The NUX Horsemen strides in with two Klon clones in one mini pedal
The Chinese-built stompbox replicates the much sought-after overdrive's Silver and Gold circuits
The NUX Horseman is the latest overdrive in a long line of Klon Centaur clones. But with it housing both Klon Gold and Silver circuits in such a small enclosure, could it be a game-changer?
At $69, that really would be a good news gear story, considering Bill Finnegan’s much sought-after original Klon Centaur units typically sell for over two grand and can be listed in excess of three if they are in the rarer gold “horsie” enclosure.
If it is hard to tell via a YouTube demo if the Horseman really has the stuff, and how it is ultimately going to work out when you incorporate it in your own rig, but there's no question that the Horseman’s super-simple layout will make fathoming its range a cinch.
There are three knobs for gain treble and output, and holding down the footswitch for two seconds changes between the Silver and Gold circuits.
The Gold mode offers the classic transparent overdrive tones. In the Silver mode, the Horseman’s voltage is doubled to 18V via a built-in OP-AMP voltage-convertor for more gain, more headroom and, says NUX, more harmonics.
An LED light lets you know which mode you are in.
The Horseman can be ran either true-bypass or buffered and at $69 represents a relatively risk-free shot at putting some of that Klon overdrive mojo into your setup.
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See here for more information and read how NUX designed the Horseman here.
There are no UK or European RRPs just yet but NUX pedals are easy enough to come by so we would imagine these hitting the usual stockists soon, retailing around £59/€62.
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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
“We are honoured that our company’s relationship with the legendary guitar player continues to this day”: Dunlop salutes wah pedal pioneer Eric Clapton with a gold-plated signature Cry Baby
“Honestly I’d never even heard of Klons prior to a year-and-a-half ago”: KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson on the greatest reverb/delay ever made and the noise-rock essentials on his fly-in pedalboard