Suhr

Discovery Analog Delay user guide, Suhr⁴⁵

The line began with a single overdrive in 2009 and has grown into a catalog that includes the Riot high-gain distortion, the Shiba Drive overdrive family, the Rufus fuzz, the Koko Boost, and, most recently, the Brighton Treble Booster⁶⁷⁸.

The story: from the Riot to the Brighton Treble Booster

Suhr's pedal history starts with the Shiba Drive. In Suhr's own announcement of the Reloaded editions, the company recalled: "In July of 2009, we shipped our very first Shiba Drive pedal"⁶. That first pedal was followed by the Riot, a high-gain distortion pedal that Suhr describes as having "the sonic characteristics and touch sensitivity of a high quality 100 watt tube amplifier"⁷¹⁶.

In 2013 Suhr announced Reloaded editions of both the Riot and the Shiba Drive, described in the press release as "Based on our Award Winning Riot and Shiba Drive pedals"⁶. The Riot Reloaded was the result of what Suhr called "countless hours of listening, testing, and tweaking our original distortion circuit"¹⁷. Those Reloaded circuits have since been discontinued: the current Riot carries "Identical circuit and tone of the Original Riot Circuit"⁹¹⁸, and the current Koko Boost likewise returns to the original Koko circuit in a smaller enclosure⁹¹⁸.

The line then branched out. A mini version of the Riot was introduced at the NAMM 2018 show, and the Riot Mini remains in the range as a compact high-gain distortion with the same Level, Tone and Distortion control set as the full size pedal¹¹¹⁹. In 2026 Suhr added the Brighton Treble Booster, which the manual says is "based on a famous classic 60s discrete transistor design that was one of the earliest guitar pedals in history"¹³.

A rough timeline of the pedal line:

What Suhr pedals are known for

Two things run through the range. The first is analog circuitry: Suhr frames its whole pedal line as an exercise in keeping analog simplicity and tone available to modern players². The second is the FX Link jack, a remote switching connection that appears across the line. On the Riot, Shiba Drive and Koko Boost, shorting the shield to the tip of the FX Link connector activates the pedal and opening the connection turns it off⁷⁸¹⁰. The Riot's true bypass relay switching "produces less popping when switching the pedal on and off"⁷²¹.

The current range by type:

A few of these stand out for how they came about. The Thornicus Fuzz is "a dual-channel fuzz pedal designed in collaboration between Ian Thornley and Kevin Suhr"²⁴. The Discovery Analog Delay is described by Suhr as "the new revolutionary pedal, designed by Kevin Suhr"⁴, and its expression input accepts a low impedance 10K ohm expression pedal to control all the knobs per preset². The Rufus offers "a vast array of fuzz tones with an extremely dynamic and tactile octave-up effect"¹².

The Riot and the Riot Mini

The Riot is Suhr's flagship high-gain distortion. Its three controls are simple: Level adjusts the output, with enough level to push the front end of a tube amp into natural overdrive; Tone shapes the overall response "from smooth and warm to cutting lead tones"; and Distortion sets the gain⁹. The Riot Mini puts the same idea in a smaller box. Suhr states it has "Identical circuit and tone of the Original Riot Mini Circuit"¹¹, and that it "has inherited all of the Classic Hi-Gain DNA of it's larger sibling, only now it's harnessed in a smaller" pedalboard friendly design¹⁹. The Tone control works the same way on both pedals⁹¹⁹.

The Shiba Drive family

The Shiba Drive is "a smooth sounding overdrive pedal"¹⁴, and Suhr notes it is very popular among players who want an overdrive that works with both their amplifier's clean and overdrive channels²³. The family has grown over the years:

• Shiba Drive: the original overdrive¹⁴
• Shiba Drive Reloaded: a more amp-like reworking of the original circuit³¹
• Shiba Mini: the overdrive in a compact enclosure, offering "a wide variety of fat rhythm and warm lead tones"¹⁵
• Shiba Drive Legacy Edition: the original design in the Legacy Pedals category²³
• Kiko Loureiro Signature Shiba Drive Reloaded: a signature version for Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro, announced in November 2016, based on the Shiba Drive with minor tweaks, a signature graphic and a laser etched case

The full size Shiba Drive also carries the FX Link jack for remote switching⁸.

Support and the company behind the pedals

Suhr pedals are made by JS Technologies, Inc., the company named on the current manuals for the Riot, Shiba Drive, Eclipse, Dual Boost and Rufus^8323312. Several pedals in the line share design credit with Kevin Suhr, including the Discovery Analog Delay and the Thornicus Fuzz⁴²⁴.

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