Suhr Riot review!

[flimz]

Ok, so I have a 1970 Marshall. Its a 50 watt, non-master volume head into a 4x12 with WGS veteran 30s. My main guitar is a Gibson Les Paul. Since I cant really turn it up loud enough in small clubs to get the amp gain, I decided to try out a Suhr Riot pedal. All I can say is...this pedal is awesome! Everyone was right about how it doesnt sound like a pedal, it sounds like an amp. No harsh fizz, no boomy lows, loads of gain on tap, unique little voicing switch. After a few days of experimenting, I am running the pedal at only 1/2 gain, which is still a lot. When I need a little more, I hit it with a very slight clean boost before the pedal. This pedal never gets too mushy or compressed. It stays tight and articulate. Another thing that surprised me is, I am now running the eq on the Marshall full out. Everything on 10 except for the presence knob. I used to constantly fiddle with the eq settings, but with the Riot, I can run full eq and it still sounds amazing. If I need a slightly more scooped sound, I just pull a little mids out, and Im there. These vintage Marshalls have an interactive kinda eq, and for some reason, it just sounds great all on 10 haha. The head naturally starts to break up above five on the channel volume, which is stupid loud. So, in most clubs I have to keep things around 4 or so. The Suhr Riot pedal never sounds thin at these amp volumes. The pedal also cleans up really well with the guitars volume. If youre looking for a high quality distortion to run over a clean channel on your tube amp, this is definitely one to check out! Im glad I did!

 

[gbsmusic]

Ok, so I have a 1970 Marshall. Its a 50 watt, non-master volume head into a 4x12 with WGS veteran 30s. My main guitar is a Gibson Les Paul. Since I cant really turn it up loud enough in small clubs to get the amp gain, I decided to try out a Suhr Riot pedal. All I can say is...this pedal is awesome! Everyone was right about how it doesnt sound like a pedal, it sounds like an amp. No harsh fizz, no boomy lows, loads of gain on tap, unique little voicing switch. After a few days of experimenting, I am running the pedal at only 1/2 gain, which is still a lot. When I need a little more, I hit it with a very slight clean boost before the pedal. This pedal never gets too mushy or compressed. It stays tight and articulate. Another thing that surprised me is, I am now running the eq on the Marshall full out. Everything on 10 except for the presence knob. I used to constantly fiddle with the eq settings, but with the Riot, I can run full eq and it still sounds amazing. If I need a slightly more scooped sound, I just pull a little mids out, and Im there. These vintage Marshalls have an interactive kinda eq, and for some reason, it just sounds great all on 10 haha. The head naturally starts to break up above five on the channel volume, which is stupid loud. So, in most clubs I have to keep things around 4 or so. The Suhr Riot pedal never sounds thin at these amp volumes. The pedal also cleans up really well with the guitars volume. If youre looking for a high quality distortion to run over a clean channel on your tube amp, this is definitely one to check out! Im glad I did!

 

[jet66]

I just tried the 'all EQ's at 10' on this Chadwick clean channel + Riot, and it works! When I was using noon as a start point, and tweaking from there, I had to take the bass and mids way down, leave the treble up. Otherwise, it just had way too much bottom end. At all 10's, wow! It was sounding good before, now it's even better. I even cut the Riot Dist down just below noon, it was set between 1 and 2 before.

The real test for me will be next week and I go to practice. I use the bass players VS100 1/2 stack there. My OCD + FD2 was doing alright, but didn't quite have the same balls the Riot does through my own rig.

 

[AngryGoldfish]

Best distortion pedals on the planet:

Suhr Riot
OKKO Dominator
Toneczar Openhaus
Tone Freaks Severe
EMMA Effects PY-1 PisdiYAUwot

 

[romanianreaper]

Since I'm in the process of moving, I haven't been able to play my Suhr Riot since mid-April but can't wait till' I have it again. I agree that it is a great sounding pedal. I'd like to try it thru a very clean Fender amp. I bet it sounds phenomenal.

 

[flimz]

This pedal can be run at 18v. What is the advantage tone-wise, running at 18v??

 

[jet66]

I need to do some more experimenting, but so far I like it best on 9V. It seems to boost the overhead a bit, and I liked the looser feel of the distortion at 9V. I didn't spend a lot of time with it at 18V, though, so that is just a first impression after about 10 minutes of play time.

 

[AngryGoldfish]

I generally like to run an overdrive pedal at 9v when I'm using a low gain amp like a Matamp (or a even a Marshall). But for high gainers like my Soldano, it's cool to add even more harmonics and sonic output with the 18v operation.

 

[richedie]

I wanted to bring this up again because I just started using a non master 1974 JMP and love this rig with a distortion pedal or over drive pedal. I would love to find a distotion pedal with built in boost but it is not essential because I can use an Xotic RC.

However, I was using a Metal Pedals distortion pedal. Sounds great but needs to be up to like 11:00 on the pedal's volume which is way to loud with the JMP so it might have to go! I love the tone however and the bass response.

How is the low end on the Riot? Does it really lack low end? How loud is it designed to run? Can you get the volume on the Riot up past 9:00 when running with the 1970 Marshall?

Thanks!

