First Friedman Jose vid.

[JTyson]

I like it
I’ll wait to hear what Corey says when he gets his, but a more raw, open plexi ish tone compared to his other more compressed higher gain models is something people have asked for since the beginning back to the original BE’s
I don’t think Dave made this to be the highest gain amp he’s done yet at all, I think he did just what he set out to do

 

[skoora]

Yeah, that sounds fine and it´s probably a great amp IRL, but nothing there so far to move me off my 3 Monkeys Zé.

The last clipping option sounds like that 2000s interpretation of the José that every modder on the forums used to do a variation of, were the real ones really ever that "modern" high gain back in the day?

I think it’s more down to how people play at the time vs. how they played in the past. You can play some real heavy stuff on metal panels that no one in the 70’s would have thought of playing at the time. Hell, you can play 80’s hard rock on a ‘62 Vibrolux when you crank it. The mod is probably the same but people back then wouldn’t think to play what is out there now.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

and do you post those faces on youtube?
see the difference?

His faces are tame compared to mine I think.. not that huge of a deal for me personally. Not like he is having a Vai esque orgasm off a bend or having a fan blow his hair and shirt to the side.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I could easily blow so much money on amps. I do think this amp sounds really good. I also keep drifting back to the Metroplex-II clips out there, trying to justify that 'investment.' But I gotta' say, I've got a '72 50-watt metal panel NMV Marshall that is my favorite amp. Almost Fender-ish warm cleans and takes 'Amp-In-A-Box' pedals like a champ. The difference in tone and feel between my Suhr Eclipse, Pinnacle Deluxe, BE-OD Deluxe and JEL-IR pedal is significant - but they all sound and feel incredible through this old box of glass with a straight front 4x12. Get a killer tube amp and drop a line-up of AIB pedals in front if it and it will help cool the desire to buy every new amp that comes along.

Also wouldn't surprise me if more of the builders follow suit on Jose in a box pre or soldano pre in a box or Bogner full featured Pre or AIC in a box. Most of these mods were built off that Marshall power section so yes there are some mods on filtering and the power section but your basic EL34 or 6Ca7 with a good tube preamp is going to be killer. For my pocket book and buying in Canadian funds, I will wait until Friedman released the IR-JOSE.

 

[gibson5413]

I think it sounds great! I don't think it sounds any better than many other Marshall/Jose variants out there. I doubt I will ever own a Friedman amp. Cool amps but just not my thing. However, the one amp that intrigues me is the Friedman Plex.

Side note, I like Michael. I interacted with him back in 2018, and I sent my Henning bottle Rocket amp to him for Kemper profiling. He did a great job and he has become a friend since. He is a genuine guy.

Here is a link to the profiling he did for me with Steve Henning's take on the Jose circuit. the intro on the video clip in the link is me playing the profiles.

https://bighairyprofiles.com/products/bhp-henning-henning-bottle-rocket

 

[SmashingAtom]

f&t grainfest, sorry

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

YT videos are hard to go by. I'm selling my Dirty Shirley head because I bought it based on YT videos and it didn't sound like that to me at band practice. At home alone, sure, but it didn't work with the band.

I saw an A/B video today of a Friedman Plex and a Marshall 1959SLP and I couldn't hear a difference. So I guess I can save my money and not grab a Plex.

I found that with the Synergy DS module as well.. sounded great in the clips but in the room and compared to my Marshall stuff, it had no cut or definition. Was good for single coils but everything else sounded wooly. Yet in a lot of demos, sounds really good?

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I think it sounds great! I don't think it sounds any better than many other Marshall/Jose variants out there. I doubt I will ever own a Friedman amp. Cool amps but just not my thing. However, the one amp that intrigues me is the Friedman Plex.

Side note, I like Michael. I interacted with him back in 2018, and I sent my Henning bottle Rocket amp to him for Kemper profiling. He did a great job and he has become a friend since. He is a genuine guy.

Here is a link to the profiling he did for me with Steve Henning's take on the Jose circuit. the intro on the video clip in the link is me playing the profiles.

https://bighairyprofiles.com/products/bhp-henning-henning-bottle-rocket

Whatever happened to Henning and his bottle rocket amps?

 

[skoora]

I found that with the Synergy DS module as well.. sounded great in the clips but in the room and compared to my Marshall stuff, it had no cut or definition. Was good for single coils but everything else sounded wooly. Yet in a lot of demos, sounds really good?

From my experience just playing in stores I prefer the little sister/DS mini to the full size. Seems to have a little more going on in the upper mids, top end. Not night and day different but I certainly preferred it.

 

[gibson5413]

Whatever happened to Henning and his bottle rocket amps?

