The Tone Bakery Crème de la Crème is a Klone circuit with footswitchable channel switching. It is made using full-sized components with through-hole construction (as opposed to miniature components with surface mount construction) and NOS Tungsram OA1160 germanium diodes, which have a high clipping threshold and very amp-like breakup. The result is the Crème de la Crème sounds more like our original silver pedal than miniature component Klones can, with a clear, open tone those other pedals lack. At the same time, the tone is smoother than our original Crème Brûlée pedal thanks to the NOS diodes and a redesigned circuit.

The Crème de la Crème has a Gain footswitch that engages the Gain knob, allowing users to effectively switch between a clean boost (using only the Level and Treble controls) and distortion (using all three knobs). The LED switches from Green to Red to indicate which mode is on. There also is an internal dip switch for Clipping Bypass that takes the clipping diodes out of the circuit, making the Gain knob function as a second stage of clean boost. Two Klone boosts in one!

Creme de la Creme users include:

• Brian Layson (Dierks Bentley)
• Aaron Andersen (One Republic, Christina Aguilera)
  
• Dwayne Larring (Kelly Clarkson, Nick Carter, Audio Adrenaline, Sonicflood, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes)
• Stu G (Delirious, Paul Baloche, Steven Curtis Chapman)
• Christopher James (Zella Day)

We are really happy about this design because it gives players a lot of useful, performance-oriented functionality while still allowing us to use full-sized components that we believe sound superior to miniature components. The Crème de la Crème has a built-in voltage doubler, giving it the extended headroom of an 18V powered pedal.  For this reason, please only use it with a 9V power supply or a 9V battery.