Amazing sounding, compact, powerful and easy to use

Extremely accurate recreations of classic reverb and tremolo sounds. I use it in front of a Quilter Aviator to add the classic sounds. It add real fullness to the sound.

Love the sounds from this pedal! Was looking for something with a calm/peaceful sound, and this one took the cake. Shout out to Andy for recommending a tremolo pedal, otherwise, I wouldn't have even thought to look at this pedal.

I've been searching for something to sweeten up my already good guitar sound. I play primarily a Fender Mustang 90 with a pair of Seymour Duncan Antiquity P-90's with a blender pot, all USA switches, pots, caps, well shielded cavity into a electro Harmonix Soul Food dirt pedal, now the Keeley Hydra, Boss RC-5 looper, Dunlop volume pedal, all into a 70's Silverface Fender Princeton Reverb with a Weber 10 alnico speaker.

I've tried a boat load of modulation pedals over the years: Fulltone Deja vibe, all the MXR phase pedals, Boss chorus pedals including the Waza Craft, Wampler Julia, etc. all are gone now...

The Hydra pedal just SOUNDS good! I can't emphasize this enough. The verbs and trems all sound great. I'm just scratching the surface on this pedals many variables, loving it so far. I think the plate verb with a little dwell to produce subtle trails sounds So Cool! It's also very quiet. That's important to me I play quiet venues, art galleries, restaurants, etc.

Beautiful stereo reverbs and a great tremolo that can adjust to a very slow side to side pan. Highly recommended.

I bought this pedal expecting not to use the reverb size. I was looking for a harmonic tremolo with expression pedal connectivity and presets. Check and check. I have a Princeton Reverb that just sounds so lush and right that I assumed I'd have no use for the reverb side.

The spring reverb setting sounds somehow more real than my amp's actual spring tank. And since it has so many adjustable attributes, you can dial it in just the way you want it. It's clear, lush, can be drippy when pushed, and just sounds stellar. Not to mention the plate, shimmer, and room settings. The reverb is phenomenal.

The main thing I bought it for, the harmonic tremolo, is as good as my Harmonious Monk which it was intended to replace. I expected it to lag behind the HM tonally but I'm happy to report that I don't find that to be the case. Add in the presets and expression pedal functionality and you have an incredible performance tool. The other trem/vibrato settings also do what they do very well.

This form factor sits easily next to my Halo. It packs a LOT of functionality into a small, pedalboard-friendly package. Absolutely love it. It's always on and has become the base of my tone.

One complaint is that the control layout and alt-knob functionality is not as intuitive as the Halo. The Halo was shockingly easy to use and program given the immense amount of functionality in the pedal. The Hydra is clearly and earlier iteration of this type of design and control layout. Robert Keeley himself has acknowledged that it's not ideal. That said, those additional features are essentially set-and-forget in my experience. No points off given everything else that the pedal excels at.

This is an awesome pedal. Love it. It gives me flavors of reverb and trem I was looking for!

Going from almost hating reverb. To this being in my top 3 favorite pedals all time. This pedal has absolutely blown my mind. This will
Be on my pedal board.

Overly complicated interface, and reverbs honestly don't sound very inspiring. I was really looking forward to trying this pedal because it seemed like the perfect answer to some alternatives that have been around forever and a day. Came up short for me.

I had a reverb pedal I really liked (Keeley Aurora) and was looking for a tremolo pedal that could do both sine and harmonic tremolo. Seeing this I realized instead of expanding my board, I could just replace the Aurora with this. Once on my board, I appreciated how nice the interface is. It strikes a great balance between being tweakable and not too tweakable. At first I didn't expect to use the presets, but now that I have it, it's a feature that gets used often. Overall the sound quality is great and the form factor is amazing. If my pedalboard was stolen, this would be one of the first pedals I would buy again.

I saw so many glowing reviews for the Hydra and it combines my two favorite effects, reverb and tremolo. When I got it, I tried using it different ways, in effects loop of HX Stomp, direct inputs (stereo), into the front end and effects loop of both tube and solid state amps (Mono). But I was ultimately disappointed.

The tremolo types have a wider stereo spread, while the reverb is clustered around the dry signal, and smothers it. Adjusting secondary functions helps a little, but the reverb does not spread out in the stereo field and support the actual guitar tone. It's also very "brassy", and the spring, plate, and room reverbs all sound like variations of a spring reverb.

This issue carries over into using it with an amp. Even in mono the reverb is focused and tight on the guitar tone and makes it sound jumbled and unclear. I think this pedal is good for one sound, and that's a swampy spring reverb combined with tremolo. People who want to play surf and cowboy movie themes should love it. I expected more versatility from a pedal claiming 3 reverbs and 3 tremolo sounds.

The build quality is obviously there, so it's really too bad about the sound.

I sent messages to Keeley asking if this was normal for this pedal. No response. I took a week to spend time with it and understand all of its controls and functions, only to discover on the Keeley website that you only have 48 hours to evaluate and return. My fault for not finding that sooner. So it will be going up for sale, and I'll lose some money but at least I know what to avoid in the future.

Sounds great but trying to figure it out is confusing.

I've had the Keeley Hydra for several month now and have had a chance to play with it in both M/stereo configuration. The quality of the effects is very high and to have them together is great! It will really bring out your creativity and I highly recommend it. Sweetwater music is the only place I shop for gear period! The knowledge of the staff is wonderful and there willingness to help is refreshing.

I upgraded from the TC Electronics Pipeline and the MXR reverb not because I didn't like the tones in either pedal, but because I needed to find a smaller footprint while achieving a stereo path. The Hydra did that and more. Once you understand the functionality of the primary controls and the secondary controls (accessed by holding down the color knob) it becomes second nature. If for nothing else, the Harmonic Tremolo is a really great addition. I do miss not having the choppy tremolo you can get on the Pipeline. Still, a really well made and tone filled pedal.

This is a great sounding and I love that it is has two effects in one pedal! Saves space on my pedal board! I highly recommend it! And Sweetwater is the best place to get whatever you need. And Lindsey is a knowledgeable and friendly sales person. Thanks Sweetwater! You folks rock!

Len Perry

What's important to most people: the spring reverb actually sounds real enough you expect it to "crash" if you kick it, there's a shimmer verb, the tremolos sound so good (especially the pitch vibrato!), and there are presets!

What's important to me: all of the above, and the pedal is a reasonable size, draws a reasonable amount of current, and in stereo, the tremolo actually PANS - something the Strymon Flint is unfortunately lacking.

This is a great pedal, and I really expect them to become a staple once they catch on.

Fun and easy to use pedal for reverb and tremolo duty. Offers a lot of adjustment for non-standard levels of reverb and trem.

The demos you've heard are accurate. Great sounds generally.
I wanted a hint of vibrato more than anything but that effect seems to thin-out your core tone.
This seems especially true when used in full stereo. (As opposed to dual mono or one side mono modes).

I also wanted the preset feature but that is an overly involved implementation.
Two quick taps with the tremolo footswitch followed by multiple taps with the reverb to get where you want, followed by yet another tap of the tremolo to engage. If you linger with that last tap you will be overwriting the preset instead. If you don't do that last tap soon enough, the preset mode will time out.

I'll keep this pedal for a while and try to get used to it because stereo reverb, trem. and vibrato are exactly what I was looking for - for 'spaghetti western' and Americana use. Bonus points for harmonic tremolo.

Really great pedal regardless of your needs. You can get washy ambient tones with shimmer, big cavernous verbs, or classic drippy spring reverbs. This thing is killer in stereo due to the panning and wet dry features. Love it.