So... Talk me into/out of buying a another Friedman.

[Moshaholic]

Looks like you used to run a Savage and Powerball together...I liked the Savage I had but it was pretty midrange focused, not much bass.

I've had the Be100 and now have JJ...The JJ is tighter and more modern sounding , maybe a little darker. A little bit like a cross between an american High gainer and a Brit.....Its a little bit like if a 5150 and a Marshall had a baby.

I would blend the amps together live. Most of the time we played unmic'd at tons of underground punk and hardcore shows and I had one VHT cab on each side of the stage... it was truly awesome.

Here is a link to a video clip of both those amps in the picture above live... We had played a show much earlier in the night on the other side of town (and one the night before) and at that show someone asked us to jump an another show later on that night. So we did... It was almost 2:00am when we played and only about 20-30 people were there. It was late and we were tired... It didn't matter we were always down for shows and I was always down for cranking up my ENGLS...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aUG0Hz ... re=related

 

[the4thlast1]

So let's say no powerball just the savage live...Do you think you would miss the lowend the PB gave you ? I had a powerball also years ago , it had a big ballsy lowend but very little mids , the savage and pb I know would be a great mix , you get the lows from the pb and mids from savage .....I think the Savage might sound a bit small by itself but I guess with the right guitar and cab its all good.

 

[Moshaholic]

So let's say no powerball just the savage live...Do you think you would miss the lowend the PB gave you ? I had a powerball also years ago , it had a big ballsy lowend but very little mids , the savage and pb I know would be a great mix , you get the lows from the pb and mids from savage .....I think the Savage might sound a bit small by itself but I guess with the right guitar and cab its all good.

Alot depends on where your playing...

Playing shows all over the place in a hardcore band we were lucky enough if the PA was good enough for the vocalist to scream through...

With a massive 8x10 bass rig thumping, and a pummeling drummer and playing a room where the acoustics were often questionable, both amps blended together were really cool. I could dial in what I needed everytime. With monitors and side fills and all that crap it really didn't matter nearly as much. One head would easily do the trick. That powerball in the pic was the VERY first version too... I loved that amp, used to rip on my Uber cab and VHT cabs...

Both heads blended together were the core of "my sound" that I was going for... Nobody ever said after a show they couldn't hear me of that the tones were not brutal... All I used in front of the amps were a cable, EMG 81, Decimator, and a A/B/Y box...That was it. Dan from this board saw us play a few times and we played shows with his band too... Man fun fricken times...

FWIW... I saw Dying Fetus with Hatebreed on the "Divinity of Purpose" tour at the Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale Florida and the guitarist in Dying Fetus (they only had one on the tour instead of the usual two guitarists) had an Engl Savage 120 and his tone was SICK... I mean absolutely FRICKEN SICK... Like BREATH TAKING FRICKEN SICK... So angry and pissed off... and so tight with insane mids and top end punch... If anyone on this board saw that show/tour you might know what I'm talking about.

As brutal as Hatebreed's tone is, that Savage 120 crushed the whole show to fricking nano-particles... nothing even came close to touching it for aggression, punch and clarity in the mix.

 

[Moshaholic]

Ok...

I'm getting a Friedman JJ...

 

[journeyman73]

excellent...i caved too and bought one last night

 

[Moshaholic]

excellent...i caved too and bought one last night

Awesome!!! Did you buy new or used???

 

[journeyman73]

new...i have a phobia (stupid i know) about used gear

 

[skoora]

Just played a JJ today while picking up another amp and it is BIG sounding. Holy cow, I don't think I've played a bigger, more percussive feeling amp. The clean channel was pretty damn cool and the dirt channel had less gain than I expected (less than the SS and BE100) but I didn't care for the higher gain with the switch engaged in back. It made the SS sound small and a little congested when playing it right after, but the SS voicing (more traditional goosed JMP/plexi) is more me.

 

[journeyman73]

this could be interesting, as ill be playing it side-by-side with an SS-100

 

[Stumplegriltskin]

Get the amp, at least you can see it. Index fund is just numbers on a paper.

