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118 Guitarist February 2014

Strymon BigSky £429A torrent of big ideas from one skyscraping reverb pedal

WORDS Michael Brown PHOTOGRAPHY Joe Branston

Despite its relatively shortexistence, the nameStrymon already

commands plenty of kudos inpedal-loving circles. Thanks tosophisticated effects such as theEl Capistan, TimeLine andFlint, the Californian companyhas become synonymous withunparalleled attention to detailand tonal integrity – and itslatest creation, the BigSky, aimsto be the pedal that is to reverbwhat the TimeLine is to feature-rich delay: a pro-qualitystompbox that does it all.

Packed into the BigSky’slightweight aluminium chassisare 12 ‘reverb machines’, whichoffer different sizes, effects anddimensions of sound, controlled by seven fundamental knobs:Decay, Pre-delay, mix, tone,Mod, Param 1 and Param 2. Thelatter two control functionsspecific to particular reverbmachines – anything fromadditional EQ options to pitch-shift intervals or room size.

Three footswitches give youinstant access to three presets ata time – you can store up to 300

of them across 100 banks, whichcan then be edited on yourcomputer using the StrymonPreset Librarian. Hitting the leftand middle footswitches sends you down a bank, while middleand right sends you up; saving apreset simply requires a quickpress and hold of the Type knob.

Those footswitches are formore than just switchingsounds, though. Hold downthe switch for the currentlyselected preset and you’llactivate the Infinite Sustain orFreeze functions. Infinite

Sustain causes the currentreverb trail to decay indefinitely,adding each subsequent note you play to the reverb signal,while Freeze offers the sameinfinite sustain effect, but alsoallows you to play over thesustain without adding to thereverb. You can choose whichfunction is activated via theBigSky’s easily navigatedmenus, which also give you theoption to choose between buffered and true bypass, andspillover and Reverb Persistmodes, which cause reverbtrails to continue whenswitching patches and bypassing the pedal,respectively. There’s also anassignable +/- 3dB boost toensure your reverb’d guitarsignal doesn’t get lost in the livemix, and even switchablecabinet emulation for playingdirect and recording.

STRYMON BIGSKY £429EFFECTS

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February 2014 Guitarist 119

STRYMON BIGSKY £429EFFECTS

The Rivals

Similarly priced to the BigSky,

the Eventide Space (£499)

boasts 12 hugely adjustable

reverb sounds, while

Strymon’s own BlueSky

(£279) still offers stunning

reverb algorithms and ease of

use.TC Electronic’s NR-1

Nova Reverb (£199) is a

cheaper option, but features

considerable control over its

six reverb types

Strymon BigSky

PRICE: £429

ORIGIN: USA

TYPE: Digital reverb stompbox

CONTROLS: Type, Value, Decay,

Pre-delay, mix, tone, Mod, Param 1,

Param 2, cab filter switch

PRESETS: 300

REVERB TYPES: Room, hall,

plate, spring, swell, bloom, cloud,

chorale, shimmer, magneto,

nonlinear, reflections

OTHER FEATURES: Infinite Sustain,

Freeze; spillover and reverb persist;

analogue dry-though; cab emulation

CONNECTIONS: Left/right inputs,

left/right outputs, exp out for

expression pedal, MIDI in/out, power

POWER: 300mA via 9V DC mains

adaptor (supplied)

DIMENSIONS: 130 (d) x 171 (w) x

44.5mm (h)

WEIGHT (KG/LB): 0.664/1.46

MusicPsych

0207 607 6005

www.strymon.net

G U I T A R I S T R A T I N G

Build quality

Features

Sound

Value for money

Guitarist says: This kind of

quality doesn’t come cheap, but

reverbs don’t get much better

than this – a superlative

stompbox in every way 

While the functionality is staggering,it’s the sounds themselves that makeyour jaw drop and your playing soar

 SoundsConsidering the borderlineacademic nature of Strymon’sresearch, you’d be disappointedif the BigSky sounded anythingless than extraordinary. All thathomework paid off: the 12reverb machines are as naturalor fantastical as you want.In part, that’s down to theflexibility of each machine – forexample, the spring setting isutterly convincing, and allows you to nail the exact sound youlove, right down to the numberof springs themselves.

Much of the BigSky’s appeallies in its more atmosphericsettings, and Strymon has amplyprovided for ambient and post-rock musicians. The pitch-shifted Shimmer setting isparticularly impressive, offeringtwo chromatically shiftable voices for painting ridiculouslygrand soundscapes. Then

there’s the Chorale setting,which applies a vowel filter toits ’verbs – it’s almost like a vocalchoir backing your every note.

 Verdict As hefty as that price tag is, wecan’t help but fall in love withthe BigSky. It makes us want towrite poetry to the soundtrackof its glorious ambience – while

it’s so chock-full of featuresthere isn’t space to do morethan mention its additionalmulti-head echo (Magneto) orstudio-faithful Plate settings.But while the functionality isstaggering, it’s the sounds thatmake your jaw drop and yourplaying soar – and it’s thatwhich could end up justifyingthe lofty asking price.

Each of the BigSky’s 12 reverb ‘machines’ can be refined by seven further parameters

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