Merry Christmas everyone, Klon clone from Santa worth checking out

Hi all, a very merry Christmas to you and all of your families.  I've had a great time with my own family and friends and I ended up with a new addition to the already overstuffed pedal collection.  It's a really (really really) cheap Golden Horse overdrive by Mosky, £22 delivered at this moment in time.  But it's a Klon clone which puts it into a different league for me.  I'm ultra critical of the stupidity of guitarists paying £150 for something which costs about £10 to put together based on already done and dusted development work, and that is what too many pedals out there are.  And the more people gobble them up the more the makers see the opportunity for hiking their prices even further.  Even the Klon clones like the J Rockett Archer are hugely overpriced, good pedals though they are. And mustn't forget the original Klons are now going for upwards of $5,000. The original first unit just sold for $500.000! That is where we are heading.

I came across the Klon circuitry a while back and was immediately impressed by the fact that it has had a lot of thinking applied.  It relies on an approach which I have used myself in the past with a couple of my own pedals, that of the "Clean/Overdrive Blend" idea.  And then I found out that the Klon was actually designed by "proper engineers" (MIT) and not just a guitarist with a head for a bit of circuitry and a wallet waiting to be filled.  It is an awesome piece of gear not even considering the price.  It really has changed the way I view using pedals and my amp.

I would genuinely recommend anyone who is considering a Klon clone to add it to the list of potentials and don't be put off by the price, or by the reviews slating it because it is cheap.  One even insisted it had broken while being reviewed but the daft 'apporth just didn't know how to use it.  They prove that price is no marker of good gear.  I love the little Golden Horse so much I'm currently designing my own PCB for an original Klon circuit to experiment with.  I have also found a PCB manufacturing company who make PCBs from your uploaded Gerber files for silly money delivered to the door.  Result!

Anyway, hope you all got your new bits of gear and are having a good time with them.  Here's to next year and a few interesting threads to come.

Just an update on something I mentioned above.

I've just finalised my PCB for my KlonAlike "Chiron" pedal, (if you don't know who he is then look him up, there's a family theme in there). It has cost me just under £8 for 5 PCBs made from my own Gerber files delivered to the door including VAT and import duties!!!

This is my second order from this company. The first was for a very simple speaker switching PCB for my Fender amp so I can instantly select between 1x10", 2x10" and 4x10" in the back of the combo. It's an option for playing at home or in very small venues to keep the speakers sounding alive at lower volumes. I've done this in the past with switches mounted in the handle cutout of my Marshall 4x12, (on a new cheap replacement handle of course), with some success but the Fender open back cab makes it a much better idea. That PCB was even cheaper as a first order, half the price, again for 5 boards. So I do know that this company does good professional work and delivers promptly.

Anyone else out there doing their own PCB work and wants a heads up on them?