Acquired a Keeley Modded Blues Driver and More

[NeavesTheKnight]

Hey Gang, Like the subject lines says. Got me a Keeley modded BD-2 and also a Boss Wazacraft BD-2.
They both sound fantastic and will keeping both of them.
The Keeley is missing what Boss calls the “Bottom Foot” the rubber pad on the bottom of the pedal where the serial number normally is located.

I was able to remove the Velcro and the old adhesive/leftover rubber from the rubber pad that’s been long gone. I have some on order with Boss but I do have a question. There is a light coating of a light gray paint? On these back plates. Using goo gone and a paint scraper I was able to remove the old substances but I have removed that coating. Does anyone know what it is? I’d like to perhaps reapply some before attaching the rubber pad back on.

Additionally using both of these BD-2 versions together is an awesome combination and they compliment each other very well!

If anyone has an older style BD-2 box available I’d be heavily interested in it as I’d like to house the Keeley in an original era box! I’m also looking for some of the other Keeley stuff that came inside when you’d buy one direct business card and sticker as well solid blue shipper box.

Anyway sounds awesome and am really enjoying it!

[zentropa]

Nice scores. I believe I did the Keeley BD-2 mods once about 15 years ago. If you really wanted to go through you could add the Keeley Super Phat Mod to the mix, as that is pretty much a clone of the Keeley modded BD-2 but with different matched transistors in the clipping section.

[NeavesTheKnight]

Awesome! Did you keep any of the pedals you modded?
I believe the mod of my Keeley is the Super Phat Mod
Sounds great! I like both the Waza and Keeley better than what I remember hearing when I played the stock version years ago. Now my taste and what my ears like to hear could have changed so I have not went and found a stock pre smt versiom yet to play but if I find a good deal on one I’ll definitely try it out!

What were you experiences in regards to the tonal differences between all of these and the older stock version, Zen?

Nice scores. I believe I did the Keeley BD-2 mods once about 15 years ago. If you really wanted to go through you could add the Keeley Super Phat Mod to the mix, as that is pretty much a clone of the Keeley modded BD-2 but with different matched transistors in the clipping section.

[zentropa]

Awesome! Did you keep any of the pedals you modded?

I did not. Pedals are mostly a hobby for me. When I was last playing gigs, I used my amp for the dirt tone and I was doing rhythm guitar and vocals, so I didn't really do any boosting (TU-2 was my only pedal I used in my live rig back then). I tend to view dirt pedals as having their own identity, so if I want to sound like a DS-1, or an SD-1, or a TS, I use one of them. The modded pedals sounded "better" from a technical standpoint (lower noise, more note articulation/clarity, higher fidelity), but it would also take away the identity I was familiar with, so I sold them all.

I believe the mod of my Keeley is the Super Phat Mod
Sounds great! I like both the Waza and Keeley better than what I remember hearing when I played the stock version years ago. Now my taste and what my ears like to hear could have changed so I have not went and found a stock pre smt versiom yet to play but if I find a good deal on one I’ll definitely try it out!

What were you experiences in regards to the tonal differences between all of these and the older stock version, Zen?

For me, there are two distinct eras of the stock BD-2. There are the ones from the 90s and then at some point, I believe in the 2002-2005 range where something must have changed in the JFETs they used to clip. I found the 90s ones were great at riding the edge of break and took a lot to kick them over into any kind of saturation, like strumming really hard on the bridge pickup. The later ones I found kick over into saturation very easily. This made their behavior much more uniform, but they lost a lot of the touch sensitivity for inducing the overdriven tone when it came to how it felt to play them. For reference, I have owned about 25-30 stock ones, so while not a perfect representation, it is a moderate sample size to draw conclusions from. At some point I had one of each and I did an A/B with a newer and an older trying to dial them to sound the same. The older one with the gain maxed out was still harder to kick over than the newer one with the drive set to 8:30 and I wasn't able to dial them to get similar behavior.

The JB-2 and BD-2W are of the later type. For the record, I actually prefer playing the later type but I kept my older stock BD-2 since that is the tone and behavior that I identify as "being a BD-2."

If memory serves, the Fat mod BD-2 significantly reduced the noise floor and expanded the frequencies of the BD-2 on both ends. It made everything sound more clear and more hifi. It also seemed to reduce the warmth and smoothness a bit. I never really liked having the fat boost on since I primarily play humbuckers.

I believe the BD-2W has a similar type of fat mod, but I'm not sure if they did the cap/resistor value changes to the tone stack like an actually Keeley mod would do. I know they did enough changes to make it more articulate and clearer than the stock, which leads me to believe they may have changed from polyester/ceramic/carbon fiber to metal film components without doing significant changes to the values. These sound the most like what I think of as a later BD-2.

