Keeley Electronics 4-in-1 Series #1 : Noble Screamer : Nobels ODR-1 x Ibanez TS808

The Noble Screamer was the first of the 4-in-1 series - which was launched in September of last year. Featuring a beautifully crafted, custom gently-sloping wedge-shape enclosure with complementary colour-coded milled and anodised aluminium knobs. The look and feel here is truly top-shelf and there is a superb smooth tactile high quality feel to the finish. To my mind this is a fantastic execution of a great concept, and distinct from Boss’s double circuit approach - a la JB-2 Angry Driver, and Crazy Tube Circuits’ Motherload - which allows you to combine the 2 circuit’s tone stacks versus alternating them - as is the case with the 4-in-1 series. It’s cool that these 3 great brands have all found their own unique path with dual circuits - and where each approach delivers something distinct!

The concept here is of course the same for all 4 of the 4-in-1 Series - that is to say 2 complementary classic circuits, one soft clipping, the other hard clipping, and each with their own classic tone stack - where you can mix and match those up in 4 combinations as detailed below. There’s usually a distinct difference between the two EQ options, bar for the Angry Rodent where there are closer similarities for their EQ / Tone Stack sections - albeit those render quite differently.

It’s interesting that there are noticeable differences in output volume between circuit types - so for this pairing the Screamer voicing is somewhat quieter than the ODR-1 one - which is reflected in the values of the resulting settings applied below. I was able to get really great sounds out of the Full ODR-1, Full TS808, and TS808 with the ODR-1’s Spectrum Tone Stack options. While I was mostly unable to produce wholly satisfactory tones for my preferences with the ODR-1 Clipping + TS808 Tone Stack - despite several trial sessions and best intentions - actually - more on that later.

The TS808 with the ODR-1 Spectrum Tone Stack was the most satisfying surprise here - while overall I felt that the ODR-1 with its own Spectrum Tone Stack delivered the most balanced and best results for me. Second was the beefed up Screamer with the ODR-1 Spectrum Tone Stack - ideally I would want to keep the treble higher and dial the bass back a bit further, but it delivers a really satisfying output anyway. Both those modes work well with roughly the same settings, and output is significantly higher than either combination with the TS808 LPF Tone Stack. The Classic TS808 sounds pretty decent, while, as mentioned - I couldn’t get fully optimal tones with the TS808 Tone Stack combined with ODR-1 clipping - at leat not for a number of attempts.

The next model I will be tackling is the Blues Disorder - where the early running there seems to indicate that my preferred combination is looking to be one of the alternatives - or the BluesBreaker clipping with the OCD Tone Stack - more of that next week!

Controls : Tone, Tone Stack Switch : OD (Spectrum EQ) / TS (LPF EQ), Drive, Drive Clipping : OD (Hard) / TS (Soft), Level.

THE 4-IN-1 OPTIONS

EQ + CLIP Variations
------------------------------
OD + OD = ODR-1 Classic
TS + TS = TS808 Classic
TS + OD = ODR-1 with TS808 LPF Tone Stack
OD + TS = TS808 with ODR-1 Spectrum Tone Stack