Adambomb
Member
Got the Mini Dirty Shirley in yesterday! 4-5 hours play time so time for review I guess. This thing is built super solid and the tolerances of all the chassis, headshell, and aesthetics are very precise. But enough of all that... how does it sound!! First I'll mention that I bought the amp straight from Dave and is modded with the SoZo/Synergy Royal Mustard caps, so not sure how much that changes the tone from the Mallory 150's, which I love also BTW. Friedman really dialed this amp in to sound as spot on to the 40 watt Dirty Shirley as possible in a mini head, and having played the 40 watt version it really does sound VERY similar. Guitar I used most was Les Paul R9 w/Custombuckers. Cabs made big difference but I liked the Bogner OS2x12 V30 the most, but the Friedman 4x12 w/GB-V30's sounded just as nice but without as much cut. So I think I like V30's with this amp, but I'll have my Creambacks loaded in a 2x12 soon I hope.
The first Friedman I ever played was the Dirty Shirley 40 watt and I can still remember that day as it was almost like a revelation in modern with vintage overdrive tones that sounded amazingly 3D. Same with the Mini DS... it has that big fat crunch tone with great dynamics and the harmonic overtones really sound musical. Feels so good under your fingers. And that's what really surprised me, is that every lunchbox low wattage amp I've played regardless of how good it sounded right up in your ear, they all seemed to not sound very "big", but this amp sounds huge, especially through my Friedman 4x12. Playing full chords with any amount of gain are full, rich, and detailed. Pick attack is great, the gain knob is very useful all the way around 1-10, and man am I glad that it is. With the 3 way Gain Structure switch, I am able to dial in pretty much any tone I want from killer blues to heavy rock & metal. So many people claim this or that amp cleans up well, but honestly the Mini DS really cleans up to a usable clean when rolling back the guitar volume even on the highest gain structure setting.
Right now my favorite tones are all over the place but a couple just from 4-5 hours of play are: gain structure switch in middle (lowest) with B-4, M-5, T-7, master-3-6, gain-10. Thats a raging but straight forward classic ACDC tone right there and even cleans up to chimey cutting clean Plexi tone with guitar volume not even turned down but 3-4 notches. Then my hard-rock tone so far is gain structure switch up (high
almost same knob settings but with bass at 2 1/2, mids-treble at 7, gain at 6, and master to taste. Thats hard rock and even metal glory.
Going back to yesterday getting everything setup and understanding how the simple five amp knobs interact with each other. Of course it's really easy to dial in a good tone at any settings, it was a little bit of a learning curve coming from a Friedman BE100. The Bass, Treble, and Mids all seem to interact with each other when your tweaking the knobs and there are no overbearing frequencies with exception of the bass knob. I feel they could have dialed in the bass control a little better (or different) as it seems to max out at around 5, and 1-5 for me are the usable bass frequencies. I did ask Dave about this and he said that is normal so no big deal. I have to say this amp is amazing considering it's a small lunchbox 20 watter and I think it's sounds really close big sister Dirty Shirley, just with less headroom.
And I got a Friedman T-Shirt! (don't worry they are getting more guys)
The first Friedman I ever played was the Dirty Shirley 40 watt and I can still remember that day as it was almost like a revelation in modern with vintage overdrive tones that sounded amazingly 3D. Same with the Mini DS... it has that big fat crunch tone with great dynamics and the harmonic overtones really sound musical. Feels so good under your fingers. And that's what really surprised me, is that every lunchbox low wattage amp I've played regardless of how good it sounded right up in your ear, they all seemed to not sound very "big", but this amp sounds huge, especially through my Friedman 4x12. Playing full chords with any amount of gain are full, rich, and detailed. Pick attack is great, the gain knob is very useful all the way around 1-10, and man am I glad that it is. With the 3 way Gain Structure switch, I am able to dial in pretty much any tone I want from killer blues to heavy rock & metal. So many people claim this or that amp cleans up well, but honestly the Mini DS really cleans up to a usable clean when rolling back the guitar volume even on the highest gain structure setting.
Right now my favorite tones are all over the place but a couple just from 4-5 hours of play are: gain structure switch in middle (lowest) with B-4, M-5, T-7, master-3-6, gain-10. Thats a raging but straight forward classic ACDC tone right there and even cleans up to chimey cutting clean Plexi tone with guitar volume not even turned down but 3-4 notches. Then my hard-rock tone so far is gain structure switch up (high
almost same knob settings but with bass at 2 1/2, mids-treble at 7, gain at 6, and master to taste. Thats hard rock and even metal glory. Going back to yesterday getting everything setup and understanding how the simple five amp knobs interact with each other. Of course it's really easy to dial in a good tone at any settings, it was a little bit of a learning curve coming from a Friedman BE100. The Bass, Treble, and Mids all seem to interact with each other when your tweaking the knobs and there are no overbearing frequencies with exception of the bass knob. I feel they could have dialed in the bass control a little better (or different) as it seems to max out at around 5, and 1-5 for me are the usable bass frequencies. I did ask Dave about this and he said that is normal so no big deal. I have to say this amp is amazing considering it's a small lunchbox 20 watter and I think it's sounds really close big sister Dirty Shirley, just with less headroom.
And I got a Friedman T-Shirt! (don't worry they are getting more guys)