The Super Phat Mod pedal feels a lot more like an amp in a box. It saturates quite a bit more, but the saturation is very chewy. I would attribute this to the change in JFETs. I believe these primarily use metal film caps/resistors. I feel this is the least like a BD-2, but I like it quite a bit on its own.

After talking to a boutique amp builder a while ago, we discussed the differences between carbon fiber/ceramic components and metal film in a preamp or pedal circuit and he said that the component material changes have massive effects on the harmonic content of the signal. This was the missing piece for me that explained what I was always kind of discontent with when it came to my modded pedals vs. originals.

I hope this makes sense and doesn't come off like nonsensical rantings.

[NeavesTheKnight]

I can definitely dig what you’re saying about straight amp and guitar tone. Makes sense only keeping what is going to be usable for what you have

Wow! I never knew there was a change from the 90’s to early 2000’s with these! That makes me really want to try out an older one now too so I can compare especially since you kept if I read your response right the older stock ones.

I completely agree with your assessment of Keeley modded BD and its characteristics! Also with the component changes you mentioned and their effects on the tone it makes me wonder which I prefer, Lol

Tone can be complex ha ha

[zentropa]

I can definitely dig what you’re saying about straight amp and guitar tone. Makes sense only keeping what is going to be usable for what you have

Wow! I never knew there was a change from the 90’s to early 2000’s with these! That makes me really want to try out an older one now too so I can compare especially since you kept if I read your response right the older stock ones.

I completely agree with your assessment of Keeley modded BD and its characteristics! Also with the component changes you mentioned and their effects on the tone it makes me wonder which I prefer, Lol

Tone can be complex ha ha

It was after I switched to Gibson SGs and Marshall tube amps (and rhythm/vocals rather than lead guitar) that I went from having a lot of effects to mostly straight amp tone. My inner collector likes having a lot of pedals I like to be able to plug a pedal board into any amp and make a lot of sounds, so I have quite a few drives.

As for the older BD-2, I bought one new in 1998 that was the harder to kick over kind. I'm not really sure when the change happened, I just know all of the ones I have owned from the 90s played similarly and then at some point, maybe 2004 and later they changed significantly but all of the later ones played pretty similarly as well. When I got the first one it was to pair with a Strat and vintage Fender Twin Reverb and even with the gain maxed on the pedal it didn't really want to kick into saturation. I have a 1995 now and when I play a Les Paul through it, it kicks into saturation more easily with a hard strum, but it decays out of it really quickly, too. When I was evaluating between keeping a mint later one or my kind of beat 1995, I chose to keep the 95 since I considered it my memory of how I viewed the tone more than the later ones, namely feeling like it was constantly pushing the edge of break up. The later ones just hit full break up more easily and a lot more uniformly, which you can view as a strength or a weakness.

Yay for tonal memory. I think I did the Keeley BD-2 mod in the 2005-2008 range and I only played it for about an hour before deciding to sell it (I was selling the modded pedals for a profit). Oddly when I built my DOD collection last year, I had done an extensive shootout of all of the DOD dirt pedals in production in 1994 and I remember forming a hierarchy of them when I did this. When I tracked all of the pedals down I had shot out, the hierarchy was still exactly the same.

[NeavesTheKnight]

I can definitely dig what you’re saying about straight amp and guitar tone. Makes sense only keeping what is going to be usable for what you have

Wow! I never knew there was a change from the 90’s to early 2000’s with these! That makes me really want to try out an older one now too so I can compare especially since you kept if I read your response right the older stock ones.

I completely agree with your assessment of Keeley modded BD and its characteristics! Also with the component changes you mentioned and their effects on the tone it makes me wonder which I prefer, Lol

Tone can be complex ha ha

It was after I switched to Gibson SGs and Marshall tube amps (and rhythm/vocals rather than lead guitar) that I went from having a lot of effects to mostly straight amp tone. My inner collector likes having a lot of pedals I like to be able to plug a pedal board into any amp and make a lot of sounds, so I have quite a few drives.

