With Strymon Pedals, the (Big) Sky's the Limit

Strymon: A name that drips prestige and performance within the guitar space. In many senses, the Rolls Royce of guitar pedals, the Strymon brand has created guitar effects pedals used by many industry professionals, and coveted by many more.

Founded in 2009 in sunny Southern California by Dave Fruehling, Ethan Tufts, and Pete Celi, Strymon was placed in a strong position to succeed. Dave Fruehling, the CEO of Strymon and lead engineer, brought to the table extensive experience in DSP (digital signal processing) as well as his talents as an audio engineer. Ethan Tufts, who also creates music under the pseudonym State Shirt, is another key figure responsible for the success of the Strymon brand. As Chief Marketing Officer, he played a crucial role in shaping the brand identity of Strymon using his extensive background in the digital space. The third Founder, Chief Technology Officer Pete Celi, played a vital role in designing the Strymon pedals. With outstanding experience in software and systems development, the userfriendly controls and seamless integrations of the analogue components of the products are hallmarks of his work, and of Strymon as a whole.

The five pedals I’m exploring today cover a wide spread of the stompbox spectrum; an apt demonstration of the sheer range and ability of the Strymon pedals.

First released in 2012, the Strymon Big Sky became the go-to choice for musicians looking for rich atmospheric tones - seemingly overnight. Offering a vast array of reverb algorithms from classic spring and plate reverbs, to long hall reverbs and ambient soundscapes, the powerful DSP engine is able to emulate the characteristics of acoustic spaces, with a mathematically insane level of nuance. The pedal’s ability to create a sense of realism is unrivalled in the guitar pedal world, and sets the Strymon Big Sky on a high pedestal with other prestigious studio-grade equipment - for good reason.

The Big Sky has a plethora of parameters such as delay, predelay, mix and tone, as well as other features such as freeze, and a brilliant stereo imaging feature. With the ability to receive stereo inputs, as well as MIDI and the ability to save and load presets, the Big Sky really is the limit when it comes to the levels of customization at the feet of the guitarist.

Another brilliant pedal by Strymon that deserves a closer look at is the Strymon Iridium - a revolutionary amp and cabinet simulator, with a brilliant array of authentic amp tones and speaker simulations. Released in 2019, the Iridium gained popularity for its ability to capture the essence of authentic classic amplifiers, and its ability to do so stems from the SHARC DSP engine, which emulates the characteristics of three staples of the amp world: the Fender Deluxe Reverb, the Vox AC30 and the Marshall Plexi.

With parameters such as gain, level, bass, middle, treble, and presence, the Strymon Iridium offers control over the tone to the same degree as that of the original amp. Beyond the amp, the Iridium also allows the user to control the virtual microphone position which drastically changes the tonal characteristics of the modelled speaker cabinet.

You can’t discuss the legacy of the Strymon pedals without talking about the Timeline. Featuring twelve delay types and over two hundred presets, the Timeline has gained recognition for its ability to recreate an array of delay sounds - from classic tape echoes to analogue delays, to modern digital and ambient textures. With extensive control over delay parameters, such as time, feedback, mix, filter, modulation and decay, the Strymon Timeline can fill a multitude of roles thanks to its MIDI compatibility and expression pedal control, all in stereo. The standout feature of the Strymon Timeline is the Dual Delay feature, which allows the artist to have two different delays running simultaneously, dramatically enhancing the creative possibilities of the pedal.

The final two pedals that it would be remiss to not mention, are the Strymon El Capitan V2 and the Strymon Volante. The El Capitan V2 is a Tape Echo-style pedal offering three distinctive machine types, Fixed, Multi and Single. These machine types greatly determine the tone of the tape echo, with their own sonic characteristics, and with comprehensive controls including delay time, tape age, bias and crinkle, wow & flutter, tape head spacing, and mix - the ability to dial in almost anything from subtle slap-back to expansive elaborate tape delay textures is intuitive and easy. Filling a similar hole in a lot of senses is the Strymon Volante, a magnetic echo machine that captures the classic characteristics of a magnetic drum echo, as well as studio tape echoes. The unique feature onboard the Strymon Volante is the ‘Sound on Sound’ feature. This allows users to layer loops of sound on top of their delay tails. Thus, the Volante can function almost as a loop pedal, facilitating easy overdubbing.

Hopefully, through reading a little about these pedals, you have understood the impact they have had on the guitarists we idolise, and once you plug one of these powerful units in, there’s no wondering why that they make their way onto many industry professionals’ boards.

Take for example the pedals that we have showcased in this article, and the people who love them. The list includes David Gilmour, John Mayer, The Edge, Tim Pierce, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Johnny Greenwood, Mark Lettieri and a long list of other incredible musicians too long to mention. One of the main factors bringing this list together is not only the quality of these guitarists, but also the diversity of their sounds. Used by everyone from Crowded House, to Radiohead, to Pink Floyd and Snarky Puppy, this list is testament to the fact that Strymon pedals have the incredible capacity to be tailored to an artist’s desired tone, and furthermore, the tones of the iconic recordings of your favourite artists.

BY JOHN TUCKER