Ok, so I have a 1970 Marshall. Its a 50 watt, non-master volume head into a 4x12 with WGS veteran 30s. My main guitar is a Gibson Les Paul. Since I cant really turn it up loud enough in small clubs to get the amp gain, I decided to try out a Suhr Riot pedal. All I can say is...this pedal is awesome! Everyone was right about how it doesnt sound like a pedal, it sounds like an amp. No harsh fizz, no boomy lows, loads of gain on tap, unique little voicing switch. After a few days of experimenting, I am running the pedal at only 1/2 gain, which is still a lot. When I need a little more, I hit it with a very slight clean boost before the pedal. This pedal never gets too mushy or compressed. It stays tight and articulate. Another thing that surprised me is, I am now running the eq on the Marshall full out. Everything on 10 except for the presence knob. I used to constantly fiddle with the eq settings, but with the Riot, I can run full eq and it still sounds amazing. If I need a slightly more scooped sound, I just pull a little mids out, and Im there. These vintage Marshalls have an interactive kinda eq, and for some reason, it just sounds great all on 10 haha. The head naturally starts to break up above five on the channel volume, which is stupid loud. So, in most clubs I have to keep things around 4 or so. The Suhr Riot pedal never sounds thin at these amp volumes. The pedal also cleans up really well with the guitars volume. If youre looking for a high quality distortion to run over a clean channel on your tube amp, this is definitely one to check out! Im glad I did!

 

[Gorehog]

i use the riot w/ my Vintage Modern.

LDR mode with Riot kicked on, awesome 70s-80s rock tone.with Riot off i get great crunch tone from the amp.not a big fan of the HDR mode.

but LDR with the riot and some fine tuning i get a great sound.very happy.

 

[richedie]

Does it only do 70s and 80s rock tones? How ab out 90s and newer?

I wanted to bring this up again because I just started using a non master 1974 JMP and love this rig with a distortion pedal or over drive pedal. I would love to find a distotion pedal with built in boost but it is not essential because I can use an Xotic RC.

However, I was using a Metal Pedals distortion pedal. Sounds great but needs to be up to like 11:00 on the pedal's volume which is way to loud with the JMP so it might have to go! I love the tone however and the bass response.

How is the low end on the Riot? Does it really lack low end? How loud is it designed to run? Can you get the volume on the Riot up past 9:00 when running with the 1970 Marshall?

 

[university81]

good stuff, wouldn't mind trying it out, the tc electronics dark matter sounds pretty good as well from the videos, way better than the mojomojo overdrive for some reason, I don't know if it's due to how the amp was set etc... but it just seems to have more balls/definition

i rely on pedals for my dirty tones so this is good to know about, i'm using a blackstar ht dual , which gives me quite a bit of control and tones, and sounds huge

i have the cmatmods brownie, which is awesome but quite compressed compared to the suhr riot from what i've heard

this video comparing the two will drive you nuts =0

 

[lame guitarist]

The Riot is an awesome pedal, so is the Shiba drive.

I purchased both of them a while back and tried to run them on an amps gain channel for a bit extra... It totally sounded like shit!!! So I put them in the boxes and forgot about them. Then I saw a couple of demo's where they mentioned they were designed to run on a clean channel. So I tried that and was gobsmacked at how good they were. Permanent fixture in my rig now.

 

[flimz]

Does it only do 70s and 80s rock tones? How ab out 90s and newer?

I wanted to bring this up again because I just started using a non master 1974 JMP and love this rig with a distortion pedal or over drive pedal. I would love to find a distotion pedal with built in boost but it is not essential because I can use an Xotic RC.

However, I was using a Metal Pedals distortion pedal. Sounds great but needs to be up to like 11:00 on the pedal's volume which is way to loud with the JMP so it might have to go! I love the tone however and the bass response.

How is the low end on the Riot? Does it really lack low end? How loud is it designed to run? Can you get the volume on the Riot up past 9:00 when running with the 1970 Marshall?

I think the Riot works best on a clean channel, and not so much as an overdrive for a dirty channel. However, it does work well with a slight boost in front of it. So itll probably go well with your xotic rc pedal. I find Im running the volume on the riot at about 11:00 or so. It depends on the position of the clipping toggle switch. The center position is the loudest, the right position needs a little boost in volume. The low end of the riot is very nice. Very marshall-esque in the mids too. Its not a scooped metal pedal sound, more of a hot-rodded marshall sound.

 

[richedie]

Flimz, it should work well into an old JMP since I run it on 1-2 on the master which is pretty much clean! I can tell you my other distortion pedals kill this way.

 

[flimz]

Flimz, it should work well into an old JMP since I run it on 1-2 on the master which is pretty much clean! I can tell you my other distortion pedals kill this way.

Yes I can never really turn my old marshall past 4 in clubs, its just way too loud. It stays clean below 5, so the Riot pedal works great!

 

[richedie]

Flimz, it should work well into an old JMP since I run it on 1-2 on the master which is pretty much clean! I can tell you my other distortion pedals kill this way.

Yes I can never really turn my old marshall past 4 in clubs, its just way too loud. It stays clean below 5, so the Riot pedal works great!

Thanks man! Have you tried others? I am also looking at the Menatone None More Black, Metal Pedals (although I don't think so), ZVex Box of Metal and Pro Tone Tools Jason Becker pedal.

 

[flimz]

No I havent tried others, but I heard the Barber Dirty Bomb was also a great pedal.

 

[The Hoff]

I'm seriously thinking about picking one of these up finally. It seems as though everytime my GAS subsides for it, I read something like this.

 

[richedie]

How is the high end? I often hear complaints of the highs being harsh but clips I hear sound warm.