If variety is the spice of life, then and pedals are certainly the spiciest category of effects pedals. The variety of new distortion and overdrive pedals introduced each year far outnumbers that of any other stompbox category and perhaps even all the other categories combined, although most new overdrive and distortion pedals are usually variations on previous themes that offer little that is truly new. However, Keeley Electronics’ recently introduced 4-in-1 series pedals do indeed offer something guitarists haven’t really seen before.
Combining two distinct effects in a single box, Keeley’s 4-in-1 pedals feature switches that allow users to mix and match the tone and drive sections of each effect to provide four different character and textural personalities. We took a look at the Angry Orange distortion/ , Blues Disorder overdrive/distortion and Super Rodent overdrive/distortion. Keeley also offers the 4-in-1 Noble Screamer overdrive/boost.
The 4-in-1 pedals all share identical configurations with Tone, Level and Drive knobs, Tone and Drive setting mini toggle switches on the top panel and mono 1⁄4-inch input and output jacks on the rear panel. Each pedal can only be powered via 9-18 VDC center negative power jack (no battery operation). In addition to providing standard effect on/off functions, the footswitch can also toggle between buffered and true bypass operation by holding down the footswitch for two seconds.
The LED (which tastefully matches each pedal’s o.
