NAD- Fryette PS-100

[DrewJD82]

I knew I was going to get some kind of amp with my Christmas bonus, I kept flopping from a Mesa to a Friedman to a Ceriatone and back again. At the same time, I’ve been wanting to figure out a tube power solution for my Fractal gear while also wanting to play my Plexi50 in my apartment through a cab. I dunno how these Fryettes stayed off my radar for so long, but once I realized it attenuates while also being a power amp, I was sold.



I’ve got the Hot Mod installed and the Gain switch turned on in that clip above.

And with the FM9 running straight into it-

IIC++


Bassman


There’s a point in that Bassman vid above where I chuckle and say “Jesus” because the low end was whacking the shit out of my back and the depth of that tone was ridiculous. That’s something that definitely changes going from a Class D amp to a tube amp, the depth. It’s not just a low end thing, more of a 3D thing.

I’ve also been building a pedalboard for all the non-modern high gain tones I’ve been digging on with the Plexi, stuff that gets into Mesa Mark levels of gain I prefer amp distortion, so the point of this board is to go into a clean or edge of breakup amp and basically bring me up to modded Marshall territory. I missed having an actual pedalboard and went a little overboard. I have a Fractal VP4 that’ll replace the SDE-3000. Ordered a Morningstar MC6 Pro and ML5 loop switcher today. Most of what’s on the board is going to stay, but might switch stuff around with the pedals below it.

And if ya dig Fuzz Faces and cranked Plexis-

 

[cobrahead1030]

Very cool. I think I’m going to get one this year.

 

[marvcus]

Nice gear and playing. That FM9 Bassman setting sounds excellent! Congrats

 

[DrewJD82]

Very cool. I think I’m going to get one this year.

I consider the AxeFX the smartest gear purchase I’ve ever made and the Fryette being the 2nd. It’s just too perfect of a volume solution for whichever way you want to go, louder or quieter.

 

[Devin]

Sounding great, kimg


You start running stuff in its FX loop yet? Post amp effects are glorious

 

[Chronic Narnia]

View attachment 428278

I knew I was going to get some kind of amp with my Christmas bonus, I kept flopping from a Mesa to a Friedman to a Ceriatone and back again. At the same time, I’ve been wanting to figure out a tube power solution for my Fractal gear while also wanting to play my Plexi50 in my apartment through a cab. I dunno how these Fryettes stayed off my radar for so long, but once I realized it attenuates while also being a power amp, I was sold.



I’ve got the Hot Mod installed and the Gain switch turned on in that clip above.

And with the FM9 running straight into it-

IIC++


Bassman


There’s a point in that Bassman vid above where I chuckle and say “Jesus” because the low end was whacking the shit out of my back and the depth of that tone was ridiculous. That’s something that definitely changes going from a Class D amp to a tube amp, the depth. It’s not just a low end thing, more of a 3D thing.

I’ve also been building a pedalboard for all the non-modern high gain tones I’ve been digging on with the Plexi, stuff that gets into Mesa Mark levels of gain I prefer amp distortion, so the point of this board is to go into a clean or edge of breakup amp and basically bring me up to modded Marshall territory. I missed having an actual pedalboard and went a little overboard. I have a Fractal VP4 that’ll replace the SDE-3000. Ordered a Morningstar MC6 Pro and ML5 loop switcher today. Most of what’s on the board is going to stay, but might switch stuff around with the pedals below it.

View attachment 428287

And if ya dig Fuzz Faces and cranked Plexis-

Make sure you run directly into the effects return and not the line in on the Fryette.

 

[Jengason]

Congrats I love my PS100, can get any amp to its sweet spot on the master and play at whatever volume I like. I have mine going into the attenuator loop of a KHE switcher using the Fryette’s fx loop to route effects through all the amps with a single set of cables, it’s like having an amp demo room in my basement. Amazing unit

 

[DrewJD82]

Make sure you run directly into the effects return and not the line in on the Fryette.

For what purpose? The Line-In is meant for modelers/pre-amps, so I run the FM9 into it, but when using post-effects with the Plexi50 I’m running them into the effects loop.

 

[DrewJD82]

Sounding great, kimg


You start running stuff in its FX loop yet? Post amp effects are glorious

Just the FM9 doing some delays/reverbs when I had the Plexi50 plugged in, but that was one of the big reasons I wanted it, to add an effects loop to the Plexi. I’ve been too eager to spend a lot of time on any one thing, I start playing with the Plexi and after 20 mins I’m itching to hear chugging so I plug the FM9 in.

While I’ve got all the cabs/power amps in one spot I’ll likely throw a W/D/W rig together for shits and giggles.

