Strymon Brigadier, First Impressions
by Rhoy Pamparo on Mar.02, 2010, under Personal Thoughts
It took forever to get the pedal shipped that my excitement had died down and had been replaced with anxiousness, second-guessing and to be honest, annoyed that it took more than 2-weeks from US to Canada. I’ll bet those people in Customs were all watching the Winter Olympics!
Regardless, it is here now and that’s what matters!
Apparently, this device is using the same chip that was on the DamageControl Timeline (SHARC AD21369). That is a lot of processing power and it’s evident that the engineers has put in a lot of efforts in creating this.
Pros:
1. Great analog sounds especially with the Bucket Loss
2. Tap-Tempo with dotted-8ths/triplets
3. Modulation can be very subtle to “warble’y” sounds when maxed
Cons:
1. Power, why does it have to use more than 100mA!!! oh well 
2. Can’t go back to default non-tapped setting without changing the speed dial
On a side note, I compared it side-by-side with my Diamond Memory Lane (v1). Although the Brigadier sounded good by itself, it could not match the way the delay degrades on the ML. And this is not a knock against Strymon but I was just a little surprised that the ML really stood it’s ground.
Anyhow, here’s some random noodling that I did as soon as I got this baby!
The verdict after 30 minutes of playing with it … it has a velcro and a place in the board!
Pedalboard as of March 2010 (with Brigadier)
Obviously, I have to put more mileage into this to be able to utilize and judge all the features. But right out of the box, it produces very usable tones. It’s not as pristine as a digital delay even with the bucket loss at 0. And this is not what it was intended for. It was intended to simulate the bucket brigade analog chips which are really getting close to extinction. It does a great job at doing that … and a whole lot more. This will definitely stay with me for quite some time!
March 3rd, 2010 on 6:10 pm
Winter Olympics…. Congrats *cough on the *cough hockey….’
Sounds great! And the price point is lower than the ML!
I might look into this pedal for later….
Btw, what is the small silver box, top right board? That looks new~! Have you been holding out on us??? :p
March 4th, 2010 on 11:10 pm
Wow! Sounds really good!
March 5th, 2010 on 8:06 am
Thanks guys!
It does sound very good for the price and for what it is trying to do. I’m already in the process of deciding whether to keep the Diamond ML on this board or not. I probably use delay about 50% or less so having 2 seems a bit much.
Oh yeah, Strymon just updated the code for the new ones to include an “EQ Tilt” (same as Diamond) and to improve the depth of Mod which is already good. That is a bummer for me as it’s not easy shipping back-and-forth (US-Canada)
@Larry – No, not holding out on you guys
… I briefly mentioned it on one of my previous posts. It’s a: Mini A/B by RoadRagePro (http://www.roadrageprogear.com/abs.html). So now I am running buffer-less and I’m liking it a little better. I may need a “real” buffer next time 
March 5th, 2010 on 11:26 am
Putting velcro on the pedal, that means something. Pedal sounds great. Pedal board looks great too. What board is that?
March 5th, 2010 on 12:25 pm
@Jed – Thanks! I got the hard case for cheap sometime ago. The board itself is just a piece of plywood I had lying around with 10′ (stripped into 2′ each) of industrial strength velcro on top.
March 8th, 2010 on 1:07 pm
Thanks for the demo and review. I’m glad you like the pedal that much to put the velcro on! I got a Skreddy Echo a month ago and haven’t even put together a review! I did spend some time dialing in a likeness on the M13 using lo res delay (never knew why worship guys liked this delay model enough to put a DL4 on their board). It’s interesting that Strymon said that the only difference between the Brigadier and the Timeline was the code not what the chip could handle. They would sell some pedals if they put that code in a smaller box.
March 8th, 2010 on 3:10 pm
A piece of plywood. That’s awesome. I have a couple friends who use a plastic cutting board they bought at Wallmart and an old brief cases found at Good Will. Nothing like resourceful pedal boards.
March 9th, 2010 on 12:02 pm
@Dan – would love to hear what you think of the Skreddy. And yes, it will be great to get a “Timeline” of this size and MIDI capability!
@Jed – i love seeing boards that are home-made, too! The only hard thing is to get a nice case to go with it