Keeley Electronics Monterey Special Custom Germanium Pedal of the Day

The folks at Keeley Electronics just keep pumping out awesome new pedal after awesome new pedal, and we are privileged today to check out not only one of their newest creations, but a Special Edition as well. The Monterey Special Custom Germanium is a fuzz, octave, vibrato, rotary and harmonic wah all in one, producing an exciting blend of some classic tones, while opening the gateway to much sonic exploration.

The Fuzz channel features Level and Fuzz controls, and is designed to give off a rich, smooth, full, classic two transistor fuzz tone. Using modern Fairchild Seminconductor gain transistors, the fuzz tones are responsive and dynamic, but aren’t affected by temperature the way past germanium-related pedals have been known to display. Equally at home with single coils or humbuckers, this is a nice fuzz, and it sounds even better when mixed with the modulation section of this pedal.

A small, centrally-located three-way toggle lets you select between the 3 main modes. Kool Vibe is a lush vibrato mode, very deep and rich, and able to get into trippy, psychedelic phaser-ish sounds with ease. Use the Octave control to add in some doubling and synth-y sounds as well. Les Rotary is the next mode, and is a fantastic Leslie rotating speaker emulator. Simulating both the lower drum and upper horn sections of the original cabinets, this mode also does doubling, as well as getting into some sweet chorus sounds. Here, the Octave controls the volume of the horn or tweeter sounds, letting you adjust to taste to get the perfect mix.

Our favorite mode of the Monterey Special is the Harmonic Wah section, which is like nothing we’ve seen yet. Part cocked wah, part auto wah, part tremolo wah, this mode will have you jumping for funk joy. Use the Depth and Rate controls to create numerous and vastly different sounds, including envelope filter, harmonic tremolo and more. There’s even an expression jack where you can use it as a regular foot-controlled wah, too – this can also be used to control the Rate when the pedal is in Kool Vibe or Les Rotary settings as well. If all of these options don’t tickle your fancy yet, you can take the bottom off of the pedal and change the order in which the effects go in. Fuzz after modulation sounds nuts, but half the fun of pedals is experimentation, of which there is no shortage with this fine piece of gear.

With the transistors hand selected and matched, and the pedal hand-built and tested in Edmond, OK, this is yet another shining example of the great effects that Keeley Electronics continue to put out. We can’t thank them enough, either, for sending us this special edition of an already rad pedal to check out and review. To hear a smidgen of what this baby can do, check out the video below, and then go pick one up for yourself from the Keeley website!