XVIII Germanium Overdrive

We took our best-selling Oxblood Germanium Overdrive and dipped it in a pink candy coating to celebrate 18 years of inspired tone!

We’ve taken out the compression and added a germanium transistor to the output.  Bolder and Smoother!  With less compression now, the XVIII Germanium Overdrive sounds more like a true “tube-amp” and flattens out the mid-range. Next we couldn’t help adding a touch of our favorite germanium transistor!  This takes out any hardness from the release of compression.  I call it perfection.

Oh, and these are 100% hand built.  The craftsmen and designers at Keeley wanted this to be our finest and loudest moment, so we made it in a candy pink color scheme.

The XVIII Germanium Overdrive is our response to everyone cloning the “Mythical Beast” pedal. We decided to build an original design. We wanted to build a new circuit that lets players blend from perfectly clean to amp-crushing roar.  We wanted that impossibly huge and focused midrange that makes any guitar–Strat, Paul, Tele–sound incredible.  We knew we could do it our way and offer you more tone.

Light OD, Distortion, Fuzz — It’s All There

With the XVIII Germanium Overdrive you roll off the Drive Control and get a cleaner sound; you can dial in any amount of distortion and volume to stomp an amp into pure tonal Nirvana.  The Keeley XVIII Germanium Overdrive offers you two ways to clip and saturate your signal with overtones by selecting carefully chosen diodes. These are different than our standard Oxblood.  These diodes were chosen to give you bigger, more open amp tones without a lot of compression.

The key to the ultimate overdrive, in our opinion, is the ability to control five different parameters.

• Bass response.  The Phat Switch cuts bass response to give you that classic Screamer or that mythic, K-like midrange shelving.  The bass response, when cut, is saturated with a hint of 2nd order harmonics.  Punchy and full yet not overbearing, it cuts like a buffalo. What can I say?
• Clipping.  Sometimes there just ain’t enough gain in the world.  Well, not so with this beast. The Clipping Switch gives you the ability to sing with near infinite sustain or just stand on your amp like a chief.  You get honest amp tones with just the right amount of germanium transistor to smooth things over.
• Tone Control.  You need to be able to dial in the highs perfectly or nothing else matters, right?  The highs are what make it ear candy or ice picks.  Heck, we give you the range to do whatever the heck you want to do. And that’s a two-heck sentence.
• Volume.  You have to be able to put the pedal to the metal whenever you darn well chose.  Voltage doubling in our circuit gives you just that.  Headroom for days.  Slay an amp, leave it a bloody mess.  No, you won’t blow tubes, but you will have them at the right temperature to make them glow with delight.
• Drive.  What? You want me to describe Drive?  Shoot, from “Is it ON?” cleans to searing sustain and saturation.  It pushes you.  Compels you to play.  Non-stop playing….
• Midrange.  Wait.  Didn’t I say 5?  Well, the 6th sign of a wonderful overdrive pedal is what’s under the hood.  It’s masterful creation of sultry mids.  The kind of mids singers or cellos are known for.  Throaty and powerful.  Not just a meek tone, but a manly roar.  Not congested and stuffed up.  Focused and brilliant.

Trifecta

The XVIII Germanium Overdrive was designed by Robert Keeley and Craighton Hale with a lot of help and insight from Jack Orman.  Jack Orman has been a pioneer in the modern world of effects for 20 years.  His thoughts and ideas are incorporated by nearly every boutique builder out there.  Here is your chance to hear a brand new creation designed to outperform any of the clones.