a foot pedal. Sound was produced by touching the rims of the bowls with water-moistened fingers. The instrument’s popularity did not last due to the inability to amplify the volume combined with rumors that using the instrument caused both musicians and their listeners to go mad.
• Calliope, which was patented in 1855 by Joshua Stoddard. Often the size of a truck, it produces sound by sending steam through large locomotive-style whistles. Calliopes have no volume or tone control and can be heard for miles.
But Google left out the pedal steel. While there may not be a historical consensus, I was talking to fellow pedal-steel player Dave Maniscalco, and we share the theory that pedal steel is the most American instrument.
Think about it. The United States started as a DIY, let’s-try-anything country. Our culture encourages the endless pursuit of improvement on what’s come before. Curious, whimsical, impractical, explorative—that’s our DNA. And just as our music is always evolving, so are our instruments. Guitar was not invented in the U.S., but one could argue it’s being perfected here, as players from Les Paul to Van Halen kept tweaking the earlier designs, helping this one-time parlor instrument evolve into the awesome rock machine it is today.
Pedal steel evolved from lap steel, which began in Hawaii when a teenage Joseph Kekuku was walking down a road with his guitar in hand and bent over to pick up a railroad spike. When the spike inadvertently brushed the guitar’s neck and his instrument sang, Kekuku knew he had something. He worked out a tuning and technique, and then took his act to the mainland, where it exploded in popularity. Since the 1930s, artists as diverse as Jimmie Rodgers and Louis Armstrong and Pink Floyd have been using steel on their records.“The pedal steel guitar was born out of the curiosity and persistence of problem solvers, on the bandstand and on the workbench.”
Immigrants drove new innovations and opportunities for the steel guitar by amplifying the instrument to help it compete for listeners’ ears as part of louder ensembles. Swiss-American Adolph Rickenbacker, along with George Beauchamp, developed the first electric guitar—the Rickenbacker Electro A-22 lap steel, nicknamed the Frying Pan—and a pair of Slovak-American brothers, John and Rudy Dopyera, added aluminum cones in the body of a more traditional acoustic guitar design and created resophonic axes. The pedal steel guitar was born out of the curiosity and persistence of problem solvers, on the bandstand and on the workbench.
As the 20th century progressed and popular music reflected the more advanced harmonies of big-band jazz, the steel guitar’s tuning evolved from open A to a myriad of others, including E7, C6, and B11. Steel guitarists began playing double-, triple-, and even quadruple-necked guitars so they could incorporate different tunings.
In Indianapolis, the Harlan Brothers came up with an elegant solution to multiple tunings when they developed their Multi-Kord steel guitar, which used pedals to change the tuning of the instrument’s open strings to create chords that were previously not possible, earning a U.S. patent on August 21, 1947. In California, equipped with knowledge from building motorcycles, Paul Bigsby revolutionized the instrument with his Bigsby steel guitars. It was on one of these guitars that, in early 1954, Bud Isaacs sustained a chord and then pushed a pedal down to bend his strings up in pitch for the intro of Webb Pierce’s “Slowly.” This I–IV movement became synonymous with the pedal-steel guitar and provided a template for the role of the pedal steel in country music. Across town, church musicians in the congregation of the House of God Keith Dominion were already using the pedal steel guitar in Pentecostal services that transcended the homogeneity of Nashville’s country and Western clichés.
Pedal steels are most commonly tuned in an E9 (low to high: B–D–E–F#–G#–B–E–G#–D#–F#), which can be disorienting, with its own idiosyncratic logic containing both a b7 and major 7. It’s difficult to learn compared to other string instruments tuned to regular intervals, such as fourths and fifths, or an open chord.
Dave Maniscalco puts it like this: “The more time one sits behind it and assimilates its quirks and peculiarities, the more obvious it becomes that much like the country that birthed it, the pedal steel is better because of its contradictions. An amalgamation of wood and metal, doubling as both a musical instrument and mechanical device, the pedal steel is often complicated, confusing, and messy. Despite these contradictions, the pedal-steel guitar is a far more interesting and affecting because of its disparate influences and its complex journey to becoming America’s quintessential musical instrument.”The author dials in one of his 20-watt Sonzera amps, with an extension cabinet.
Knowing how guitar amplifiers were developed and have evolved is important to understanding why they sound the way they do when you’re plugged in.
Let’s talk about guitar amp history. I think it’s important for guitar players to have a general overview of amplifiers, so the sound makes more sense when they plug in. As far as I can figure out, guitar amps originally came from radios—although I’ve never had the opportunity to interview the inventors of the original amps. Early tube amps looked like radio boxes, and once there was an AM signal, it needed to be amplified through a speaker so you could hear it. I’m reasonably certain that other people know more about this than I do.
For me, the story of guitar amps picks up with early Fenders and Marshalls. If you look at the schematics, amplifier input, and tone control layout of an early tweed Fender Bassman, it’s clear that’s where the original Marshall JTM45 amps came from. Also, I’ve heard secondhand that the early Marshall cabinets were 8x12s, and the roadies requested that Marshall cut them in half so they became 4x12s. Similarly, 8x10 SVT cabinets were cut in half to make the now-industry-standard 4x10 bass cabinets. Our amp designer Doug Sewell and I understand that, for the early Fender amps we love, the design directed the guitar signal into half a tube, into a tone stack, into another half a tube, and the reverb would join it with another half a tube, and then there would be a phase splitter and output tubes and a transformer. (All 12AX7 tubes are really two tubes in one, so when I say a half-tube, I’m saying we’re using only the first half.) The tone stack and layout of these amps is an industry standard and have a beautiful, clean way of removing low midrange to clear up the sound of the guitar. I believe all but the first Marshalls came from a high-powered tweed Twin preamp (which was a 80-watt combo amp) and a Bassman power amp. The schematic was a little different. It was one half-tube into a full-tube cathode follower, into a more midrange-y tone stack, into the phase splitter and power tubes and output transformer. Both of these circuits have different kinds of sounds. What’s interesting is Marshall kept modifying their amps for less bass, more high midrange and treble, and more gain. In addition, master volume controls started being added by Fender and Marshall around 1976. The goal was to give more gain at less volume. Understanding these circuits has been a lifelong event for Doug and me.
