Ah..the compressor came out way back in 2001:
After graduating in electrical engineering from the
University of Oklahoma, Robert Keeley started his company from his home in
Oklahoma City in 2001. He initially hoped to build
guitar amplifiers (he tweaked his father's
Peavey Deuce[2]), but found the market "highly saturated and becoming more so every day".
[3] Instead, while teaching at a small technical college and employing "some of his best students",
[2] he rebuilt and modified old effects units, starting with a Ross compressor. The industry for makers of hand-built effects at the time had few major players (Keeley named Mike Piera of
Analog Man and Mike Fuller from
Fulltone as his only competitors), and his business soon took off, aided by a reputation for quality and customers such as
Brad Paisley. Rebuilt versions of the
Ibanez TS9 were used by
Peter Frampton,
Jon Herington and
Ike Willis; Keeley said he got his ideas for improving and tweaking existing effect pedals by reading commentary on various forums for guitar players. Since then, he develops his own pedals, starting with a boost pedal; his most popular effect is a
compressor (first built in 2001), selling more than 27,000 copies.
[3]
According to
Guitar World, Keeley Electronics has grown into "one of the world’s top sellers of guitar effects pedals".
[4] Keeley claims that part of his success is due to carefully selecting electronic components with
low tolerance.
[2][3] They opened up a second factory, where they make flight cases and
guitar pickups; in 2009, the company briefly moved production of effect pedals there after a fire in the first factory.
[4][5]
Keeley still builds custom-ordered and modified effects; assignments include tweaking an
MXR Phase 90 for
Donald Fagen[3] and building a combined distortion/blues driver/wah for
Neil Zaza.
[6]