Steve doesn't hang out on the forums much at all anymore. I believe he stopped building them a couple of years back. I'm not sure if it was ever intended to be a long-term project. He was talented and his amps sounded great!

 

[reignman454]

Don't know if it's this guys playing, but the amp sounds like it's missing that growl be it transformers, speakers but it sounds very one dimensional as opposed to any actual Jose's I've heard.... disappointing. Not sure if he just compressed the crap out of it or what. Almost sounds too balanced in that way.

 

[cragginshred]

I don't get the Nielsen hate..he might not always dial it in like I like it but he writes cool tracks and does cool comparisons or walk-throughs of new products. What don't you guys like about him outside of the tones he goes with?

Agreed. He has a couple of older vids I did not like and his 1kemper profiles sucked. But, he is a killer player and always shows various shades of every amp -isolated and in tracks whereas most don't
Him and Thorn prob make the best demos, besides mine lol! I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who allows you to hear what the amp sounds like in the room aside from IR's and DAWs coloration. Many agree that's what they wanna hear
Bummer is I m a mediocre player and am never going to be an 'influencer'

Back to the topic. What I do not get is aside from Dave sharing some love to Joes's family, why build this?
What does it do that his other amps don't -that are trying to capture the best of the 80's (which is Jose tone) modded tones??

 

[TheGreatGreen]

After watching that video, I still have no idea what the "Pre MCV" and "Post MCV" controls do on a technical level. Michael says they are "pre and post EQ" but that doesn't make any sense because the tonestack should theoretically be linear, meaning it shouldn't add any clipping to the signal, so putting a master volume directly in front or behind it shouldn't make any difference.

I suspect those controls might be pre and post phase inverter Master volumes, because that would make sense in an amp like this, as a post-phase inverter master could give you more or less authentic plexi tones at low volumes, while a pre-phase inverter master volume would be what most modern amps have and could give you more "distorted preamp into clean poweramp" style modern tones.

edit: crossed out as I was informed my suspicion was inaccurate, and that the controls are, sure enough, pre and post EQ.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Don't know if it's this guys playing, but the amp sounds like it's missing that growl be it transformers, speakers but it sounds very one dimensional as opposed to any actual Jose's I've heard.... disappointing. Not sure if he just compressed the crap out of it or what. Almost sounds too balanced in that way.

I'm sure Michael is a nice dude and he's even a good player, there are videos he's done where he actually chugs and rips pretty hard, but yeah it's not just this amp. Just about everything he puts out has a kind of dull, flat, bloaty, "hard" quality to the sound. Whatever happens in the chain after his amps really drags down the tones in his videos overall.

 

[Corey James]

I like Michael, actually had a very good interaction with him recently and I think he’s a great guy. Some of his demos are bad ass.

Not to disappoint JT, I think I’m passing on this amp for now.

 

[BABMusic]

Dave said a while back that someone requested all the Jose mods from this amp into their other Friedman. It was over $1500 to add them. That's interesting because it tells us that this amp is a lot different than his previous ones.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Dave said a while back that someone requested all the Jose mods from this amp into their other Friedman. It was over $1500 to add them. That's interesting because it tells us that this amp is a lot different than his previous ones.

I'd imagine it's a much different thing to heavily mod an already-built amp while preserving any kind of professional build quality vs building mods into a new amp from scratch.

 

[BABMusic]

True. And I'm sure it's a pain in the butt for Dave to do. He's probably nicer than he should be at times.

 

[Dave L]

After watching that video, I still have no idea what the "Pre MCV" and "Post MCV" controls do on a technical level. Michael says they are "pre and post EQ" but that doesn't make any sense because the tonestack should theoretically be linear, meaning it shouldn't add any clipping to the signal, so putting a master volume directly in front or behind it shouldn't make any difference.

I suspect those controls might be pre and post phase inverter Master volumes, because that would make sense in an amp like this, as a post-phase inverter master could give you more or less authentic plexi tones at low volumes, while a pre-phase inverter master volume would be what most modern amps have and could give you more "distorted preamp into clean poweramp" style modern tones.

No, on these it actually is pre and post EQ. That's real special José master sauce, but I couldn't begin to tell you why he wanted the volume pre EQ when the diodes are in. My Zé that Ossie Ahsen built from his real José has the same deal, and he has several videos explaining and exploring that, amongst other details.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

No, on these it actually is pre and post EQ. That's real special José master sauce, but I couldn't begin to tell you why he wanted the volume pre EQ when the diodes are in. My Zé that Ossie Ahsen built from his real José has the same deal, and he has several videos explaining and exploring that, amongst other details.

Woah, wasn't expecting that at all. I wonder what the differences are. Also, presumably that would mean the tonestack is not linear then.