About Strymon
Strymon traces its roots to Damage Control Engineering, founded in 2004 in Westlake Village, California by three engineers, Pete Celi, Gregg Stock, and Dave Fruehling, who had previously worked together at Line 6 and Alesis. In 2009 the company adopted the Strymon name with the launch of the OB.1 compressor, and every pedal since has been designed and manufactured in the United States. The lineup grew from that first compressor into flagship reverb, delay, and modulation pedals, including BigSky, TimeLine, Mobius, Flint, El Capistan, and Volante, that the company says have redefined or created entirely new categories within guitar effects.
Strymon's reverb pedals are the products that built its reputation among working and touring players. Premier Guitar described the BigSky as "a virtual mad-scientist lab for those who are endlessly fascinated with the possibilities of audio signals bouncing off unseen objects, and then being twisted, warped, chopped, and vaporized," while Guitar World names BigSky and blueSky as the brand's two reverb "heavy hitters," noting that blueSky takes the core sound of BigSky and shrinks it into a smaller, easier-to-manage pedalboard footprint for players who do not need the full menu of machines.
Brand website: strymon.net
What Strymon makes
Strymon's catalog runs wider than the gear we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Reverb
BigSky and blueSky V2 — the line that built Strymon's reputation and includes both of our award-winning picks — featured on House of Octave
Delay
TimeLine, El Capistan, Volante, and Deco multi-format delay pedals
Modulation
Mobius multidimensional modulation and the Ola chorus/vibrato
Compression & Dynamics
OB.1, the original Strymon-branded pedal, and the Compadre compressor/boost
Amp & Cab / Multi-effect
Iridium amp and cab modeler, NightSky evolving textures
Power
Ojai and Zuma pedalboard power supplies
Why we recognized Strymon
The House of Octave Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose gear consistently stands out in our player-tested category guides. Strymon earned it on the strength of the products below, judged the same way every product on this site is: assessed on build, tone, and playability, weighed against what players actually report over years of use, and ranked on merit.
Strymon gear we rated highly
Strymon BigSky Multidimensional Reverb Pedal
Twelve distinct, studio-class reverb machines, Room, Hall, Plate, Spring, Swell, Bloom, Cloud, Chorale, Shimmer, Magneto, Nonlinear, and Reflections, replace an entire pedalboard's worth of ambience in one box. Built for a serious rig with stereo in and out, full MIDI, 300 nameable presets, and an analog dry path that never converts the clean signal to digital, it earned a 4.8 rating in our testing and remains the industry-standard flagship reverb pedal.
Read the 9 Best Reverb Pedals of 2026 (Spring, Ambient, Budget & Studio) guide →
Strymon blueSky V2 Reverb Pedal
Purpose-built for the huge, singing ambient swells favored in worship, post-rock, and cinematic playing, with world-class Spring, Plate, and Room machines plus a variable Shimmer engine. V2 adds full MIDI, 300 presets, a Favorite footswitch, and USB-C, delivering Strymon's studio-grade quality through straightforward front-panel knobs rather than BigSky's menu diving, and it earned the highest rating (4.9) of any pedal in our roundup.
Read the 9 Best Reverb Pedals of 2026 (Spring, Ambient, Budget & Studio) guide →What earned Strymon the recognition
- Two House of Octave category awards in reverb pedals: Best Premium (BigSky) and Best for Worship & Swells (blueSky V2)
- Founded as Damage Control Engineering in 2004 in Westlake Village, California by engineers formerly of Line 6 and Alesis; adopted the Strymon name in 2009 and still designs and builds every pedal in the USA
- BigSky was described by Premier Guitar as a reference-grade reverb "lab," and Guitar World calls BigSky and blueSky the brand's two reverb "heavy hitters"
- BigSky's twelve reverb machines, stereo I/O, full MIDI, and 300-preset design have made it the industry-standard flagship reverb pedal referenced throughout our own testing
- blueSky V2 posted a 4.9 rating in our roundup, the highest of any pedal reviewed, with owners citing near-perfect satisfaction