Strymon Riverside

deloreandelorean Frets: 224
edited November 2018 in FX Reviews

After trying various OD and Distortion pedals over the last few months, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just terrible at dialing in sounds since they never, ever sound as good as they do on the YouTube demos I see.

Well the Strymon Riverside has changed all of that in a heartbeat!

First up, it's a hybrid analogue and digital OD pedal, which I guess will offend some purists but don't let that put you off!  The front end is JFET based so sounds and responds in an analogue way just like a 'real' amp. 

Within 30 seconds (if that!) of plugging it in, and setting the controls to noon, I was able to get close to achieving the best tone I have ever had.  Ever.  In 25+ years of playing, and within 30 seconds.

I’m running it into a Suhr Badger 35 head and a Zilla Fatboy 2x12.  The amp is set clean and just edging on breakup.

After a few minutes of twatting about with the controls, I was delighted to find that I could get everything from a light overdrive, some great bluesy tones and crunch, right through to hard rock.  It’s not quite ‘gainy’ enough for tight modern metal in my opinion, but for my purposes (hard rock and 80s hair metal) it fits the bill very nicely indeed.

Obviously the higher I pushed the drive control, the more hiss was introduced.  But then I discovered the in-built noise gate. F###-me... I run the gain pretty high (about 3/4), but pretty much as soon as I engaged the gate, the noise and hiss is gone, just pure silence!  I’m probably running at less than 10% of the noise gate’s scope of travel and it’s just ..great.  One benefit of running the gate that low is that it doesn’t adversely impact the sustain either.

The presence control on the back of the pedal is really useful - it has 3 positions, allowing you quickly find the setting that sounds best with your amp.

The Favourite feature is a great touch - there's a second switch which is used to store and recall a favourite setting, so you can kick in a tasty lead tone for your solo and drop back to a lighter crunch for rhythm or whatever you choose.  

There is a 6db boost feature which requires a Strymon external switch for an additional £60 (or a third party WeeLush FX switch for £25…).  I’m tight so went for the WeeLush switch which I’m waiting for at the moment, but in my experience their pedals are fantastically well built and this one is waaay smaller than the Strymon external switch, so I can’t wait to get my hands/feet on it.


In a nutshell, I am finally happy with my tone.  My quest is now complete - no more pedals for me (seriously!!).



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