Keeley announces Moon Op Amp Fuzz with The Guitar Store
April 21, 2022 · 2 sources
Keeley Electronics announced the Moon Op Amp Fuzz on April 21, 2022, a fuzz pedal made in an exclusive partnership with Washington State's The Guitar Store12. It is available worldwide through The Guitar Store's Reverb store and at the store's new location in Port Townsend, WA, which both outlets describe as the only places it is sold12. The price is $14912.
The pedal has level, fuzz and filter controls, plus a three-position toggle for flat, mid-boosted or mid-scooped tone shifts, according to MusicRadar1. Guitar World describes the same switch as selecting between classic scooped, flat and full voicings, with dials for Volume, Filter and Fuzz2. The circuit has four internal gain/fuzz stages and is designed to offer extra heavy bass response without a loss of headroom1. MusicRadar reports that it has its origins in Keeley's Rotten Apple and Dark Side pedals, and that Keeley says the circuit has been redesigned for a super-smooth, thick, bass-heavy response1. Guitar World describes it as referencing Keeley's David Gilmour-inspired Dark Side Workstation2. MusicRadar reports the pedal was inspired in part by David Gilmour's thick, saturated Pink Floyd tones1.
Guitar World reports that the circuit has been designed to stack well with other pedals, and that the Filter control should help it work with single-coil or humbucking pickups2. MusicRadar describes the pedal as a "supermassive destroyer, spinning galaxies of gain" and reports that Keeley calls it its "most bombastic fuzz ever"1.
"The new Moon Fuzz could be considered a heavily modified Rotten Apple (or Dark Side), but this circuit has changed so much that it's really a different design."
Keeley also told MusicRadar that the gain stages are stacked differently and low end is added in a different area of the circuit, giving more gain without the bass eating up headroom, and that the tone control has been re-imagined to tighten its range1.