HI HO SILVER
With a number of fuzz flavours in the Keeley line, the ‘Silver Bullet’ is tagged as a ‘lower priced, but equally impressive sister to the Black Glass series of Bender style fuzz pedals. The Black Glass is a limited edition Germanium styled Fuzz that features the super rare OC81D transistor so the nicer price in a similar vein idea seems like a good one. Coming in a hip Cowgirl graphic, the looks certainly keep with the ‘Silver Bullet’ name and like its bigger/ pricier sister, this cowgirl is also a limited run. Under the hood Keeley has utilised NOS Soviet Transistors for that classic Tone Bender type sound whilst on the pedal there are controls for tone, fuzz and level. A major winner is the fact that the pedal runs on a 9-volt center negative power, which is quite standard unlike a lot of fuzzes that take obscure power supplies and voltages.
FUZZY
The Tone Bender is known as one of the holy grail fuzz pedals thanks to its big sustain and back catalogue of classic tracks that have employed its powers. Keeley has aimed to recreate this almighty sound with the focus on a sandwich of two silicon transistors and one germanium transistor and the results sound pretty darn good. At lower fuzz settings you get some honky warmth, especially when played with fingers whilst you can then ramp it up to get into thicker more raucous sounds. The beauty of the Silver Bullet is the smoothness that feels and sounds great yet still has some presence and punch. Tweaking the tone control really rolls through a range of sonic options too making it easy to dial in settings with different guitars – slightly brighter with darker humbuckers or adding some rounded oomph to single coils for instance.
BULLET PROOF
As always the proof is in the sound and the Silver Bullet really seems to deliver. Squashy and spongy, it’s more of a classic take rather than a modern edgy fuzz. Great for rock, punk, indie, psychedelic and experimental tones, it seems super useable. Plus the limited run gives you an extra little feeling of having something special. Another cool pedal from Mr. Keeley and his crew – keep pumping out the designs I say!
For more details, head to robertkeeley.com.
