J
Junk Yard Dog
Well-known member
Here's my initial review...
What I do & Play
Life long guitar player. Far from great, but I'm good enough and have played in original and cover bands since I was 16 and done some recording: I'm 41. I'm a hard rock guy. Went through my 80s, Classic Rock, Cock Rock, SRV blues, Metal ala Pantera/Metallica, and I love the Deftones. My first real amp was a JCM2000 DSL. That was modded by Trace at Voodoo. Then Budda SD30, then ampless for a bit, then the EVH 5153, then a BFG Modded Egnater Seminar head, Splawn Pro Stock, I have another BFG Egnater 2016 Seminar Head on the Way, and now the BE50 Deluxe. I've played Mesas, 800s, Plexi's, the JJ, BE100, SLO100, and a few others. I don't have the ears that a lot of you guys have, but I know what I like and don't gel with.
I still have the Splawn Pro Stock, BFG 2013 Eggie Seminar Head, and now the BE50. The Splawn will be up for sale this week. The BFG may be right behind it; waiting for Brian to finish my other one. I love both those amps and I'm not loaded or anything, so I've got to make room and replenish savings.
I'm currently playing in a hard rock cover band doing all female pop and rock songs, but really rocked up, though not metal: best cover band ever because the girls are coming to all the shows and we're not scaring them away. Hot ones too. Never thought I'd play Katy Perry or Taylor Swift on stage, but I'm actually loving it. Again, boobs all over the place. I'm in Dallas. We play cougar joints.
BE50 Deluxe
I got it on Wednesday night. I live in a small apartment and have had the cops called 3 times in 1.5 years, so I definitely can't play these amps loud, like they need to be. I've only scratched the surface, but today I was able to open it up with two cabs: Bogner OS 2x12 with Hellatones H30/V30 mixed and my Stagecraft with Creamback H75/M65 mixed. So apartment volumes are pretty doable. Between the Sat, Pentode/Triode, great Master Volume, and FX Loop volume, good tones are available to enjoy so you don't have to screw the fat neighbor so she'll stop calling the cops.
The amp slays. As most everyone is saying. Is it worth the price tag: that's subjective and I'll give you my opinion toward the end.
Buxom Betty Clean Channel
I never play clean. Hence my current amps are all single channel. My guitars (Schecter USA and MIK PTs) are solid and have treble bleeds that work great, so I can get cleans that work for me rolling down the volume and I ALWAYS like a little hair on my cleans and use touch and volume to get different textures and dynamics. ...Well, that ain't gonna happen with the Buxom Betty Clean. It's the best clean I've ever played on a modded Marshall amp...but that ain't really sayin' much. Regardless, it's fucking glorious. I'm probably going to appreciate having a clean channel. But I'm not used to switching from a crystal clean to a hard rock channel, so I'm not sure how much I'll be using it. I think as others have said, I've to to have a gain switch on the Clean so I can add a little bit of hair or maybe it can go to Plexi tones, but aaah, yeah, the BE channel can do what my crappy ears think of as Plexi, so there ya go. Clean can get pretty loud. It's can do everything SUPER: thick, middy, no middy, trebly, BASSY. I haven't figured out to what to set it at yet. The EQ is very responsive, but it's not artificial: I don't know how else to articulate it. The Bright switch is very helpful to different tones and I would guess using different pickups and guitars. I'll keep playing with it and find what settings I like best.
BE Channel
If you've played it, you know what it does. This is where I'm having to adjust. My BFG is 4 gain stages and I'm not sure what my Splawn is, but both definitely have more gain and more compression. The BE is just RAW A F. I can hear so many nuances of my guitars in this channel. That's a good sign of just a high quality amp, I think. It roars, man. But less compressed and saturated than other amps I've had and it's just awesome. Again, I'm not used to it, so this will be an adjustment. It cleans up really, really well. I've run the Gain 1 knob on 10 and it stays together. I've put the gain at noon and used my TC Spark Booster (not the mini) and it takes the boost really, really well. So much that I've actually dialed back the Volume on the Spark Boost and it still does what it needs to do. I was at GC last year and played a BE100 and I didn't walk away feeling like i needed it over my other amps. Again, it was just different. I don't think I spent enough time with it and I was just used to more gain and compression, I think.
