Silicon Schottky diodes replace the original's germanium parts.
The electronics layout is interesting, with two circuit boards facing in toward each other. But you can't argue with the Horseman's excellent tones. Unsurprisingly, given its low cost, the parts and build quality don't quite match those of the pricier options. It's a bit surreal to see that legendary circuit crammed into a device requiring only a sliver of pedalboard space. That makes it about 1/6 the size of the original Klon. The Horseman's stable is a tiny AA-sized enclosure, which means there's no battery compartment. It's the only contestant to be built in China. For that price, you can buy 43 1/2 NUX Horseman pedals. Original “horsie" Klons currently fetch $3,000 on Ebay. I wouldn't be able to differentiate the Klon and the Archer in a blind listening test. Mission accomplished! While all five of these pedals get close to the Klon sound, Archer is one of the nearest dead-ringers. Clearly, the Archer aspires to be as Klon-like as possible, as if that weren't already clear from the round oxblood knobs and a weapon-wielding mascot with hooved hindquarters. The op amp is a TL072, while the clipping diodes are NOS germanium. The Archer's circuit board features a roughly 50/50 mix of through-hole and surface-mount parts. The Archer is this roundup's most reassuringly solid stompbox. The enclosure isn't quite as deluxe as the original Klon's sculptural, custom-cast shell, but it has a similar heft. The top-mounted jacks will suit overpopulated pedalboards, but there's still enough room for a 9V battery. Measuring 4" x 2.25" x 1.25", it is slightly smaller than a standard B-sized box. While all the pedals covered here sound convincingly Klon-like, the Archer clearly aspires to the original's build quality, too. Rockett, stands out from the herd even before you plug it in. (A germanium Fuzz Face, for example, is likely to sound too thin and bright when placed after a buffered effect.) Again, the differences are extremely subtle, unless you're connecting a retro-style fuzz downstream from Soul Food. Soul Food has a secret trick: a small internal switch to select between true bypass mode (the default) and buffer bypass mode. But these differences are far from dramatic. The Soul Food is a little brighter at the very top end, and the Klon has a wee bit more weight under 100 Hz. Even here, the two tones are quite similar. For the clearest comparison of diode color, listen to the second halves of the clips in the Gain Control playlist, where the gain knobs are at maximum. The clipping diodes are only a factor at high-gain settings. Hear for yourself: As mentioned, most of the Klon's overdrive comes from the TL072 op amp. At heavy settings, I think I hear slightly more compression and gain from the Soul Food, but I'm not always certain. Still, as Image 2 above shows, the Soul Food's tone profile matches that of the original Klon almost exactly. The latter are silicon in lieu of the Klon's germanium. The Soul Food circuit board employs mostly small, surface-mount components, with the exception of several capacitors and the clipping diodes. (Soul Food is the only pedal in this roundup that comes with an AC adapter.) You can also use standard 9V power supplies. It lives in a standard B-sized enclosure large enough for a battery compartment. Priced at a modest $86, EHX's Soul Food is the second-least-expensive pedal among the five competitors. The low output setting is too quiet to overdrive the amp, isolating the distortion color produced by the pedal, as opposed to how that sound interacts with an overdriven amp. First, you hear the passage with a low output setting, with the knob around nine o'clock, and then at maximum. The final test compares the output controls.
#Super hotswitch core full#
The third comparison displays the full range of the tone controls, first at minimum, then at maximum, and then back to the noon position. Next comes a gain test: You hear each pedal, first with the gain control at minimum (that is, in full clean-boost mode) and then at maximum. First, there's a 1:23-long passage with all pedal knobs set to noon. In the audio-only clips you'll hear four audio comparisons arranged into four playlists. For the video I used a "parts" S-style guitar with Lollar Firebird pickups and Fender-style Carr Skylark.
#Super hotswitch core pro#
For the audio-only clips ( see the page at the end of this article) I used a Fender Telecaster Deluxe with Lollar Regal wide-range humbuckers, a clean-toned Carr Telstar amp, and a Royer R-121 ribbon mic, recorded into Logic Pro via a Universal Audio Apollo interface. Aside from switching klones, nothing in the signal chain changes. That way, you hear the identical performance through each pedal. To keep things as objective as possible, I recorded the demo clips straight into my DAW with no processing, and then re-amped them through each of the klones.
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