 

[the4thlast1]

Yeah if you want to try the JJ Mosh you prob gonna have to buy new , I think its right up your ally , will do the heavey modern stuff better than the BE100, BE100 would be better for 80s stuff and yeah it can do modern with a boost for sure but its voicing is still more classic than the JJ....

The chance of one poping up used is slim and even if it does the resale on Friedman amps is very good. I bet a used JJ could go up for $3300 or so considering used BE100s sell for around 3000 and the JJ is the new kid on the block ....... I like my JJ more than the BE100 I had , since trying both amps now Im curious about the Steve Stevens but trying to resist hahaha freaking gear , always wanna try what ya don't have lol

 

[aw9190]

:

The BE-100 is so bad ass, what's the JJ gonna do for you that the BE cant?
Even though I would say, go ahead buy another Friedman, you kinda already have the best.

I agree 100%, unless the JJ is just more your speed. Besides everyone knows the perfect compliment for the Brown Eye is a Quick Rod. It's such a greeaassy tone!

 

[fuzzyguitars]

i am an enabler so i say that you should buy one!

 

[TX6Strings]

Hopefully you ordered direct from Dave. If so call him back and tell him you want a foot switchable JBE and a separate MV for JBE. Otherwise you're stuck with a two channel amp for live settings.

 

[the4thlast1]

Yeah that's a good point, I had that option added to mine...Not sure if Mosh plays out anymore but its not a bad idea to have either way...Its a $200 up charge.

 

[journeyman73]

couple questions for those that have the 'new' version with the extra JBE volume on the front:

- is the 'Boost' on the footswitch for the JBE mode (ie there is not a JBE mode PLUS a separate boost)?

- can you manually still flip the switch in the back to go to JBE or do you HAVE to switch over using the footswitch?

thanks!

 

[skoora]

couple questions for those that have the 'new' version with the extra JBE volume on the front:

- is the 'Boost' on the footswitch for the JBE mode (ie there is not a JBE mode PLUS a separate boost)?

- can you manually still flip the switch in the back to go to JBE or do you HAVE to switch over using the footswitch?

thanks!

Stock, you can only footswitch from dirty to clean. You use the physical switch on the back to switch in the JBE/extra gain for the dirty channel.

 

[journeyman73]

couple questions for those that have the 'new' version with the extra JBE volume on the front:

- is the 'Boost' on the footswitch for the JBE mode (ie there is not a JBE mode PLUS a separate boost)?

- can you manually still flip the switch in the back to go to JBE or do you HAVE to switch over using the footswitch?

thanks!

Stock, you can only footswitch from dirty to clean. You use the physical switch on the back to switch in the JBE/extra gain for the dirty channel.

does the footswitch take you from Clean to BE or Clean to JBE?

and there are only 3 'modes' right, clean/BE/JBE....there is not also a 'boost'

 

[skoora]

couple questions for those that have the 'new' version with the extra JBE volume on the front:

- is the 'Boost' on the footswitch for the JBE mode (ie there is not a JBE mode PLUS a separate boost)?

- can you manually still flip the switch in the back to go to JBE or do you HAVE to switch over using the footswitch?

thanks!

Stock, you can only footswitch from dirty to clean. You use the physical switch on the back to switch in the JBE/extra gain for the dirty channel.

does the footswitch take you from Clean to BE or Clean to JBE?


and there are only 3 'modes' right, clean/BE/JBE....there is not also a 'boost'

The footswitch will take you from clean to whatever you have selected for the dirty, JBE or regular.

 

[the4thlast1]

Yeah with the mod you still have the switch on the back of the amp ...What is now added is a volume control on the front of the amp for the JBE channel...Also you have a two button footswitch , you can now switch from clean to BE channel, from clean to JBE channel, or from BE channel to JBE channel..........Basically it makes it into a three channel amp with shared eq between BE and JBE. IMO it makes the JJ a better live amp in a sense that now you have more switching options and you can set the JBE channel so that there is no volume drop.