Your Klon Search is Over | Klone Overdrive | R2R Electric

Your Klon Search is Over! Six to eight months of obsessive component research. A loaned original Klon Centaur as the reference. One of the most mythologized overdrive circuits in guitar history, brought back to life by hand. Guest starring one of the Bay Area's most gifted blues players. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

In this episode, the R2R Electric Klone Overdrive takes center stage — played by Oakland blues guitarist Jules Leyhe across slide, fingerstyle, and flat-picking blues, running into my Mule Resophonic Mulecaster loaded w/ Tom Thumbucker mini-humbuckers, into a '57 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A with a Weber CVA-8 pre-broken-in 8" speaker. The Effectrode Tube Vibe is along for the ride.

The Klon Centaur is the most mythologized overdrive pedal ever built. Bill Finnegan spent four years developing it before releasing it in 1994 — his core complaint with the Tube Screamer was specific: too much compression on the transient response, a midrange character he didn't like, and bass rolloff that subtracted from the natural signal. What he built instead was a genuinely original circuit — transparent, harmonically rich, voltage-doubling to 18V internally, with germanium clipping diodes at the heart of the sound. He hand-built every single one of approximately 8,000 units himself between 1994 and 2008, encased the circuit in epoxy, and famously interviewed prospective buyers by phone to assess whether their rig was appropriate. Jeff Beck, John Mayer, Warren Haynes, Joe Perry, Nels Cline, Matt Schofield, and David Grissom have all centered rigs around one.

R2R Electric founder Chris Vincent spent six to eight months working on the Klone — graciously loaned an original silver non-horsie Centaur as a direct reference. The component selection is where Chris's obsessive artisan approach defines the result: 1960s CTS pots, 1960s Iskra, Allen-Bradley, and Piher resistors, primarily WIMA capacitors alongside vintage oddities, and half a day auditioning IC chips. The diodes: 1980s Radio Shack 1N34a germanium and an unknown-brand 1N34a set. The silver hammered finish is as faithful to the original Centaur aesthetic as the circuit inside. This is a small intro run — Chris will build as many as he can for as long as the tone is exactly right. When it isn't, production ends.

@julesleyhe Jules Leyhe is one of the most gifted blues players in the country. A Berklee grad and Bay Area mainstay who has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Charlie Musselwhite, and Taj Mahal, Premier Guitar called his playing the best blues slide licks since Derek Trucks — maybe even Duane Allman. Watching Jules navigate slide, fingerpicking, and flat-picking blues on a steel-bodied baritone through a Klon-faithful circuit is a master class in feel.

The @MuleResonatorGuitars Mulecaster is Matt Eich's hollow steel-bodied electric from Saginaw, Michigan — a 25" scale guitar tuned here to B Standard baritone, loaded with Mule Tom Thumbucker mini-humbuckers. Dan Auerbach, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, Ariel Posen, and Joey Landreth have all made Mule instruments central to their sound. The hollow steel body's natural resonance and compression character is an inspired pairing for a transparent Klon-style overdrive.

The 5F2-A's 5-watt 6V6 circuit and pre-broken-in Weber CVA-8 8" alnico speaker close the loop — an intimate, compressed small-amp platform that the Klon was practically designed for.

Be sure to join @r2relectric 's email list — Klone and other ultra limited NOS fuzz and boost builds go lightning fast.

https://www.r2relectric.com/how-to-order

🎸 Mule Resophonic Mulecaster | B Standard Baritone | Tom Thumbucker Mini-Humbuckers

🎛️ R2R Electric Klone Overdrive | 1960s CTS Pots | Iskra/Allen-Bradley/Piher Resistors | 1N34a Germanium Diodes | Silver Hammered Finish

🎛️ Effectrode Tube Vibe

🔊 '57 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A | Weber CVA-8 Pre-Broken-In 8" Alnico Speaker

🎵 Guest Artist: Jules Leyhe

Recording rig: Absolutely no virtual / IR / direct sounds. 4 mics on a real cab. Royer R-121, Lauten Audio LS-208, Ohma Ribbon on front of cab, Royer R10 on back of cab. Mics sent through Universal Audio Apollo x4 with default preamps and no digital preamp emulation plugins, mixed in Ableton Live 12.