Keeley Electronics Caverns Delay Reverb

Ever the innovators, Robert and his crew at Keeley Electronics never cease to amaze us with the creations they continue to re-invent and release every year, and while today’s pedal is a little bit of an older model for them, it’s pretty damn brilliant nonetheless. The Caverns is a dual-function Delay and Reverb pedal in one, trapped in a super pedalboard-friendly enclosure and just oozing with tonal options. If you’re a fan of either (or both) of these types of effects, you’re going to want to stick around for this one.

The Reverb controls are on top here, so let’s just start there. Decay adjusts the actual decay time of the reverb effect, getting longer as you turn this knob clockwise, while Tone lets you blend in darker or brighter tones, depending on your taste. A Blend control mixes your dry guitar signal with the Caverns, giving you plenty of choices for how powerful or subtle you want these effects.

The Morph control is a fun one, as it directly corresponds with the small toggle switch directly below it, which gives you three modes to choose from. In Modulated Mode, the Morph knob controls the depth of the chorus and pre-delay modulation. In Plate Mode, just the pre-delay is affected, with a range that goes up to 200ms. Finally, in Shimmer Mode, you can set how low or high the intensity of the octave shift is in the reverberated sound. Lots to explore here, and no shortage of experimental auditory discoveries to be made.

The Delay portion of the Caverns is pretty straightforward, but powerful indeed. Time sets the delay time, with a big range swelling up to 950ms when maxed out. Regen controls the number of repeats the effect produces, and a Level control selects the output level of the pedal. A fun function of the Delay side is its ability to NOT go into self-oscillation when cranked up – while this is a great feature of many delays, it is actually quite a refreshing change here to have to repeats almost reach that point, but not have to worry about the sound getting the better of you, and running away to infinity and beyond.

The best part about having these two pedals in one enclosure? Running them at the same time, of course! I don’t care who you are or what kind of music you play, you’re gonna have fun using all these knobs and effects combinations to create huge, vast soundscapes that stretch for miles, and if that doesn’t put a big grin on your face, you should absolutely rethink your life. We love us some Robert Keeley Electronics here at Pedal of the Day, and this was of those pedals that is going to stay in our collection forever, as it has so many tonal options and uses, it would be a crime to let it go. Check out the demo video below for some clips, and then just try to resist opening a new tab on your computer to go and buy one of your own.