Mr Wu does it again with the CKK SHXC Super Overdrive - which goes far beyond your typical 'Klone'

Near everyone is probably bored to death by now of Klon Klones - most of us have at least one or two or a few in their collections - and surely that format has reach peak saturation by now. Yet every now and again something materialises to shake things up again in new and interesting ways - and this limited edition CKK SHXC is another incredible engineering milestone by Mr Wu -  which massively improves on an existing well-loved format.

I’m admittedly something of a Mr Wu fanboy - with his recent N5 MGAT-1 MIAB Hyper Preamp one of my very favourite all-time pedals - probably vying for the top slot with the Chase Bliss Automatone Preamp MKII. The MGAT-1 takes the Marshall-in-a-box concept to new levels of brilliance - with some wonderful innovations to replicate those legendary amps. One of the things of particular note for the MGAT-1 was the incredibly sparkly high-end frequency manipulation - that pedal really does something special to the rendering of those high frequencies.

And that exact same innovation is to be found in the SHCX Super Overdrive - along with a deeper and more resonant bass and massive improvements and expansions to the headroom of that circuit. The SHXC can get super loud if you want it too - and every dial has more range and more finesses to it than encountered on other Klon types. All these separate enhancements deliver a deeper and more expansive soundstage - almost as if the humble Klon has gone from Mono to Dolby Atmos - it sounds bigger and more immersive - but can still be as subtle and light-touch as you like.

I find that I actually prefer the pedal with the Buffer set to off / down - it has even more sparkle that way - while the difference may be fairly inaudible to many.

Controls - Level, Tone, Drive, Buffer : On/Off.

If you look inside the pedal you can see it’s incredibly densely populated - and has extra circuit components over and above the original Klon circuit. Mr Wu said he was going to re-engineer and improve the Klon circuit - and that is exactly what he’s done here.

Yes it’s a limited edition of only a few hundred units (because of rare NOS parts), and yes it’s pretty pricey at $350 and equivalent. But it certainly is another milestone and benchmark for the Klon format. There will of course be people who say that there are plenty of more affordable quality alternatives - and my core benchmark Klons are the Decibelics Golden Horse Mini and J Rockett Select in particular - while in some ways the CKK SHXC is even more special in its own way.

Some purists will say that this is no longer a Klone as it has has been souped up too much - while its output is unmistakably Klon-like - just with added 3D-Dimensionality! It has to be properly experienced for you to fully get just how good it is. It enters the top-most echelon of my reference collection alongside its N5 MGAT-1 sibling - as another entry into the Best of the Best category.

The CKK SHXC Super Overdrive is available for orders - while numbers last - by emailing officialsales@sinvertek.com. And you can read up on the pedal further on the CKK Electronics Website.

Pete Thorn’s below demo sounds spectacular - but where you really need to be in the room to witness how incredible this pedal’s soundstage is!