HBE Channel
Wow. It just takes off where the BE left off. For some reason, I think I hear the mids maybe SLIGHTLY scooping compared to the BE channel, but I could be wrong. Again: this channel roars. When I was playing both channels back to back through the Stagecraft and Bogner cab, I didn't hear a big difference in the tone, which is great. It just adds gain and both channels seem to be equally as powerful as the other. Here's my dilemma: my Splawn and BFG Eggie have on board solo boosts and OD boosts. The HBE can be used as a solo boost, but I don't think I wanna do that. I could get all my rock and hard rock and metal tones just on the BE channel using my Spark Boost, BUT, I may also wanna free up the HBE to be a different kind of early to more modern hard rock, so that would be me at using a boost pedal in the FX Loop. Thus, I'd have 1. the BE (Low to mid gain rock)
2. BE with Spark Boost pedal (early to modern hard rock, almost metal, AIC maybe?)
3. HBE (AIC, Tool?)
4. HBE with Spark Boost (almost too much maybe)
5. Solo boost: and then a small EQ or some other small boost pedal like the spark boost mini in the loop just to boost volume. BOOM!
EQ Knobs
So usable and great variation. Treble, Mid, Bass work well and give you what you want out of them. Nothing is extreme, but they are very usable. Thump, Response, Presence: does what they say they do. I have a Response knob on my BFG Eggie and this is something EVERY amps should have. It adds a "growl' do it and it's great when using different cabs and speakers. Again, every amp should have the Response/Negative Feedback control.
Voice
I like it in the middle the most. It's the middy-est and adds hair to the gain, to my ears. To the right, drops gain the most, IIRC. To the left is slghtly less gain than the middle position, but I cannot tell that much. Overall, was hoping for a little more variety with this switch so you other owners with more experience, chime in on this.
Fat
I'm not sure I care for it, but maybe I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to do. It makes it FAT, and I think I've read that it's to help with single coils: forgive me, I'm a Friedman newb. HOWEVER, I think if you mess with the EQ, it can add a 'deepness' to the sound, and you may wanna back off the Bass and/or Thump. I think I'm hearing that it could make it deeper at lower volumes.
Gain Structure
I like it down the most: it adds the most perceived gain. Middle is the least gain. Up is a little more gain. Other owners can chime in and say what else it does to the tone. I didn't play around with it enough to see how it acts with the overall tone vs. more or less gain and 'edge' or 'cripsness' to the sound.
Sat
Two positions: up is just normal and down is more saturation and it lowers volume. I need to play around with it more and see if I even need the Sat switch as I'm using my Spark Boost for more gain and saturation.
FX Loop
I haven't put anything in the loop yet, but I have used the loop return as a Master volume and it works really well. When I engaged the loop switch, I didn't feel I was losing too much tone, even when the loop return was all the way down/at5:00. I play to now run my pedals in the loop. I have the Friedman 1525 Plat pedalboard with Power Supply and Buffer Bay.
Pentode/Triode
This is pretty cool. I really does reduce the volume significantly. I'm not sure how much it really effects the tone. I would probably run it 'off'/up, but I need to play around with it more. Other owners can chime in.
