keeley D&M Drive & Boost £229

We live in an era in which guitar brands get together and have offspring, an example of which is the D&M Drive & Boost. It’s a collaboration between the respected US effects maker Robert Keeley, Daniel Steinhardt of The GigRig, whose G2 pedal switching system we’ve long admired, and Mick Taylor – who appears with Dan on the YouTube hit That Pedal Show. One tone technique that both Dan and Mick are keen on is stacking: running your signal through two or more drive pedals to yield interesting combined textures of dirt. A mid-rich boost and a hottish, yet crisp distortion make an especially good duo: the boost lifts the mids of the amp a little, making it sound plumper and louder, while the distortion gives you heat, aggression and sustain. Combine them and you get a fulsome, singing lead voice. And that’s pretty much what the D&M serves up in a single box, with a friendly mugshot of Dan and Mick emblazoned on the front. Some players prefer to place their lowestgain pedals first in a stacked chain of overdrives; others will go for the more conventional option of putting the hottest ones first. The resulting tones and dynamics do differ, so it’s great that the D&M lets you choose which of its two drives goes ‘first’ in the signal chain via a centrally mounted microswitch.

Potent, endlessly useful and nicely built, the only minor niggle some have raised is the siting of the input/output on the top. We don’t mind it – the D&M Drive & Boost gives you two essential drives in a package with a smaller footprint than two BOSS compact pedals at a lower price than two Keeley drive pedals on their own. It’s a win.