About Me:

Hello, I’m Cody Carter, a Computer Engineering student at Louisiana State University. My passion for technology began at a young age when I would tinker on various projects around the house with my dad. The moment he taught me how to use a soldering iron to fix a trailer, I was hooked. This sparked my curiosity, and I quickly dove into YouTube tutorials, discovering the endless possibilities of electronics. Since then, I’ve been driven by a desire to learn and innovate, constantly experimenting with new ways to solve problems through technology and programming.

Outside of my schooling and job, I am always looking for ways to make my life easier with technology and fusing my love of music and guitar with technology. In this case, I wanted to evaluate and construct the design of the classic Klon Centaur guitar pedal to add modifications and reconstruct in a easy to follow format. 

About:

The Klon Centaur is considered one of the most sought after guitar pedals of all time. Designed by Bill Finnegan his goal was to create an overdrive pedal to achieve a rich and harmonically complex tone similar to his tube amps but at a much lower volume. While gigging, his optimal tone came from running tube amps at 6-7, but ended up being too loud for most venues. So the pedal was meant to get that sweet spot tone without all of the volume. The design resembles a standard germanium overdrive pedal, but with extra components including a power IC to boost voltage to 18 volts for the output stage, leading to extra headroom.

The hype for this pedal came from the scarcity of this pedal for the amount of demand it produced. Finnegan assembles each unit at his home and produced around 8000 units. Finnegan did not expand his assembly to companies since the profit margin was super slim. This pedal caught the attention of Jeff Beck, John Mayer, and Joe Perry which lead to an overwhelming amount of demand that Finnegan could not keep up with. As a result, the pedals stopped being sold and the used market for pedals rose exponentially to over $20,000 as the demand grew higher and higher.

Parts List:

• 2x 1M Resistor
• 2x 10K Potentiometer
• 1x 10K Resistor
• 1x 5.1K Resistor
• 2x 1.5K Resistor
• 2x 1K Resistor
• 2x 15K Resistor
• 1x 422K Resistor
• 1x 47K Resistor
• 3x 27K Resistor
• 1x 12K Resistor
• 1x 392K Resistor
• 1x 1.8K Resistor
• 1x 4.7K Resistor
• 4x 100K Resistor
• 1x 100K Potentiometer
• 1x 12k Resistor
• 2x 15K Resistor
• 2x 1Meg Resistor
• 1x 22k Resistor
• 1x 2K Resistor
• 2x 560 Resistor
• 2x 68K Resistor
• 2x 0.1u Cap
• 4x 1u Polarized Cap
• 3x 1u Non-Polar Cap
• 1x 2.2n Cap
• 1x 3.9n Cap
• 1x 390n Cap
• 1x 390p Cap
• 1x 4.7u Non-Polar Cap
• 1x 4.7u Polarized Cap
• 2x 47u Polarized Cap
• 2x 68n Cap
• 1x 820p Cap
• 1x 82n Cap
• 2x 1N34A Diodes
• 1x 1N5818 Schottky Diode
• 2x TL072 OP Amp IC
• 1x MAX1044 IC

Circuit Diagrams and Modifications

Below is the circuit diagram for the Klon Centaur including a 1n4148 silicon diode mod where a 3DPDT switch can add in silicon diodes for higher headroom.

Other mods that can be considered is adjusting some capacitor values on the input of the gain stages, where as capacitance goes up, more bass is let into the OP amp. Feel free to experiment with your build to create something new.

Closing Remarks

As you can see, the Klon's iconic tone can be created without paying a huge premium or give up your car for an original model. There are countless more mods out there on the internet done by different companies and guitarists alike to add something new to it's sound.

I appreciate how PCBWay has provided professional solutions to students and electronics enthusiasts, and I believe that their sponsorship would be essential to easy and reliable construction of the Klon Centaur. It would be an honor to share the results with the PCBWay community and contribute my project to their platform, as well as inspire more hobbyists like me to experiment with electronics.

Whether it’s school or personal projects, I’m driven by the desire to create technology that makes a difference and improve my skills. If you’re interested in collaborating or discussing anything further, lets connect to talk about it.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration!

• Klon Centaur
• guitar pedal
• pedal
• guitar