Keeley Electronics Unleashes Spectacular XVIII Anniversary Space Panorama Trio - El Rey Dorado Overdrive, Compact Phaser and Delay Workstation
Keeley are getting to be rather good at these limited special editions as I’ve commented on several times previously. Once again they’ve drawn in painter Phillip Ortiz for this cool space-themed diorama / panorama. I actually noted in my recent Walrus Audio Best of Range Overview that they should do some sort of Space panorama as that’s where much of their pedal artwork sits. If you muted these tones a little or rather duo-toned this, then this is exactly the kind of design you might expect from Walrus - which means they seem to have missed a trick here.
So props to Robert and the gang for seeing the potential in this sort of objet d’art! You can of course argue that the graphics can get in the way of the legibility of the controls - which is much less significant for the two compact pedals, but possibly more of an issue with the Delay Workstation - while I guess those legends are probably just about legible enough.
You can buy all three at a discount of 20% = $494 or individually at $149, $169 and $299 respectively; it is only the artwork here that is different, the pedal internals remain the same.
If you were considering any or some of these - now’s the perfect time to acquire the set - for me it makes best sense to acquire the trio, although one spanner in the works is that the order of the panorama is probably back to front - as you would most likely deploy the pedals right-to-left in the opposite sequence to the actual design!
El Rey Dorado Plexi-style Overdrive - $149
Your classic Marshall Plexi style drive pedal with 3 knobs - Drive | Tone | Level - and Lo/Hi Gain switch. A really great sounding crunchy drive pedal - what's not to like!
Compact 2, 4 and 6 Stage Phaser - $169
I'm not sure I've seen the Keeley Phaser in this enclosure size before, apart from the Phase 24, I recall seeing the Phaser only in medium vertical size enclosure with 2 footswitches - so this looks like a new variation. You get 4 knobs here - Depth | Rate | Feedback | Level - and a 3-way State selector - 2/4/6. I guess this is the most appealing of these pedals in terms of its new format, while its artwork is possibly the least interesting of the 3. Note that above video is for the older medium enclosure Keeley Phaser.
Delay Workstation : Delay + Reverb - $299
This has been on and off my wishlist for a long time, and I currently have other priorities in this area, while I have always thought I would eventually end up with one of these. Not sure that time is now. You get a combination here of 10 Delays and 6 Reverbs across two dials of 8 Modes each. The 8 other knobs are Reverb Blend | Decay | PreDelay | Morp (Param) | Delay Blend | Time | Feedback | Morph (Param) - and 3 footswitches for Reverb, Delay and Tap-Tempo. This is an amazing relatively compact EchoVerb box, and should be high on everyone's list of considerations for Delay and Reverb workstations - particularly if you're looking to combine both within the same device. I will undoubtedly have one of these eventually, I don't think it's my time for this yet, as I still have other priorities to handle first!
Final Note - Keeley also have a XVIII Anniversary version of their Oxblood Germanium Overdrive - which comes in a limited edition of Bright Sparkly Candy Pink!
