Centaur'd 'n' Feathered : The Comically Frivolous and Hypocritical Litigation Between "Klon LLC" and Behringer (Music Tribe)

What's REALLY fueling KLON-gate???

 This one's so wacky I had to change up my schedule and post something. In case you haven't been paying attention, Bill Finnegan (under the alias of "KLONLLC") is currently trying to sue Behringer (parent company is Music Tribe) for IP infringement of their on again/off again (i.e. Bill makes one every once in a while when he feels like it or needs a few months rent or something) "legendary" pedal that they call the "Centaur". To catch up the new kids, a little about the Klon Centaur first:

The Klon Centaur is an overdrive guitar pedal designed by Bill Finnegan in the 1990s, known for its "transparent and harmonically rich" tone. It was first sold in 1994 and quickly gained popularity for its ability to boost a guitar's signal without significantly altering its core tone. Due to its unique design and limited production, the Klon Centaur became highly sought-after, with used units fetching high prices on the secondary market. 

In the late ‘80s, Bill Finnegan was gigging bars and clubs in Boston when he noticed that sound engineers were asking him to turn the volume down at smaller venues. He played a Telecaster through a Fender Tweed Twin, and says that the ‘sweet spot’ on his amp was around 6 or 7 on the volume knob. When in-house engineers forced him to turn down to 3 or 4, he lost the harmonic richness of the amp. To remedy this, he tried using a vintage TS9 Tube Screamer to replicate that natural tube distortion sound. However, “[The TS9] compressed the transient response of the original signal a lot, had a midrange character that I didn’t like, and subtracted a noticeable amount of bass response from the signal as well”, he told Premier Guitar in 2014.

Finnegan then set out to create an overdrive pedal that would bring all the richness and dynamics of a cranked amp at lower volumes. Together with MIT graduate Fred Fenning, he sought to invent a new type of overdrive, completely different from the Tube Screamer. And in 1994, after several years in development, he released the Klon Centaur Professional Overdrive. It was met with instant critical success. Every pedal was built by Finnegan’s own hands, and the circuitry remained a closely guarded secret as he covered every circuit board with black epoxy. It purportedly took Finnegan 12 to 14 weeks to fulfill each order, and used Centaur pedals were selling for disgustingly-inflated prices. This placed more pressure on Finnegan to meet demand. Finnegan claimed his profit margin was "not very sensible" (which is wild considering that he was selling pedals for more than the average "independent short-run pedal builder" you see on Reverb or Etsy), and he cited difficulty in hiring employees to expand the business in Boston, where commercial space was expensive.

This "mythical" circuit remained uncopied for over a decade until 2008, when its secrets were revealed to the world, and [coincidentally or not so much?] Finnegan decided his situation was unsustainable and he discontinued the Centaur. He declined large requests to make more, but continued to make them for someone he claimed was "a close friend", purportedly "a single mother who needed financial support", to sell on eBay. I can neither confirm nor disprove this arrangement, but nevertheless, "Klon" was no longer an "official" entity, and was not producing inventory of their products until the short-lived "Klon KTR" was introduced in 2014  as an "updated version"--it was said that the goal was to create a straightforward design that could be built by a contracted manufacturing firm and would be easy to repair, among other considerations, while preserving the Centaur sound. The Klon KTR took two years to design and sold for $269, and was discontinued in I believe 2020 or 2021 entirely...okay, maybe not "entirely", if we count the occasional single unit put up on eBay alongside one-offs of the classic Centaur, with both fetching utterly vulgar winning bids.

As of 2019, used Centaurs sold for between $1,900 and $2,500 USD. As of 2024, they sold for up to $20,000 USD. And two months ago, a  "new build" Klon (#RG 019) sold for $6,200. Free shipping though, what a saint. Yes, someone paid over six grand for a new "official clone" of a Klon. Wild shit, amirite? I should also add that aside from these occasional popup sales of a one-off Klon, the social media pages have been largely quiet for quite some time aside from some photos that looked like older "glamour shots". OK, so now to the current story...

In  November of last year, Behringer dropped their take on the circuit. Behringer is quite famous for utilizing copycat components to bring sought-after circuits into the hands of players of ALL financial stations, reasonably priced and largely identical in function to the original designs.

 Admittedly, Behringer drifted into the grey area when they used the little horsie-guy (centaur character) and the name "Centaur" on the pedal. But the way I saw it, Klon hadn't at that point even posted on Instagram for almost 2 years, and for all we know, Mr. Finnegan was no longer with us. Plus, it's an entirely different, more compact (and pedalboard-friendly) housing with different knob, switch and jack placement, so there's no way anyone's going to mistake this for a big honkin' real "Centaur". Apparently though, Finnegan IS alive, and took offense to Behringer's new offering. Earlier this month, it was announced that "KLONLLC" was suing for infringement over what they call "blatant counterfeit" (over a pedal they had literally thrown in the towel on and hadn't produced in a long, long time). 

You know you're doing it right when the guys making bank selling extremely overpriced (and inaccurate) knockoffs of their own products once in a blue moon are suing you for making a similar product that does "the thing" just as well but for a price any guitarist can afford (not just famous players or doctors and lawyers). I personally think Behringer is (as usual) doing a killer job bringing quality, hard-to-find products to the working musician, and this looks more and more like Finnegan at Klon is just being a salty little bitch, when you consider there are "Klones" out there that aside from the lack of the word "Centaur", are FAR more identical (some almost dead nuts) to the originals that have been available for many years, and those companies haven't been sued. 

