This week we’re revisiting an old friend of the channel — the NUX Horseman. It’s popped up in its own demo, and in more Klon-style shootouts than I can remember at this point. There’s a reason for that.

It’s good. Really good.

A Budget Klon That Keeps Showing Up

The Horseman is NUX’s take on the legendary Klon Centaur circuit — that mythical mid-’90s dual overdrive that now costs the same as a small car if you want the real thing.

NUX have built the Horseman around the same core concept: transparent-ish drive, loads of headroom (thanks to an internal voltage converter pushing things up to 18V), and that slightly gritty, amp-like breakup that made the original so popular. You get the standard three controls — Gain, Treble, and Output — plus two modes: Gold and Silver.

Gold mode is your classic Centaur-style voicing. Silver mode gives you a bit more gain on tap — think of it as the hot-rodded version. Switching between them requires a long press of the footswitch, which isn’t the slickest system in the world, but you can access that without bending down to the pedal itself, so it works I guess.

You can also toggle between true bypass and buffered bypass on startup. Yes, it involves a bit of button-holding and LED colour interpretation, but it’s nice to have the choice — especially since the Klon buffer is half the magic for some players.

Blind Tests and Big Praise

A few years back, my good friend and partner in crime, Lee did a blind Klon shootout over on Tonepedia. We’re talking everything from an incredibly affordable Mosky Silver Horse all the way up to an actual Klon Centaur. There were some serious contenders in there too — KTR, J Rockett Archer, the usual well-respected names.

Blindfold on. No bias. Just tones doing the talking.

The comments about the NUX were along the lines of, “If that’s not the Klon itself, it’s probably the KTR.”

Lee came away from that video with a new found respect for NuX and it's easy to understand why.

And considering the price difference between a Horseman and an original Centaur… well, you don’t need me to finish that sentence.

The Klon Thing (And Why I’ve Changed My Mind)

Now, I’ve said before that I’m not the biggest Klon fan. I play a lot of Strats, a lot of single coils, and those guitars often benefit from something that fills out the mids a bit more aggressively. A Tube Screamer does that. A Klon… not so much.

But over time, I’ve come to appreciate what the Klon circuit actually does well.

It’s subtle. It adds that “amp just starting to break up” grit. It doesn’t smother your tone — it enhances it. Push the gain and you start getting that upper-mid bite, not unlike a Boss Blues Driver.

Where it really comes alive, though, is into a driven amp. Take a crunchy British-style rhythm tone and hit it with a Klon-style boost and suddenly you’re squarely in classic rock territory. Tightened low end, singing top end, more sustain and a tone that growls.

That’s the sweet spot.

And the Horseman does that convincingly.

More Than Just a Clone

On the technical side, NUX have gone with Schottky diodes for the clipping stage (since the original germanium parts are incredibly hard to find consistently these days), and they’ve built in their own voltage converter circuit to get that higher headroom feel. Whether you care about the internal topology or not, the important thing is that it behaves like a proper Klon-style circuit should.

It can do clean boost duties brilliantly — low gain, high output, push your amp harder. Or you can dial in more drive and let the pedal do the clipping itself. It’s flexible without being complicated.

And in typical NUX fashion, it’s compact, solidly built, and sensibly priced. I've said it once and I'll say it again, NuX give you absolutely loads for your money with their stuff. They are never lacking in features, nor does the tone come second.

So… Is It Worth It?

If you’re chasing a Klon-style overdrive and don’t fancy remortgaging the house, you could do a lot worse than the Horseman. In fact, you’d struggle to do much better in this price bracket.

It’s featured on the channel multiple times for a reason. It holds its own in blind tests. It sounds right. It feels right. And it captures that elusive “transparent but better” thing that made the original so famous in the first place.

If a Klon is on your wish list, the Horseman deserves a serious look.

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 This week’s video was a proper budget scrap: three “analog-style” delays, all chasing that bucket brigade vibe, all under sensible money, and all bringing something slightly different to the table.

If you’ve ever looked at real vintage analogue delays and then quietly closed the tab when you saw the price, this is for you.

The Contenders

We put the Joyo Analog Delay, the Mooer Ana Echo, and the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade head-to-head. On paper they all live in a similar space — warm repeats, darker voicing, classic feel — but under the hood they’re doing things a little differently.

And that’s where it gets interesting.

Joyo Analog Delay – The Sensible All-Rounder

Let’s get this out of the way first: the Joyo isn’t a “true” bucket brigade delay. It uses a PT2399 chip with filtering to get that darker, analog-style sound rather than a genuine BBD chip.

Does that matter? Not really.

It sounds good. Really good, actually — especially for the money. It tops out around 440ms, which is plenty for most practical uses, and it covers a lot of ground. Slap-back? No problem. Subtle doubling? Easy. Slightly more ambient textures? Absolutely doable.

