Keeley and Boost

112
Guitarist summer 2017
M
any of you will be familiar with That
Pedal Show on YouTube in which
former Guitarist editor Mick Taylor
and TheGigRig’s Daniel Steinhardt play through a
bunch of stompboxes and wax lyrical about them.
Now the duo have their own signature pedal with
Keeley Electronics, a dual-format design featuring
overdrive and boost sections that can be used
individually or stacked – with the option of putting
the boost before or after the drive. Extra flexibility
comes from input and output jacks that will take
TRS cables to allow the two circuits to be split, so
each can be used in a different loop of a switching
system, effectively having two standalone pedals.
SOUNDS
Mick’s contribution is the Boost section, and as he
likes his Tube Screamers and Klons, there’s more
than a hint of that in how this gets more out of your
amp. For starters, there’s emphasised midrange
with a frisson of frequencies that add more
authority to the sound of single coils, sounding
great on our Strat and with P-90s. There’s plenty of
headroom here to push your amp and you can dial
a little low-level overdrive with the Gain knob. It’s
an excellent resource for enhancing a clean amp,
but can also give a kick to an already-driven amp.
The Drive section was specified by Daniel to
offer a bit more drive than his favourite Analog
Man King Of Tone. It can go from low-level gritty
raunch to the throaty sound of a full-on driven
amp with all of the sustain and rich harmonics that
entails. There’s plenty of presence in the sound
and the Tone knobs focus that top-end to suit your
rig. Stacking the two sections together offers more
opportunity – both routing options have their
relative merits, but we really like the way that the
Boost before the Drive ups the saturation quota.
VERDICT
With functionality and sound conjured up by a
pair whose collective knowledge about how pedals
work in front of an amp is comprehensive to say
the least, the D&M Drive has turned out to be a real
gem among dual overdrive pedals, each side being
sufficiently individual to give you quite different
tonal options, while complementing the other
perfectly. Stick one of these between your guitar
and amp and you won’t be disappointed.
D&M Drive and Boost
Keeley
Keeley gives former Guitarist editor and the man
behind TheGigRig their joint dream pedal
Words Trevor Curwen Photography Neil Godwin
Tech Spec
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Dual overdrive
(Drive and Boost) pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Boost
Level, Boost Gain, Boost
Tone, Drive Level, Drive
Gain, Drive Tone,
Drive First/Boost
First switch,
Boost footswitch,
Drive footswitch
CONNECTIONS:
Standard input,
standard output
POWER: 9V adaptor
(not supplied) 55mA
DIMENSIONS: 93 (w) x
118 (d) x 50mm (h)
9
PEDALBOARD
MANU FACTUR ER
KEELEY
MODEL
D&M DRIVE AND BOOST
PRICE
£229
KEELEY ELECTRONICS
001 405 341 2025 / WWW.ROBERTKEELEY.COM
PROS Two drive circuits in one chassis; stacking
versatility; functions as two pedals (with a switcher)
CONS Position of nine-volt power input could make
the use of some types of connectors awkward
VI DEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT423.peds_keeley.indd 112 7/13/17 2:01 PM