Question about Strymon products

[Bill Leff]

I have the Flint and the El Capistan. The Harmonic trem on the Flint is fabulous, and i like the 80's reverb a lot. Folks like the plate but it doesn' t do much for me. I guess i am a spring reverb guy, and the sound i like is a Fender outboard tank. I recently picked up,the Catlinbread Topanga spring reverb pedal and it gets close to a tank and sounds way better than the Flint spring emulation. The Flint dulls the highs, even with the color knob fully engaged. I'll probably be selling the Flint as i really dont use trem much and have another trem pedal that does the job, albeit not nearly as well as the Flint.

[Gerry Simon]

I still use my Damage Control Liquid Blues pedal. I love it. It has a big footprint though.[/quote]

My Womanizer also has big footprint...doesn't fit on my pedal board...still wondering if Strymon will ever design a replacement for some of those great boxes...glad they are well built...I 'think' Strymon may still service them (I hope)...?!

[Dan Galysh]

I notice a very subtle loss of highs from my Mobius when the effects are bypassed. I think other big footprint Strymons exhibit this, too. They are fabulous sounding effects, though.

[Ray Thomas]

OK Guys, its all your fault, after reading all your post I went out and bought the Brigadier and the Blue Sky. (Wife dont know it yet) Haven't got them set up good yet but there is no doubt that I am going to like them. Any one want to share their settings, especially the Brigadier, my favorite music is slow country if that helps, thanks for all your help.

[Tore Blestrud]

The Lex Rotary is great on steel. Just don't use it on to many songs ...

[Jamie Mitchell]

I have an MXR Carbon Copy that sounds pretty good, but it really changes the tone of the steel. The steel gets a lot thinner and harder sounding. Do the Strymon delays avoid that kind of problem?

Paul, that's not a carbon copy problem, it's just a buffer issue...
the carbon copy affects the tone not at all, buffering aside, and I tend to be over the top sensitive to that kinda thing.

j

[Jamie Mitchell]

oh, and to answer the question, I use a Flint, and dig it.
don't know if I'm 100% sold on it, but it is a step up from my previous stomp-box based verb. need to compare it with my LXP1 still.

and yes, the harmonic trem sounds nice. made it on a record I just played on, I'll post something soon.

j

[John Limbach]

OK Guys, its all your fault, after reading all your post I went out and bought the Brigadier and the Blue Sky. (Wife dont know it yet) Haven't got them set up good yet but there is no doubt that I am going to like them. Any one want to share their settings, especially the Brigadier, my favorite music is slow country if that helps, thanks for all your help.

Ray: These same two are on my list, so please let us know how you like them.

[Tony Glassman]

I'm craving a Wampler Faux Analog delay

[Daryl Thisdelle]

I do have to agree with Chris. Top quality sounding equipment can be heard. I have my own very high end recording studio in my house. When I record and play back for none musicians they can notice the difference. One of the things that gets raved about is how clear it sounds, such great detail. So yes the common person does have a set of ears on him. I am currently using the BIG Sky and it is the best sounding reverb I have ever used. I have on order the Time Line and the Mobius. I was using TC Electronics but will not be any more. For me the Strymon products are so much further than every one else. The Big Sky is just not a reverb. The Time Line is just not delay and the Mobius is just not a modulation pedal. Every pedal has it's little twists to it. For me Strymon jumped out of the box that all of the rest of the pedal makers are in. Some of the effects are not for every one but a lot of the are effects are for most. With the 3 pedals I got I need nothing else. I am now complete, oh I also have the C-9 Pedal by Electro-Harmonix so I can make organ sounds. Thats my story and I am picking to it.

[James Hartman]

Gosh, 34 posts in this thread and no Strymon hate? What kind of forum is this?

Well, I'll join the celebration. The El Cap is outstanding; been on my larger pedalboard for a couple years. Definitely a learning curve there, in order to fully exploit its potential.

Haven't tried any others yet because I have the old Damage Control versions to cover most of my needs. Strymon's "Deco" pedal is sorely tempting me.

[Richard Sinkler]

OK Guys, its all your fault, after reading all your post I went out and bought the Brigadier and the Blue Sky. (Wife dont know it yet) Haven't got them set up good yet but there is no doubt that I am going to like them. Any one want to share their settings, especially the Brigadier, my favorite music is slow country if that helps, thanks for all your help.

The wife not knowing is not a good thing. Just ask my EX-WIFE.

