Keeley Red Dirt Overdrive Pedal

[Aloha_Mark]

Always a sucker for just about anything on sale, I ordered this using the discount code VIP15 (15% off):

https://robertkeeley.com/products/overdrive/red-dirt-overdrive/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvrz272eiYI

Artists who've used this include: John Fogerty and John Petrucci.

No overdrive pedal is perfect, and having one more seems to be perfectly reasonable on this first weekend of Spring. Hope I can get that great Fogerty quack on Old Man Down the Road. :jim

 

[tdarian]

How is it?

 

[sickboy79]

Yes - how do you like it? Keeley makes fantastic stuff.

 

[Aloha_Mark]

B- for this pedal. It is not a killer overdrive to use for metal or thrash. That is ok. Not everything can be a King of Tone or Okko Diablo Plus. Those pedals have excess overkill capability.

How is Red Dirt for silky overdrive? It lacks the ability to beautify your tone like a Klon. RD is sensitive to the guitar. It did not do much for a mid-50's Gibson LP Special (P90's). I could get a quackibush tone for country-rock. Next it was tried with a 1984 Gibson Pre-Historic LP with Shaw pickups. Did a fine job with this Norlin era LP, and I could manage Gary Moore tones. Finally, RD was auditioned with a Casio PG-380, a mix of single coil and humbucker pickups. Keep it subtle and it sounds ok. Juice it up by flicking the toggle switch to high gain, and you will go down in flames, and your cat will boo you by walking out of the room.

All in all, I suggest you try before you buy. I prefer the Wampler Ace Thirty as a tasteful overdrive. That would get a B+. On the other end, I would give the Vox Joe Satriani Satchurator a C+. Keeley is the man in the middle. No great revelations here, as any tonequest will lead you to two places, a great amp and a very good guitar. Overdrive pedals are modest enhancements. Fuzz pedals and the like (time and/or frequency domain shifters) are the only devices capable of sound altering experiences.

 

[tdarian]

Thanks.

 

[jimmymack]

I really like the Fuchs Plush Drive. I am not too big a fan of OD pedals, probably because they all have had their flaws for me. Not crazy about the "tubescreamer" tone clones. But Andy Fuchs gave me one of his to try, as well as the PD. The "Cream" Drive is his TS pedal. Still a TS, but one of the nicest I've ever tried - velvety smooth and very tunable. But I gave it back.
The Plush Drive, I still have. It maintains the beautiful tone of a guitar, while turning the amp into a bigger better machine. (D style they call it) Fuller, bigger sounding, and adds all the hair and grit I'll ever need. Or just a clean boost! Without having a lot of other expensive pedals to compare it with, I'd give it an A

 

[FretsAlot]

and your cat will boo you by walking out of the room.

Time for a new cat?

Thanks for a good laugh, I needed it.

 

[Reverend David]

I love it. I'm a huge Keeley fan so perhaps I'm prejudiced and I also love overdrives of all kinds so that's pretty much where I live. I'm a dirty white boy..lol.. Here's mine perched upon my 83 Les Paul Standard. :dude:

 

[zombiwoof]

Anyone know what OD Keeley based the circuit of that pedal on?. I would bet that it is a tweaked version of a classic circuit.

Al

 

[mrlespaul1956]

Love my Red Dirt on the lo setting as a gritty boost into a breaking up amp. It has a TS sound but a bit smoother. Keeley seems to be pumping out some new boxes this year. The White Sands is now out.