 

[Devin]

I'm also curious about Chronic's response about the Line In

I've ran my little Yamaha THR in to the line in of my PS and actually played live gigs that way; worked great

 

[DrewJD82]

I'm also curious about Chronic's response about the Line In

I've ran my little Yamaha THR in to the line in of my PS and actually played live gigs that way; worked great

Might be in order to take advance of the switches as I believe the Line Out runs directly to the Output and only the Amp In/Effects Loop can utilize the switches. If that’s the case I’m not concerned, I barely even touch the switches with the Plexi plugged in and if there’s something I’m not digging from the FM9 I’ll just tweak it in the FM9.

 

[GuitarVacation]

Awesome rig made more Awesome by the Fryette Power Station. Sounding great man!

I also just got a PS-2A in December. Total game changer, in so many ways. I even re-tubed my 57 reissue LP Tweed Twin to knock down the headroom and get more breakup quicker in anticipation of using the Fryette.

Turned that amp into a fire breathing monster. Couldn't believe the thick gain sound achieved. And I get to go into my speakers of choice. Those Fender style speakers are great, but too much strident top end for my taste. That amp>PS-2A>old faithful speakers cab=OMG.

Positive experience with my other amps too. I put a Synergy preamp into the line in, sounds way better than going into a tube amp effect loop return.

I would also like to hear the benefit of going into the Fryette effects loop return vs the line in with preamp type stuff. If I remember correctly I tried this early on and didn't detect anything noteworthy, but admittedly it was not focused experimentation.

 

[7704A]

Congratulations on the new toy! I have one too and it's awesome. Definitely changes the game wrt big amps.

Regarding the line-in vs fx return, it may have just been about levels and impedances. If your gear isn't line level, and you go in to the line-in, you'll lose a lot of volume. There may also be some impedance mismatch tone changes depending on how the input interacts with your guitar or other gear. The FX loop is designed to take instrument level signals and presumably instrument-type impedances, so using that would side step those issues.

As an example, I was dumb and plugged my guitar into the line-in. Almost no sound. Boosted 18-20dB with a Timmy pedal, and it became audible, somewhat loud even, but it was not using the full capability of the PS. Naturally I didn't think to use the FX return until later that day, despite having done it before.

The three-way tone toggles only affect the reactive load behaviour. They won't have an effect when you're just using the PS as a power amp unless you use the reactive load as an additional "cab" that you plug the PS speaker out into. There's only one output jack, so would have to daisy chain from the real cab.

 

[Chronic Narnia]

For what purpose? The Line-In is meant for modelers/pre-amps, so I run the FM9 into it, but when using post-effects with the Plexi50 I’m running them into the effects loop.

The line is in for preamps. The output of the Fractal is not a preamp. Think of it the same way you’d use a tube amp with a Axe or FM9…you would run the output directly into the effects loop.

Try it…you’ll see you get much more volume and thump as well.

 

[Mike Oxhuge]

Congrats! It is the best attenuator I've ever used and is so versatile!

 

[phillybhatesme]

I knew I was going to get some kind of amp with my Christmas bonus, I kept flopping from a Mesa to a Friedman to a Ceriatone and back again. At the same time, I’ve been wanting to figure out a tube power solution for my Fractal gear while also wanting to play my Plexi50 in my apartment through a cab. I dunno how these Fryettes stayed off my radar for so long, but once I realized it attenuates while also being a power amp, I was sold.

I'm pretty stupid. Can you explain what advantages this unit has as a power amp?
Or why that was a selling feature to you?

 

[Skye77]

I'm pretty stupid. Can you explain what advantages this unit has as a power amp?
Or why that was a selling feature to you?

the output signal from your amp - that usually goes to the cabinet...

it takes that and brings it down to line level. then it sends that signal to poweramp that is inside the PS100, and amplifies it in a clean way, so you're controlling the volume but not changing the characteristics of the sound too much.

so let's say - you crank your 100 W tube head.... that would usually be too loud for an apartment.

but if you run it into PS100, PS100 then brings it down to line level, and sends it to its power amp, and then you decide how loud you want that captured sound (cranked 100W head sound) to be.

you can achieve the same thing by running your amp into reactive load, and then into a separate power amp. PS100 does this as a single unit, so it's more convenient.

 

[TX6Strings]

Too bad it doesn’t have a reactive load and IR loader with headphone out.

 

[mikey]

I dragged my feet before buying one. I wish I hadn't waited, I use mine constantly. It's an amplified Swiss army knife.

 

[SonVolt]

Too bad it doesn’t have a reactive load and IR loader with headphone out.

Steven Freyette doesn't like cramming too much tech into a single device, especially the software stuff that may not be relevant 5 years from now.