Musicians Hotline brings you up to date with the very exciting things that are happening these days at Keeley Effects. From the patented and world famous Keeley Compressor to the exciting new products that are on the horizon at Keeley Effects. Here is what Robert shared with Musicians Hotline this month.

MH: Robert, tell us how you got your start in modding, and then building pedals?

RK: Modding started with my Dad's old tube Peavey Deuce amplifier where I upgraded caps and created a negative feedback control to get some different types of distortion. My wife Tiffany actually convinced me to start building the compressor. I had set the project down numerous times and barely thought of it. After we hand-built a few of them and started doing some TS9 mods, the business really took off. I was a teacher at a small college and was able to employ some of my best students. We worked long hours to keep up with the demand early on.

MH: The world famous Keeley Compressor is used by many top-notch players. Why is your design so unique, and superior?

RK: The Keeley Compressor effect has nothing but tone tested components and world class assembly by our Oklahoma gang! Metal film resistors and capacitors ensure the cleanest compressor on the market. Hand matched transistors to less than 1% tolerance ensures you get a perfectly compressed signal, no chance for unwanted distortions. We are constantly making the compressor better. If some thing or some technique comes to our attention that will improve tone, durability, or quality we adopt it.

MH: You also have several new products that are being released at this time. Please tell us about them.

RK: The first new tone-shaper off the design bench will be the Legendary Tones Two Channel 2-Tube Overdrive pedal that runs the tubes at proper voltages just like tube amps. Another new element to this type of pedal will be an active tone control using tube for both boosting and cutting of bass, midrange, and treble. Most pedals employ a treble-cut only type tone control. Also new is the re-designed George Lynch signature series Time Machine Boost. George loved his original TMB and approached us about making a higher gain more aggressive version. It will be out in the Mr. Scary month October.

The Keeley Electronics Yellow Yeehaw is being re-released this month. It is now called the NOVA WAH because a healthy redesign and addition of features took place. The pedal is like having two fixed wah pedals that you can toggle between, very similar in concept to the vintage Boss Spectrum pedal. The very hip paint scheme is by Arlon Prince of Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive fame. Also new are the wooden effects with cabinets built by Bob Burt. Both of these Floridians are top notch in their artwork, so it's a pleasure to have our gear on the inside!

MH: You have recently hooked up with Peter Frampton to exclusively distribute the Framptone amp switcher and talk box. Tell us about the products and how this alliance transpired?

RK: The Alliance between Peter and I has been a dream come true for our team and our customers. First off, Peter, Jon Regan and his designer Mark Snyder are tone monsters. Years of dedication to the music industry and producing gear that is really inspiring to play and listen to have culminated in these amp switchers and the Talk Box. Second, since I couldn't do it better it was an easy adoption after a critical listening. I have never wanted to become a "store", selling other's products, so it was a bit of a change from the business plan. Since it really is the best in its field, I couldn't resist.

MH: You have some very exciting products in the R&D stage, can you elaborate?

RK: The coming months and year will provide the time needed to complete an enhanced Keeley compressor both in pedal and rack form. The new versions are geared towards bass players and home recording and studio enthusiasts.

We also have our first delay pedal coming out. It will be digital delay based on the Ibanez EM 5 which has an almost cult like following. The tone is as analog as you can get and with our features like true-bypass, tone shaping, and enhanced ranges it should go fast as we are only geared up to make 100 of them.

I'm particularly excited about a signature series pedal for Neil Zaza. It will be a "Keeley Workstation" and it will contain our most popular effects and mods.

MH: What do you consider to be unique about your products, and how has this contributed to your success?

RK: The unique part of our business is still our customer service. Engineering the Finest in Customer Service is our motto. We make it the guideline for all of our actions. Since we are still a small and growing company we can put quality into each and every piece of gear. Nearly every unit is built to order so we have the ability to take requests and make them a reality. Each unit is double tested to reduce the chance of anything but sonic joy when players install their new tone generator. Each of the 10 team members we have are still vibrant with energy and it shows in our gear and service.

Information:
Robert Keeley Electronics
Toll Free: 1-866-8go-rkfx
International calls: 1-405-260-1385
Email: fx@robertkeeley.com
Website: www.rkfx.com

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