EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker vs Strymon Riverside
The EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker and the Strymon Riverside are both pedals sharing saturated, transparent, dynamic. The EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker leans sustaining.
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Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.47% — somewhat different
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- saturated
- transparent
- dynamic
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$99via Reverb
The EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker is a warm, ultra-touch-responsive medium-gain overdrive built as the successor to the discontinued Speaker Cranker, adding more controls and a diode selector switch to that pedal's spongy, dynamic character. It responds like adding another tube to an amp's preamp stage, keeping the core guitar tone intact while adding articulate, controlled snarl and sustain. A Germanium setting delivers a softer, more rounded response with tamed highs and lower output, while a Silicon setting is brighter and more modern, with higher output, a fatter low-mid bloom, and chords that stay distinct without turning muddy. It suits players wanting a reliable, touch-sensitive overdrive that behaves like an extra tube gain stage, with real tonal choice between soft germanium warmth and bright silicon punch.
The Strymon Riverside is a multistage overdrive combining a responsive, class-A JFET analog input gain stage with three additional SHARC DSP gain stages, giving it the feel and dynamic response of a cascading tube preamp even though only the front end is analog. It delivers a musical, overtone-saturated overdrive thick with complex, tube-amp-like harmonics that stays remarkably articulate even at the highest gain settings, ranging from silky smooth low-gain overdrive to explosive, saturated distortion. It responds naturally to pick attack and guitar volume changes, cleaning up easily without losing clarity, and Strymon's continuously variable circuit tuning keeps the tone in its sweet spot across the full gain range. It suits players wanting a genuinely tube-amp-like overdrive-to-distortion range with real dynamic touch response.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Alternative Rock
- alternative
- blues
- rock
- sustaining