Honky Tonk Music KLONE KIT 1 vintage 80s electronic drum kit

[@gonzinigonz]

I've got dual klone here, never seen another one in probably 30 years. Needs a bit of fixing up but I'm going to sort it soon. I managed to get hold of Dick Straker who designed all these a number years ago. He was digging through all his designs so he very kindly emailed me the schematics for the dual klone i have here. Got chatting to him a bit and said he should remake these in a Eurorack modular form, would be a winner i reckon. He showed me some other things he was working on at the time. Not sure what became of it all! The one i have here sounds wild, great for techno!!!

[@alexgraham46]

You should tell him to get the Thwak! book as it would make a good souvenir of those designs he came up with! Dual Percussion module is the only one I don't have to complete the set. I just need to work on getting some stands...

[@gonzinigonz]

@@alexgraham46 So this a book you have put together? Last emailed him about 5 years ago, still have the emails. I think the shop has gone now. Guess you could use some mic stands? Been looking at the klone today as it goes. I guess it was supplied as a kit, some of the constructions a bit sloppy but the wiring is pretty neat and tidy. I found a resistor not soldered correctly and a transistor was inserted wrong! That's got ch1 filter working again. The white noise generator is lower level on ch2 but need to select a transistor more suitable that's nosey. Both channels have different devices fitted so i guess its been got at some point. There's a bit of interaction between the pitch controls so will try and get that more stable. All adds to the character though! I was going to mod it for 2 CV inputs for the VCO's. Make it a bit more versatile so can control it from a sequencer. I've had it hooked up to my Akai Force and it works well trigger wise. I've never seen another dual klone out there or the others. I've done a lot of carboots over the years as well, I'm always looking out for stuff! Anyway I'll get this one restored to a point. It was missing a couple 1/8th shaft knobs but I've got around that for now. The style he used seem hard to get hold off these days. You can get some pretty bonkers sounds out of it, add some FX's and your off! I'm not thinking traditional drum sounds either...!

[@momtnz]

@@gonzinigonz From the info I had they built them in the shop, a bit like Dave Simmons started out with Musicaid for his SDS III/IV and SDS V, so they are not constructed that well. Even with this pretty average video sound the actual drum sounds are not that great. We will try and get a better demo made. Ended up buying a new Remo kit and using the stands from those with some very cheap practice pad attachments from China! Remo hasnt really changed their practice pad design in 40 years...The books are all on Amazon (Thwak!, Electronic Drumfax, Complete SImmons Drum Guide) by Alex Graham. Email address of author is in there also.

[@gonzinigonz]

@@momtnz Sounds about right. He did email me a pic of some new stuff he was working on, looked pretty bonkers. Like a digital guitar FX pedal type thing. I modded the one here with some trigger and control voltage inputs so could control it from externally at euro rack levels. It's quite good for techno style percusion i thought and just messed up gnarly noises. I think Alex posted above? Same name if not!

[@grahamwa65]

I had one. It was a bit pants!! I then got the Klone 2 which was also not the best. Soon followed by Simmons SDS 8, 9 and then AKAI S950 with midi trigger

[@alexgraham46]

I think the SDS 9 was the best kit of those you mentioned! Klone 2 wasn''t bad for the money - the MultiKlone module was the best of the Honky Tonk releases by far and worked well with other pads and triggers.