Keeley Oxblood Overdrive Pedal Reviews
In an age of endless pedal clones, the Keeley Oxblood Overdrive stands alone. This all-new, all-weather dirt box was born from the dirty minds of Robert Keeley, Craighton Hale, and Jack Orman, and was built to outperform every low- to moderate-gain drive pedal on the market. Two switchable diodes and a generous range of gain provide everything from whistle-clean boosting to moderate tube loosening to high-intensity naval gazing with fuzz-like sustain. The Phat switch controls bass to mimic two wickedly popular green and gold overdrive types, and the highly musical Tone control tames ice picks and highlights harmonics as you see fit.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Wow
Title says it all. Had never heard of this pedal until I saw a Sweetwater video on YouTube comparing different "klone" pedals…aka: transparent overdrive pedals.
Only two made me rewind the video to listen again, this being one of them. I am beyond happy with my choice. Just wow. My 60's Les Paul standard sounds like a monster through the front of my 5150 iconic 80w on clean settings.
Excellent drive pedal
I have a Friedman little sister, which is a single channel amp. I have it set to the edge of breakup, and this Oxblood acts almost like a second channel with a lot more gain. It still sounds like my amp, but with a lot more dirt.
This pedal took me a bit to get dialed in, and there are definitely some settings that sound good, but once I found the right setting, WOW it sounded good. I have both the gain and volume at 11 o clock, and the tone at 2:30. Both switched flipped to the right. It sounds massive and makes for a fantastic medium gain drive when pushing the front end of my amp.
Brought my Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb to life!
I recently bought the new Fender Tone Master DR, primarily bc I'm overseas and wanted a dual-voltage lightweight amp. I'll do a full review over on its own page, but I was a bit underwhelmed with it initially. It wasn't bad, but wasn't inspiring either. I tried a few other pedals (Lovepedal OD11, JHS Morning Glory) to get a nice warm singing tone at lower volumes. The OD11 is good, but changed the tone completely and is a heavier tone. The Morning Glory put some fizz on the high end I wasn't crazy about.
I dialed this Oxblood in at 12 o'clock across the board and it sounded great! A few tweaks and within a couple minutes I had forgotten about knobs and switches and was enjoying playing. Isn't that the ultimate goal? I go for a low-gain, warm but clear, singing tone. This pedal has me excited again and I'm looking forward to plugging it into my Goodsell Super 17!
As always, big shout to Ben Rys for always taking care of me at Sweetwater.
What a pedal
Best gain pedal I've used. Really great for light tone shaping and controlling the little bit of push you get from your amp.i prefer it with low gain amp tones but I love it!
Just stomp and go!
So I checked out the YouTube videos on this Oxblood and was very impressed.I own several other Keeley pedals, so I had NO apprehensions with purchasing this pedal. It's on my board next to my Red Dirt. THIS FREAK'IN PEDAL IS A BEAST ALL IT'S OWN! Sustain with the strength of a stear, sweet mid-tone tasties, and with a boost that could charge a Matador's red cap (or Red Dirt)...
Amazingly Versatile
One of the more satisfying pedals I've acquired ... the range of this stompbox is impressive ... from clean boost all the way to very saturated distortion ... the 2 switches double the ranges for EQ and output levels (if you move the Clipping switch to the right, be prepared to hit your amp really hard; remarkable increase in output) ... even with this much versatility, the controls remain simple and intuitive ...
The character of tone and quality of distortion makes this a pedal that will stay on the board ... it really hits the spot for what I want in the way of distortion ... I've tried a number of OD/Dist pedals and each one had good aspects and but were missing "something" ... I think I finally found what I was hearing in my head ...
This pedal delivers ...
Klon Killer!
This is a really great addition to everyone's overdrive pedals...
Unique Thick & Rich Overdrive/Distortion Tones
Wow! With the Phat switch engaged, the Keeley Oxblood has a unique throaty vocal-like tone of a character that I have not heard in any other overdrive/distortion pedal. Although this particular signature sound is likely to be too thick for keeping on all the time in a band context -- or with other instruments in a sequence -- it is tons of fun to play, providing an addicting vibe that inspires the guitarist to discover a variety of satisfyingly beefy riffs. Yet switching off the Phat switch yields fairly typical overdrive and distortion tones that will sit well within the context of a full mix.
A winning combination with the Oxblood is the Moog MF Flange with the "type" toggle set to the lower position for a low vocal-like flanging effect -- Thick and swirly as molasses syrup!
My one wish for this pedal (perhaps in an upcoming version II ?) is to swap the 2-way Phat switch out for a 3-position toggle or potentiometer so that a somewhat less Phat tone could be dialed in. You kind of have to choose between no phatness and a whole lotta phatness. But really, the Oxblood is all about that thick phat character, so might as well pour it on!
Cheap Keeper
I went through ten pedals to replace my Klon($1300? ridiculous and sold!)
This and the Cornish OC-1 do the job. This is not a clean boost pedal, but it does a great job of "hitting the front end harder without sounding like a TS." Very versatile, can be used in front or behind distortion, its smalll and dirt cheap for what it does.
Nice ride
I've only used it once but it seems it'll do the trick. Gives the amp front end a nice push when you need it.
Just A Bit TOO Compressed
In the lower settings, this sounds very much like a K pedal and in the upper drive range, you can get some good overdriven sounds. The phat switch was interesting in that I wish that it was a three way phat switch with a Goldilocks setting in the middle. The pedal sounds ok to pretty good when pushing a breaking up amp, but it was just too compressed with my main guitar (humbuckers). The clipping option was nice as well, but with so many good Keeley choices as well as many other pedals, I opted to send this one back.
I think this would work really well with a single coil guitar into a mildly breaking up Deluxe Reverb or mid scooped amp.
Conflicted
I'm a bit conflicted about this review. I really like the Oxblood drive, but I won't ever purchase another Keeley product again.
I ordered the Oxblood a few years ago. It came in with a faulty switch. I immediately contacted Keeley about it. They told me to ship it back with $35 and they would fix it. So for additional shipping plus another $35 they would fix a pedal that NEVER should have been shipped. Essentially, if I wanted a working pedal I had no choice but to pay their ransom.
In my opinion, this is not how a reputable company behaves.
Too Compressed and Nasal
I really wanted to like this pedal. In some settings the tone was OK, but in all the Phat setting was either too fat or too thin. I wanted a setting in the middle that still would be able to keep some lows, but not as many as the Phat brought in. The clipping setting was good allowing either open or compressed. Overall though, the tone was just too congested as the mids just felt like mids with a helping of mids. Maybe a really large stage with a large cranked twin would've helped.
