4th in Origin Effects Adaptive Circuitry Series is their Halcyon Gold take on the Klon Centaur - with Adaptive Mids, Dry Blend, and new Mod Voicing specially honed for Single Coil pickups

Origin effects are ever renowned for their attention to detail - and the only surprise here really is that they don’t mention which of the mythical Germanium Diodes they are using in their Halcyon Gold. This is the 3rd high end Klone arriving in fairly quick succession - following on from the J Rockett Archer Select, and the CKK Electronics SHXC Super Overdrive. Both those are already in the reference collection, and I supposed this Halcyon Gold will follow.

There’s something really smart about being able to control the Mids frequencies with your guitar volume knob - where in Adaptive Mode II you can fully flatten the mids by rolling back your volume, in Mode I you can partially roll back the mids.

The Adaptive circuitry also returns some of the high frequencies formerly cut or attenuated by the Tone control (Hi-Cut). While as I don’t have a unit to hand I can’t do the usual test to see at what point the clipping diodes kick in on the Drive control - It’s typically at around 11 o’c that they tend to become noticeable.

As a mainly Humbucker player I like the fact that the Klon/e circuit tightens and sharpens the frequency profile - and as I play entirely through a neutral pedal platform rig I would not really make best use of the Dry Blend or Mod Voice - which are mostly about softening things up for Single Coil pickups and ameliorating amp breakup and colour. The Mod Voice delivers a smoother, softer, and rounder texture (broader Q resonance) which rolls off some of the high end and helps balance out the Single Coil tonality.

Controls - Level, Adaptive (Mids) : 0 | II | I, Drive, Dry (Blend) Voice : KLN / MOD, Tone.

As with the Green Halcyon this is a distinctly different and innovative take on the genre - and does things other Klon/e’s cannot. I rather like the idea of being able to control the Mids with my guitar volume control.

As to whether it’s quite as vibrant as the SHXC or as nuanced as the Archer Select - that remains to be seen - that is to say in the quality and timbre of the core voicing. Same goes for the touch-sensitivity and under-the-fingers feel.

There’s no shortage of premium Klone contenders - and this certainly seems like another upper echelon candidate. I would love to put this one through its paces against the two aforementioned already giants of the scene.

It’s exciting to see where Origin take their adaptive circuitry next - they seem to be doing a tour of the most famous / popular overdrive voicings - I would imagine some form of Blues Breaker would not be too far away!

Interestingly Jacob Holdsworth was very opaque at the recent Witney Pedal Party event - where he seemed to indicate that there was no Origin Effects release particularly imminent. Not sure why I was kept in the dark on that - just makes for scheduling complications and for more work on the day and usually rushing some aspect of the write-up and overall process - I tend to prefer to be able to iterate over a few days.

I’m broadly very satisfied with the Halcyon Gold - and now need to figure out where it sits within my list of priorities. I’m still somewhat conflicted on which Adaptive Circuits I should be adding to the collection - which means I probably need to add all of them - while at those prices I would certainly need some assistance.

The Halcyon Gold is priced at £249 - where its Halcyon Green sibling is at £239, and the DCX Boost and M-EQ Driver are both at £259. All available right now direct from the Origin Effects Webstore, and at leading international dealers.