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 Firmly in the boutique effects domain this week, GEARED drives up to Red Hill’s Guitar Brothers and eventually plugs into the STRYMON chorus and flanger pedals.
Proudly declaring themselves “Left Brain Artists. Innovators. Thinkers.”, US stompbox brand Strymon may not have reached the same status as boutique giants like T-Rex and Zvex yet and their range so far includes six pedals – but what pedals. The stunning BlueSky Reverberator with its celestial “infinite plate” effect has amassed rave responses from guitarists all over the globe and looks set to trump the Electro Harmonix’s old battleship Holy Grail as the best reverb pedal ever made (here in Brisbane, Guitar Brothers have completely sold out their stock of BlueSkies – I’m waiting until they get more of them. – Geared Ed), with the Brigadier delay and El Capistan analogue echo being not far behind.
Encouraged by the Guitar Bros Craig and Reece’s awed statements, I took turns checking out the two Strymon pedals they had in stock – the Ola Chorus & Vibrato and Orbit Flanger – and duly got amazed by the range and quality of sounds they produced. Both true-bypass units utilise Strymon’s patented dBucket technology – which means they’re equipped with BBD (Bucket Brigade Delay) devices, or analogue delay chips moving a signal along the chain of capacitors in the same way water would get passed in an old-time firefighting bucket brigade. So what sounds are we talking about here? Pure sonic champagne – or respective bucketloads of sweet fizz and chime/swirl and whoosh – that tastes so good you wouldn’t want to drink it all up.
 A state-of-the-art stereo chorus that combines both modern and vintage tones to a stellar degree, the Ola features three modulation types (chorus, multi-mode chorus, vibrato) and three dynamic modes (normal, ramp, envelope), all enabled by respective three-way switches. The traditional effect itself is lush and deep, while the vibrato gives the old Uni-Vibes and Tube Rotospheres a run for their money in its precise Leslie rotating speaker emulation and the “multi” and vibrato modes react to the guitarist by respectively accentuating the effect and the speed according to the intensity of playing. The five controls – Speed, Mix, Env/Ramp, Depth and Tone – make the Ola a mega-versatile chorus pedal and the Favourite footswitch saves the player’s chosen setting. Upon summoning some incredible atmospherics from the unit, I was left wondering what more revolutionary sounds Andy Summers could come up with back in The Police’s heyday had he had the Ola in his arsenal.
Designed to venture into outer space with its unearthly comb-filter effect, the stereo-output Orbit flanger packs the same amount of controls – Speed, Mix, Regen, Width and Manual – and three-way Feedback and LFO switches. The latter allows to player to choose between a logarithmic sweep (which creates even frequencies), a linear sweep (which accelerates through the high bands and brakes through the lower ones), and Thru 0 (which phases in and out of high and lower fidelities).
Strymon Ola Chorus/Vibrato & Orbit Flanger (RRP $449 -each). Check out www.strymon.net and www.guitarbrothers.com.au for more information.
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