Strymon Deco
Old-school tape machine e ects now available on your pedalboard
STRYMON
DECO
£279
IF
you can do so, imagine
a world in which recording
studios didn’t have computers, and
guitarists had little choice when it
came to modifying their sound,
other than the spring reverb and
valve tremolo circuits in their
amps. Admittedly, these conditions
birthed some of the greatest
recordings in popular music
history, with killer guitar sounds
that plenty of us still attempt to
replicate today, but to say life has
got a little more convenient for the
six-string player since the 50s and
60s is a massive understatement.
Yet for all today’s Kemper and
Axe-Fx acolytes getting big amp
sounds without bursting their
eardrums, you have only to turn
on the radio to notice that
mainstream pop and indie guitar
playing is more textural and less
‘rock’ than ever. Bands such as
Tame Impala have turned to
warm, overloaded mixing
desk-style fuzz tones rather than
traditional heavy stack sounds,
while the likes of Dan Auerbach
and Jack White have brought
vintage analogue studio sounds
back into the contemporary arena.
Enter the Strymon Deco, which
emulates the kind of effects once
achievable only by lab-coated
engineers manipulating tape
machines, wrapping them up in
a smart, brushed-metal enclosure
with all the pedalboard-friendly
usability of a modern digital
stompbox. Best positioned at the
end of your effects chain in
a standard electric guitar rig, the
Deco’s key control on the left-hand
side of the pedal is saturation,
which when engaged, apes the
warm overdrive and compression
that occurs when tape machine
inputs are in the red; think Keith
It’s a serious investment, but
this is a pro-quality pedal
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
Richards’ ‘acoustic’ guitar sound
on Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
On the right-hand side of the
unit, we’re into the world of
simulated ADT – automatic double
tracking – which was the precursor
to time-based effects such as fl ange
and chorus. As your virtual tape
decks get further out of sync,
slapback and short tape echo
sounds are accessible as you twist
the control further clockwise. Used
in front of a guitar amp, the
rotation of the lag time control
provides a journey through classic
studio sounds of yesteryear, with
Sun Studio-style slapback echo
straight from rockabilly heaven
and warm fl ange effects that
channel the spirit of Abbey Road in
1967 real highlights for retro pop
fans. Flipping an internal jumper
to allow the connection of a TRS
stereo input cable means that you
can use the Deco as an outboard
stereo effects processor for
recording, and warm up – or
totally scramble – any signal you
like, from drums to vocals, or even
the whole band mix.
Although it takes the emulation
of old sounds as its starting point,
the Deco offers a huge amount of
range for the creatively minded
player seeking inspiration – we’ve
barely scratched the surface. At
£279, it’s a serious investment, but
this is a pro-quality pedal that will
make your guitar sounds and even
demo mixes stand out.
Chris Vinnicombe
GEAR STRYMON DECO
JANUARY 2015 95
TYPE: Tape saturation and
double-tracker pedal
CONTROLS: Saturation, blend, lag
time, volume, wobble, type switch;
SOCKETS: Input, expression
pedal, 2x outputs, power
BYPASS: True or buffered bypass
POWER: 9V power supply
(included)
CONTACT: MusicPsych
0207 607 6005 www.strymon.net
AT A GLANCE
HIDDEN FEATURES
PRESSING and holding the
double-tracker bypass footswitch
introduces through-zero fl ange, while
high trim, low trim, auto-fl ange time,
wide stereo mode and +/- 3dB
boost/cut are all adjustable in
secondary mode
CONNECTIONS
YOU can plug in an
expression pedal, add an
external tap tempo switch or
plug in a ‘Favorite’ switch to
save and recall a favoured
preset on the fl y
CONTROL
WOBBLE dials in random modulations
akin to manually varying tape speed;
the three-way type toggle switches the
virtual tape decks from in-phase (sum)
to phase-inverted (invert), to stereo
ping-pong or mono double repeats
(bounce), depending on how the unit is
hooked up
TGR262.gear_strymon.indd 95 05/12/2014 18:17