Post by jml77 on Oct 28, 2021 17:23:19 GMT
I thought I would resurrect this post because I have just bought a Mosky Silver Horse. They seem to have gone up in price a little, I paid 27 pounds for it on amazon, I think it's a little cheaper from various ebay vendors, and might be even cheaper ordering direct from China. I didn't want to wait days or weeks.
Here's some info about the Klon Centaur, I don't think anyone has posted this before, so I apologise if they have. I did read most of this thread over the last few days, but I may have missed posts.
Klon Centaur Analysis - Electrosmash
I bought the silver as it looks as if there's a possibility to add further clipping diode switch options, though it might need to be rehoused.
What do I think of the Mosky Klone, hmm, at first I was surprised at the level of overdrive, I had been led to believe this was a dynamic low gain overdrive. At low settings it can be, but it does have a lot of gain and this is detailed in the analysis on electrosmash.
I like the idea it uses Germanium diodes as clipper/limiters. Ge diodes have a soft knee, they seem to come out of clipping more gracefully than silicon, I find some silicon diode based overdrives have a staticy ripping sound as at low gain settings. Ge does however have a lower turn on threshold and are quite variable from one to another.
The silver horse has that low threshold Ge compression, but does follow that with further amplification and filtering. It has massive amounts of gain, and the article above speculates that the op-amps also clip. At max gain it does get a little too wild to say the least, and to my ears that doesn't sound too good. Anything above 3 o'clock is just a bit too much. Having said that it does have a smooth sounding overdrive, the treble control is less effective with lots of drive, which is probably a good thing.
With the gain at minimum and the output at max, the boost is very high, much higher than my TC electronics Spark Boost (4 knob) which is supposed to have 20dB of boost.
The Treble tone control works really well. Before reading the article above I thought it might be a simple treble cut tone control, or other passive tone control network. But it is active, and does increase the volume when above mid settings. The pedal could easily function as a straight forward treble booster, if the gain control is kept low. Couple that with a Vox AC30 and it would be in Rory or Brian territory. Other valve amps are available...
Unlike the Spark it doesn't have bass control, this makes it less useful for me if being used on it's own at low gain cleanish levels. It's a bit honky.
By the time I finished messing around with it last night, I was far less enamoured with it than on first use. I had it stacked with the Spark Boost and a digitech RP360 for modulations and occasional use of the amp models. I spent a long time going back and forth and getting more frustrated. I was finding it difficult to find the middle ground with it, something between clean boost and compressed overdrive. It should be in there somewhere, the design and analysis suggest it is, but I couldn't find it last night. I'll have another bash with it later.
Later: Further noodling with it today, and it's ok, I'm not knocked out by it, but at least it didn't cost me a few grands worth of arms and legs. If it had I would be mightily disappointed. As it is it's an interesting toy. I suppose I'm hard to please, I do like and prefer the sound of a valve amp, and not necessarily an overdriven one, even when clean they have a pleasingly harmonic rich texture, which inspires me to play. I can't say that for most overdrive pedals I've tried.
(edit: I don't think the red LEDS on the voice switch are that useful, they might help to give even more headroom for clean boost, as if it doesn't have enough, but I can hear that unpleasant static rip I associate with silicon. This might be my first mod, then again... zzz)
Here's some info about the Klon Centaur, I don't think anyone has posted this before, so I apologise if they have. I did read most of this thread over the last few days, but I may have missed posts.
Klon Centaur Analysis - Electrosmash
I bought the silver as it looks as if there's a possibility to add further clipping diode switch options, though it might need to be rehoused.
What do I think of the Mosky Klone, hmm, at first I was surprised at the level of overdrive, I had been led to believe this was a dynamic low gain overdrive. At low settings it can be, but it does have a lot of gain and this is detailed in the analysis on electrosmash.
I like the idea it uses Germanium diodes as clipper/limiters. Ge diodes have a soft knee, they seem to come out of clipping more gracefully than silicon, I find some silicon diode based overdrives have a staticy ripping sound as at low gain settings. Ge does however have a lower turn on threshold and are quite variable from one to another.
The silver horse has that low threshold Ge compression, but does follow that with further amplification and filtering. It has massive amounts of gain, and the article above speculates that the op-amps also clip. At max gain it does get a little too wild to say the least, and to my ears that doesn't sound too good. Anything above 3 o'clock is just a bit too much. Having said that it does have a smooth sounding overdrive, the treble control is less effective with lots of drive, which is probably a good thing.
With the gain at minimum and the output at max, the boost is very high, much higher than my TC electronics Spark Boost (4 knob) which is supposed to have 20dB of boost.
The Treble tone control works really well. Before reading the article above I thought it might be a simple treble cut tone control, or other passive tone control network. But it is active, and does increase the volume when above mid settings. The pedal could easily function as a straight forward treble booster, if the gain control is kept low. Couple that with a Vox AC30 and it would be in Rory or Brian territory. Other valve amps are available...
Unlike the Spark it doesn't have bass control, this makes it less useful for me if being used on it's own at low gain cleanish levels. It's a bit honky.
By the time I finished messing around with it last night, I was far less enamoured with it than on first use. I had it stacked with the Spark Boost and a digitech RP360 for modulations and occasional use of the amp models. I spent a long time going back and forth and getting more frustrated. I was finding it difficult to find the middle ground with it, something between clean boost and compressed overdrive. It should be in there somewhere, the design and analysis suggest it is, but I couldn't find it last night. I'll have another bash with it later.
Later: Further noodling with it today, and it's ok, I'm not knocked out by it, but at least it didn't cost me a few grands worth of arms and legs. If it had I would be mightily disappointed. As it is it's an interesting toy. I suppose I'm hard to please, I do like and prefer the sound of a valve amp, and not necessarily an overdriven one, even when clean they have a pleasingly harmonic rich texture, which inspires me to play. I can't say that for most overdrive pedals I've tried.
(edit: I don't think the red LEDS on the voice switch are that useful, they might help to give even more headroom for clean boost, as if it doesn't have enough, but I can hear that unpleasant static rip I associate with silicon. This might be my first mod, then again... zzz)
