00:00on today's episode i'm going to walk you
00:01through my absolute favorite robert
00:04keeley pedals they're really good don't
00:06want to miss it don't go anywhere
00:24robert keely needs no introduction when
00:26it comes to the world of guitar pedals
00:29he is a huge inspiration to the industry
00:31and i like to call him one of the pedal
00:34fathers of the boutique movement i've
00:36been fortunate to become friends with
00:38robert and learn a lot from him and this
00:40is his 20th anniversary so in honor of
00:43that this year i'm going to show you my
00:45favorite robert keeley pedals why i love
00:48them why they sound so good and tell you
00:51little bits of info that i've learned
00:52from him first up i'm going to play the
00:55super fat mod now why is this called
00:58super fat mod well it's actually a blues
01:00driver with his modifications to it you
01:03see he modded blues drivers back in the
01:05day i mentioned it earlier how it got me
01:07into pedals and this is his fully
01:10modified version and it is really really
01:12nice if you like low medium gain i think
01:15it's one of the best overdrives out
01:18amp like tone it responds really well to
01:21your guitar's volume knob as well i
01:22think he mastered that sound in a box
01:24and he found a really really cool fat
01:27transistor that is very consistent and
01:29it makes this operate consistently
01:31across big production runs and i'm going
01:34to throw in the caverns
01:36so the caverns is probably one of the
01:39jhs show's favorite pedals right nick
01:42absolutely i use it all the time nick
01:44uses it on crap it shouldn't even go on
01:46it's just like it's becoming a staple
01:49and it's a two-in-one and basically the
01:51reverb is a really nice spin fv1
01:56algorithm that robert is a master at and
01:59you've heard the spring sound
02:02in products like the milkman amp robert
02:04design that he's designed tons of other
02:06things for people but
02:08this is like where he's at is best here
02:12reverb with a modulated setting that i'm
02:14going to use there's spring and then
02:16there's shimmer a lot of controls and
02:19then this delay now this delay is
02:21freakishly good in my opinion for the
02:24topology it uses a 2399 chip that i've
02:27never been able to get to sound like
02:30he's getting out of this it's actually
02:32wizardry i've asked him how he does it
02:34he kind of explains it i don't
02:36it is a fantastic sounding delay
02:39i'm going to use the deep mod setting
02:42now i believe the way he's using this is
02:45started with hey the 2399 has a data
02:48sheet most people build pedals off the
02:50data sheet he hated that
02:52he got into it started playing around
02:54fighting with it and he came up with
02:56some really creative solutions to use
02:59this chipset and he threw in a boss
03:02style lfo circuit along with that for
03:06the modulation so it's a very very
03:08beautiful delay pedal
03:10and reverb in a very affordable package
03:14and play these together i'll start off
03:16with the delay and the drive on and then
03:18i'll smash the reverb on for another
04:27next up is the oxblood
04:30take a guess at what this is anyone no
04:34a clown has oxblood colored knobs so
04:38this is his take on the clone now here's
04:40what's really interesting myself and
04:42millions of others we just have
04:44replicated a clone at some point he
04:46decided to make the clone
04:49get the sound of it without using any of
04:51the original circuit so he just took a
04:53wild stab at how would i do that sound
04:56and it came out in his words more of
04:58just a really good overdrive distortion
05:00with the clean blend it's really really
05:01good i think that it is a unique flavor
05:05of distortion i think when you start
05:07cranking this up some really cool stuff
05:10yeah i think it came out around 2016.
