Keeley Tone Workstation Preamp Pedal Overview
Vintage Compressor with Blend. 1962 British Amp – Katana Clean Boost. Red Dirt – Mid-Voiced Saturation
The front end of your signal chain – this is where your tone develops, and as such, the first stage of amplification is critical for a sound that has clarity and delivers expressive tone. Compression, Drive, Overdrive, Boost: you get it all here. The Tone Workstation is designed to be the first stage in your pedal board. It may even be the only pedal you bring to a gig!
Starting with the classic Keeley Compressor, you can build a nice, thick tone full of sustain. Adjust the Sustain control for increased compression or squeeze. The Blend control allows for a Manhattan-style compression, keeping the sound lively and crisp as you blend in your natural guitar tone - perfect for adding a little bit of bite back in with high output pickups or humbuckers. In addition, the Treble Boost switch can be engaged to further increase the treble and sparkle into the signal when using lots of compression. The attack and release times are pre-set in this compressor and are set for use with humbuckers or single coils.
Next up is the 1962/Katana Boost section, where you can select a sound with just the right amount of break up, or use it in Boost mode, for that clean, pushed amp-style overdrive. First, the 1962 is our British amp-style overdrive, which is full and even sounding with a moderate amount of crunch. But, decide you just want the famous Katana Clean push? No worries. Just a flick of the switch and you have it: pure clean, tube tone. In the Katana Mode, only the volume works; the Tone and Drive are disabled. It’s a clean sound people say you just can’t turn off.
Last in the chain is Keeley's renowned Red Dirt overdrive where you get 15 years of modding tube screamers distilled into one toneful circuit. Also featuring a JFET front end, the Red Dirt has the perfect amount of crucial midrange coupled with the option to go all the way from clean and clear to super-saturated gain, times two! The Red Dirt circuit captures every nuance of your guitar’s tone and delivers a classic, smoking hot, silky smooth lead tone.
