Keeley Electronics Super Phat Mod 16th Anniversary Hand Built Germanium Edition

I’ve had the pleasure of modifying this circuit for many years.  In 2001 it was the 3rd circuit I modded after the ROSS Compressor and Tube Screamer.  It is a wonderfully complex circuit that has many layers of  tube amp simulation.  It is dynamic and expressive and captures many tones that guitar players love.  Fast forward 16 years  and we have added a small gain germanium amplifier right after the tone stack to simulate a tube power amp section that has plates so hot they’re almost red.   The result is a more aggressively voiced overdrive with a spongy compression and fuzz that only germanium transistors give. The 16th Anniversary Edition is hand built with through whole parts and includes a couple visual changes over the regular one.  The new badge has sixteen gold bars in the center circle and a germanium transistor badge.  The first 100 will be hand signed.

As we we developing this mod over the past couple months we had switched to the Tungsram AC125 germanium transistor as it sounded better for this pedal.  We had already printed the new graphics on the cases for this limited run so it was too late to change.  Not quite an “Inverted Jenny” but fun to know none the less.