Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
robertkeeley.com
Robert Keeley and his band of merry tonesmiths (did I just invent a word?) have seen fit to grace us with their version of the great golden horsie, otherwise known as the Klon Centaur. However the Keeley version, known as the Manis Overdrive, offers several enhancements that are sure to attract all that love and covet Bill Finnegan's prized creation. First up, we get a choice of Germanium diodes (original) or the slightly more saturated and compressed Germanium transistor. This second choice goes a long way to taming the mid-hump that people who don't like the original have a gripe with. Then there's the choice of stock or bass+ settings. The latter offers a 3dB bump one octave below the original's cutoff frequency thus restoring a little bottom end and thickening up tones generated by single coil pickups, for example. But wait, there's more! With a press of the footswitch you can easily flip between true or buffered bypass. And, you can run this pedal at 9-18V without fear of nuking it. So you get a spot-on gold Centaur tone plus the mods plus the utility enhancements. 'Manis' means 'sweet' in Indonesian, I believe. And that's what this pedal is: sweet as, bro!
Today's tools:
Guitar: 2025 Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster® in Harvest Green Metallic. 2025 Gibson Custom '57 Goldtop VOS 'Double Gold' Les Paul. Both stock.
Amp: Marshall SC20H to Two notes Reload II to Axe-FX III hosting Friedman V30 IR. Echo Fix EF-X3 added for tape delay and reverb.
Cables: Various
Strings: Ernie Ball Paradigm 10-46
Pick: Signature Honey Pick honey-picks.com/collections/all/brett-kingman
Mic: Audix USA A231 - audixusa.com/products/a231
Camera: GoPro HERO10 + Sony ZV-1M2 x 2
Soundcard: PreSonus Quantum 26x32
Desktop Monitors: PreSonus R80 R-Series Active AMT Studio Monitors - presonus.com
Monitor Control: SPL 2Control - https://spl.audio/en/spl-produkt/2control/
Headphones: Audix A152 - audixusa.com/products/a152
All Stands: Gravity Stands - gravitystands.com/en
Computer: 2025 Apple M3 Ultra.
All backing tracks courtesy of Elevated Jam Tracks unless otherwise noted. Thanks, Tom!
robertkeeley.com
Robert Keeley and his band of merry tonesmiths (did I just invent a word?) have seen fit to grace us with their version of the great golden horsie, otherwise known as the Klon Centaur. However the Keeley version, known as the Manis Overdrive, offers several enhancements that are sure to attract all that love and covet Bill Finnegan's prized creation. First up, we get a choice of Germanium diodes (original) or the slightly more saturated and compressed Germanium transistor. This second choice goes a long way to taming the mid-hump that people who don't like the original have a gripe with. Then there's the choice of stock or bass+ settings. The latter offers a 3dB bump one octave below the original's cutoff frequency thus restoring a little bottom end and thickening up tones generated by single coil pickups, for example. But wait, there's more! With a press of the footswitch you can easily flip between true or buffered bypass. And, you can run this pedal at 9-18V without fear of nuking it. So you get a spot-on gold Centaur tone plus the mods plus the utility enhancements. 'Manis' means 'sweet' in Indonesian, I believe. And that's what this pedal is: sweet as, bro!
Today's tools:
Guitar: 2025 Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster® in Harvest Green Metallic. 2025 Gibson Custom '57 Goldtop VOS 'Double Gold' Les Paul. Both stock.
Amp: Marshall SC20H to Two notes Reload II to Axe-FX III hosting Friedman V30 IR. Echo Fix EF-X3 added for tape delay and reverb.
Cables: Various
Strings: Ernie Ball Paradigm 10-46
Pick: Signature Honey Pick honey-picks.com/collections/all/brett-kingman
Mic: Audix USA A231 - audixusa.com/products/a231
Camera: GoPro HERO10 + Sony ZV-1M2 x 2
Soundcard: PreSonus Quantum 26x32
Desktop Monitors: PreSonus R80 R-Series Active AMT Studio Monitors - presonus.com
Monitor Control: SPL 2Control - https://spl.audio/en/spl-produkt/2control/
Headphones: Audix A152 - audixusa.com/products/a152
All Stands: Gravity Stands - gravitystands.com/en
Computer: 2025 Apple M3 Ultra.
All backing tracks courtesy of Elevated Jam Tracks unless otherwise noted. Thanks, Tom!