[Michael Butler]

I do have to agree with Chris. Top quality sounding equipment can be heard. I have my own very high end recording studio in my house. When I record and play back for none musicians they can notice the difference. One of the things that gets raved about is how clear it sounds, such great detail. So yes the common person does have a set of ears on him. I am currently using the BIG Sky and it is the best sounding reverb I have ever used. I have on order the Time Line and the Mobius. I was using TC Electronics but will not be any more. For me the Strymon products are so much further than every one else. The Big Sky is just not a reverb. The Time Line is just not delay and the Mobius is just not a modulation pedal. Every pedal has it's little twists to it. For me Strymon jumped out of the box that all of the rest of the pedal makers are in. Some of the effects are not for every one but a lot of the are effects are for most. With the 3 pedals I got I need nothing else. I am now complete, oh I also have the C-9 Pedal by Electro-Harmonix so I can make organ sounds. Thats my story and I am picking to it.

i have the big sky, mobius and timeline also. they are really great sounding and every preset can be tweaked to your liking. i just recently got the deco which is a combination of a saturation effect as well as a phaser/echo/delay. it is based upon using a tape recorder to obtain your sound. it is real easy to get a great country/rockabilly sound out of it.

[George Redmon]

I'm using the Wampler Faux Tape Echo delay, quality is all I can say. And it's a hundred bucks cheaper. You can use it for a set and forget situation, or all kinds of fancy delay things. It to is analog, has the clean, and delay signal thing. It's for the tape echo purist.
http://www.wamplerpedals.com/faux/tape-echo/

[Ray Thomas]

Now that I have the Strymon any ideas on how to mount them on the guitar, on the floor, on a table beside the guitar ect, not easy to use Velcro and pop them on the leg as with other units(dd3) any ideas appreciated, I am very happy with the Strymon products.

[Michael Butler]

Now that I have the Strymon any ideas on how to mount them on the guitar, on the floor, on a table beside the guitar ect, not easy to use Velcro and pop them on the leg as with other units(dd3) any ideas appreciated, I am very happy with the Strymon products.

i guess it would depend upon how you plan to use it. will you be changing from patch to patch for each song? during each song? if it will be constantly changed, you'll need ready access. it is set up as a stompbox for your foot but you could use it hand-ready if you have room for it near you.

which one did you get?

play music!

[Michael Todd]

The Strymons use a SHARC DSP. What I'm hearing is that the SW in these pedals is superior to SW in other DSPs. Looks like these devices top out at $20! Must be some SW.

[Brad Sarno]

Strymon reverb and delay pedals have a few things special about them. #1, the dry guitar path is analog, never gets converted to digital and back again. It's a high quality, clean, analog signal from input to output.

The delay and/or reverb processing is digital. The SHARC processor chip has very little to do with what you're paying for. The costs go into the development, the team, the quality of the physical product. The sound of the effects has everything to do with the skills and ears and knowledge of the team there. It's about the software, the algorithms, the code development, their ears, regardless of the chip they use to execute it.

Those guys made great pedals back when they were called Damage Control and marketed by Peavey. But as Strymon, they've taken things to new heights. And they're really nice, cool people there with a love for great sounds.

I'm a fan. We've got a Flint and an El Capistan and an old Glass Nexus here. Great stuff.


My $.02


Brad

[Michael Todd]

The costs go into the development, the team, the quality of the physical product.

The pin density on this DSP means the circuit board is populated with an Asian robot using imported ASIC. The parts are going to be more/less consumer audio grade. What you're paying for is margin & product engineering, assuming these guys are good businessmen & fab these things like everyone else. I hope their margins are very good & they pay their people good money for so many happy musicians.

I just find the whole boutique market in the digital domain very interesting, considering all the vintage amps we like were made with consumer grade components. What was true for analog amps is exponentially true for digital stuff. You could buy a very fast computing device, with a soft interface & download all kinds of stuff to it. Not gig friendly for sure. And we are attached to product branding and "look and feel" of product.

Seems like this virtualization has already happened in the recording world. The cost is obvious in the that the recording SW is more expensive than the computer.

[James Hartman]

The costs go into the development, the team, the quality of the physical product.

The pin density on this DSP means the circuit board is populated with an Asian robot using imported ASIC. The parts are going to be more/less consumer audio grade. What you're paying for is margin & product engineering, assuming these guys are good businessmen & fab these things like everyone else. I hope their margins are very good & they pay their people good money for so many happy musicians.

I just find the whole boutique market in the digital domain very interesting, considering all the vintage amps we like were made with consumer grade components. What was true for analog amps is exponentially true for digital stuff. You could buy a very fast computing device, with a soft interface & download all kinds of stuff to it. Not gig friendly for sure. And we are attached to product branding and "look and feel" of product.

Seems like this virtualization has already happened in the recording world. The cost is obvious in the that the recording SW is more expensive than the computer.

You raise some interesting issues.

Having at least a passing personal acquaintance with some folks in the boutique pedal business, I know that they invest countless hours experimenting, testing, tweaking new circuit designs and are not getting rich from the results. Those who are decent businessmen as well as innovative designers/builders are doing OK.

"Product branding and look" don't count for much in my gear choices, but "feel" (in a functional sense) very much does and that sets some boutique fx apart from the crowd. As a happy and grateful user of these small companys' products, I certainly don't begrudge them what they charge for their R&D time.