Blues Driver Keeley Mods - Worth Doing?

monquixote

Seldom in the field of guitar combat has so much gain been stacked

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b197/monquixote/IMAG0485_zpskivqm7lp.jpg

Been doing a drive shootout to work out what stays and what goes on my board.

LS -> Prince of Tone/Bluesbreaker Clone -> Badass OD -> Blues Driver -> C2 -> Riot Clone

Amusingly I've come to the conclusion that the pedals that I already had on my board were still my favorites (Liquid Sunshine -> Badass OD -> Riot) 

 The newest pedal is a Blues Driver. Been wanting to try one for ages and as I'd heard from others it's got a crapload more gain than it's name would imply (it's not far off something like an OCD) and it does have a slight harshness in the treble unless you pull the tone back quite a bit. I like it, but it's not going to make it onto my board as it stands so my assumption was it's going to join the long list of pedals that I've had for a week then flipped. 

However it occurs to me I could get it Keeley modded by one of the many of the circuit twiddlers around these parts.

Anyone done it and is it worth doing?

ThePrettyDamned

Can't say from direct experience, but I doubt Keeley would put his name to it unless it was pretty damn fine

dano

Its worth modding. I modded mine about 2007 and it's been used a lot since..I didn't do the complete set of 'proper' Keeley mods, just diodes, tone circuit and input / output caps.

It's one of my two main drive pedals now, cant fault it.

thermionic

I did the Monte Allums mods to mine but I didn't spend enough time with it beforehand to become au fait with its alleged shortcomings. I sold it eventually because it didn't work well with Fender guitars into a Vox amp - I think it's supposed to give a Fender type of drive sound rather than a Marshall/Vox drive. 

frankus

I thought there was not a great deal of components in the keeley mod iirc ... sounds great - had two of them ... and modded one myself.

hugbot

I'm pretty sure all the keely mod does is take off the harshness and leave the rest of the sound intact.

I'm just basing that off the mooer blues mood though which had a "fat" switch, and thats all it did, tame the presence a little.

I tried an OD3 though recently and I loved it, its apparently got a BD2 in its heritage but it sounds to me like a happy medium between the BD2 and a TS, might be worth a try.

viz

The bd mods are detailed on his site. You can borrow mine if u want.

monquixote

It's gone now in a trade deal!

Gagaryn

I had a Keeley BD for a while - it was pretty good, I've never played an unmodded one though so have no idea how much better the blue light mods make. TBH, I have my suspicions that Mr Keeley is a bit of a snake oil salesman.

xSkarloey

monquixote;272724" said:

It's gone now in a trade deal!

Holy moly, you don't hang about do you?!


FWIW I was thinking of getting a BD but got my head turned by all the debate about if it is better modded.

In the end I got a nice cheap Digitech Screamin Blues instead.

viz

Gagaryn said:

I had a Keeley BD for a while - it was pretty good, I've never played an unmodded one though so have no idea how much better the blue light mods make. TBH, I have my suspicions that Mr Keeley is a bit of a snake oil salesman.

he's really not.

monquixote

Skarloey;272784" said:

[quote="monquixote;272724"]It's gone now in a trade deal!

Holy moly, you don't hang about do you?!

[/quote]

Nope.

I've had a lot of pedals. I know what I like and I don't keep anything I don't intend to gig. The opportunity to trade it came up so off it went.

ThePrettyDamned

viz;272799" said:

Gagaryn said:

I had a Keeley BD for a while - it was pretty good, I've never played an unmodded one though so have no idea how much better the blue light mods make. TBH, I have my suspicions that Mr Keeley is a bit of a snake oil salesman.







he's really not.

I've always thought of him as a grandaddy of boutique, one of the guys who started it all.

I have only heard a keeley modded tubescreamer but it's basically a better tubescreamer - more gain on tap, but can achieve same tone, more volume on tap, and wider ranging tone. Basically, a tubescreamer but more.

I think now, he has all sorts of switches and such on them.

monquixote

Keeley mods are the real deal. They do sound different.

viz

Yes, I think the best benefits are - more flexibility (because he adds control in the circuit where previously there was none) - and much much nicer bass, across all his pedals.

Gagaryn

viz said:

Gagaryn said:

I had a Keeley BD for a while - it was pretty good, I've never played an unmodded one though so have no idea how much better the blue light mods make. TBH, I have my suspicions that Mr Keeley is a bit of a snake oil salesman.

he's really not.

Horses for courses I suppose. Like I say, I had his BD and quite liked it. 

I've had loads of Tube Screamers including 3 he modded and my favourite one wasn't one of his. 

Also had a Keeley Wah, Fuzz Head and 4 knob compressor and wasn't blown away by any.

My mate has a Keeley RAT though, and that's pretty good.

joeyowen

DO EEETT

I had a Keeley BD2 for years and loved it, solid pedal and a lovely sound! I couldn't recommend it enough honestly

I managed to side by side a modded and unmodded, the stock was ok, but was hands down beaten by Keeley

vasselmeyer

@monquixote What happened to the Bogner? I thought you said that was a keeper.

monquixote

vasselmeyer said:

@monquixote What happened to the Bogner? I thought you said that was a keeper.

There are a great many keepers in my pedal graveyard. I wanted to buy a PRS so it went to fund the purchase. 

I'd gladly have another but it's higher gain than I really need and the Riot does 95% of what it does. 

 It's definitely the best high gain pedal I've ever tried.