If I had to label it, this is probably the best all-rounder of the three. It doesn’t have the strongest personality, but it also doesn’t have many weak spots. And it’s often the cheapest of the lot, which makes it very easy to recommend if you just want “a good analog-ish delay” without overthinking it.

Mooer Ana Echo – Vintage Vibes on a Budget

The Mooer Ana Echo is the purist’s choice here. It runs a genuine MN3205 bucket brigade chip and is very deliberately inspired by the Boss DM-2 — right down to the slightly backwards-feeling control layout.

If you’ve used a DM-2 before, you’ll know what I mean.

This one tops out at around 300ms, so it’s the shortest delay time of the three. It doesn’t really excel at slap-back tones — it can do them, but it’s not where it shines. Where it does shine is in those washy, ambient, slightly murky repeats that almost become part of your core tone.

It adds character. It softens the edges. It feels vintage in the best way.

And considering what a real vintage DM-2 goes for these days — or even the Waza reissue — the Mooer is a bargain by comparison.

If you want warmth and vibe over versatility, this is probably the one that’ll grab you.

TC Electronic Bucket Brigade – Crisp, Modern Analog

Then we’ve got the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade. This one uses a modern Cool Audio BBD chip — the same family of chips you’ll find in a lot of modern analogue designs (and yes, in plenty of Behringer-owned circuits too).

The big headline here is 600ms of delay time — the longest of the three. If you're after longer, luxurious repeats, then look no further.

The repeats are noticeably crisper and more defined than the other two. Because of that clarity, this one absolutely excels at shorter slap-back tones. It blends beautifully with your dry signal without turning to mush.

On top of that, you get modulation on the repeats. Subtle wobble at shorter settings, lovely movement at longer ones. That feature alone pushes it into MXR Carbon Copy territory — just without the Carbon Copy price tag.

If you want analogue feel but with a bit more modern usability, this is a very strong option.

So… Which One?

Honestly? You’re not getting a bad pedal out of this bunch.

They all cover that bucket brigade flavour in their own way, but they each lean in a slightly different direction:

• Joyo – most versatile and budget-friendly.
• Mooer – warm, vintage, characterful.
• TC Electronic – clearer repeats, longer delay time, added modulation.

Delay is one of those effects that can be as subtle or as dramatic as you want it to be. It can sit there doing gentle doubling, it can add a bit of reverb-like space, or it can become part of the rhythmic identity of what you’re playing.

The best one here isn’t about specs — it’s about which personality fits your playing.

And at these prices, the real danger is convincing yourself you only need one.

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TC Bucket Brigade
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 This week we’re stepping slightly outside the usual budget territory, but trust me, this one earns its place. The Wampler Ego 76 Mini is Brian Wampler’s take on the legendary 1176 Peak Limiter — a compressor that has been absolutely baked into the sound of recorded music for decades. If you’ve ever loved the feel of a studio guitar track without really knowing why, chances are an 1176 was involved somewhere along the way.

Now, before anyone panics, this isn’t Wampler trying to turn your pedalboard into Abbey Road. The Ego 76 Mini takes the idea of the 1176 — that fast, punchy, characterful FET compression — and translates it into something that actually makes sense for guitarists.

At its core, this is a proper studio-style compressor in pedal form. You’ve got level, compression and a parallel clean blend, which is already a massive tick in my book. On top of that, there are attack and release switches, giving you access to those classic 1176-style response times without needing a degree in audio engineering. It’s clever, because you get all of the best attack and release settings without having to understand what attack and release actually mean.

The real magic of this pedal is how flexible it is in a guitar rig. You can absolutely stick it at the front of your chain and use it like a traditional guitar compressor. It’ll do the squishy Dynacomp-style thing if that’s your bag — country snap, funk rhythm, tightening up clean tones — all very much there. But it doesn’t stop at squash.

Dial things back a bit and the Ego 76 turns into something much more refined. There’s a lovely sparkle and polish you can add to clean tones without killing your dynamics, and that parallel blend control paired with the compression control is where the real magic happens. Being able to mix your dry signal back in means you get the benefits of compression without losing the feel of your playing, which is exactly how compression is used in the studio.

Where this pedal really surprised me, though, was further down the signal chain. Stick it after a drive or two and it becomes more of a glue pedal than a traditional compressor. It evens things out, adds sustain, and just makes everything feel a bit more “finished”. It’s that subtle, almost invisible thing that you don’t really notice until you turn it off… and then immediately turn it back on again.

Yes, it’s more expensive than what we usually cover. No, it isn’t a cheap impulse buy. But unlike a lot of boutique compressors, this doesn’t feel like a one-trick pony or a studio novelty shoehorned onto a pedalboard. It genuinely works in multiple positions, across multiple styles, and rewards a bit of experimentation.

If you’ve ever struggled with compressors feeling either too squashed or too boring, the Ego 76 Mini might be the one that finally clicks. It’s studio compression made usable, musical, and — most importantly — fun. And honestly? That makes it pretty easy to justify the extra spend.

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