Keeley Electronics is an American manufacturer of

effect unit An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...

s for

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

s. The company, founded by Robert Keeley and operating from

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

, started with the Keeley Compressor pedal along with modifications for effects by

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

and

Ibanez is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as ...

History

After graduating in electrical engineering from the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

, Robert Keeley started his company from his home in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

in 2001. He initially hoped to build

guitar amplifier A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce sound through one or more loudspeakers, which a ...

s (he tweaked his father's Peavey Deuce), but found the market "highly saturated and becoming more so every day". Instead, while teaching at a small technical college and employing "some of his best students", he rebuilt and modified old effects units, starting with a Ross compressor. The industry for makers of hand-built effects at the time had few major players (Keeley named Mike Piera of Analog Man and Mike Fuller from Fulltone as his only competitors), and his business soon took off, aided by a reputation for quality and customers such as

Brad Paisley Bradley Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting with his 1999 debut album ''Who Needs Pictures'', he has released eleven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashvil ...

. Rebuilt versions of the Ibanez TS9 were used by

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...

Jon Herington Jon Herington (born Jonathan Reuel Herington on April 14, 1954) is an American guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and session musician. Career Herington was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and grew up in West Long Branch, New Jersey ...

and

Ike Willis Isaac Willis (born November 12, 1955) is an American vocalist and guitarist who was a regular member of Frank Zappa's studio and touring bands from 1978 until the last tour in 1988. He did not tour with Zappa in 1981 and 1982 because he wanted ...

; Keeley said he got his ideas for improving and tweaking existing effect pedals by reading commentary on various forums for guitar players. Since then, he develops his own pedals, starting with a boost pedal; his most popular effect is a

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...

(first built in 2001), selling more than 27,000 copies. According to ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...

'', Keeley Electronics has grown into "one of the world’s top sellers of guitar effects pedals". Keeley claims that part of his success is due to carefully selecting electronic components with low tolerance. They opened up a second factory, where they make flight cases and

guitar pickups A pickup is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instru ...

; in 2009, the company briefly moved production of effect pedals there after a fire in the first factory. Keeley still builds custom-ordered and modified effects; assignments include tweaking an

MXR Phase 90 The MXR Phase 90 is a phaser effects pedal introduced in 1972 by MXR. History The Phase 90 was the first pedal sold by MXR and helped launch the company in 1974. The original model had a simple orange enclosure with a script style MXR logo. In ...

for

Donald Fagen Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an American musician best known as the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner Walter Becker. In addition to his w ...

and building a combined distortion/blues driver/wah for

Neil Zaza Neil Zaza is an American guitarist known for his instrumental rock compositions as well as his adaptation of classical works by Bach and Mozart into his own blend of neo-classical, melodic, guitar instrumentals. Biography Neil Zaza was born in A ...

Notable products

*Compressor *Dark Side, a multi-effect unit inspired by the work of

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...

and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

. *Framptone, an amplifier switcher and

talk box A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sou ...

developed in cooperation with Peter Frampton *Fuzz Head, a

fuzzbox Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Distortion is most commonly ...

*Katana Clean Boost, Keeley's first self-made pedal, is a pre-amplifier used by

Billy Gibbons William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...

and

Dan Spitz Daniel Alan Spitz (born January 28, 1963) is an American musician best known for his work as the lead guitarist of the thrash metal band Anthrax from 1983 to 1995 and from 2005 to 2008. Spitz also founded the Christian music group Red Lamb, w ...

*Loomer, containing fuzz and

reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...

in one pedal. Its name and design were influenced by a song by the

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...

band My Bloody Valentine *Luna Overdrive, containing a Baxandall tone circuit, an op-amp, and a

JFET The junction-gate field-effect transistor (JFET) is one of the simplest types of field-effect transistor. JFETs are three-terminal semiconductor devices that can be used as electronically controlled switches or resistors, or to build amplifiers. ...

circuit "voiced like a Fender or Marshall preamplifier circuit" *Phaser, a six-stage

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

Phaser

Modifications

*Boss BD-2 Blues Driver *Ibanez Tube Screamer *Mello Wah, modification to

Dunlop Cry Baby The Dunlop Cry Baby is a popular wah-wah pedal, manufactured by Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. The name Cry Baby was from the original pedal from which it was copied, the Thomas Organ/ Vox Cry Baby wah-wah, first manufactured in 1966. Thomas Organ/ ...

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.robertkeeley.com Guitar effects manufacturing companies Guitar parts and accessories Companies based in Oklahoma City American companies established in 2001