The Cairon

 

The Cairon is a klone. That's it. You know what it is, it's myth, it's lore, it's whatever.

Do I need to go into detail with this one? Yes, it has the magic diodes.

I had to select them to match the forward voltage found in the OG Centaur diodes. Everyone has done a klone, and everyone's second cousin has also done a klone, so why is this one different?

Well, in terms of circuit, it's a direct copy (sorry). However, if you don't know, Cairon is a centaur from the famed Neverending Story, and he is half zebra. So, just like zebras in real life, the stripes on each Cairon overdrive will be unique to that unit. No two will be the same.

How I use it: as a medium-gain drive. I like the sound of the diodes clipping at higher-gain settings on a Klon, so that's how I use it.
It does something special as a clean boost, but if I'm hand selecting these special diodes, I want to hear them. YouTube can tell you all about this in more detail.

Features:
- Internal charge pump to run at 18V (plug in 9V DC ONLY)
- Top-mount jacks
- Internal battery operation included
- Controls: Output, Treble (cut/boost), Gain
- One-off zebra stripes for each unique unit
- Socketed op-amps for tonal exploration (DIY at your own risk)
- Socketed LED brightness resistor (again, DIY at your own risk)
- Socketed clipping diodes if you want to go down that rabbit hole
- Circuit trace and PCB design by PedalPCB

*The actual units will not have an LED bezel (pictured) to make full use of the gain knob :)