The JHS Pedals NOTAKLÖN is a clever move for a few reasons; firstly, that name is brilliant. And it's a Klon Centaur-influenced overdrive pedal that reflects the IKEA-style approach founder Josh Scott has taken with his latest release.
It's an $99/£82 klone pedal kit you can put together yourself, and it doesn't require a soldering iron and provides easy-to-understand instructions. It even includes a tube of what JHS calls 'Goop' to help with assembly – a little joke around the substance that was originally used by designer Bill Finnegan to disguise the Klon Centuar's circuitry.
It that wasn't enough the pedal benefits from the versatility of Scott's Shamrock mod that JHS has done on KTR pedals in the past to offer additional scope – more volume, mids and an additional gain stage.
The pedal comes partly in response to requests for JHS to reissue the replica Klon it produced until 2012, but this new spin helps keeps costs down while following Korg's lead with its Nu:Tekt OD-S Overdrive Kit in 2020.
"It's so easy that a child could do it," says Scott. And proves it by asking two children to assemble NOTAKLÖNs in the video above.
One of the first 1,000 pedals shipped will even have a Golden Ticket worth $1500 towards any JHS Pedals order.
In a world where po-faced klone comparison and ridiculous prices for originals is getting a bit of a drag, it's nice to see some fun injected back into this end of the market. And this is a potential bargain, especially with the Shamrock mod.
The only snag now is getting one; the next batch of preorders is said to ship in early 2024 at JHS.com.
Hear some demos of the pedal – that Scott claims to be an "extremely accurate" take on the original – below from YouTubers who have been sent samples in paid promotions, as well as Rhett Shull who isn't a paid partner.