05:13in my opinion this may be one of the
05:15more underrated devices he makes you
05:17should try this out because
05:19it doesn't really sound like any other
05:21overdrive and that's really good if
05:23you're looking for something different
06:37that jam was super spicy and yeah i
06:41what that was it was honestly it was
06:43just me playing guitar like a virtuoso
06:45would you agree you guys sound like
06:47clown jazz it was it like like if a
06:49clown played a blues solo yeah it's how
06:52i feel right now so that's what i play
06:54that is my art i do also want to give a
06:56big shout out to uh creighton who also
06:59designed this with robert he's a
07:00brilliant design engineer at keeley and
07:03robert has an amazing team i'm going to
07:04try to talk about more of these people
07:06as we go through it let's jump to the
07:08next pedal next up is the dyna trim so
07:14does tremolo obviously because it's
07:16called dyna trim but it is a really cool
07:19thing that happened within keely
07:23robert has a design engineer with dsp
07:25his name is aaron tackett and aaron is
07:28really good at what he does and when
07:29they first started the whole idea was
07:32can we start writing code to
07:37pull off the feeling and sounds of old
07:40analog gear and one of the first things
07:42they went after is harmonic trim
07:45this has three settings it has basically
07:47like the dynamic rate dynamic depth and
07:50then the harmonic trim so i'm going to
07:52play in that and then you have a reverb
07:53here a really interesting i would say
07:56it's a plate-ish reverb that's what it
07:59i'm just going to play something see
08:01what happens trim just gets you going
08:03when you're not ready to go so i'm going
08:04to turn this on to see see where the
08:08i don't know i'll see on the other side
09:11that was slithery that was like a swamp
09:14snake slithering through the swamp
09:18i liked it and i wasn't at all playing
09:22you know ccr licks like from suzy q i
09:25wasn't doing that at all
09:29next up i'm going to pair a fuzz with an
09:31echo the fuzz bender this came out in
09:332019 i believe it was in our episode my
09:36favorite pedals of the year this was my
09:37favorite fuzz it is his take
09:40on the three transistor tone bender
09:44and in typical robert fashion he did
09:48something a little crazy
09:49he put an active boss style eq in it
09:53because you can do whatever you want you
09:55can create your own road so to speak you
09:58make your own destiny and basically
10:00robert is a master of that this thing
10:02with the bias control
10:05you can go from full to just spitting
10:08dying hyena sounds and i'm going to live
10:11somewhere in the middle i'm going to put
10:12the mag echo on which is
10:15my favorite kili delay overall
10:19and it is just the delay in here so like
10:22this came and then this happened this
10:24was originally released as is
10:26uh from the 2399 chipset and when robert
10:29was getting his feet back on the ground
10:31and kind of his big relaunch several
10:33years ago the first units of this i
10:35believe it was all given away for like
10:36hurricane katrina and then he revisited
10:39it and ended up putting it back out it
10:41made its way into this so it's kind of
10:43all over the place so i'm gonna play
10:44these together i'll do a big long
10:46ambient delay with modulation the mod on
10:50i don't know what's gonna happen neither
10:52do you that's why we're here
11:37um that was rowdy let's move on to the
11:40next one i'm going to use the mag echo
11:42again but i'm going to do one of my
11:44favorite delay sounds ever which is a
11:48really hard high mix repeat tape sound
11:52so you're going to hear the note the
11:53note again and it just disappears in it
11:55in certain ways almost can feel like
11:57reverse or something it feels
11:59otherworldly if you play into it the
12:01right way instead of the fuzz i'm going
12:03to use the super fat mod germanium or
12:07the germanium super fat mod so you saw
12:09this earlier well it's the same pedal
12:14it's his modded blues driver but in the
12:16center of the circuit
12:18he inserted a dallas range master style
12:21thing so you have the touch dynamics
12:24sensitivity blah blah blah the blues
12:26driver which is amazing the phet style
12:28thing and then you have germanium in the
12:31with the frequency it's just wild really
12:34i like how this looks too it looks like
12:36when i touch this like i'm like i'm
12:37solving something like i'm fixing
12:39something i don't know what is what am i
12:41saying here does it have it has like a
12:44like there's something about this right
12:47a tool it's like a tool it's a button of
12:50rock it's like a tool of rock button
12:52let's say the circle says do this
13:49that was awesome it wasn't at all like a
13:52toady's thing i wasn't trying to do that
13:56robert keeley yelled at me this yeah
14:02it's just it it's you know
14:05stuff happens and people do things it's
14:08fine why you got i don't know are you
14:12yeah i talked to him yesterday i mean we
14:14talk all the time i mean it was just
14:15it's a it had you know
14:17i'm a different person and ever and he's
14:19he's allowed to change too you know what
14:22sure yeah don't hold it over his head
14:25he ever yelled at him have you ever
14:26yelled anyway well yeah well that's all
14:28it is it's no big deal i don't know why
14:29it's getting turned around on me well
14:31you need to stop worrying about him okay
14:34this next and last jam will have two
14:37pedals first up is the
14:40keely modded tube screamer i guess the
14:42mod plus that's the blue sticker here
14:45this is where most of us first saw
14:47robert keeley he doesn't new mods
14:50and the second pedal i'm gonna play came
14:52out at a time when he only did the mods
14:54and he only made his famous compressor
