The Klon Centaur is Back

(Image credit: Future)

The legendary Klon Centaur overdrive pedal, a once-obscure unit developed by one Bill Finnegan and discontinued in 2009, is now available once again.

Under the username klondirectsales, Finnegan will sell the new run direct from eBay as he makes them by hand.

“I'm Bill Finnegan, designer of the original Klon overdrive circuit, designer of the Klon Centaur Professional Overdrive unit incorporating that original circuit, and also the hand-builder of every single Centaur unit from the beginning of Centaur production in late 1994 until the end of that initial production a few years ago,” he states.

“Now, on a small scale, I am again hand-building a few Centaur units for sale by my company Klon LLC. Given the many demands on my time these days, and also given the labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of building Centaurs, it's inevitable that I will be able to build only a small number of these units, but I hope and expect to continue to be able to do so on a regular basis for some years to come.”

The original Klon Centaur's dynamic, midrange-rich drive gave it an almost mythical reputation in the effects world, and prices for the original hand-built circuits often range from $1,000-$2,000.

The starting bid for the first of his new run was $100, but some 27 bids later, Centaur #3888 sold for an even $2,026. It seems safe to say then, that if you can't go on without one of these new Klon Centaurs, start digging into those piggy banks...

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year 

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.