Reference: Search AAA for pedal analysis. Search BBB for pedal board discussion.

So, a few weeks ago I got a Keeley Loomer. For those that don't know, it's a fuzz and a reverb that lets you switch the order that they appear in. Two footswitches, both the fuzz and reverb have 3 way toggles, one of the verbs is a gimmick, fuzz sounds fantastic with or without an amp (a feat of ingenuity - seriously, it's VERY impressive).

The pedal is designed to duplicate My Bloody Valentines guitar sound, and it does... kind of? I don't really do their style of music, so it's not what made me get this pedal.

I don't have any sound examples, however, I can assure you that it sounds like it does in these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW35nLGbvWE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONQonSW4qvg

Here's a stock picture of the pedal. I'll go over each of the knobs.

AAA



Reverb:

Blend: A full functioning blend knob that seems to be 100% accurate. Nothing special.

Decay: This is the length of the reverb. I don't know how long it goes, but long enough for anything I need to do. The combination of the decay and blend acts as a sort of volume for the reverb. That is to say, that as you blend in more of the reverb and less of the guitar, the reverb gets louder.

Warmth: This functions more like a reverb presence knob than an actual warmthness knob. Do you want your reverb to pop out or be a bed? Makes the Hall function on the reverb interesting.

Depth: This impacts the reverbs modulation amount. So, you can use the reverb like a non-modulated reverb if you want or add in the spice. On the reverse reverb setting this sets the length of the reverbs delay. It also impacts its touch sensitive setting. More on this in a second.

Three way reverb toggle:

Focus: This reverb is the standard reverb, IMHO. The depth impacts the chorus effect while the warmth can really make it stick out, if wanted. I can use this setting with all of the settings, except for blend, all the way up and have it be awesome.

Reverse: Neat, but ultimately a gimmick. It's designed to emulate the guitarist for My Bloody Valentines use of his guitars wammy bar, or whatever it's called (I don't use them). Essentially, depending on how hard you hit the strings, it bends the strings down on the reverse back up about a whole step. It's actually very hard to use and ultimately useless unless you're on a recording and have everything set just-so.

Hall: It's a hall reverb with sparkles on the modulation that increase in pitch in a step like fashion that ends up being very musical. I can't use all of the depth on this without it being a little too harsh but it sounds great with 100% blend.

Both the focus and hall settings are very very usable. I prefer the focus setting as it's a bit more usable for more things.

Fuzz side:

Level: Impacts the fuzz's volume. Kind of self explanatory. Ends up being important when the reverb is going in to the fuzz.

Filter: A HUGE sweep of frequency boosts here. I use it at about 25%. At about 50% you start to get Dimebag style tone. I'm unsure what 100% is usable for, but you can do it! It may be guitar and amp dependent, though. It's decently musical but can be a little touchy to get just so.

Fuzz: 0-100% fuzz matters little. You're using a fuzz. It's on when you turn it on. This is the only knob that has me a little sad as the difference between 0 and 100% is pretty small. I can use it at anywhere from 25-75% and it works just fine. Essentially this knob functions more of a "How easily does this clean up" knob than a fuzz amount knob.

Fuzz three way switch:

This fuzz is kind-of like a Big Muff but not... really. It doesn't suffer from the cheap sounding issues that Big Muffs can fall in to. The difference between the settings isn't major. It's kind of like a band consistency setting.

Flat: A flat fuzz with no real EQ settings. Compared to the others, it has less bass. Seems to be designed for use with a band with two guitarists.

Full: This is flat but with a more bass. Sounds great with one bass player. Low end begins to get muddy with two guitar players IMHO.

Scoop: Not my thing, but I imagine this setting with some mid range bump in the filter section might be pretty good. Essentially, this setting is the closest to a My Bloody Valentine setting as they tended to knock out the mid range so the vocalist could do their thing.

BBB:

Here's my board without the Loomer:




This is a bit old. My current order is:

Compressor>B9>Wah>Dyno my Roto>Philly Fuzz (not pictured... where the Red Witch Fuzz God is)>Loomer>Tera Echo>Vibe O Verb>Tuner

Tuner is at the end because I don't have a volume pedal yet and I'd need a bigger board to make it work like I want. The voice live pro can come off the board, and it may, but I like it on the board. I want to add a Synth9 to this as well. In fact, I want to run two boards by running an ABY switch.

Here's how the board works:

Compressor goes first only for the B9. I only use the B9 when I have no fuzz on, and I only use it in a few places. It adds some nice spice to some things. The Compressor evens the signal out for more sustain on the B9 - long enough to make the notes last as long as I need them to.

The B9 is my only real "special effect" on the board.

Wah is a wah.

Dyno-My-Roto is set on the tri-chorus setting. It fucking rocks. Best modulation I've used in a long time.

Philly Fuzz is a fuzz. Is more like an OD than a fuzz but is still fuzzy enough to be fuzzy. Definitely not a low bias fuzz.

Loomer is the real bread and butter of the board. It's what will be on most of the time in one way or another. In fact, I think I'll be using it on every single song my band plays except for two. Before it was a setup of 3 pedals (Phat Mod, Vibe O Verb, and Tera Echo) that were needed to be used to get close to the same effect that I can with one pedal. Really, I may replace the Tera Echo and Vibe O Verb with just the Loomer... but I do want the ultra ambience for a few songs.

The Tera Echo is a semi-delay, semi-reverb that adds sparklies to the ends of my notes. Running it in to a reverb really lets you get some ambient stuff. It functions similarly to the Hall setting on the Loomer but with more delay. It can be used as a sort of step-style effect. It's my favorite Boss effect by a long shot - maybe my favorite pedal on my board.

The Vibe o Verb is there for the ambience only. It may be replaced by an Electro Harmonix Canyon eventually. It's a very good reverb for clean stuff and can get very trippy. A top tier pedal but it doesn't jive well with my fuzzes. In retrospect, the Loomer does behave well with my fuzzes so it may stay.

The reason for the Reverb>Delay>Reverb setup is for a very specific sound. This one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzpzHhPdHxg

I'll see about recording a demo of this board this weekend at band practice.