Then, another designer came along by the name of Alexander Dumble. He modified the tone stack in Fender amps so you could get more bass and a different kind of midrange. Then, after the preamp, he put in a distortion circuit in a switchable in and out “loop.” In this arrangement, the distortion was like putting a distortion pedal in a loop after the tone controls. In a Fender amp, most of the distortion comes from the output section, so turning the tone controls changes the sound of the guitar, not the distortion. In a Marshall, the distortion comes before the tone controls, so when you turn the tone controls, the distortion changes. The way these amps compress and add harmonics as you turn up the gain is the game. All of these designs have real merit and are the basis of our modern tube–and then modeling—amplifiers.
Everything in these amps makes a difference. The circuits, the capacitor values and types, the resistor values and types, the power and output transformers, and the power supplies—including all those capacitor values and capacitor manufacturers.
I give you this truncated, general history to let you know that the amp business is just as complicated as the guitar business. I didn’t even mention the speakers or speaker cabinets and the artform behind those. But what’s most important is: When you plug into the amp, do you like it? And how much do you like it? Most guitar players have not played through a real Dumble or even a real blackface Deluxe Reverb or a 1966 Marshall plexi head. In a way, you’re trusting the amp designers to understand all the highly complex variations from this history, and then make a product that you love playing through. It’s daunting, but I love it. There is a complicated, deep, and rich history that has influenced and shaped how amps are made today.
Lenny Kravitz’s lead-guitar maestro shares how his scorching hit solo came together.
Hold onto your hats—Shred With Shifty is back! This time, Chris Shiflett sits down with fellow west coaster Craig Ross, who calls in from Madrid equipped with a lawsuit-era Ibanez 2393. The two buddies kick things off commiserating over an increasingly common tragedy for guitarists: losing precious gear in natural disasters. The takeaway? Don’t leave your gear in storage! Take it on the road!
Ross started out in the Los Angeles band Broken Homes, influenced by Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and the Beatles, but his big break came when he auditioned for Lenny Kravitz. Kravitz phoned him up the next day to tell him to be at rehearsal that evening. In 1993, they cut one of their biggest hits ever, “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” Ross explains that it came together from a loose, improvisatory jam in the studio—testament to the magic that can be found off-leash during studio time.
Ross recalls his rig for recording the solo, which consisted of just two items: Kravitz’s goldtop Les Paul and a tiny Gibson combo. (No fuzz or drive pedals, sorry Chris.) As Ross remembers, he was going for a Cream-era Clapton sound with the solo, which jumps between pentatonic and pentatonic major scales.
Tune in to learn how he frets and plays the song’s blistering lead bits, plus learn about what amps Ross is leaning on these days.
If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A:
https://guitarcenterfoundation.org
https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html
https://www.musiciansfoundation.org
https://fireaidla.org
https://www.musicares.org
https://www.sweetrelief.org
Credits
Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering Support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editor: Addison Sauvan
Graphic Design: Megan Pralle
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
Tobias bass guitars, beloved by bass players for nearly half a century, are back with the all-new Tobias Original Collection.
Built for unrivaled articulation, low-end punch, and exceptional ergonomics, the all-new Tobias Original Collection comprises an array of six four and five-string bass models all offered in both right and left-handed orientations. The Tobias range features Classic, Killer B, and Growler models, and each is equipped with high-quality hardware from Babicz and Gotoh, active electronics from Bartolini, and the iconic Tobias asymmetrical neck design. Crafted from the finest tonewoods, Tobias Original Collection bass guitars are now available worldwide on Gibson.com, at the Gibson Garage locations, and at authorized Gibson dealers.
The bass world has been clamoring for the return of the authentic, high-end Tobias basses, and now, Tobias has returned. Combining the look and tone of the finest exotic tonewoods, such as quilted maple, royal paulownia, purpleheart, sapele, walnut, ebony, and wenge, with the feel of the famous Tobias Asym asymmetrical neck and the eye-catching shapes of the perfectly balanced contoured bodies, Tobias basses are attractive in look and exceptional in playing feel. However, their sonic versatility is what makes them so well suited to the needs of modern bassists. The superior tone from the exotic hardwoods, premium hardware, and active Bartolini® pickups and preamps results in basses with the tonal flexibility that today’s players require. Don’t settle for less than a bass that delivers everything you want and need –the look, the feel, and the sound, Tobias.
“I’m thrilled to release Tobias basses, emphasizing the use of exotic woods, ergonomics, and authenticity to the original Tobias basses,” says Aljon Go, Product Development Manager for Tobias, Epiphone, and Kramer. “This revival is a dream come true, blending modern craftsmanship with the timeless essence of Tobias.”
“It’s amazing to see this icon of the bass world return,” adds Andrew Ladner, Brand Manager for Epiphone and Kramer. “These models are truly a bass player’s bass, and true to the DNA that makes Tobias world-class—the ace up the sleeve of bass players around the globe since 1978. Today’s players can find that unique voice and feel that only Tobias can offer.”
For more information, please visit gibson.com.