Recording - July 2018 - 44

Strymon

Sunset and
Riverside

A company famed for delay-based
pedals dives into overdrive in a big way
REVIEWS BY ALEX HAWLEY

T

he Sunset and Riverside represent Strymon's
first leap into the world of overdrive pedals.
The company's reputation for powerful,
beautiful-sounding effects means that these
pedals will attract a lot of attention even in a
packed market, and I was very excited to get
them in for review.

Sunset

The Sunset Dual Overdrive starts with a 20 dB analog JFET
gain stage to condition the signal before hitting the DSP, which
has two distinct sides: A (more transparent, first-stage overdrive
tones) and B (more aggressive overdrives that push into fuzz territory). Each side has its own Drive, Level, and Tone controls, and a
3-way switch toggling between the various circuit types. The rear

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RECORDING July 2018

panel has 1/4" jacks for input, output, a Favorite switch, and an
expression pedal, as well as a connector for the external power
supply (provided) and two switches-a 3-position Bright switch,
and a Config switch to select channel order or run both in parallel.
Side A starts with a germanium overdrive circuit (Ge), which
has a soft-clipping character for a transparent overdrive, and runs
in parallel with a dry signal which gets blended in as the Drive
amount is lowered. When the gain is pushed, the tone really thickens up nicely and has a fat low-midrange character to it. I love
using this as a base layer overdrive, typically with the Drive lower
and Level pushed. This adds some germanium grit character, just
on the edge of breakup, while pushing the front end of your amp.
The middle position on side A is a Texas overdrive circuit,
which is a single-stage soft-clipper with a distinct midrange
bump. As the title suggests, this plays like an 'always on' smokey
blues tone when the Drive is less than 12 o'clock, and pushing
the Drive harder plays like a classic fat blues lead tone.
The bottom position on side A is a treble boost, whose Tone
knob essentially acts as a highpass filter, from full-range clean
boost to rolled-off low end. I had fun getting a bright and spanky
tone that I haven't been able to get with anything else on my
board before. It works great when tightening up an overdriven
amp, or as a second-stage overdrive with a loose bottom end.
The range is very usable, even when it's completely dimed!
The first setting on side B is 2-stage overdrive: a soft-clipping circuit stage followed by a hard-clipping stage. This overdrive feels like
it wants to be pushed, and can accomplish some incredible sustain
in a uniquely voiced overdrive. It works great for hard rock or leads.
The middle position on side B is a single-stage hard-clipping
circuit. This setting has the most gain available, and comes the
closest to approaching fuzz territory. I love pairing this one with
the treble boost from side A, which cleans up just a bit of the
low end while driving it to create some really vibey saturation.
On the other end, this hard-clipping circuit cleans up nicely
with a lower Drive setting and higher Level output, creating
a smooth, mildly-clipped and transparent tone. Very versatile!
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2018
