Unless you’ve been living under a musical rock for the past couple years, you know about the pedal being produced by Strymon, and how they have come on full-force to bring some innovative and unique sonic designs to the table. While they had previously focused on modulation-types of effects, today’s pedal brings us their first foray into the world of overdrive, and, as expected, they brought their A-game. The Riverside is a multi-stage drive that delivers harmonically rich, versatile and tub-inspired overdrive sounds – let’s dig in and see what it can do!
Drive starts us off by controlling the amount of gain (using continuously variable circuit tuning) applied to the signal (also works as an optional variable-threshold noise reducer in Secondary Function mode). Level pulls double duty as well – it controls the output volume level, as well as turning into a Boost Level control in Secondary Function mode, which sets the amount of boost controlled by the external footswitch/jack on the back. Bass, Middle and Treble knobs make up the parametric EQ section of the Riverside as well, with all three being post-drive controls, which shape your drive tones before they reach your amp.
A Low (low to medium overdrive) and High (increased, tighter, higher gain) toggle switch lets you select the drive flavor you’re after, while the Push switch toggles between either flat or enhanced midrange frequencies, further shaping the tones you are producing. A three-position Presence switch tailors the highest frequencies of the output signal, with Minus (enhanced clarity), Enhanced (extended top end) or Plus (more high end for darker amps) modes to select from. Rounding things out is an Expression Pedal Input jack, which lets you control any or all of the knobs using an external expression pedal, and can also control the volume level when in Volume Mode.
Sound-wise, this thing is a beast. So many different types of tones available (which we try to demonstrate in the demo below), you’ll have a great time sitting down and exploring this pedal, and how it can work with your different amps and guitars. The crew at Strymon painstakingly analyzed numerous analog and vacuum tube circuits, in order to deliver a new world of harmonically rich, incredibly versatile, tube-inspired drive sounds, and we think they did a pretty damn great job. A little bit of overdrive flavor for everybody, the Riverside’s versatility and tonal ranges stretches the limits of what’s possible in the drive world, making your tone sound great, your amp sing and your ears ting. Thanks as always to everyone at Strymon for letting us dive into this golden beauty – we certainly can’t wait to see what creation they come up with next!
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