King Of Tone Waiting list

[JaviCAP]

Hi all,

I asked to be added to the KOT waiting list on Jun2 22nd 2012. I was efectively added on August 8th (it seems too complicated for them to include you in in a fucking list!)

Well, today I've received the "famous" "You have reached the top of the waiting list" mail.

Months ago, I thougt it would be a very interesting pedal. Once built and tried, being a nice bluesbreaker... I mean a nice overdrive :P, I really think is heavily overpriced, and that the "long" waiting list (9 months, nothing about 18 or 32 months) is just  marketing crap.

So, if someone's interested in this pedal, I can give you my "turn" (free of charge, of course), because right now, I'm not in the least interested in buyin' "my" unit.

BR

[Geiri]

I finally heard a real one at a friends place the other day and to completely honest, I'm happy with my Timmy. Not saying it's the same thing or close. Just saying that it doesn't really offer you a tone you can't get elsewhere and for a lesser price. It's the same feeling I got when I built my first Klon. Underwhelmed.

Super-duper-mega-hyping isn't always good!

[JaviCAP]

Yes, the KOT (I've built Mark's and Harald's versions), sounds really nice, it's a great overdrive, but nothing to write home about.

Love the versatility of getting a clean booster/ overdrive / distorion combination on a single box.

But, as you say, this pedal is nothing special, is just a tweaked double  Bluesbreaker, built with scarce "unobtanium" diodes. No one  can deny it, nor analog.mike himself. As no one can deny that using 1N914, 1N4148, BAT41, Bat46, even 1N34,  AA143, it sounds 99,99% verbatim to the original .

And of course, is extremely overpiced, $235 + shippin'). The "mods" price sounds like a joke: $25 for the "high gain" mod: swappoin the 100k gain pot with a 250k one..., and other "pearls" of the same kind.

The artificial 3 years waiting list is gettin' an artificial 6 months one. Thanks to people like Mark, Harald, Brian and some others, we all have had the opportunity to try this effect, and so, reject to buy an original one. By all means: too much money  for what you get.

BR

[ichilton]

Did you guys A/B Marks vs Harold's (JaviCAP) or a build vs the original (Geiri)?

How close did they sound?

[JaviCAP]

Mark's and Harald's layouts are different designs.... of the same circuit.

So same resistors, ic, caps, diodes= exactly the same sound.

The main difference is that Harald includes all the diodes on the board and you operate the settings from  inside the pedal with a dip switch, (just as in the original), and Mark does put the diodes on toggle switches so you can choose the settings (clean booster / overdrive  / distortion) from the outside, so you have not to open the enclosure to change.

So, if you want to build an exact copy of the original: use Harald's one. If you want to get more freedom and easy operation: choose Mark's.

But the sound is exactly the same.

Anyway, the factory setting: 1st circuit= overdrive, 2nd circuit: clean boost, is the most versatile and anjoyable one, so you won't change this setting very often: distortion setting  is not great, there are thousands of better distortions. Overdrive + Overdrive is not very useful unless you want to get a Stevie Ray sound, ans booster + booster is a bit of a stupid setting :P

BR

 

[ichilton]

Cool, thanks for that.

Ian

[JaviCAP]

No problem :P

If it may be of help, I can tell you that after building several ones using Mark's and Harald's layouts and with different builds ( Harald's V4, Harald's Single one), Harald's Single one x 2 getting so a V4, Mark's V1x2, Mark's V2, and so on), different diodes, the one I kept for my use is:

-Harald's single circuit x2
-Circuit One (Overdrive): D1 to D4:  BA282 D5-D6= BAT46
-Circuit  Two (Clean Boost): D1 to D4: BA282 D5-D6=1N4001

IC's= JRC4580  

a JRC4558 on the overdrive  circuit sounds really good too.

BR