Strymon built a reputation on digital wizardry—big boxes, deep menus, endless presets. But behind all that DSP lives an analog team that’s been quietly designing circuits nobody gets to see. Times are a-changing.
The Series A line is the company’s outlet for analog dirt boxes. No MIDI. No USB. No firmware updates. Just pure, unapologetic analog.
The Strymon Canoga is the second pedal in the series, and it’s essentially a tweaked silicon Fuzz Face that Gregg Stock, Strymon’s CEO, built in an afternoon seven years ago as a way to clear his head. It sat on a shelf until the company needed a fuzz to pair with their UltraViolet vibe. Sometimes the best ideas are the ones you forget about.
Two knobs: Drive and Level. That’s it. But like any great Fuzz Face variant, Canoga lives or dies by the interaction between your guitar’s volume knob and its input. Crank everything and you get thick, saturated fuzz. Roll your guitar volume back and suddenly it’s a semi-clean blues overdrive—clear highs, no mud, nothing like what you expect from a fuzz.
Strymon recommends running it into an amp that already has a bit of hair. That’s how Hendrix did it. That’s how it works best. $199. For players who thought Strymon only did complicated, this is a welcome surprise.
