Friedman Runt 50 - Received today, initial review!

[232cap]

I liked that the Runt was brighter than the other Friedmans though[/quote]

If the be100 had the brightness of the runt the bar would be raised. The be100 seems like there is a blanket over the cab unless you push the mids treble and presence up really high to my ears. The mids of a helios in a BE100 would be perfect.

 

[jlb32]

I love the Helios I played. The Runt, not so much for my style of playing. The Helios has killer gain in the 80's mode and sounds really great to me. One of these days I may own one.

 

[braintheory]

I liked that the Runt was brighter than the other Friedmans though

If the be100 had the brightness of the runt the bar would be raised. The be100 seems like there is a blanket over the cab unless you push the mids treble and presence up really high to my ears. The mids of a helios in a BE100 would be perfect.[/quote] [/quote]

Agreed. The Runt was the brightest of the Friedman lineup to my ears, but still not as bright as other Marshall type amps. I did like the 2016 version of the BE better though. My favorite thing about the BE is the chugs/palm mutes, but my CCV and the Phil X I used to have had a better version of those types of chugs.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Good review. I agree with not-high gain part especially. More like vintage high-gain perhaps. There are some guys here that think a BE-100 or Bogner XTC is metal machine... maybe boosted with pedal... but than still there are better tools for the task. "High-gain" is sooooo subjective a term. When I tried the Runt it had nowhere near the amount of gain I like. And it was too dark still for me. Otherwise, good sound for classic rock.

 

[splawner]

For the record the runt comes with 2 jj preamp tubes and 2 Chinese preamp tube.v1 is only clean and V2 is the main gain tube.. if anyone wants a sat switch added it's a simple thing we can do.

Can we buy the Runt 50 from you and get the Sat switch added? What is the wait time in something like this? Thanks

 

[jchrisf]

Then I got a 5153 100watt, and that was way too much gain and compression for me. Traded that for a Ceriatone 2204 that I put a few small mods on, and it's already sounding about as good as I remember the Runt 5o being.

Necro Bump.. do you remember the mods you did to your Ceriatone? I'd love to try them on mine.

 

[spanny]

I picked up a Runt 50 in a trade and I was surprised how much I love that amp! Like others, that amp gets stupid loud but it does sound really good at lower volumes.

 

[sahlomonic]

Necro Bump.. do you remember the mods you did to your Ceriatone? I'd love to try them on mine.

Necro bump again

I started with the Tone Lizard 'Ultimate JCM800' mods. Some were ok, some not my cup of tea. Went back to stock, then added a SAT switch and did a BE/Jose style mod. That woke it up. Then went to a full Marsha-esque clone with an added preamp tube. Nice, fat, and gainy, but not over the top. Played around with the bypass cap values a little, can't remember what I settled on.

I also did a Jake E Lee style mod on another 2204 and that sounds fantastic.

And I just bought napalmdeath's Runt 50 so I'm back in the game hehe.

 

[napalmdeath]

Necro bump again

I started with the Tone Lizard 'Ultimate JCM800' mods. Some were ok, some not my cup of tea. Went back to stock, then added a SAT switch and did a BE/Jose style mod. That woke it up. Then went to a full Marsha-esque clone with an added preamp tube. Nice, fat, and gainy, but not over the top. Played around with the bypass cap values a little, can't remember what I settled on.

I also did a Jake E Lee style mod on another 2204 and that sounds fantastic.

And I just bought napalmdeath's Runt 50 so I'm back in the game hehe.

And the Hot Mod is the only mod you need.

 

[HowieJams]

I am surprised the Master volume is not as good at low volumes as the 5150 III.
I had a 5150 III and it sounded thin at lower volumes so I parted ways with it.
All of my Friedmans I have owned had great master volumes and sound great at lower volumes, but they are all 20w amps.
I still have a Little Sister and JEL-20.

Even my Soldano Astro 20 sounds great at lower volumes.

All of the above amps except the 5150 III have very linear master volumes and taper nicely from low to high volume, I am surprised the Runt 50 doesn't do this.

As for the gain, the Little Sister is not super high gain, but like the Runt it sounds amazing boosted with either a TS808 or SD-1.
I could probably run the JEL-20 without a boost on Channel 2, but Channel 1 (Plexi) needs a boost for sure.

 

[Rick Lee]

Are you guys playing in cookie monster bands that the Runt 50 doesn't have enough gain? Sheesh. I put a 12AT7 in V1 in mine and I still don't dime the gain knob. I love this amp and it's probably the cheapest tube head I own. But I have a Suhr SL67 coming next week and the Runt may have to go to make room for it.