La Brea

The design grew out of the Saturation voice in the Strymon Deco, rebuilt as a discrete analog circuit. Pre-emphasis and de-emphasis filtering, as on a tape deck, shapes the signal around two cascaded saturation stages. That gives more gain than Deco. An internal 24 V rail supplies the headroom that lets one pedal act as a clean boost or a fuzz.

Low Tape Sat settings add light breakup, mild compression and softened transients. The high Gain range with Tape Sat near maximum moves into fuzz. Because the Dry path never drifts out of phase, blending it in keeps note attack clear at high gain. With Level at zero, Dry alone works as a clean boost of up to +6 dB. Shift lifts the highs or the upper mids on both paths.

Strymon's own sound samples also use La Brea on bass and as a buffer ahead of a volume pedal. An internal jumper sets whether the pedal powers up engaged, which helps under a raised pedalboard deck or in a rack drawer.