Keeley Electronics D&M Drive Boost Overdrive

Cross-company collaborations are always a fun excursion in the effects pedal world, and today’s featured piece of gear is from two of the best. Robert Keeley and Keeley Electronics have partnered up with Dan and Mick, from the hugely popular YouTube series That Pedal Show, to create an overdrive/boost combo pedal that features a wide range of tones, spanning the full spectrum of overdriven glory throughout its many options and settings. Let’s jump right in and see what this orange beast has for us all, shall we?

The Boost and Drive sides are clearly marked, each having its own on/off switch on the pedal. Both boasting Level, Tone and Gain controls, they differ in sound and how they react to your amp and pickups. The Boost side is a high-headroom, punchy and crystal clear boost to start off, gradually gaining some meat and potatoes as you turn up the Gain. The Tone control works well here to give you any kind of frequency boost or cut you may need, blending seamlessly with the Gain to propel your sound wherever it needs to go.

The Drive side is simply brilliant. Rich overdrive sounds pummel your ears at almost any setting, though never overbearing or overpowering, keeping your original tone in the mix nicely. Instantly beefing up any signal, this side fattens up your single coil pickups for long, sustained chords and lead runs, while giving humbuckers a gorgeous crunch, filled with flowing harmonics and plenty of saturation. As soon as you activate this side, your eyes light up and you can actually FEEL your guitar smile….seriously.

There’s a lone toggle switch here, which lets you select the order these two effects go in your signal chain, further expanding your options with this sonic marvel. If you want to get even more tech-nerdy, too, you can use TRS cables on the Input and Output jacks for use with a loop-based switching system, routing each side of the D&M to separate loops. That’s not something you come across every day, but is an excellent addition to be able to use if need be.

All-in-all, the D&M Drive is one of those pedals that you fall in love with from the moment you click it on, there’s no other way to say it. The Boost is full with drive tendencies when maxed; the Drive goes from crunchy to high-gain, and the tones you can create are endless. Cheers to Robert and his team at Keeley Electronics for letting us take this puppy for a spin, and for bringing the vision of the guys from That Pedal Show to life – a perfect storm of boost and overdrive is what you’ll find with the D&M Drive.