Overall
At the apartment when I first got it, I was not sure what to think at first. Again, I was used to more gain from the Splawn and BFG Eggie on the dials. Then I got up this morning and played it louder at my apartment and I literally said outloud, "Shit. I think this thing is going to be fucking stellar. Holy fuck." Then I played it out my friends house with the volumes at about 9:00 and yup, there it was. My buddy's jaw hit the fucking floor. I didn't have my pedals, so I didn't boost it. It definitely seemed tighter at the higher volumes at the house. It sounded great through both cabs. We tried to dial in some AC/DC tones and they were pretty damn convincing; he's been playing Fargen Ole 800 amps, and he now wants the BE50 Deluxe. The amp gives eargasms and my nuts were tingling. This is not an uber metal amp, of course. Can it do metal: absolutely, but what kind of metal are we talking here. No Dimebag tones with adding more shit to it, but Metallica can be done easily. And that's what I like. Also, Tool and AIC can be done extremely well in a cover band. You'll have to fidget with knobs and maybe add a little boost for some types of metal, but this is a Marshall amp, so what are you expecting. If you want Mesa or Diezel, get those amps. MY ONLY KNOCK SO FAR: Again, I don't feel it's as tight as my BFG and Splawn, so I'm still playing around with that. I would love suggestions on how to get a little more tightness out of the amp, but I'm still learning how it all works. Plus, the cabs I play are partial open back, so that's part of it as well. Even the Bogner OS 2x12: it was pretty tight, but that cab is NOT a Mesa Recto 2x12 and that's one of the tightest cabs I've ever played.
HOWEVER: it's more straight up MARSHALL than either of those amps, and I really love both of those amps. The BE50 is more versatile and I don't they they skimped. I wish the Voice did a little more as well as the Gain Structure, and maybe even Fat. With Voice I'd love to be able to get something like AFD, AIC Facelift tones, but how they hell would that be possible? Once can dream. My BFG has an AFD switch and it's fucking badass!!
Is It Worth the Coin
This is subjective, of course. I'm trying to save for a house this year, so $3500 is a LOT of money for a fucking guitar amplifier: we all know this. However, I've decided I'm not going to send the amp back for a full return. I have a gig in two weeks: that will be the REAL test. Regardless, I'm going to keep spending time with it. I'm sure it's only going to get better. YMMV, but I think this amp is work the coin, here's why: First and foremost, it's a Friedman. Quality parts, construction, and engineering behind it. The resale value will hold if need be. If you like Marshalls and want a stupid awesome clean, this is the amp. It's got so many good options, even though I'm still learning how to use it. I'm coming from really high gain amps that are tight and though this is different, I can hear that is worth what I paid over my other amps.
Vs. Splawn Pro Stock
Look, the Splawn's gonne be up for sale ONLY because I can't keep all my amps now. The Splawn is a bad ass amp. They are extremely awesome amps for the money! I don't need 100 watts anymore, and I will say this: the Splawn gets amazing tones using the Loop Volume. I wanna give the edge to the Splawn for lower volume playing using the FX Loop volume. The Pro Stock doesn't have a clean channel and it cleans up really well, but the BE50 cleans up just as well, AND it has an amazing clean channel, so I feel like I really gained there. The Splawn can do really convincing Slash and Cantrell tones, as well as Tool, and those three bands are my benchmark. The Splawn EQ is just as response, but the BE50 has more varity with the Response and all the switches. The Splawn is tighter--to me--for sure, and I really like that. I have the B+ on the Splawn, and I think it's the cats pajamas. At first I wasn't sure it was 'better than my Splawn considering the cost over the SPlawn, but after cranking it up to some good volumes today, I can say that IMO, it is worth the money over the Splawn. Better is going to be subjective depending on you needs. I would NEVER turn anyone away from Splawn. Scott and his amps are worth every fucking penny. Never played a Quickrod, though, so I can't compare the cleans.
If you want a tight, roaring, great at low volume, 100 watt, all the gain you could need, hot-rodded, Black Crowes to GNR to AIC to Tool, Marshall-inspired amp that cleans up well and has onboard solo and OD boost with an awesome loop and don't wanna break the bank, get a SPLAWN.
Sadly, I'm going to have to sell my BFG Eggie amp as well. It's been in rotation with my Splawn for the last 4 years. I LOVE this amp, too, but when I made the decision to purchase the BE50, I knew two of my amps would have to go.
Jaysus that took for fucking ever.
I'd love to have other BE50 owners add their comments based on mind and perhaps I'd like to get a thread on just BE50 Deluxe settings for certain types of tones, i.e. how are you getting AIC or GNR or AC/DC tones, etc.
