Dang...
Spent three hours in the man cave this afternoon pushing the Friedman rig a little harder than I had thus far. First, I tuned my Anderson sunburst Drop Top Classic down to Eb, because I wanted to really explore tones of a bunch of my favorite artists that tune to Eb. From Van Halen, Armored Saint, WASP, and Brittney Fox... to Kamelot, AIC, Injected, Primal Fear, Iced Earth, and Puddle of Mud.
So I started by playing some AIC for a while on the Splawn Quick Rod halfstack. It was its usual, chewey, rich inspirational tone. Enjoyed it as always. Then I plugged into the Friedman rig. I expected to be less than overwhelmed with the thump of the 2x12 after spending a while getting in-synch with the Splawn rig. The Splawn slant 4x12 is the thumpiest slant cab I've ever heard. I generally only buy straight 4x12s, because I like the increased girth and thump of straight cabs. But the Splawn cab is plenty big sounding.
Anyways... back to the Friedman rig. I flipped back and forth between the Friedman and Splawn rigs. After several songs, I powered the Splawn off. The Friedman 2x12 kept up with the Splawn just fine. Sure, the 4x12 is bigger sounding, but not by much at all. The Friedman rig really lives in the mids, including low-mids. So it has plenty of thump. The smooth, rich, organic, articulate tone of the Small Box is just on a slightly higher level. I edged-up the master volume over time and eventually was running it at about 9:00, with the gain varying between 2:00 an 3:00. Didn't matter whether I was playing early Van Halen, or Steel Dragon's "We All Die Young", the Friedman rig just nailed the tones and sounded big, but tight and thumpy. After about three hours playing pretty loud (wearing rubber ear plugs), my ears were finally fatigued enough that I elected to quit. That's about as long as I've ever been able to last playing loud in the man cave. The Friedman rig is that smooth sounding.
I've been going through gear and playing for thirty-one and a half years. I've had some seriously killer boutique holy-grail gear this past decade, but today there was NO doubt in my mind that this is the best tone I've ever had. It was so good and inspirational, that at one point I almost felt like I could just take my hands off of the guitar and it would keep playing itself! That's a testament to how effortlessly the Anderson plays, as well as how responsive the Small Box is. I was getting goosebumps at times. I'll bet this rig records killer tone! I'll have to set-up the mics here at some point and lay down some tracks and see what I can get down.
It was an amazing afternoon and as I found myself nailing the classic Van Halen brown sound playing songs like "Unchained", "Meanstreets", "Hear About It Later", "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", "Feel Your Love Tonight", and "Ain't Talkin Bout Love"... I wanted to friggin start a Van Halen tribute band just so people could hear the perfection that is this beast. I feel like I could've taken over the world if I'd have had this rig as a young player in the 80s...
LOVE this amp (and the Anderson guitars)! I'm sure I'll eventually pick up a BE100 and maybe bestow the Splawn rig on my son. I still think very highly of the Splawn rig, but there's no question about the Friedman being my desert island rig. If you haven't treated yourself to some quality time with a Friedman amp yet... I HIGHLY recommend it!