Original used Klon Centaurs are redonkulously overpriced for a basic-ass overdrive. Yes, it's a "nice-sounding" overdrive, but is it worth having to sell a kidney to own? Hell no. Even the "official" remakes (which aren't even authentic anymore, circuit-wise; "KTR" and such) are extremely hard to come by---I tried even finding an official website or store to buy one and couldn't---and good luck even finding one of the shitty "official" KTR's (which were plagued with QC issues) for under a grand. But Behringer's "Klone" is like, $69. More than fair price for a niche-but-simple pedal like this, and much more practical for someone who wants a well-made Klon-inspired pedal without having to have it insured. 

A couple days ago, it was announced that Behringer was going to placate Finnegan's whining and change up the pedal's branding. The Behringer logo which was previously on the front (jack-side) panel was moved to the front, they altered horsie-guy and changed the name from "Centaur" to "Centara". 

Despite the change, the first batch made it out with the "Centaur" markings, and as of this writing, there was at least one on eBay someone was already asking as much as $1,000 for. "Butthurt Bill", as I have decided to call him, seems unimpressed by the fix, and is still pursuing the litigation, evidently seeking reparations for the units that have already sold and are out there in the wild. I totally get an ACTIVE company who is ACTIVELY PRODUCING an item taking this kind of action, and I could totally understand if Behringer had also used the same enclosure as Klon, but let's be clear: no one will "accidentally" buy the Behringer Centaur thinking they're buying the revered actual Klon.

There are literally HUNDREDS of different Klon Centaur clones out there, and some are even the same size and control/jack layout as the original, but he's not going after any of them. Just going after the one with the deepest pockets. It's more obvious than ever now, and it's kinda' gross, to be honest. 

All this over a product that he doesn't even actively produce, and hasn't for many years. He pops up every once every year or two to sell literally one or two random things on eBay for mind-blowingly outrageous prices and then disappears again, and the bidding wars seem to get worse every time, for what is one of the most basic overdrive/boost circuits, made from readily-available, milquetoast components. No "New Old Stock" or "rare" parts. The Instagram Klon page is getting dragged for the most part: he's only seeking litigation from the "offender" with the kind of big money to make it worth a lawsuit attempt, which makes it look like nothing but a cash grab...for being surly because a major manufacturer has demonstrated the fact that the Klons themselves are grossly-overpriced for a very basic circuit made from readily-available (i.e. non-"rare") parts...for being inactive in the production of the actual Klon products, and leaving a gaping hole of opportunity for other manufacturers...for only selling them at auction to manipulate the market and to capitalize on the desperation and gullibility of us tone-chasing guitarists. They're all valid concerns, based on what information we, the public, have.

And maybe that's a strategy, it's implied, to keep batches small or nonexistent in order to really capitalize on the insane hype about the pedal thanks to all the famous users and mythological status, which is pretty shitty, to be honest, if he's doing this and the complaining about others doing something similar so average, working musicians or hobbyists can actually afford one. Others have suggested he should be ashamed that Behringer put the pedal out for $69, exposing that he's always overcharged for this basic, simple pedal and could've been providing a tool all along for ALL players, not just wealthy celebrities and desperate collectors, and that might actually be one of the reasons he's so mad about it, because Behringer have been the first major company (if you don't count JHS's "Notaklon" build-your-own-pedal kit) to really drive home that there's no unobtanium in the design, and it should have always been a more reasonably-priced piece of kit. I don't disagree. 

So while blatantly ripping off a design of a product actively in production is grey-area at best, the Behringer version isn't a direct copy, period. Similar color scheme, similar little character, and the word "Centaur", but the housing and control/jack layout is instantly discernible. No one who would be in the market for either is going to be "fooled" into believing one is the other, and no one who is in the market for a real, authentic and horrendously-overpriced Klon is going to be swayed to buy a copy that they deem "inadequate" instead, because it's "not the real thing" to them and nothing but the authentic (pardon the pun) Klon will do. It's a completely separate market for people with ludicrous amounts of disposable income and/or the need to own one as a status symbol of some sort. The Behringer, like so many of the other Klon "Klones" before it, just puts 97% of the original pedal's tone and capabilities in the hands of commoners for a sensible price. Much respect for that.

Some commentators said they hadn't originally planned on getting the Behringer clone, but after seeing Finnegan's blatant attempt at a cash grab via litigation, and his insistence on NOT reactivating his active production or increasing the frequency thereof, plus no plans to release the "original" for a player-friendly price, they'll gladly buy the Behringer and save themselves several thousand dollars. Some, just out of spite. 

I really don't see it working out as what might've been the retirement scheme it appears that it was planned to be. Or, as some have suggested, perhaps it WAS a sly marketing plan all along, with Finnegan actually cooperating with Behringer to create some hype, and it will be quietly "settled out of court", and he DOES get to retire comfortably. Guess we'll have to see.

The fun part is that if history is any indication, this also means my first-run edition that I pre-ordered months ago that's on its way (from my preorder in January) just became a "lawsuit-era collectible" ($$$$$$$). So I guess, thanks for being a petty, whinging lil' bitch, Bill. 🤣