Anyone having trouble getting a good sound from their Keeley Blues Driver?

I bought a Keeley BD about 2 months ago and I can't seem to get a good overdriven tone from it. I already have a TS-808 and a Marshall Bluesbreaker(first issue) and they both get a great overdrive. I bought the Blues Driver because of guys Mayer and Paisley have been known to use them and I do admire to tones that they get. Whenever I try to get a slight to dirty overdrive on this thing it has like a Hi-Fi sound to it with too much treble. In fact I usually have to turn the tone know almost all the way down when I use it. BTW, I am using a '62 strat and a '52 tele with a Super Reverb and an AC-30 so I've got some good stuff to use with it but I don't seem to have any luck with it. Does you guys have any setting suggestions for me? When I tried the Keeley ones, I was not impressed. Thanks in advance for any input.

No problems with mine. In fact it can be too bassy for my liking. I would contact Keeley about your dissatisfaction and see what he says.

Mine is a few years old and i still like it. No problems at all with it.

If I recall correctly, the Keeley mod removes the massive midrange hump and gives you a more linear EQ. Your amps are on the bright side of the tone spectrum to begin with and may require that you either set the amp tone differently, or use the pedal in a different manner than the others you have. This could be a good thing as having all your pedals sounding similar doesn't really get you as far as when they all sound different. That's variety man!

Try setting the drive lower and bring up the level a bit. It will give you less inherent treble and a lightly gritty sound. It may not sound like your other pedals, but that doesn't mean it's not a good, usable variation of what you already have.

Just trying to make "lemonade" here.

I'm ambivalent about my Keeley Blues Driver. The settings vary widely from guitar to guitar. I find that I like it best when it is adjusted to give only the slightest bit of distortion. I'm definitely not in love with it.

I had one for a week, and returned it. It seemed to spit at me on every setting, just gritty in a not-so-good way and harsh. I tried it with 3 different amps--at home and with the full band--got 3 varying results, but none to my liking.

I've heard some great tones from these things, but I couldn't coax one out of it.

I just got a Keeley BD2 myself. I'm playing with it, tweaking it etc etc.

Even in it's modded form, it still a very BRIGHT pedal. Tone knob for me is set around 9-11 o'clock. There's lots of gain available, but very little gain with the drive set to nil, and the level full up which surprised me. Acts like a very transparent booster in this case.

As for transparency, this pedal is incredibly so. It really lets the character of your amp and guitar come through. With the drive up around 10-11 o'clock, it sounds like my DRRI is on 8, with little or no coloring. So far i like it.

I've got two on two different pedalboards and love 'em, using combinations of an AC15, Deluxe Reverb and a Blues Deluxe.

I use the BD for general rhythm drive, goose it with a Sparkle Drive or a Blues Pro for leads.

No problems with mine. In fact it can be too bassy for my liking.

Mine can be a bit bassy as well with the PHAT mod.

I really love mine but I use mine for just a slight overdrive, think Brad Paisley, for that it is fantastic IMO, but for a stand alone higher gain pedal this pedal alone isn't the answer. It's a really good transparent boost for an already overdriven amp but as a sole overdrive device I am not super impressed. Mine never gets above half on the gain knob. If I need much more gain I look elsewhere.

BTW on mine the level and gain controls kind of work together. The lower the level the more gain I have to add and vice versa.

Paisley's and Mayer's tones are more their "semi-cranked/pushed amp" tone with the BD-2 used to push it "more".
The BD-2 is not really meant to be used as a "distortion" box - modded or un-modded. It is designed as a booster with the ability to give you some additional gain. It works great when your amp is already cookin' and you use it to boost "that" tone.
Generally guys use it with the tone backed off - I always have mine at 1/2 or below.
Put it in front of your 808 or Bluesbreaker pedal and use it to slam those OD's.

Sold mine. For another player, with different gear and playing style it may very well work, but for me it was too fizzy and bassy.

Paisley's and Mayer's tones are more their "semi-cranked/pushed amp" tone with the BD-2 used to push it "more".
The BD-2 is not really meant to be used as a "distortion" box - modded or un-modded. It is designed as a booster with the ability to give you some additional gain. It works great when your amp is already cookin' and you use it to boost "that" tone.
Generally guys use it with the tone backed off - I always have mine at 1/2 or below.
Put it in front of your 808 or Bluesbreaker pedal and use it to slam those OD's.

Thanks! I gave that a try and it really added something to my Bluesbreaker pedal. Thanks to everyone for all the input so far. I guess this is more useable as a boost than a flat out overdrive. Either way, I can see a few more uses for it now using it in conjunction with my other overdrives. Thanks guys!

I think the tone control on BD2 (Keeley modded or otherwise) is a bit off-kilter. If I try to cut the spiky treble by turning it CC-wise, it just gets woofy and it's just too bright just as soon as I start to dial the treble back in.

When I was tweaking a friend's BD2, I installed a .002 cap to the 2 outer legs of vol pot and it smoothed out the pedal quite a bit and also made the tone control much more useable. It's a simply enough mod, so you can ry it so see if it works for you or not.

Had the Monte Allum mod. Even with the tone control maximum counter clockwise it was still to bright for me,,,

I had one for a week, and returned it. It seemed to spit at me on every setting.

Ditto.

I just bought one about a month ago and my Keeley BD-2 also seems to sound hi-fi unless I have the tone at 8-9 o'clock. I have been meaning to talk to them about it but I have been pretty busy. I play a deluxe american tele through a '57 tweed twin reissue.

I've had mine for a year and a half and cannot live without it. As with most boss overdrive pedals, I run the tone all the way off. Gives me the dark sound I like. I only use the bd-2 for high gain settings though. I use sd-1 for a little overdrive. ('97 am tele with lace sensors through hot rod deluxe or '71 super reverb)

+1 to all the above comments about the tone knob.

The BD-2's a very good pedal, with a nice range of drive levels, but that tone knob is a little funky.

Mine's stock, so your mileage may very, but (especially with Tele's), the tone knob on mine is usually at 9:00 or less (i.e. more clockwise). This works great when I have the gain set at about 11:00 to add some overdrive and grit (with level set to give a bit of level boost).

I also sometimes use the pedal more as a clean boost--gain set low and volume set high. In those cases, I usually do bring the tone knob up some, but still not more than halfway up.

I rarely use the BD-2 for higher-gain settings--it's fairly gritty at those drive levels, but for boosting or for "edge of breakup" sounds, it works really well.

I bought a Boss BD-2 several months back, used it for a few days and it basically sucked big time. Did some web surfin' and found Humphries Audio, for 45$ (shipping included) he modded it, took out all that annoying hiss and gave it considerably more bite. Now it's one of my favorite pedals. The reason I'm mentioning this is cause' for youin's that don't like the Keeley Mod might want to go this route. I also sent him my Boss CS-3 and Dunlop Wah, he did some great things to them, especially the CS-3, no more noise and added sustain.

I did the Monte Allums H2O mod to mine....It now has a much better sweep on the tone than B4...

I like the way this pedal reacts to changes in my guitar's volume knob. There are lots of subtle shades of OD with just a flick of the wrist. The drawbacks for me were the ice-picky high end, and the excessive fizz at the highest gain settings.

So therefore, both of mine have been modded. One has the Keeley Phat mod. The other, I modded myself. On both, now the tone controls are much more usable...at halfway, the tone is about the same as the stock model's rolled all the way back. Neither of them are as fizzy and splatty anymore. They are my "desert island" overdrives now.

Later...