Riverside Multistage Drive Pedal Review

Strymon’s Best Kept Secret

When people think of Strymon, they usually gravitate towards their biggest hits: Big Sky, Timeline, Flint, El Caspitan, etc. — and with good reason! Those pedals are the best of the best. (Personally, my Deco, Timeline, and Big Sky are never leaving my board.) But with all the focus on those pedals, the Riverside seems to fall through the cracks when people talk Strymon, which… read more is too bad, because this is the best distortion/overdrive I've ever played through. Every setting on this thing is the sweet spot. I originally got it to play through my 65 DRRI, but I added a Mark V to my rig this summer, and it shines there, too. If you've ever played an amp with amazing gain, you know that you really won't use your OD like you would use on a Fender or Vox because you don't need it. The amp's OD will almost always sound better. But with this pedal? It doesn't sound better or worse than my Mesa's OD, but it does sound different. Mark V's are known for being capable of getting almost any OD tone solely for the amp; this is one of the very few pedals that offers a tone you can't get from a Mark V. That itself should be a selling point, no matter what amp you use! Honestly, if you've gone down the Strymon rabbit hole and gotten to this page…take the plunge and get the Riverside. It may not be one of Strymon's most famous pedals, but it's just as good. You'll want to keep it the rest of your life. Enjoy!

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Unreal

Same story…tried them all and never was truly happy. Adding this to my new Mesa tc50 combo is giving me the greatest driven tones I have ever had. It's simple to use and I am finding all the overdrive sounds I have ever wanted with it. Thanks Sweetwater!

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Best of all possible worlds.

I have searched for a dirt box and a lead box for many years. I am completely happy with my clean sound FDRR on the edge of break up, but to get a dirt sound with depth has escaped me. Until now. Strymon Riverside allows me to dial in a crunch/dirt rythm tone that is not flat, one that actually compliments the original sound of my amp. Then with the favorite channel I can take that… read more same tone, add level, gain and mid toggle and boom! Perfect lead tone. I'm very happy :)

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Outstanding AND Versatile

I have a pedal addiction. I've tried dozens of them. 1) Out of the gate, this is one of the best sounding I've tried. 2)I've used it with the Strymon Iridium, a Tech 21 Power Engine 60 with a Joyo American in front, a Marshall Origin 50 1x12, and a Katana MK II Head running through a Peavey 212C cabinet. It works great with all of them. I can't say that for all of my other… read more overdrive pedals. Even the ones I really love. 3) It sounds great no matter how you set it. The digital trickery with the EQ and gain-staging is impressive. There isn't a sweet spot. There are many sweet spots. 4) I haven't used it with midi, but I might because you can do that. 5) I haven't used an expression pedal with it to scale the gain and volume, but I might because you can do that. I had the debate between this pedal or the Sunset that I think a lot of people have had. I went with the Riverside, because I'm generally looking more for a pedal that sounds like an amp rather than an amp with a pedal in front of it. If I want a Tube Screamer, I'll get a Tube Screamer. I also wanted the three band EQ. Not dissing the Sunset. From what I have gathered, the Sunset is also outstanding but is more like several overdrives in one box. The Riverside was apparently designed to sound more like different amps in one box. What ever it is, it's great. I've had it for several months and every now and then I still get surprised by how good it can sound. The people over at Strymon are brilliant.

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The most flexible overdrive/distortion on the market!

Any low or high gain tone you could ever want is in this pedal. So incredibly tube like with tons of gain available. The mid push and noise gate are fantastic! Love the favorite switch too. I have mine set for an evh/80s tone one one side and a modern metal tone on the other. SUPER easy to dial in killer tones. You can literally set up both channels in a few mins. I'm so glad I… read more FINALLY got into strymon. I'm a super picky tone snob. I hate most digital modelers and pedals. They always sound fizzy and thin to me. I was a tube purist, and now I'm totally team strymon. Cant wait to get an iridium to combine with this pedal and make a killer 4 channel amp set up!

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