Kloned Kentrosaurus Block 3 Mini Build Report!

The Kloned Kentrosaurus is one my favorite pedals. I'd initially built several using the South Obolon FX Kent Rev 2 board. Then my friend updated the board with the Steggo logo and Kloned Kentrosaurus name and I've used that PCB for all subsequent builds. It's an amazing board, but there was only one drawback. As the Klon is a buffered effect, I didn't have a suitable daughter board for the LED and stomp switch, so the production dinos had to hand wire each pedal. Since the pedal has proved popular, I figured it would save time if there was a suitable daughter board that would enable the use of ribbon cable and reduce the lengths of hookup wire in the enclosure - so Steggi went to work in EasyEDA and came up with something amazing!

Steggo and Steggi with a panel of the new daughter boards

Supersized Kloned Centrosaurus!

By this point I've built a lot of Klon clones using multiple different boards - AionFX, PedalPCB, Ceriatone, South Obolon FX, Tone Geek, and Puzzle Sounds are the ones I can remember off of the top of my head. I've used several combinations of diodes and a variety of part load outs depending on what I was trying to do with the pedal. I had a friend approach me and commission a large form factor Klon clone, so I decided to go back to the Tone Geek BFK board, and work out from there. 

The Official Steggo Klon Clone - The Kloned Centrosaurus!

In my teaser post a few weeks ago, one of the pedals I indicated was coming soon was a Klon Centaur clone. I've done several of these through the years, but I ultimately settled on the Tone Geek Mini-Taur as the base for the "official" Steggo clone of the Klon. I promised that it would have a fun dino-themed enclosure as well, and I think that I've managed to deliver (with some serious help)!

Another Ceriatone??? The Goth Version...

When I finally finished my first Ceriatone Centura a few weeks ago, I still had a spare unpopulated board lying about. I'd picked it up several months ago along with the one I used for the gold enclosure built along with some other parts for... another project I'm working on. One I hope to feature on the blog in the future, but I digress! My previous Centura build sounds awesome, but now that I had one working, I really wanted to try and build one using the component load-out from the original Centura. So, I set about populating a new board!

First Pedal Started - Just Now Finished - the Ceriatone Centura

Despite the number of clones on the market, the original Klon Centaur remains an extremely expensive pedal to buy with originals approaching, or exceeding, the $9000 mark. The "affordable" Klon variant from Bill Finnegan seems to run anywhere from $700-$800 (used) and over $1500 (new). As I mentioned in my Tone Geek BFK build entry last September, the very first pedal I tried to build was a Klon Centaur Clone - the Ceriatone Centura. I'd picked up the kit intending to use it to help my son get his electronics merit badge in Scouts. To say that the build was not "entirely successful" would be a bit of an understatement. I'd tried to populate a second board, but received similar poor results. My debugging skills at the time were poor, so I decided to have one last crack at it...

One Klone to Rule them All

The Klon Centaur - one of the most sought after overdrive pedals. Originally built by Bill Finnegan from 1994-2008, he was never able to keep up with demand and prices quickly rose. With only about 8000 produced it is an exceedingly rare beast, and prices for originals currently range from about $5000 to $7500. Because of its price and popularity, a number of clones of the original have sprung up - arguably more than just about any other pedal out there. Available pedals cover the full range range from faithful copies to cheap Chinese rip-offs with modifications, improvements, and variations of every stripe in between. 

In the interest of full disclosure, the first guitar pedal I tried to build was the Ceriatone Centura - a near exact copy of the original Klon Centaur, right down to the enclosure and knobs. That build wasn't entirely successful, and to be honest, I'm still debugging it. Fast forward a few months and The Tone Geek has released his BFK, a signal copy of the original Klon Centaur using a more modern 2-layer PCB with thicker traces and better grounding. It would also fit in the original style enclosure, and as I happened to have a spare Centura enclosure with a damaged paint job, I repainted it for this new build.