Keeley Electronics has launched the Angry Orange, Blues Disorder and Super Rodent, a trio of overdrive and distortion pedals that were all inspired by two classic circuits, and designed to offer four different styles of dirt from one compact enclosure.
The unveiling of this colour-coded trio means we can officially call this the 4-in-1 Series, and also take a moment to mention that it also includes the Nobel Screamer, which established the format upon its launch in September last year, and also Andy Timmons’ new signature Muse Driver Full Range Overdrive, which made its debut in January.
It’s worth taking a moment to cast our minds back to the Nobel Screamer, because this is the overdrive pedal that started this endeavour, combining circuits inspired by a Tube Screamer and an ODR-1, then presenting them in such a way that allowed players to dial in four styles of amp-like drive from a single pedal.
And yet, this newly designed aluminium enclosure offers a relatively simple layout, just three knobs – Volume, Drive, Tone – with a pair of toggle switches for interchanging tone stacks and clipping sections in search of new sounds – et voila, four core dirt sounds, one pedal.
All of the pedal combinations that inspired the sounds here will be instantly recognisable to any player with an interest in pedalboard curation.
The Angry Orange takes a DS-1 style distortion circuit, pairs it with a Civil War Big Muff-style circuit, and turns you loose on them, with Keeley promising “scorching tones”.
Similarly versatile, the Blues Disorder combines a Blues Breaker-inspired drive with OCD-style dirt, and Keeley says it can be deployed for “hard-clipping distortion and a soft-clipping overdrive.
The Angry Rodent rounds the series out, promising “a modern, punchy array of dirt” from a circuit inspired by, yes, you guessed it a ProCo Rat, and an SD-1 overdrive, which makes for an intriguing pairing.
Each side of the pedal has its own thing going on. Keep both toggle switches in the same position to use each mode of the pedal straight up, or create hybrid sounds, say, using the clipping from the Blues Driver-style mode and then dialling in a different flavour via the OCD-inspired tone stack. And this hybrid approach can be used with each pedal
Each of the pedals in the series has switchable bypass. Simply hold down the footswitch for a couple of seconds to alternate between both. You will find all of the connections on the top of the pedals, with each taking 9V from a pedalboard power supply. The 4-in-1 Series pedals are all made in the USA, and they are available now, priced £215 / $199.
See Keeley Electronics for more details. And check out the demo videos at the top of the page to hear how they sound.
