Strymon EC-1 Review

Rather than emulate the familiar and relatively common solid-state EP-3, Strymon used a tube-preamp-driven EP-2 as a launch pad—except that Strymon’s EP-2 was heavily modified by legendary amp man Cesar Diaz. In Strymon’s estimation, Diaz’ modifications added some characteristics of an EP-3 preamp to the EP-2 formula. In my experience (I’ve played EP-2s and EP-3s side by side and used the latter for comparison in this review) that could mean extra headroom or, in the worst cases, comparative brittleness. Strymon, for their part, says Diaz’ mods resulted in a warmer sort of EP-2 sound. Regardless of their design intent, the EC-1 sounds fantastic in many of the ways a great Echoplex might. The haze and degradation in each repeat sound and behave much like magnetic tape, shaving off high and high-mid spectrum detail as the echoes recede, and adding the dreamy, blurry ambience of a Gerhard Richter painting. But the EC-1 also does sound truly warmer than some of its rivals.