Cheers, ladies and gents.
What I do & Play
Life long guitar player. Far from great, but I'm good enough and have played in original and cover bands since I was 16 and done some recording: I'm 41. I'm a hard rock guy. Went through my 80s, Classic Rock, Cock Rock, SRV blues, Metal ala Pantera/Metallica, and I love the Deftones. My first real amp was a JCM2000 DSL. That was modded by Trace at Voodoo. Then Budda SD30, then ampless for a bit, then the EVH 5153, then a BFG Modded Egnater Seminar head, Splawn Pro Stock, I have another BFG Egnater 2016 Seminar Head on the Way, and now the BE50 Deluxe. I've played Mesas, 800s, Plexi's, the JJ, BE100, SLO100, and a few others. I don't have the ears that a lot of you guys have, but I know what I like and don't gel with.
I still have the Splawn Pro Stock, BFG 2013 Eggie Seminar Head, and now the BE50. The Splawn will be up for sale this week. The BFG may be right behind it; waiting for Brian to finish my other one. I love both those amps and I'm not loaded or anything, so I've got to make room and replenish savings.
I'm currently playing in a hard rock cover band doing all female pop and rock songs, but really rocked up, though not metal: best cover band ever because the girls are coming to all the shows and we're not scaring them away. Hot ones too. Never thought I'd play Katy Perry or Taylor Swift on stage, but I'm actually loving it. Again, boobs all over the place. I'm in Dallas. We play cougar joints.
BE50 Deluxe
I got it on Wednesday night. I live in a small apartment and have had the cops called 3 times in 1.5 years, so I definitely can't play these amps loud, like they need to be. I've only scratched the surface, but today I was able to open it up with two cabs: Bogner OS 2x12 with Hellatones H30/V30 mixed and my Stagecraft with Creamback H75/M65 mixed. So apartment volumes are pretty doable. Between the Sat, Pentode/Triode, great Master Volume, and FX Loop volume, good tones are available to enjoy so you don't have to screw the fat neighbor so she'll stop calling the cops.
The amp slays. As most everyone is saying. Is it worth the price tag: that's subjective and I'll give you my opinion toward the end.
Buxom Betty Clean Channel
I never play clean. Hence my current amps are all single channel. My guitars (Schecter USA and MIK PTs) are solid and have treble bleeds that work great, so I can get cleans that work for me rolling down the volume and I ALWAYS like a little hair on my cleans and use touch and volume to get different textures and dynamics. ...Well, that ain't gonna happen with the Buxom Betty Clean. It's the best clean I've ever played on a modded Marshall amp...but that ain't really sayin' much. Regardless, it's fucking glorious. I'm probably going to appreciate having a clean channel. But I'm not used to switching from a crystal clean to a hard rock channel, so I'm not sure how much I'll be using it. I think as others have said, I've to to have a gain switch on the Clean so I can add a little bit of hair or maybe it can go to Plexi tones, but aaah, yeah, the BE channel can do what my crappy ears think of as Plexi, so there ya go. Clean can get pretty loud. It's can do everything SUPER: thick, middy, no middy, trebly, BASSY. I haven't figured out to what to set it at yet. The EQ is very responsive, but it's not artificial: I don't know how else to articulate it. The Bright switch is very helpful to different tones and I would guess using different pickups and guitars. I'll keep playing with it and find what settings I like best.
BE Channel
If you've played it, you know what it does. This is where I'm having to adjust. My BFG is 4 gain stages and I'm not sure what my Splawn is, but both definitely have more gain and more compression. The BE is just RAW A F. I can hear so many nuances of my guitars in this channel. That's a good sign of just a high quality amp, I think. It roars, man. But less compressed and saturated than other amps I've had and it's just awesome. Again, I'm not used to it, so this will be an adjustment. It cleans up really, really well. I've run the Gain 1 knob on 10 and it stays together. I've put the gain at noon and used my TC Spark Booster (not the mini) and it takes the boost really, really well. So much that I've actually dialed back the Volume on the Spark Boost and it still does what it needs to do. I was at GC last year and played a BE100 and I didn't walk away feeling like i needed it over my other amps. Again, it was just different. I don't think I spent enough time with it and I was just used to more gain and compression, I think.
