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Mythical Diodes, Mythical Tone. While Bill tried to hide the circuit in the beginning, the schematic was eventually discovered and cloning ensued.
The Archer supposedly is the Centaur. But what is the Centaur exactly and why is it so sought-after? Along Came A Centaur. The builder, Bill Finnegan, originally set out to create the ideal pedal to push an amp already at the edge of breakup into a musically pleasing and expressive overdrive. The consensus among dedicated Klon Centaur users is that he succeeded. Although the hype and ridiculous secondhand prices would make you assume the contrary, there is no magic involved in the creation and production of this mythical pedal, but rather quite a bit of smart thinking and hard work.
This is why the J. Starting on the outside, I suspect the enclosure was specifically manufactured for J. Rockett, as is the case with their other pedals, and it has a couple of unique features: This change is probably due to have to rearrange the components on the PCB to accommodate the smaller enclosure while remaining faithful to the original Klon Centaur schematic. On the inside the Archer looks like a work of art, with a classy black circuit board and very efficient use of space.
The Archer also uses smaller 9mm potentiometers which help this pedal achieve its significantly smaller size, and thus, make it much for pedalboard-friendly than the massive Klon Centaur. In addition to this, the pots and jacks seem to be board-mounted, meaning that pulling on the cables or accidentally stomping on the controls could potentially cause stress on the PCB.
This used to be a concern on cheaper mass produced pedals, but J. Rockett has a good reputation in regards to build quality, and this pedal feels remarkably sturdy. Rockett Audio Designs for more info about the Archer. See the lowest price on Amazon. See the lowest price on eBay. Clean when turned all the way down to a decent amount of drive when on maximum, again, more than a Tube Screamer and maybe even comparable to lower gain settings on many common distortion pedals.
In my experience its main purpose is to fine tune the inherent treble response of your setup as opposed to radically altering the frequency response. My personal favorite sound was using either a Les Paul Standard for big beefy classic rock tones or a low output vintage style Telecaster for more roots type playing, both through a vintage Fender Champ dialed in to a slight crunch. The resulting sound is still honest and clear, with a nice touch of sensitive sparkle and typical roar when hit hard.
No huge surprise there but lots of fun and very inspiring to play. At all settings there is a slight but noticeable bump in the lower mids focused somewhat lower and sounding less spikey than a Tube Screamer which is part of the signature Klon sound and happens to be the range where guitars generally sound best. This also makes the Archer very useable for simply fattening up a clean sound when using it with the Gain control completely turned down. As previously mentioned, the pedal is non-true bypass, with the buffer being permanently engaged, which adds a noticeable coloration to the sound, mainly restoring the high end sparkle lost somewhere along the signal chain — which is simply what buffers do.
It must also be noted, that like all buffered bypass pedals, it does not pair successfully with buffer sensitive pedals after it, mainly vintage style Germanium transistor fuzzes. Rockett Archer vs Klon Centaur. If you bought a Klon Centaur at its original retail price, you got a sweet deal. Then consider trying to flip that Klon for around what you paid for it while you still can. Rockett Audio Designs Archer is your chance to own a very faithful rendition of a legendary and proven design.
It offers great boutique value for relatively little money and has a small footprint that makes it a very practical addition to any pedalboard. Loading recommendations for this item Item is in your Cart. View Cart Proceed to checkout. Sorry, we're having trouble showing recommendations right now. Please try again later. Only 8 left in stock - order soon. Sold by PitbullAudio and Fulfilled by Amazon. Include Add a Protection Plan: Covers failures due to drops, spills and cracked screens and other mechanical and electrical breakdowns. No deductibles or hidden fees.
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Starting on the outside, I suspect the enclosure was specifically manufactured for J. Starting on the outside, I suspect the enclosure was specifically manufactured for J. Rockett Audio Designs for more info about the Archer. Pros Solid build; quality sound; provision of some elusive tones and functionality that players want. The Centaur is dead. Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers.
Buy with confidence as the condition of this item and its timely delivery are guaranteed under the "Amazon A-to-z Guarantee". See all Used offers. Don't see what you're looking for? There was a problem completing your request. Please try your search again later. Archer Clean Controls Output - Controls the volume level Tone - Controls the desired tone from dark to bright Color - Controls the amount of mid-range and can add very slight gain when used in conjunction with the output control.
Archer Clean Boost Item Weight Technical Specification User Guide [pdf ]. Click here to make a request to customer service. Feedback If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Would you like to tell us about a lower price? See questions and answers. Share your thoughts with other customers.
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See all customer images. Rockett Audio Designs for more info about the Archer. See the lowest price on Amazon. See the lowest price on eBay. Clean when turned all the way down to a decent amount of drive when on maximum, again, more than a Tube Screamer and maybe even comparable to lower gain settings on many common distortion pedals.
In my experience its main purpose is to fine tune the inherent treble response of your setup as opposed to radically altering the frequency response. My personal favorite sound was using either a Les Paul Standard for big beefy classic rock tones or a low output vintage style Telecaster for more roots type playing, both through a vintage Fender Champ dialed in to a slight crunch.
The resulting sound is still honest and clear, with a nice touch of sensitive sparkle and typical roar when hit hard. No huge surprise there but lots of fun and very inspiring to play. At all settings there is a slight but noticeable bump in the lower mids focused somewhat lower and sounding less spikey than a Tube Screamer which is part of the signature Klon sound and happens to be the range where guitars generally sound best.
This also makes the Archer very useable for simply fattening up a clean sound when using it with the Gain control completely turned down. As previously mentioned, the pedal is non-true bypass, with the buffer being permanently engaged, which adds a noticeable coloration to the sound, mainly restoring the high end sparkle lost somewhere along the signal chain — which is simply what buffers do. It must also be noted, that like all buffered bypass pedals, it does not pair successfully with buffer sensitive pedals after it, mainly vintage style Germanium transistor fuzzes.
Rockett Archer vs Klon Centaur. If you bought a Klon Centaur at its original retail price, you got a sweet deal. Then consider trying to flip that Klon for around what you paid for it while you still can. Rockett Audio Designs Archer is your chance to own a very faithful rendition of a legendary and proven design. It offers great boutique value for relatively little money and has a small footprint that makes it a very practical addition to any pedalboard.
The Centaur is dead. Long live the Archer. That concludes our J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer review. Want to buy the J.
The Best of the Best. Here's a small selection of some of our guitar pedal reviews! Upon entering the pedal, the voltage gets converted from 9v to 18v, via a charge pump, which results in more headroom and therefore more dynamics and available output. Not so much a design feature, but rather a matter of dedicated customer service, Bill Finnegan reportedly talked to potential buyers about their playing style and setup, helping them determine whether or not the Klon would work for them, and therefore decreasing the chance of disappointing his customers.
Apart from the circuit clearly being the result of a lot of tweaking, Bill Finnegan, like most small builders today, reportedly was quite picky about the type of components used there are quite a few different materials and manufacturing technologies used for each of the common components within a guitar pedal.