14:57now this is the java boost this is the
15:01kili pedal i actually saw i used the
15:04mods i had seen this at like a 2002
15:09summer namm show and the george l booth
15:12i didn't put two and two together that
15:14it was the same modification guy
15:17whatever it's a trouble booster so
15:20range master style thing with a bunch of
15:23mods so you know he's making the
15:24compressor he's making some mods he gets
15:27into this article by a diy legend named
15:31and he just does this uh treble booster
15:33so you have different ranges so in the
15:36middle is kind of traditional and then
15:37you have two different kind of bass
15:39frequencies so more or less bassy
15:43volume and tone it's a classic this is
15:45the only vintage one i'm showing here
15:47today but that's okay and uh i'll have
15:50and then i'll slam this into this
15:52because i'm playing a clean findery
15:54style amp and a treble booster needs a
15:58on the other end of it i don't want to
15:59play this into a clean amp because i
16:01would bleed and you would bleed and your
16:03computer would shut down and you'd have
16:05that fatal syntax error message pop up
16:49right some honorable mentions here
16:52i can't play everything i like so i'm
16:54going to show you some things that i
16:55really do like that deserve to be looked
16:5830 ms double tracker this is a killer
17:01idea it's basically emulating the way
17:04people would double track things with
17:06tape so this first started probably with
17:11you track a vocal and you track the same
17:13vocal and you have this double layered
17:16version of a singular thing so this does
17:18it on guitar it's really nice you could
17:20call it a reverb delay but it's
17:23specifically tuned for a doubling effect
17:27and i find that though you can do that
17:30this is much easier this is quicker and
17:33dare i say more inspirational next up is
17:36the synth one this is a really fun pedal
17:39you've probably seen it on the show
17:41it looks great it sounds great it's
17:43weird if you like weird this is what you
17:46want to go for basically it's a
17:48synthesizer engine with a boss slow gear
17:50involved in how it opens and closes
17:58this may be you know i said this was
18:02maybe this is the most underrated so the
18:04ibanez sonic distortion sd9 and the ds1
18:08are similar this is both of those and
18:16just go by right now
18:18well why don't you you bought it good
18:21this got to collaborate with with robert
18:29got to collaborate with robert this is a
18:31real honor he's just such a big hero of
18:34mine i remember meeting him at namm we
18:36went and talked in the food court yelled
18:37at each other over the symbols got to
18:39know each other and we ended up
18:41collaborating and so this is a morning
18:43glory and his compressor in one it's
18:45called the steak and eggs it's about 500
18:47of these made i think so they've been
18:49off the market for a while you can find
18:51them used it's really cool special to me
18:54maybe special to you i know it has a lot
18:55of fans out there i still see it on
18:58that's my honorable mentions
19:00now let's go to record time
19:03today's record time is brought to you by
19:06werewolves of portland by paul gilbert
19:10this is new record uh 2021 these are
19:13both autographed copies so what we're
19:15going to do here is going to give these
19:16away but first it's a really good record
19:19and it has argument about pie on it this
19:23song debuted on our channel with the
19:24paul gilbert release if you know the
19:27song it's been stuck in your head for
19:30now you can listen to it go check this
19:33paul is at his best heavy heavy amazing
19:36van halen vibes and very typical uh paul
19:40gilbert humor and fun just really great
19:42musicianship the band is amazing i think
19:45paul plays tons of stuff on this
19:48yeah argument about pie the title track
19:51werewolves of portland
19:53i want to cry even though i ain't sad
19:55great track as well we're going to give
19:57one away there's a link in the
19:58description below so go down there and
20:00check that out we'll give that away here
20:02and then we're going to give the other
20:03one away over on the patreon so if
20:06you're a member of the patreon you have
20:07a chance as well that's a thing
20:11thanks so much for watching this episode
20:13in the comments below let us know your
20:16favorite robert keely petal let us know
20:18all about it if you've owned one that
20:19you loved and got rid of and regret it
20:21which you probably do drop that in there
20:24as well let's just talk about robert
20:25keely let's spread the love he's made
20:27some amazing devices this is 20th
20:30anniversary and that's a big deal so
20:32yeah go follow him on instagram as well
20:34bother him tell him he's awesome if you
20:36like this hit like subscribe to the
20:38channel click the bell icon to get
20:39notifications of future episodes in the
20:41description below there is a link to
20:43band lab you can jam along with today's
20:47or any jams we've ever done really for
20:49the most part you can sing you can play
20:51harmonica you could play jaw harp we
20:54don't really care you can do whatever
20:55you want you can go to the jhs store
20:56there's a link there as well and you can
20:58be a member of the patreon and help us
21:00support the preservation of petal
21:01history that's it for today
21:04what i really need to know
21:06why robert yelled at you it's not about
21:15listen i knew yelled at me i knew i was
21:19and i wanted to go back to that moment
21:23that life is precious
21:26why'd he yell at you it doesn't matter
21:28why he yelled at me it's just that we're
21:32why'd he yell at you why are you yelling
21:35nick yelled at me make me a shirt hey
21:38make i need that shirt now who are you
21:40talking to that bird over there do it