HBE Channel
Wow. It just takes off where the BE left off. For some reason, I think I hear the mids maybe SLIGHTLY scooping compared to the BE channel, but I could be wrong. Again: this channel roars. When I was playing both channels back to back through the Stagecraft and Bogner cab, I didn't hear a big difference in the tone, which is great. It just adds gain and both channels seem to be equally as powerful as the other. Here's my dilemma: my Splawn and BFG Eggie have on board solo boosts and OD boosts. The HBE can be used as a solo boost, but I don't think I wanna do that. I could get all my rock and hard rock and metal tones just on the BE channel using my Spark Boost, BUT, I may also wanna free up the HBE to be a different kind of early to more modern hard rock, so that would be me at using a boost pedal in the FX Loop. Thus, I'd have 1. the BE (Low to mid gain rock)
2. BE with Spark Boost pedal (early to modern hard rock, almost metal, AIC maybe?)
3. HBE (AIC, Tool?)
4. HBE with Spark Boost (almost too much maybe)
5. Solo boost: and then a small EQ or some other small boost pedal like the spark boost mini in the loop just to boost volume. BOOM!
EQ Knobs
So usable and great variation. Treble, Mid, Bass work well and give you what you want out of them. Nothing is extreme, but they are very usable. Thump, Response, Presence: does what they say they do. I have a Response knob on my BFG Eggie and this is something EVERY amps should have. It adds a "growl' do it and it's great when using different cabs and speakers. Again, every amp should have the Response/Negative Feedback control.
Voice
I like it in the middle the most. It's the middy-est and adds hair to the gain, to my ears. To the right, drops gain the most, IIRC. To the left is slghtly less gain than the middle position, but I cannot tell that much. Overall, was hoping for a little more variety with this switch so you other owners with more experience, chime in on this.
Fat
I'm not sure I care for it, but maybe I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to do. It makes it FAT, and I think I've read that it's to help with single coils: forgive me, I'm a Friedman newb. HOWEVER, I think if you mess with the EQ, it can add a 'deepness' to the sound, and you may wanna back off the Bass and/or Thump. I think I'm hearing that it could make it deeper at lower volumes.
Gain Structure
I like it down the most: it adds the most perceived gain. Middle is the least gain. Up is a little more gain. Other owners can chime in and say what else it does to the tone. I didn't play around with it enough to see how it acts with the overall tone vs. more or less gain and 'edge' or 'cripsness' to the sound.
Sat
Two positions: up is just normal and down is more saturation and it lowers volume. I need to play around with it more and see if I even need the Sat switch as I'm using my Spark Boost for more gain and saturation.
FX Loop
I haven't put anything in the loop yet, but I have used the loop return as a Master volume and it works really well. When I engaged the loop switch, I didn't feel I was losing too much tone, even when the loop return was all the way down/at5:00. I play to now run my pedals in the loop. I have the Friedman 1525 Plat pedalboard with Power Supply and Buffer Bay.
Pentode/Triode
This is pretty cool. I really does reduce the volume significantly. I'm not sure how much it really effects the tone. I would probably run it 'off'/up, but I need to play around with it more. Other owners can chime in.
