Tone City TC-T9 Bad Horse - Klon Overdrive

Submitted on January 26, 2015

The Tone City Bad Horse Overdrive pedal is a Klon clone that captures the authentic tones the Klon KTR is known for. I am lucky enough to own a Klon KTR (the Red Klon) and today I did a test between the Klon and the Tone City Bad Horse and there was so little difference between them that if you had your eyes shut, you couldn’t tell the difference between them. The only difference would be how it feels on your wallet.

The Tone City Bad Horse works best on a slightly dirty tone or for pushing a clean tube amp over the edge of breakup. The Bad horse won’t sound as smooth as a regular Tubescreamer when it’s isolated but that’s not the point. This is one of those pedals that boosts some hairy frequencies to make it stick out in the mix. Much like the Klon the Bad Horse has a nice air about the top end which makes it perfect for boosting your amp tone (or stacked pedal tone) without losing a lot of clarity like a saturated Tubescreamer can.

This pedal is priced bellow 80 USD and will compete (or slaughter) other pedals around the price on the market. Not only is this built extremely tough and could withstand a fall or being stepped on it’s a nicer looking and nice sounding pedal than the EHX Soul Food which has to have some of the worst reliability issues I’ve seen in years.

If you’re interested in getting a Klon voiced pedal this would be my choice for the price, there’s nothing that comes close to it. Being that it only has 3 controls it’s also easier to use than the VFE Merman which sounds great but has more options – even more than the original Klon.

The pots feel extremely sturdy, it runs on 9v DC only, it’s small, compact, and extremely usable.