Keeley rolls out its most Hi-Fidelity Pedal to date - the Zoma Stereo Reverb and Tremolo

This is another project inspired in part by the Beach Boys collaboration - in using the exact same form factor - with those super appealing RCA Bakelite Knobs and crystal Amp lens. You can think of it as a follow-up to the limited edition California Girls, I Get Around, and the more recent Halo Core pedal. Most similar in fact to the Halo Core in shadowing an already existing Keeley Pedal.

I own and love the more svelte and potent Light Bending Special Edition of the Halo - so the Halo Core didn’t make much too much sense for my own circumstances - it is priced lower though and is more accessible therefore. While I feel a big part of these pedals appeal - is in their vintage-inspired aesthetics. I personally am more of practically minded modernist. Where I would pretty much always take a more potent compact pedal, over a larger more vintage inspired variety.

For the Zoma we already have overlapping range coverage from the Stereo Keeley Hydra, and the Mono Verb-o-Trem, you can also try to hunt down the discontinued larger edition of Verb-o-Trem. For my preferences - the Hydra is the preferred format - with a greater feature set and more granularity to go with its significantly smaller footprint - albeit a slightly higher ticket price of $249 versus the $229 of the Zoma.

The Zoma is nevertheless a particularly fine pedal - obviously competition for the Strymon Flint and Fender Tre-Verb - while prettier than both of those.

I’m a little confused as to why the Plate Reverb features twice, rather than having one of those as a Room or Hall variant - it seems somewhat duplication to me. I’m sure it can be justified - but it does look kind of odd in the visual. Note that you select the Tremolo and Reverb Modes together - so you can mix and match those up, like on some of the other pedals. Considering the Reverb is on the Right side of the Pedal - the SS / PH / PV format seems wrong to me - where I would rather have had it as SS / HP / VP - with the options corresponding to the footswitches and control topology.

So a couple of logic issues for me here - but like I said I do quite like the format. My practically would decree that I would want to combine those two-sided voicings independently rather than in tandem - but I suppose that is a limitation of the format.

Controls - MODES } Sine Tremolo + Spring Reverb / Harmonic Tremolo + Plate Reverb / Pitch Vibrato + Plate Reverb; MASTER LEVEL; TREMOLO } Rate, Depth, Alt+depth = Level Boost, Tremolo Footswitch; REVERB } Alt+Rate = Tone, Alt+Level = Decay, Reverb Footswitch.

There were 2 Editions of this originally - a more limited Custom Shop Sand Colourway, and this Standard Silver edition - which is my preferred look in any case. These will mostly be sold via the Keeley Webstore - where they go for $229. This is generally considered a limited / limited distribution release - and will undoubtedly be discontinued as some stage - like the Halo Core.

So for anyone that kind of fancied a Keeley Hydra - but preferred something in a slightly large more vintage-inspired format - then the Zoma is your candidate of choice. I know some of you don’t like having your footswitches that close together - which I actually mostly prefer - in any case you have choices!

Another cool Keeley release - they’re definitely on a roll these days, and boy are they prolific at the moment. Always interesting to see what they come up with next!