Overall
At the apartment when I first got it, I was not sure what to think at first. Again, I was used to more gain from the Splawn and BFG Eggie on the dials. Then I got up this morning and played it louder at my apartment and I literally said outloud, "Shit. I think this thing is going to be fucking stellar. Holy fuck." Then I played it out my friends house with the volumes at about 9:00 and yup, there it was. My buddy's jaw hit the fucking floor. I didn't have my pedals, so I didn't boost it. It definitely seemed tighter at the higher volumes at the house. It sounded great through both cabs. We tried to dial in some AC/DC tones and they were pretty damn convincing; he's been playing Fargen Ole 800 amps, and he now wants the BE50 Deluxe. The amp gives eargasms and my nuts were tingling. This is not an uber metal amp, of course. Can it do metal: absolutely, but what kind of metal are we talking here. No Dimebag tones with adding more shit to it, but Metallica can be done easily. And that's what I like. Also, Tool and AIC can be done extremely well in a cover band. You'll have to fidget with knobs and maybe add a little boost for some types of metal, but this is a Marshall amp, so what are you expecting. If you want Mesa or Diezel, get those amps. MY ONLY KNOCK SO FAR: Again, I don't feel it's as tight as my BFG and Splawn, so I'm still playing around with that. I would love suggestions on how to get a little more tightness out of the amp, but I'm still learning how it all works. Plus, the cabs I play are partial open back, so that's part of it as well. Even the Bogner OS 2x12: it was pretty tight, but that cab is NOT a Mesa Recto 2x12 and that's one of the tightest cabs I've ever played.
HOWEVER: it's more straight up MARSHALL than either of those amps, and I really love both of those amps. The BE50 is more versatile and I don't they they skimped. I wish the Voice did a little more as well as the Gain Structure, and maybe even Fat. With Voice I'd love to be able to get something like AFD, AIC Facelift tones, but how they hell would that be possible? Once can dream. My BFG has an AFD switch and it's fucking badass!!
Is It Worth the Coin
This is subjective, of course. I'm trying to save for a house this year, so $3500 is a LOT of money for a fucking guitar amplifier: we all know this. However, I've decided I'm not going to send the amp back for a full return. I have a gig in two weeks: that will be the REAL test. Regardless, I'm going to keep spending time with it. I'm sure it's only going to get better. YMMV, but I think this amp is work the coin, here's why: First and foremost, it's a Friedman. Quality parts, construction, and engineering behind it. The resale value will hold if need be. If you like Marshalls and want a stupid awesome clean, this is the amp. It's got so many good options, even though I'm still learning how to use it. I'm coming from really high gain amps that are tight and though this is different, I can hear that is worth what I paid over my other amps.
Vs. Splawn Pro Stock
Look, the Splawn's gonne be up for sale ONLY because I can't keep all my amps now. The Splawn is a bad ass amp. They are extremely awesome amps for the money! I don't need 100 watts anymore, and I will say this: the Splawn gets amazing tones using the Loop Volume. I wanna give the edge to the Splawn for lower volume playing using the FX Loop volume. The Pro Stock doesn't have a clean channel and it cleans up really well, but the BE50 cleans up just as well, AND it has an amazing clean channel, so I feel like I really gained there. The Splawn can do really convincing Slash and Cantrell tones, as well as Tool, and those three bands are my benchmark. The Splawn EQ is just as response, but the BE50 has more varity with the Response and all the switches. The Splawn is tighter--to me--for sure, and I really like that. I have the B+ on the Splawn, and I think it's the cats pajamas. At first I wasn't sure it was 'better than my Splawn considering the cost over the SPlawn, but after cranking it up to some good volumes today, I can say that IMO, it is worth the money over the Splawn. Better is going to be subjective depending on you needs. I would NEVER turn anyone away from Splawn. Scott and his amps are worth every fucking penny. Never played a Quickrod, though, so I can't compare the cleans.
If you want a tight, roaring, great at low volume, 100 watt, all the gain you could need, hot-rodded, Black Crowes to GNR to AIC to Tool, Marshall-inspired amp that cleans up well and has onboard solo and OD boost with an awesome loop and don't wanna break the bank, get a SPLAWN.
Sadly, I'm going to have to sell my BFG Eggie amp as well. It's been in rotation with my Splawn for the last 4 years. I LOVE this amp, too, but when I made the decision to purchase the BE50, I knew two of my amps would have to go.
Jaysus that took for fucking ever.
I'd love to have other BE50 owners add their comments based on mind and perhaps I'd like to get a thread on just BE50 Deluxe settings for certain types of tones, i.e. how are you getting AIC or GNR or AC/DC tones, etc.
Cheers, ladies and gents.