Keeley Electronics is now shipping the Katana Blues Drive, featuring active tone controls and “layered” overdrive.
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This pedal is based on the company’s popular Katana Boost pedal, with some modifications for improved overdrive tones at lower volume levels.
According to the company, this pedal is designed to capture the touch sensitivity and dynamics of tube overdrive while allowing the full tonal range of your guitar signal to pass through.
To achieve this, they have taken the JFET stages of the Katana Boost pedal and mixed it with a special overdrive circuit that showcases the company’s experience with overdrive pedal modifications.
Said to be 13 years in the making, Keeley Electronics combined their experience, expertise and customer feedback to build the Katana Blues Drive. They describe the pedal has having rich, thick and transparent tone.
The pedal is equipped with basic controls for adjusting the output level and drive, allowing for tones from slightly dirty to medium-gain. The description speaks of a special overdrive circuit that creates “layers” of overdrive, but not much else was explained about it. Two “Active” tone shaping knobs are also provided for improved control over the highs and lows frequencies.
Check out the official video demo to see and hear the pedal in action.
The company says, “The Keeley Katana Blues Drive is our most expressive and musically inspirational overdrive pedal to date.“. And from what we can gather from the demo video, it appears that they have a reason to be proud of this new pedal.
Based on the name of the pedal and the color configuration, it is easy to follow the dots and make connection with the Boss Blues Driver. With the recent release of the Waza Craft Blues Driver, it would be interesting to see how these two blue pedals would fare in the market.
Like all their other pedals, the Katana Blues Drive is hand-crafted in the USA, and housed in a rugged metal enclosure. To be easily distinguishable from other Keeley pedals, the chassis is wrapped in blue powder-coated finish.
The new Katana Blues Drive pedal is currently available for $199. You can visit Keeley Electronics for more information.
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