Portland, OR on some rainy day (Yeah, in Oregon that is every day) in 2011. I had just arrived at the PGS showroom in the Pearl District, downtown Portland from our warehouse in Tigard. Everyone was huddled over some glorious audio unit and time was standing still. I made sure I accomplished the task at hand and then made my way to the sales floor. By this time there was still a good hovering of tone-nerds and gear-geeks but I was finally able to see what everyone was oogling over. You see, that morning Daniel Smith had brought in his precious Strymon blueSky (Yes, for all of you youngin’s, there was a time before the release of the BigSky and the Timeline). After spending only a short amount of time with the pedal I was pretty blown away.
Flash forward to Spring of 2015 and I was working for Rogue Guitar Shop in Bend, OR. After a few days of getting my feet wet I saw a box out in the shipping warehouse, “Strymon Eng…” the packing tape stuck to the box had removed the rest of the printed words but I knew what it said. I went back into the office area and asked Trey, “ Hey, do we carry Strymon?’. Secretly I wanted a few for myself and I hadn’t seen one since that fateful day in 2011. Sadly, RGS was not a dealer at that time and I couldn’t pick one up that day. However, rogueguitarshop.com is back on board with Strymon and we are ready to get some of the most iconic sounds to come out of the modern era of guitar effects into your hands.
We are certain you have heard of Strymon Engineering and the brilliant tone tools they make but just in case, here are a few to check out!
blueSky Reverberator - Ok, ok. I know the BigSky and the Timeline are way more capable at creating some of the most amazing audio-scapes known to the human ear but, bang for the buck, the blueSky is my faithful go to. The ability to layer your decay with the notes your are laying down in realtime is stupid. If the Edge from U2 perfected the “dual” guitar, dotted-eighth delay tone then the Bluesky’s Plate Shimmer mode is a perfected recreation of the Edge's brain. Forget the band, with Shimmer you can do it all on your own. To be honest, the Shimmer is what the Bluesky is know for but the Spring or Hall Settings are incredible also!!!
Deco Tape Saturation & Doubletracker - Strymon isn’t just time based effects, they make some great overdrive units like the Riverside or the Sunset. Another tone tool they make that could fall into the “Gain” category that they make is the Deco. The Deco is based on the old reel to reel units of old, when you had to be creative to get different tones. Because the Deco is mimicking an analog tape tone it is easy to dial in rich saturation, perfect for rhythm/chords or excellent at making that lead tone fatter in just the perfect way. Mild chorus or flanged tones are also able to be accomplished. Of course, don’t forget the doubletracking effect the Deco provides. Vocals, Guitar, Keys or darn near everything you can run into the Deco is perfect for it.
Zuma & Ojai DC High Current Power Supplies: Strymon isn’t just tone-shaping tools, they do pedal power, too! Both the Ojai and the Zuma provide multiple 500ma outputs to power all your Strymon, or other high current effects. Another sweet feature on the Ojai and the Zuma is the 24v Thru feature. The 24 Volt Thru allows your power to grow with your board, daisy chain Strymon power units to customize the ever changing needs of your board.
RGS is so incredibly happy to have Strymon back on our shelves and ultimately in your hands. Please let us know how to help. Michael, our Sales manager is always near the phone Mon-Fri and we usually have someone on chat during work hours, too. Email works too - sales@rogueguitarshop.com. Thank you for reading and as always, Keep Pursuing Tone!