Keeley Electronics Manis - The Evolution of a Mythical Legend

Last week, I released a little something called The KLONE Project, where I compared 24 different Klone pedals to see how they stacked up against one another. Today, I’m happy to continue with the investigation into this wonderful circuit, by helping with the release of the latest from our friends at Keeley Electronics – the Manis Boost Overdrive. Not just another klone, folks, this one is the evolution of a mythical legend, and it sounds fantastic…

Help support us and grab a Manis from Sweetwater https://sweetwater.sjv.io/mO0nxa

The Keeley Manis uniquely combines both germanium NOS transistors and diodes for more compression and saturation. This evolution is unlike any other mythical Klone! Keeley writes the next chapter in the legend of the mythical Klone pedal with several storied upgrades and features. First up is the Germanium Diode switch – as you may know, essential germanium diodes are at the heart of the myth. By transposing germanium diodes with Germanium Transistors (Cold War-era devices), Keeley increases the sustain and saturation in the pedal.

The Manis can give you a softer attack that sounds more like a tube amp. Less mid-forward, more tube-amp like. This feels incredible under your fingertips. Wouldn’t you like to hear a little more of the natural low end from your guitar? The Bass Boost switch pushes the lower half of the mid-focused response by one octave and increases the output by +3dB. It’s the perfect low end recovery for single coil guitars. You can choose True Bypass or Buffered Silent Switching on the fly as well. The Manis is built like a tank and is the first Klone you can power with 18 volts for increased headroom.

The standard three knobs are present here, but two switches, different bypass options and more headroom place the Manis at the top of the Klone list immediately. Relying on some Phish-y riffs, we explore all the ins and outs of the Manis in our demo video below. There’s a lot more info over on the Keeley website as well – be sure to head over there and grab one of these beautiful machines for yourself, cheers!!