Analog Mike likes the Centaur because it’s “well
tuned to add slight warm overdrive to a tube amp.”
And that’s as good of a reason as any.
Many players swear by the Centaur as a clean
boost. And with the gain dialed all of the way back
and the Treble at noon, the Centaur does function
as an entirely transparent boost. Find unity gain on
the Volume knob and it’s hard to detect a difference
between the engaged and bypassed tones. Now
crank the Volume and get the tone of your guitar
and amp combination—only bigger.
It’s a very cool trick and it sounds great. But there
are plenty of cheaper clean boost alternatives that
can do it.
Still, other players love the dirt created by the
Centaur. Here’s what Nels Cline had to say about his
Klon Centaur:
“I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT IT BEFORE. IT’S AN
AMP IN A BOX. NO MORE WORRIES IN THE
WORLD OF AMP DU JOUR ABOUT OVERDRIVE
TONE. IT WILL ALWAYS BE OK. THE CENTAUR
WILL TAKE CARE OF IT. CONSUMERS: IT’S
WORTH THE WAIT TO GET ONE. I’VE HAD THIS
THING FOR YEARS NOW. WHAT DID I EVER DO
WITHOUT IT?”
So while some players use the Centaur as a boost,
others enjoy it for its tube-like distortion. And when
you look at the long list of players who have used
or currently use the Klon Centaur, it doesn’t help us
to narrow down the tone. Along with Cline, other
famous users include Stone Gossard and Mike
McCready of Pearl Jam, Warren Haynes, Britt
Daniel of Spoon, David Grissom, Chris Walla of
Death Cab for Cutie, and John Mayer. Sure, all of
these guitarists have what I would consider to be
great tone. But Cline, to Mayer, to Daniel is a
pretty wide sea.
ToneReport.com
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