You want the Klon thing: a pedal that pushes your amp harder and thickens the sound without turning it into a different amp. You’d also like to keep it under $250, and an original sells for thousands. Good news, then. This is one of the most cloned circuits in the pedal world, and plenty of makers have built their own version.
Below are seven Klon-style pedals from four makers in our directory, sorted by what you want from one. We picked by published specs and features, not by playing them side by side, and every price comes from the maker’s own site as of Oct 2026.
What the original does
Bill Finnegan built the Klon Centaur by hand from 1994 to 2008, about 8,000 pedals in all, according to Wikipedia’s history of the pedal. In a 2014 interview with Premier Guitar, he said he wanted it to sound like you weren’t using a pedal at all.
A few things in the circuit explain why it’s different from a Tube Screamer, the overdrive most players know:
- More headroom: a charge pump (a small voltage converter) doubles the 9V supply to 18V inside the pedal, so it can hit an amp harder before the pedal itself breaks up.
- Clean signal mixed in: as you turn up the gain, the pedal fades out a clean copy of your signal, and a separate path keeps your low end. A Tube Screamer cuts bass instead, so based on the circuit you’d expect the Klon to keep more low end at the same gain.
- Germanium diodes: the clipping diodes are germanium, and the exact part Finnegan used is hard to find now. Several of the clones below make a point of using germanium diodes for that reason.
The controls are simple: Gain, Treble and Output.
Finnegan later released the KTR, a smaller version of the same circuit at $269, which he says sounds the same as the Centaur. It’s the one with “the ridiculous hype that offends so many is not of my making” printed on the enclosure.
The clones, side by side
| Pedal | Price (Oct 2026) | Controls and features | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wampler Tumnus | $149.97 | Level, Gain, Treble. Mini enclosure, 9V only | A crowded board |
| Wampler Tumnus Deluxe | $199.97 | Adds active bass and mid, a Hot switch for more gain and a buffered or true bypass switch | More EQ in a standard-size box |
| J. Rockett Archer | $229.99 | Germanium diodes, buffered switching | Staying close to the original |
| J. Rockett Archer Ikon | $229.99 | Germanium diodes, slightly less gain than the Archer | A lower-gain Archer |
| Keeley Manis | $199 | Diode or transistor clipping, Bass+ switch, true bypass or buffered, runs on 18V | Extra headroom and clipping options |
| Walrus Audio Voyager MKII | $249.99 | Footswitchable parametric mid EQ, five clipping modes | The most tone-shaping |
| J. Rockett Hand Painted Archer | $499 | A 100-unit run, each one painted, signed and dated | A collector piece |
Pick by what you need
For a small board, start with the Wampler Tumnus. It’s $149.97, measures 1.5” x 3.5” and keeps the three original controls. It runs on 9V only and draws 20mA. Wampler also made a Germanium Tumnus using a small stash of diodes matched to the early Klons, but it’s sold out and Wampler says it won’t come back.
For something close to the original, look at the J. Rockett Archer. J. Rockett calls it an exact tribute to the Klon, and it uses germanium diodes with buffered switching. The Archer Ikon is the same price and, per the maker, has slightly less gain. It was out of stock when we checked, so look at dealers or used listings.
If you want more EQ, the Tumnus Deluxe adds active bass and mid controls next to the Treble knob, plus a Hot switch for more gain and a switch to pick buffered or true bypass. At $199.97 it’s $50 more than the standard Tumnus.
If you want more headroom, the Keeley Manis is the one built for 18V. Keeley calls it the first Klone you can power at 18V. A Ge-Trans switch swaps the germanium diodes for transistors, and Keeley says that adds compression. A Bass+ switch adds low end, and you can choose true bypass or buffered by holding the footswitch.
For the most tone-shaping, go with the Walrus Voyager MKII. Walrus moved past the three-knob layout with a parametric mid control (±12dB from 250Hz to 2kHz) that you can switch on with its own footswitch. It also has a five-way clipping selector covering germanium, symmetric silicon and asymmetric silicon diodes, two of them with a bass boost. Walrus listed it on backorder in Oct 2026.
The budget option and building your own
Behringer’s Centaur Overdrive launched at $69, the cheapest way into the circuit by a wide margin. Finnegan has since sued Behringer’s parent company over it, and availability has been uneven, so check a current listing before you count on that price.
If you like to solder, this circuit is one of the most common DIY kit projects there is. A kit won’t save much money once you buy tools, but it’s a good way to see exactly how the clean blend and charge pump work.
The short version
If your board is full and you want the basic Klon push, get the Tumnus. If you want to stay close to the original, get the Archer. If you want to shape the mids or run 18V, the Voyager MKII and the Manis are the ones to compare, and both cost a small fraction of what a used Centaur goes for.