worthless if the Tone
Workstation didn’t sound
fantastic. Thankfully, it does.
The first effect your guitar
sees when you plug into
the Tone Workstation is a
slightly modified take on
the Keeley Compressor with
a Treble or Stock switch
for offsetting the apparent
treble loss that occurs in the
circuit. More importantly
for me, there is also a blend
control. All of the way left
is 100 percent compressed
signal, and all the way right
is a 50-50 blend of your
unprocessed signal and
the compressed signal. I
loved the 50-50 blend for
clean rhythm playing. It’s
also helpful for players with
humbuckers or other high
output pickups that can
overwhelm the circuit.
Next up, there is a
combination of Keeley’s
1962 Overdrive and the
Katana Boost. The 1962
is based on a Marshall
Bluesbreaker with a Katana
on either end. I reviewed
the standalone 1962 back
in September and found
it to be a well-rounded
low-to-mid gain overdrive.
It’s natural sounding and
responds well to playing
dynamics and stacking. On
the other hand, the Katana
is just a beautiful, bonesimple JFET boost. It takes
the tone, and just gives
more of it. No harsh highs,
no pushed mids—just a
louder version of you.
Finally, there is the Red
Dirt Overdrive. The Red
Dirt takes Robert Keeley’s
years of modifying Tube
Screamers and distills all
that knowledge into a
single pedal (in this case, a
quadruple pedal). You get
that classic mid-boosted grit
that will make your leads
stand out in the mix. And
you get to select between
the Baked Mod and the
Mod+. The Mod+ is clearer
and a little more open
sounding, while the Baked
Mod takes the Red Dirt into
full-on distortion. The range
of gain within the Red Dirt
is nothing short of
impressive. And even at the
highest settings, the pedal
remains low on noise and
high on tone.
WHAT WE LIKE
The value for the price is
exceptional, the size is
small, and the tones are
huge. We like everything
about this pedal.
CONCERNS
I was initially dismayed at
why the “amp in a box”
tones of the 1962 and the
boost of the Katana were
placed before the Red Dirt.
My instincts would be to
run the Red Dirt into the
1962, and/or use the Katana
to boost the volume of the
tones created by the Red
Dirt. But the way the Red
Dirt tightens the base tone
shows that Keeley knows
what he’s doing. Why did I
question? The only concern
will be for folks who might
want to use the Red Dirt as
their base tone, kicking on
the 1962 or Katana is more
of a dirt increase than a
volume boost.
ToneReport.com
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