My Favorite Keeley Pedals

Robert Keeley needs no introduction, but I’m going to give him one anyway. The man deserves it. He was one of the OG boutique pedal builders in the early 2000s, and two decades later he’s still a huge inspiration to the industry. I like to call him one of the pedal fathers of the boutique movement, and over the past decade I've been fortunate enough to become friends with Robert and learn a lot from him.

This year is his 20th anniversary as a builder. That’s a big freakin’ deal.

So in honor of that, I want to brag about my favorite Robert Keeley pedals, why I love them, why they sound so good and why you should buy them.

Super Phat Mod Overdrive

First up is the Super Phat Mod Overdrive. You may be asking: why is this called Super Phat Mod when it’s actually a Blues Driver with his modifications to it? It’s a throwback. Basically, Robert Keeley modded Blues Drivers back in the day, sort of as his introduction to the industry, and he decided to turn around and make a whole new pedal out of his fully modified version.

The Super Phat Mod is a really nice option if you like low-medium gain. It's one of the best overdrives out there for an amp-like tone, plus it responds really well to your guitar's volume knob. He also found a really, really cool FET transistor that makes this operate consistently across big production runs. In the world of pedal building, that is priceless. And by “priceless” I mean $150 brand new, which is nearly as good.

Coincidentally, the Super Phat Mod Overdrive has an additional modded version (yeah, this is getting meta, but I’m not apologizing for it): the Germanium Super Phat Mod Overdrive, which offers a different flavor of the same basic sound.

Caverns Delay Reverb V2

The Caverns Delay Reverb is probably one of the JHS Show’s favorite pedals. I use it all the time. Nick even uses it on crap it’s not designed for. It's become a staple on my pedalboard, and for a good reason: it's a high quality two-in-one pedal, a reverb and a delay.

The reverb is a really nice spin FV1 algorithm that Robert and his team have pretty much mastered. You've heard the spring sound in products like the Milkman Echo/Slap/Delay, which Robert also designed, but the Caverns Delay Reverb really highlights Keeley’s skills as a designer. Like I said, this is a two-in-one, so it’s an amazing reverb and…(drum roll, please)....a freakishly good delay. Somehow, Robert gets sounds out of a 2399 chip that I've never been able to achieve. It's actual wizardry. I've asked him how he does it, and he’s explained it, but I still don't understand it. Thankfully, I don’t have to understand it to enjoy it.

Robert’s whole design process is a little bonkers. Most people build pedals using a data sheet, but he pole-vaulted over that step altogether and just started playing around with the chip set. He came up with some really creative solutions and he threw in a BOSS-style LFO circuit for modulation. The end result? A unique delay/reverb pedal in a very affordable package.

Magnetic Echo Delay

The Magnetic Echo Delay is my favorite Keeley delay overall. It’s just the 2399 chip set from the Caverns two-in-one pedal released in its own enclosure. It saves space on your pedalboard and sounds like Harry Potter built a delay pedal, which is pretty much a win-win.

Oxblood Overdrive/Distortion

The Oxblood Overdrive/Distortion is Keeley’s take on the Klon Centaur Overdrive. I say “take” and not “clone,” because Robert designed this pedal in a really unique way. Pretty much every pedal builder has replicated a Klon at some point, but Robert wanted to see if he could get the sound of it without using any of their original circuits. Really. He just took a wild stab at it and asked himself, “How would I do that sound?” So rather than a straight-up clone, it came out as a quality overdrive distortion with the clean blend, a unique flavor of distortion and a very original take on the Klon sound.

In my opinion, this may be one of the more underrated devices he makes. You should try this out because it doesn't really sound like any other overdrive.

I also want to give a big shout out to Creighton, who designed this alongside Robert. He's a brilliant design engineer at Keeley Electronics, and he’s just one member of Robert’s amazing team.

DynaTrem Dynamic Tremolo

Next up is the DynaTrem Dynamic Tremolo. This is another pedal with a really interesting origin story. Aaron Tackett is a design engineer at Keeley who specializes in DSP, and Aaron is really good at what he does. Aaron and Robert started developing a series of pedals with this pitch: “Can we start writing code to sound like or pull off the feeling and sounds of old analog gear?” Long story short: yes, you can, and yes, they did. One of the first designs they went after was harmonic tremolo, which became the DynaTrem Dynamic Tremolo.

The DynaTrem has three settings: dynamic rate, dynamic depth, and then harmonic trem. It also has a fantastic plate reverb option, so you can get tons of sounds out of this pedal.

Fuzz Bender

The Fuzz Bender came out in 2019, and I actually featured it in the JHS Show episode “My Favorite Pedals of the Year.” This is my favorite Robert Keeley fuzz. Period. The Fuzz Bender is his take on the three transistor Tone Bender style fuzz, and in typical Robert fashion, he did something a little crazy. He put an active BOSS-style ETU in it, because why not?

The bias control on this pedal is straight-up wild. You can go from full distortion to dying hyena sounds in a few seconds. Who doesn’t need that?

TS808 Tube Screamer w/ Keeley Mod Plus

The TS808 Tube Screamer w/ Keeley Mod Plus is iconic. This is the pedal that introduced most of us to Robert Keeley. Even though he doesn't do mods anymore, it would be criminal to not include this on the list. Plus you can snag a Keeley modded Tube Screamer used on Reverb.com for about $200.

Yeah, you’re welcome.

Java Boost

The Java Boost is the first Keeley pedal I ever saw (at the 2002 Summer NAMM show, if you want to know). It's a treble booster, which means that it’s the Dallas Rangemaster-style circuit with a bunch of mods. It has three different ranges: middle/traditional, more bass-y, and less bass-y. It's a classic for a reason, y’all.

Honorable Mentions

I couldn’t possibly wrap this up without a few honorable mentions--

30ms Automatic Double Tracker: This is a killer idea, basically emulating the way people would double track things with tape back in the day. This effect first started with bands like the Beatles stacking vocals on top of each other in the recording process; the only difference is that Keeley does the same thing with guitar.
Synth 1 Reverse Attack Fuzz Wave Generator: We’ve used this synth on the JHS Show before because it’s great at producing high quality, highly weird sounds.
DS-9 Distortion: I know that I said the Oxblood Overdrive was the most underrated Keeley pedal, but the DS-9 is a very close second. The Ibanez Sonic Distortion SD-9 and the DS-9 are very similar; they both capture that vintage ’70s/’80s distortion sound.
JHS / Keeley Electronics Steak and Eggs Overdrive Compressor Pedal: This last pedal holds a special place in my heart, because this was the first time I got to collaborate with Robert. That was a real honor. The Steak and Eggs is basically the Morning Glory overdrive put in a dual enclosure with a Keeley compressor. We made about 500 of these as a limited run, but you can still find them used on Reverb.

It’s been an honor to get to know Robert over the years. He's just such a big hero of mine. I remember meeting him at NAMM. We went and talked in the food court, but because of a cymbal demonstration happening at the same time we basically yelled at each other for an hour or so. We got to know each other, we collaborated, and the rest is history.

Robert Keeley has made some amazing devices, so do me a favor and go follow him on Instagram. Bother him. Tell him he's awesome. He deserves it.