I have never been a Klon fan. Despite having tried playing a Gold and Silver Klon (not mine of course), its clones and various incarnations, it just wasn't the tone I wanted in a boost or overdrive pedal. Maybe I'm tone deaf...
My perception of the Klon was changed when a friend asked me to view a Klon and its clones comparison video on YouTube. I was very impressed with the Tumnus that I went to watch more vids about it. After seeing almost all demo vids, I decided to acquire one from Guitar Center without trying it out.
The pedal arrived last Sunday and I was only able to try it out last night. My findings? I was not impressed. It didn't sound as good as I was expecting it to be based on .the videos that I've seen. It did not give me the spatial, 3D and vibrant effect as a clean boost and the drive (for me) was nothing special. It also looked ugly to me as if Brian Wampler was not taking the Tumnus seriously when he was trying to recreate the Klon.
In all fairness to Wampler, the Tumnus is probably the only Klon clone that was able to recreate the low-mids of the original. It made my guitars thicker sounding. It did, however, slightly lack the high-mids of the Klon which a lot of itsclones have.
Having said all that, I am not yet completely giving up on the pedal. Maybe I have yet to find the sweet spots for the pedal, guitar and amp combination to bring out the sounds I was expecting to hear. It will be great when I do but would it be worth it to keep those settings for just this one pedal? Let's see and with all candor, I hope so. I did not buy a good pair of rubber shoes just to get this pedal.