The Klon Centaur is one of the most sought-after overdrive pedals ever created. If you're lucky enough to own one, taking it out on tour – or leaving it lying around a venue waiting to be stolen – is probably not the best idea.
That's why Jared James Nichols – who was gifted a Klon Centaur by Joe Bonamassa – takes appropriate measures to ensure his prized pedal remains in his possession.
“The Klon is its own beast, there’s something slightly different in the sauce,” Jared James Nichols – a proud Klon owner – says in the latest issue of Guitarist.
“Taking Klons on the road isn’t fun,” he continues. “I always have to pull it off the ’board after soundcheck and bring it with me because a Klon sitting in a club is an easy nick. But nobody is going to steal your Tube Screamer, you know?”
Nichols' prized Klon was a gift from another blues titan – Joe Bonamassa. Nichols initially borrowed a Klon from a friend for around two years, but, lo and behold, someone tried to steal it while he was out on tour.
After that incident, Nichols didn't want to tour with a borrowed Klon, so he embarked on a quest to buy his own. After hitting the Nerdville owner up for some advice on whether a Klon he was eyeing was the real deal or not, the veteran guitarist offered to sell him one of his own.
Shortly after, one of Joe’s friends dropped off a Klon at Nichols’ doorstep – and it turns out Bonamassa wasn’t expecting any payment.
“I was about to go on the road myself, and he goes, ‘Hey, dude, listen, the money that you'd spend on a Klon will do better for you actually having your tour be a success,’” Nichols recalls in an episode of the No Cover Charge podcast. “‘The Klon is a gift from me.’ And I couldn't believe it. What a guy. So I love you, Joe, thank you, Joe.”
In his recent Guitar World lesson, Nichols gives the lowdown on how to use open strings and Drop D tuning to bulk up your blues fingerstyle.
For more from the blues rock guitarist, plus new interviews with Kiki Wong and Joanne Shaw Taylor, pick up issue 531 of Guitarist from Magazines Direct.
