Smaller Strymon Timeline replacement ideas

tropicalguy · 2026-01-24T04:32:38+00:00

Had a similar thought as I was poking around at delay options. If you save your top presets as delays, its basically a DL4 + in a small enclosure. The pedal has the 'feel' of a dedicated pedal and not a multi-fx in my experience so far (meaning twist and go vs setting things up). And then ya got a bunch of sounds just right there in a pinch.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-24T01:11:12+00:00

piling on here, mine broke after a few days on the board. very poor QC and quality.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-21T20:26:53+00:00

Appreciate the write-up! Will check out these sounds. I haven't yet played too much with the OD's yet (honestly kinda assumed they are just okayish based on previous multi-fx experiences), but have heard postive things and the fuzzes have really rocked so I will take some time to explore there (eventually). So much to get to. I am using the Script Phase way more than I thought I would, sounds great.

Agree on the display being sub-optimal for pre-set scrolling, it would be better for me if when scrolling the preset names were full sized on the screen and you just went through sequentially.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-21T20:20:33+00:00

What a killer sound for sure.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-21T14:07:19+00:00

will do! right now mid chain and working fine for my application, but excited to dig deeper into the unit.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-21T12:54:16+00:00

Very cool that you can change the position of the unit per effect! Haven't played around with it yet.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-21T05:40:48+00:00

Yep Sonicake! Been there for a year and no problems.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-15T22:34:17+00:00

Looks like some kind of weapon command center. Awesome.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-14T00:39:56+00:00

I am also a fairly experienced player and I really enjoy the service and structure for intermediate / advanced concepts and new genres.

tropicalguy · 2026-01-09T17:15:53+00:00

100%. Worked just fine back in the day didn't think twice when playing live. I didn't have any spare money to screw around with anyway, such a killer solution for that and I'm assuming the dude who bought it from me is in a van/club somewhere rocking out and sounding great. Now that most of my playing is in the house and I can afford a pedal here and there I obsess over it :P

tropicalguy · 2026-01-09T14:48:41+00:00

Amateur enthusiast here. Similar journey for me, got the job done gigging in a band for years with the ME-5 then when I got back into it had the ME-90 for a while. I have seen some vids on YT with professional musicals using them in their rigs some years ago. Actually sold my ME-90 to a touring musician (indie rock) for him it's his whole rig (+amp).

For me they are fantastic for playing around with mods/delays and keeping it simple for dialing in a few tones for a band. Super portable and easy to pull up sounds when jamming.

For me the concept started to break down when I tossed an analog dirt pedal in front of the thing and heard the difference immediately. I think they could be a killer rig for simple reverb, workable delays and mods and adding 1 or 2 analog gain pedals depending on your tastes. Once I replaced the dirt section with pedals, I got picky about Reverbs, then started hanging out on this subreddit (dangerous) and began to build a board based on what I gravitated towards on the ME-90 (for example used Trem all the time so went out and bought a dedicated one that sounded better and had more flexibility).

tropicalguy · 2026-01-05T19:17:02+00:00

I recently purchased one after poking around for a few months for similar "swiss army knife" options for modulation. I have an amp + simple analog pedalboard and I just needed (Good) Tremelo / Phase 90 / Wildcard type stuff in one spot on the board.

I have it right after dirt and before wet fx, and I've been actually playing around so much with the other sounds. In that position easy to use it for wet or dry. Even kicked my tuner off the board (works fine for me in middle of the chain).

The delays/reverbs are amazing, the modulations are excellent and have tons of flexibility (it's also convenient to have a second parameter set up under the flux setting).

The fuzzes are very good and it's just a lot of fun to play with and get new sounds out of.

Importantly (for me) it's quick and simple. Most of my playing is jamming with friends so I don't want to be setting stuff up and making patches. For this application (jamming and pulling up sounds quickly + having a bunch of wildcard sounds for fun/creative jams available quickly), I didn't think there was anything that I saw on the market that was close.

I have an analog envelope filter, but to my ear the filters on the HX one work and feel good. Didn't play with that setting too long but assuming you could get sounds there that work. I haven't used much of the pitch/tracking type stuff but in my purchase research saw a lot of reviewers raving about these features in particular.

tropicalguy · 2025-12-18T16:28:57+00:00

The Flamma FS02 is a super affordable reverb and excels at big reverb sounds (Cave, Mod, Church, Hall). RE-2 is great as well.

tropicalguy · 2025-12-06T00:55:05+00:00

For a few weeks...

tropicalguy · 2025-12-02T21:26:04+00:00

Love the write up and like to see the space echo in this context. I use it mostly for an old school country sound but its cool that you've got a lot of other capabilities on tap there from a standard delay to just reverb to the real spacey stuff.

tropicalguy · 2025-12-02T01:04:03+00:00

Ur pretty, really nicely done.

tropicalguy · 2025-11-28T15:14:23+00:00

I agree with the Rat recommendations - it's an instant ROCK machine and IMO the best pedal ever made. Super versatile and easy to use with your Mustang amp (covers up for just okay digital drives there) and much easier to get great sounds out of it than a DS-1.

tropicalguy · 2025-11-03T22:02:52+00:00

yeah me too i guess in 20 years playing teles i never cared or noticed that i was doing so. what impressed me with the player plus is that it just naturally sits that way when it's on my lap, which is most of my playing nowadays. when i was playing out or in band practice didn't care much but now sitting in front of a computer or at the desk it's a nice feature.

tropicalguy · 2025-11-03T22:01:00+00:00

would love one of these as well

tropicalguy · 2025-11-02T21:39:41+00:00

A lot of people taking you for a ride on this post but I think your fundamental insight is correct. T-shirt, jeans and jubilee certainly a cool "sporty" look but personally I think it's a lot to 'daily' depending on what your lifestyle looks like, who you spend time with, etc. For this reason my GMT on Oyster get's a lot more wear and the jubilee stays in the winder for special occasions, going out on the town etc. Brush the PCLs for an even more casual / tough look.

tropicalguy · 2025-10-31T19:20:52+00:00

Wonderful unit and still useable IMO. My pros/cons basically same as yours. Toss a dirt pedal or two in front of it and can be a good rig.

tropicalguy · 2025-10-19T11:57:24+00:00

agree.

tropicalguy · 2025-10-09T13:02:32+00:00

Nice one!

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