Small box or DS??

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Sickriverlespaul

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I'm looking and trying to decide which one to get. My concerns with the SM with it have enough gain and can I get early breakup tones. And with The DS can I get cleans at all with a LP with hot paf wizz pu? I'm trying to make a solid choice with out just spending a lot and get it wrong. I play a JVM 205 with 4x12 v30/G12h30(55z). Mods 10k choke and gain reduction. With the right tubes I have a nice tone clean and beast. Would like to get that plus some with a Friedman amp.
Also if I do buy will I have any basis issues like with the JVM was cold. Really don't want to start fixing anything right awa . Thanks Terry
 
Totally different sounding animals. You should try both. I own the small box and would love to buy a ds or ds mini for fatter juicer more vintage tones. The small box has one of the best cleans of any British style head i have ever used. The gain ch has just enough gain it challenges me to be a better player that's forsure. It takes a boost really great though.
 
DS mini and a Pt20 together would run slightly more cash than the new SB and cover all the ground your looking for? My DS mini through a 4x12 is plenty loud or bedroom low if needed....
 
I think the DS gain sound is the best current gain sound going. It is so rich and retains so much of the player's input. However, I'm a Clapton/EJ/EVH fan so take that with a grain of salt if your tastes are different. The Smallbox is great, too. It just sounds a tad more generic to me. I would rate the DS then the SS100 1 & 2, then the SB/BE. If Dave made a flagship BE100 style with the Dirty Shirley gain structure/5881 back end as the bones, I'd be all over it.
 
After some research the do have a couple prices at GC in townson. I guess I have to take a 52 mile ride on the Harley this weekend and just go turn them on and see for myself. Thanks so much for the input. I will post results. Terry
 
Rdodson":qxxbycn5 said:
I think the DS gain sound is the best current gain sound going. It is so rich and retains so much of the player's input. However, I'm a Clapton/EJ/EVH fan so take that with a grain of salt if your tastes are different. The Smallbox is great, too. It just sounds a tad more generic to me. I would rate the DS then the SS100 1 & 2, then the SB/BE. If Dave made a flagship BE100 style with the Dirty Shirley gain structure/5881 back end as the bones, I'd be all over it.
This^

To the OP: I have a SB and a min DS. SB plexi channel can have great cleans, very underrated IMO. I would also say the amp is a little generic ALA vanilla-esq but it's a very good vanilla, takes pedals like a beast.

If you like loud tradition punchy headroom cleans the mini DS will not do that as well. It cleans up good if you have the volume past 3 and a lower output PAF. But the glory of this amp is it's gain structure like Dodson is saying.


PS: If you're in the US, Sweetwater has all of these amps, a great return policy and good payment plans.
 
It really depends, what sounds you are looking for and what style you are playing.

You have to play them by yourself - they are so different, and you cannot choose one of them just by recomendation.

The Dirty Shirley is the best amp for Blues-/Classic-/Southern Rock of any kind (of all amps I played so far).
It is e pleasure to play and I could get clean sounds with it using humbuckers with average output. Even with the DS-mini I play funky stuff in my band with humbuckers. but not a t high volumes.

The Smallbox has a very good plexi-like clean channel (but I used it with pedals - compressor, ODs or booster - to get the tightness, I wanted. The second (BE) channel is not like the BE-channel of the BE100! Boosters will get you close, but still there is a difference. I (and I mean - I!) didn't manage to switch directly from the Smallbox clean channel to the BE-channel with satisfiing results - but i didn't play on higher volumes with the Smallbox - this amp is pretty loud.

(If you want the gain, Friedman is famous for, get the BE100, if it is an option!)

The only withdraw, when you play them both to compare, you want to keep them both ....
 
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