Sunday, September 16, 2018

OVERDRIVE- MOSKY Golden Horse & Silver Horse ...Klon Klones ...dead cheap!!!

$18.00 USD
MOSKY GOLD & SILVER Klon Clones

 MOSKY GOLDEN HORSE 
 MOSKY SILVER HORSE   

Yes more Klon clones.
The Silver one has a switch to change the voicing
...between normal and bright ???
...although what this is all about is not explained on
the Mosky site???
Only the new KTR ....Klon replacement has a switch
and it is to turn the buffer on or off.

AliExpress have both.
The Silver is so new that they are asking $26.00 USD.
$26.00 USD
Where as the Gold is less than $18.00 USD.
Both have free shipping.
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KLON FACTS
In a review by the inventor Bill Finnigan the real Gold Klon has noticeably warmer lower mids the Silver seems to make the upper mids more predominant so perhaps the lower mids are not so much less warm but have been pushed back because the Silver in affect has a bit if a mid scoop.

All components are variable by as much as 20% in ANY pedal made by anyone. So no 2 pedals of any kind can sound technically the same!!! 
Wampler does a video pulling parts out of bins and putting a meter on them and proves no 2 identical parts read the same.

There were no Silver Klons until 2000 but after that they came out
randomly in either gold or silver. Neither colour had a different
circuit. 
The ONLY tone change was in 1995 when a 15k R11 resistor 
was added for just a touch more lows.

IF YOU WANT THE WHOLE STORY READ THE POST
 May 22/17   OVERDRIVE- KLON CENTAUR OVERDRIVE...is it really that good ?
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I ordered the Gold one. My Tone City Bad Horse has a NFG
LED :-)
I only use it for a mid range booster for my Super 6 SRV pedal
so I thought at the price why not give it a shot???

HANDS ON
So I just pulled it out of the box and wired it into my practice amp.
You can definitely get some Klon like tones out of it. What impressed me
was no mater where i left the knobs that the tone I got was usable. The sound
is very clean and clear even if you dime it. With full gain and full treble you get
a very passable Brian May sound.
Leave the tone around noon and the gain around 2 o'clock and with a tweak or two you can get some half decent Klon sounds.

There are several pricey clones that get a 9 out of 10 for how close they sound. They can not get the dead perfect 'smoothness' of the original.
I would give the Mosky an 8 out of 10 for how close it sounds.  Not bad ...especially for the price.
BUT the real killer is... the damn thing has that 'smoothness' that those others could not get!!!!

The best way to describe the Klon tone is that it has a wide mid boost that has just a trace of the kind of honk of a fixed wah. The biggest selling Klon pedal is actually the Wampler Tumnus. I believe it is because they deliberately exaggerated the 'honk'. I have one of those too. lol
The exaggeration is addictive.

At this point I am glad I bought one. It is not a thrilling pedal like a shredder ...
but I can not get a bad sound out of it. I have had several 'me too' Tube Screamers and they all sucked
.
There are many ways to use it. You can use just as a boost pedal, or dime it for a light medium gain dirt pedal or use to stack with another OD.
This definitely is a keeper.




8 comments:

  1. Paul both are Great pedals. The silver has been on Ali for a few months. Do a search for "Klon" and a few options will show up. The switch changes the gain structure a bit. The golden stacks well with the Mosky Plexi-M.

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  2. Thanks for the heads up. I had typed in the make and name and I got zip. I typed in Mosky and got every pedal but the Golden Horse. Usually Ali can not handle something so vague as Klon. I typed in Flanger recently and was sent to a company called Flanger that makes a Victorian gadget that clips to your belt to relieve back pain. LOL

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  3. Paul can you please do a review of the Mosky Amp Turbo and Deluxe Pre Amp? Looks like a clone of the Lovepedal Amp 11 and then some.

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  4. Just received one of these. I found in on Ali for $17 so there was no thought process about buying it. If it was even kinda Klon it was gonna be worth it. And it is. Maybe not exactly, but all the very best parts are there. VERY transparent, with a similar drive character to the tube screamer but less harsh, less mid-rangey, and more transparent. My only beef with the real KLON is that it uses a TL072 Op Amp which is garbage and I've replaced them in every pedal I've ever had (TS, Daddy, O etc) with a TI RC4558. But this is what the Klon overdrive is, and in this pedal its really surprisingly good all things considered. Like the review says, there's really not a bad setting on it. The Treble sweep is wide, but somehow it sounds pretty good across the entire sweep even though the EQ changes pretty considerably. The gain sounds dead exactly like the amp gain I get when I put my Fender Champ on 10. Yet when I put my Champ on 10 then dial down the gain on the Golden Horse, it actually tames the amp gain and creates this tight, beefy, overdrive that is incredible. I started California Valveworks, and for 10 years made and sold hand wired vintage clones. I've tried and tested and built many many pedals and I don't think I've ever seen anything with this quality, tone quality and so perfectly dialed in. Certainly not for $17. Just the engineering to put the entire circuit on two custom sized PCBs, then fit everything neatly in to a stompbox that is not much larger than my thumb, is very impressive. This pedal is very impressive. I give it 5 stars, and would not hesitate to tell anyone to buy one immediately if you are even considering it.

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    Replies
    1. I did the same chip swap to my silver horse. Along with changing both clipping sections extensively. What an amazing pedal with just a few tweaks! Certianly capable of crushing any clone out there. The stock symmetrical clipping is a bit coarse, but easily fixed. My copy had a bit too much bass loss, but that also was very easy to resolve. I don't own an amp or pedal company, i just tinker. But this silver horse is an amazing platform to improve on.

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  5. Thanks for sharing. A lot of guys will want to upgrade their pedals.

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  6. This is a great site for info. But, just to let you know, I just went searching for your Klon article as mentioned in this article and I found it May 2016 not 2017.

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  7. I bought the Mosky Mini Muff version of the Big Muff Pi Rams Head, it's a keeper too for $ 25-30 in 2020. A friend purchased the Mosky Black Rat, it's a little darker for tone than the original Rat from all the sources I could read & even listen for a difference of comparisons. I'd like to try the Silver or Gold Mosky Klon clone. From what I've read about the Silver's switch, the Voice is a different clipping setting for the pedal.Another worded it that it tweaks the Gain. And still others indicated the switch was added because in the Off/Down position the pedals complete circuit is the same as the Mosky Gold Klon, the On/Up, it becomes their tweaked version of the Gold. Kind of like what JHS does to mod a Big Muff Pi with a toggle switch or two. All most switches like these ultimately accomplish are, is they'll adding a resistor into the circuit to change the tone enough to be warmer or brighter. So inside the peal did Mosky add a resistor as going from having none to adding one ? Or did both have a resistor of a certain value and the switch enables & implements a resistor of another value. For example is there a 10K resistor in the standard circuit as intended and the switch bypasses that to use a 1.5K resistor alternatively in the pathway of the circuit. Or does the switch just bypass any resistor that's placed in the circuit. For example, going from a 10K resistor to nothing but a bypass wire.

    Whether the original Klon is the same circuit Gold or Silver then what this blog put together as the difference between the Gold vs Silver would seem to be a matter of the choice of resistors in the same circuit.Gold =Silver in original Klons. So without documentation by Mosky for a clear indication of the switch, that's a gamble as to which one prefers. I think it's just an additional feature myself. The silver Mosky Klon seems to be priced a few dollars more and that would be the cost of the switch the resistor & labor to install it, even a drilled hole. I think I'll go with the Siluer myself.

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