Having been a long time user of reverb and delay, when Strymon released the Blue Sky Reverb I was excited to see if it would live up to its highly anticipated expectation. Over six years later; this pedal still remains one of the most popular and renowned reverb units on many professional boards around the world. So what made this pedal an instant classic?
For years, Strymon have provided high end studio grade effects pedals with ridiculously powerful DSP and meticulously crafted sound engines. The Blue Sky was one of their first forays into reverb, providing players with gorgeously lush sounding reverb algorithms with near limitless potential for soundscaping and tone tweaking.
It’s modest control layout offers users the ability to go from a soft amp-like Spring reverb, first popularised in the 1960’s, a 70’s style electro transducer plate reverb (perfect for classic rock fans) and last but by no means least, their famous “room” algorithm which can take you from playing in a small tiled room with little verb all the way to the depths of the Grand Canyon with the ethereal infinite trails found if you increase the decay.
So far pretty impressive, but the sounds do not stop there! Along side these traditional reverb sounds are three “sub” options which you can add over the top of the initial reverb signal. The fist being “norm” or normal which means the reverb remains pure and unaffected. The second is the beautiful “shimmer” setting which adds a high 3rd and 5th octaver sound above the original note (ideal for ambient players) and finally we have the “mod” setting which adds subtle modulation to the reverb trail reminiscent of a classic dBucket chorus. With these things in mind, suddenly this pedal becomes three effects units rolled into one very affordable box when you consider its current price tag of under £300. For my money, it has been one of the best investments on my board.
Sam Martin
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