Amongst pedal enthusiasts, the name Keeley isn’t thrown around lightly.
They’re often seen as the holy grail of pedals, something to have on your board forever. Begun by Robert Keeley, an electrical engineer, in 2001, Keeley have gone on to produce pedals that appear time and time again on the pedalboards of both the world’s best players, and local legends the world over. Supremely accessible for the quality of sound, Keeley’s compressors took the world by storm for their ability to really wrangle your tone into place without the unpleasant artefacts of other compressors. Heavy, audible, blown-out compression is still available on the Keeley compressors, but still provide entirely balanced, enjoyable above all musical, compression.
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Keeley’s pedals overall are equal parts workhorse and specialty sound, performing both utility tasks as well as having the flexibility to create unique, ear-catching sounds, and the Octa Psi (pronounced “Octa-Sy”) Transfigurating Fuzz fits right into all this logic.
Transfiguring is the art of changing form or appearance, while transfigurating is the art of transforming your tone taught to us by Robet Keeley.
Keeley Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz
The Keeley Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz is a stompbox, with routing and switching options for order of the onboard octave and fuzz, as well as expression, and also allowing you to switch the fuzz or octave off separately. With five knobs and couple o’ switches, the Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz is ready to be your one-stop-shop for fuzzed-out tones.
The Octa Psi is a transistor-based fuzz, so while your tone is hard-clipped and flattened, you’ll maintain clarity and presence without the tone devolving into a muddy, blown-out mess. Transistor fuzzes retain the mid-forward character of modern guitar tones and sit well within an arrangement without overwhelming the mix; unless you want it to!
The top of the pedal allows you to plug in and out of the pedal, as well as having a remote switching input for toggling off the fuzz or octave independently. Another jack allows for either a TRS expression pedal, or for a TS switch to adjust the effect order from octave > fuzz or fuzz > octave. While I’m reasonably devout in my choice to almost always choose octave first, so my game-esque, flattened and attenuated tone can then be squashed and fuzzed to my liking, it’s nice to have the option! When the studio calls, we never really know what will work best until we’re in the thick of it. The top panel also features a 9V DC power input.
The main face of the fuzz is where the fun begins, with simple ‘Fuzz’, ‘Level’ and ‘Tone’ controls to adjust the fuzz to your liking. The ‘Pitch’ control is stepped and allows you to adjust the pitch bending, octave and harmoniser elements of the pedal. You can add the selected harmony above, below or both! The Octa Psi features a momentary mode for things like dive-bombs and multi-octave bends, or anything else your imagination and creativity can conjure up. This is a great time to use that expression pedal input! The Blend knobs also allows you to adjust the higher and lower pitch-shifted sounds, when in Dual mode, i.e. allowing you to mix between more or less high and lower harmonies are you please!
Some additional, transfiguration tone controls are available on the fuzz side of things with a three way switch to jumbo between Scoop, Punch, or Psi, these shape and refine your tone overall. Built like a tank, the Octa Psi can be used as your go-to fuzz, as well as offering more expansive effects for those unique moments of crescendo in songs and solos.
The Octa Psi is more than a pitch shifting and/or fuzz pedal. It can be a great solution for more classic octave fuzz sounds, but the capabilities available allow it to be a glitchy, spacey and gritty sound design tool. The ‘Bend’ and ‘Pitch’ controls can quickly transform your guitar or bass into sounding like a soothing, spacious and lush pad, or alternatively like a grating, uncomfortable tension builder as well if need be! Best of all, the Keeley Octa Psi tracks exceptionally well, some pitch shifting designs adding latency. This, plus the dive bomb capabilities, allow you to replace any pitch or whammy-style effects in your chain, and couple them with an all around great sounding transistor based fuzz!
The Octa Psi is much more powerful than its subdued, polite enclosure might let you believe. This is the result of years of innovation, design, and re-invention, effectively providing two world class pedals in one box, albeit two effects often used side by side. The pitch-shifting is so good, in fact, that the conventional signal chain of octave into fuzz provides a more useable sound than ever, whereas in the past this mightn’t have been such a defined, in-four-face and harmonically rich tone option.
Robert Keeley has stated himself this is the pedal to be his legacy piece, and he’s only gone and done it! The Octa Psi serves as both the reliable utility, small format stompbox that Keeley is known for, as well as a tech-filled, inspired pedal that’s bursting with creativity. The pitch shifting tracks perfectly, the fuzz is transfigurative, and the pedal was worth every minute of work that led Keeley to the finished product we’re exploring today. It’ll transform your approach to pitch and fuzz.
For more info, keep reading or shop at Keeley Electronics.