As for the older BD-2, I bought one new in 1998 that was the harder to kick over kind. I'm not really sure when the change happened, I just know all of the ones I have owned from the 90s played similarly and then at some point, maybe 2004 and later they changed significantly but all of the later ones played pretty similarly as well. When I got the first one it was to pair with a Strat and vintage Fender Twin Reverb and even with the gain maxed on the pedal it didn't really want to kick into saturation. I have a 1995 now and when I play a Les Paul through it, it kicks into saturation more easily with a hard strum, but it decays out of it really quickly, too. When I was evaluating between keeping a mint later one or my kind of beat 1995, I chose to keep the 95 since I considered it my memory of how I viewed the tone more than the later ones, namely feeling like it was constantly pushing the edge of break up. The later ones just hit full break up more easily and a lot more uniformly, which you can view as a strength or a weakness.

Yay for tonal memory. I think I did the Keeley BD-2 mod in the 2005-2008 range and I only played it for about an hour before deciding to sell it (I was selling the modded pedals for a profit). Oddly when I built my DOD collection last year, I had done an extensive shootout of all of the DOD dirt pedals in production in 1994 and I remember forming a hierarchy of them when I did this. When I tracked all of the pedals down I had shot out, the hierarchy was still exactly the same.

Having a simple great guitar tone I think is what all
Of us really want but drive pedals can make it like
You have a bunch of different amps all at once, Lol
Too
Much temptation that’s for sure ha ha

Dude I love the DOD stuff too. I have a couple.
An Yngwie 308 and a 20?? Yellow sparkle DOD 250 preamp.
Really cool pedals.

I had read on a forum that the BD-2 went through a transformation to make it ROHS compliant and that’s where the change took place was in the early to mid 2000’s.
So that would explain the difference that you clearly explained! Really cool tonal memory you got Zen!

[zentropa]

Having a simple great guitar tone I think is what all
Of us really want but drive pedals can make it like
You have a bunch of different amps all at once, Lol
Too
Much temptation that’s for sure ha ha

Dude I love the DOD stuff too. I have a couple.
An Yngwie 308 and a 20?? Yellow sparkle DOD 250 preamp.
Really cool pedals.

I had read on a forum that the BD-2 went through a transformation to make it ROHS compliant and that’s where the change took place was in the early to mid 2000’s.
So that would explain the difference that you clearly explained! Really cool tonal memory you got Zen!

Good info on the ROHS compliance. I forgot that was something separate from the CE thing from the 90s. I remember a big switch with ROHS was going to lead-free solder.

The drive pedal thing is funny for me because I think I have over 100 drive pedals. At the same time, most of them cannot beat out any of my Marshalls or 5150 for the dirty tone, although a good number of them excel at boosting those amps. I think I just have fun with all of the different tonal varieties.

My first pedal board I got in early 1995 and it was a DOD PRC-6. I ran an FX53 Classic Tube, FX59 Thrash Master, FX40B Equalizer, FX68 Super Stereo Chorus, FX20B Stereo Phaser, and FX75B Stereo Flanger in its final form, although it took me many iterations to reach that. Funny thing about that time is that I remember trying the Marshall Bluesbreaker and Guv'nor back then, as well as the Nobels ODR-1 and I remember absolutely hating them. When I saw all of them had come back into popularity and was building my history of rock pedal board, I tried them all again and still disliked them for the same reasons. Weird how that goes.

[zentropa]

I should note that my amp collection is heavily driven by their investment potential. UK and USA built amps that I am hoping will be worth more in the future. I treat many of my pedals in the same way. While I do play all of them at least occasionally, I think of them more as my retirement fund, but a lot more fun and ideally less volatile than stocks.

[bigtone23]

This is interesting.
When the BD2 came out in the 90s, I didn't like it much. It was too hairy/raw for my tastes.
However, I usually played a Mesa MKIIC+, MKIII or Dual Rec and generated the drive from the amp. My non Mesa choice was a modded Marshall 2203 (extra tube gain stage added). These all were more 'refined' sounding.
When not playing those, it was usually a '74 Big Muff (V2) into either a 72 Orange OR120 or 78 OD120, which was more hairy and raw, but different from the BD2.
Fast forward about 15 years and I come across a Dec 2000 BD2 that only worked on battery, not power supply. I picked it up for $15 because I knew the issue had to be the diode in the power section. Sure enough, it was. $2 fix. I played it a bit, and it's the cleaner version that goes overboard when you hit it. I decided to try a reduced Phat Mod. Wasn't interested in all of the component changes, just the switchable low boost. Added the switchable low end and a green LED and liked the pedal more. Funny that the BD2 thing, which what was not my cup of tea 25 years ago, sounds pretty good now. haha. I do play with slightly less gain than I did back then, so it makes sense.
However, those 3 Mesas are still my favorite dirt tone. I just backed off the gain knobs about 2 numbers. Same with the Marshall, that 2203 is long gone, but the DSL50 that replaced it, on green crunch mode, is my jam.