New Interview: Dave Friedman on Marshall Amp Modding and High-Gain Tone

[SaberRed]

Hope this is the right place to post this interview (I am engaging in my first bit of self promtion on the forums!) I thought some of you would be into this.

Here is an interview with Dave Friedman that I recorded with some colleagues. We are researching Marshall amp modding as part of an academic research project, looking at the history, the tech, the culture and the future.

We also interviewed Jason Tong from Headfirst Amplification, Dan Gower, Tommy Folkesson, Lee Jackson, and Mike Soldano, and we will be uploading those over the next few months. More interviews are planned for 2026.

These interviews follow a semi-structured format, where we ask a number of open-ended questions to participants and let them talk; hence, we don’t interrupt or interject much and try not to lead the interviewee or bias their responses.

Alongside the videos, we are writin academic articles and a book on the subject is planned for 2027.

Hope you enjoy watching! Likes and subscriptions more than welcome!

 

[ners]

What's the academic angle? Just general history documentation or focusing on something more specific?

 

[BABMusic]

I like the channel's name.

 

[SaberRed]

What's the academic angle? Just general history documentation or focusing on something more specific?

It's part historical documentation and part cultural study. In a nutshell, documenting how the scene evolved, and exploring its broader impact on guitar tone, playing styles, technolgy, and culture.

 

[glpg80]

I would say that there’s a few of us pushing the limits with new designs to go further than the saturated market of self modding kits and monetization of the knowledge for tinkering.

The market has shifted to people trying to do what has been done for ages using kits and self teaching knowledge. It obviously hits a wall - at some point you have to have (and pay for) services to get the ultra high gain, ultra low noise amplifiers. Even for that, the market has shifted to captures or modelers.

Each modder also has their own thing they’re known for. For Friedman he’s known for providing the polished recorded Marshall sound but right out of the amp directly - turnkey style. Fortin is the smooth gain structure.

It’s getting harder to own a business doing this as markets are driving inflation and costs higher. I do think there are too many people who have no business modding, offering it as a service not providing their own expertise but instead ripping off the people in your master list.

And whether he deserves to be mentioned or not, Cameron was a big part of modded Marshall’s 25 years ago.

It’s hard to stand out anymore but it’s not impossible. It’s all about how much you know and can do.

 

[SaberRed]

I would say that there’s a few of us pushing the limits with new designs to go further than the saturated market of self modding kits and monetization of the knowledge for tinkering.

The market has shifted to people trying to do what has been done for ages using kits and self teaching knowledge. It obviously hits a wall - at some point you have to have (and pay for) services to get the ultra high gain, ultra low noise amplifiers. Even for that, the market has shifted to captures or modelers.

Each modder also has their own thing they’re known for. For Friedman he’s known for providing the polished recorded Marshall sound but right out of the amp directly - turnkey style. Fortin is the smooth gain structure.

It’s getting harder to own a business doing this as markets are driving inflation and costs higher. I do think there are too many people who have no business modding, offering it as a service not providing their own expertise but instead ripping off the people in your master list.

And whether he deserves to be mentioned or not, Cameron was a big part of modded Marshall’s 25 years ago.

It’s hard to stand out anymore but it’s not impossible. It’s all about how much you know and can do.

That’s a really interesting post. Yes Mark Cameron, definitely made his mark.

 

[stephen sawall]

There isn't many people I would let work on my amps.

 

[NorCal_Val]

That was a good interview.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

Mine was done in 2011. Took 4 months. Can't recommend Dave's work enough.
My forever amp. All things equal i doubt i have the patience to go thru shipping off an amp & wait for months again.
Alot of things have changed since 2011.

 

[SoooRad]

Dave makes a good product, but compared to guys like Mike Soldano, Lee Jackson, he has the advantage of hindsight. Those guys were on the front lines, doing it when people gave a shit. He touched on this in that his amps, while perhaps arguably "better" that those Marshall mods from Mike or Lee, they haven't been used in any applications that the general public will ever hear, basically.

 

[Tone Monster]

Dave is humble and honest. Would love to have a beer with him.

 

[chumbucket]

Does Dave give props to Bruce Egnater at all? He was doing Marshall mods when Dave was still in diapers.

 

[mentoneman]

Does Dave give props to Bruce Egnater at all? He was doing Marshall mods when Dave was still in diapers.

yes-said he was his main influence.

 

[SaberRed]

Mine was done in 2011. Took 4 months. Can't recommend Dave's work enough.
My forever amp. All things equal i doubt i have the patience to go thru shipping off an amp & wait for months again.
Alot of things have changed since 2011.

Fantastic photos!

 

[BABMusic]

I checked the bias on my amp since I received it back from Dave last week. I did not notice that the bias was at 40. I wonder if the shipping bumped it up from 37-40? Anyway, I turned it down to 35/36 to be safe. I'm curious in that this RevC looks very different than the original BE50 that you see on Sweetwater's site. I wonder they look so different now and if there's a big difference in tone?