Behringer Centaur Madness...

[EdwardMarlowe]

So, as you're doubtless aware, the people behind the original Klon Centaur:

 

are suing Behringer, for the Behringer Centaur:

 

It's going to be interesting seeing how this pans out. I think they'll win - or Behringer will back down - change the name and colour. Most legal cases settle before they get close to court. This one is interesting because the Klon hasn't been in production since 2008. They now routinely sell for four to five grand when they do come up for sale, hence the vast army of Klon clones that have been on the market for a long time. The Behringer pedal is just the very latest version of this, albeit  - depending on opinion - blatantly or just more honestly a knock off of the original. I'm not entirely sold on the ethics of this lawsuit, given it's a product that has been unavailable for so long, and they appear to have no intention to bring it back into production. But it is what it is. The intriguing knock-on is what it has done to the second hand market for the Behringer pedals, which are now all over ebay for £500 and upwards. 

Full disclosure, the lawsuit announcement a couple of weeks ago finally prompted me to get around to ordering my own Behringer Centaur from Thomann. It was on back order, and has now shipped today, so it's going to be interesting to see what I get. Will it be the original knock-off style, or a new, altered version? TBH, if I was sure it was the original, at the prices they're now going for used, I'd have ordered half a dozen and sold most of them on... Could have funded a very nice new guitar that way! Eh, well. 

Welcome to the era of Lawsuit pedals!

[KingBollock]

I think Behringer just got a little too close to the original design. I am very much a fan of Behringer, by the way.

 

I ordered mine from Anderton’s, as it was the only place that had them in stock,  two days before the lawsuit was announced.

 

I told my wife that they would start being worth more because of the lawsuit, and the lack of stock in many places (Anderton’s were the only ones that had them in stock and not back order) but that was to justify buying it… I had no idea that the prices really were going up. Maybe I should have ordered two? I certainly won’t be selling mine, it’s a  excellent pedal.

I suppose, what I could do, is build my own (which had always been the plan before the Behringer came out and all the massively positive reviews for it), and if it’s close enough, I could sell the Behringer.

[EdwardMarlowe]

20 hours ago, KingBollock said:

I think Behringer just got a little too close to the original design. I am very much a fan of Behringer, by the way.

 

I ordered mine from Anderton’s, as it was the only place that had them in stock,  two days before the lawsuit was announced.

 

I told my wife that they would start being worth more because of the lawsuit, and the lack of stock in many places (Anderton’s were the only ones that had them in stock and not back order) but that was to justify buying it… I had no idea that the prices really were going up. Maybe I should have ordered two? I certainly won’t be selling mine, it’s a  excellent pedal.

I suppose, what I could do, is build my own (which had always been the plan before the Behringer came out and all the massively positive reviews for it), and if it’s close enough, I could sell the Behringer.

It's fascinating how commonly cloned the Klon is, down to its legendary status. Any number of them out there, really. I got an email in yesterday telling me my pedal from Thomann is now on the way - we'll see if it's the original version or something new. I kinda wish I had ordered a few now! 

According to online reports, this is the new version (which may be what I'll receive): 

 

https://guitarbomb.com/behringer-rebrands-klon-clone-centara-overdrive/

 

Same housing, slight change of name and logo. 

It strikes me with some amusement that if this doesn't settle the lawsuit, this could become an even rarer version (maybe we should bot order more of them.... if I had an original couple of Klons now, I'd be selling them to buy a Gretsch!). 

 

Legalities aside, it still feels to me that Klon are taking the piss suing over an albeit very close lookalike of a pedal they've declined to put on the market for seventeen odd years....

[ezbass]

I bet that very subtle change in the graphics really pisses Klon off, which makes me smile.  

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 26/06/2025 at 13:33, ezbass said:

I bet that very subtle change in the graphics really pisses Klon off, which makes me smile.  

 

I should think so. It appears from what the original designer has said that the fairly accurate reproduction of the look of the original in the first version, plus the lack of the Behringer logo what what pushed them to sue over that one rather than the million and one Klones on the market. I mean, I can see their point, but it really does seem petty when they've not put the original out since 2008. It seems an awful lot of expense to go to over a product they haven't offered in the guts of two decades.... 

I have a feeling we've not seen the last of this. Behringer seem to be pretty confident, though, given they're playing the game this way. 

The Klon original team's claims about quality interest me... in truth, having tried effects pedals at all sorts of levels, I've never found a genuinely significant quality difference between pedals once you spend enough to guarantee physical durability. Sure, a difference in *sound* in some cases, but whether that's *better* is subjective. I often find I prefer a much cheaper pedal due to the simplicity off the design: most of the time I'm buying a pedal for a specific sound, and I don't need a million variations built in...

 

 

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

Sure, a difference in *sound* in some cases, but whether that's *better* is subjective.

Or, pretty much, exactly the same.