Those who own multiple Friedman amps: Which ones and why?

[bdm]

And if you were to buy another Friedman what would you consider (and why)?

I’ve got a Dirty Shirley and a Small Box.

The Dirty Shirley may be my favorite amp EVER for playing live. It just has an amazing feel and at 40w it seems to sit perfectly in with a live rock band.

The Smallbox isn’t radically different but has a tighter sound and with the split channel design offered a little more flexibility for situations that might require a broader swath of tones.

If I were to get a third Friedman it’s a toss up between the Phil X and the SS100. From everything I hear and see both seem like they’d be great but I haven’t had the chance to really try either.

 

[Ventura]

JJ100 - because I love Jerry's tone and have had his gear assimilated in my sound room (recently re-coined, the "GAS Chamber".... ) for years.
Butterslax because it's just more of a good leg blasting, chest thumping, crazy tasty amp.
Next up? Dirty Shirley - because it sounds nice.

That oughta do it.
Those are my reasons.
I like Dave's amps and I like how they play in my hands with my guitars

 

[BrentSP]

Friedman amps are addictive. I've said this time and time again but I'll say it again. Dave has nailed the perfect IMO Plexi meets JMP/JCM hybrid with the Brown Eye design. I love that fact that he uses the BE design as a basis for his other amp designs but doesn't stray to far off the grid where it sounds completely different. Its smart, good business sense. Soldano has kind of done the same thing with taking the SLO lead channel design and basing all his amps from that. Bogner should of done the same with the XTC blue channel IMO but he's done fine.

Ok to the OP, in my case, I want a JJ. Jerry's tone has always been a love affair of mine and to be honest I can get close with the BE channel with SAT engaged with the Gain style to the left (.68uF cathode/ 500P on CF) but its still missing the big extended low end of Jerry's resonance circuit that's only on that amp that I'm aware of. The resonance cap is a bigger value compared to the BE resonance cap and the lows are boosted at a lower frequency. The Butterslax may have the same resonance circuit but I'm not sure on that. Its a damn good amp.

 

[Ventura]

Friedman amps are addictive. I've said this time and time again but I'll say it again. Dave has nailed the perfect IMO Plexi meets JMP/JCM hybrid with the Brown Eye design. I love that fact that he uses the BE design as a basis for his other amp designs but doesn't stray to far off the grid where it sounds completely different. Its smart, good business sense. Soldano has kind of done the same thing with taking the SLO lead channel design and basing all his amps from that. Bogner should of done the same with the XTC blue channel IMO but he's done fine.

Ok to the OP, in my case, I want a JJ. Jerry's tone has always been a love affair of mine and to be honest I can get close with the BE channel with SAT engaged with the Gain style to the left (.68uF cathode/ 500P on CF) but its still missing the big extended low end of Jerry's resonance circuit that's only on that amp that I'm aware of. The resonance cap is a bigger value compared to the BE resonance cap and the lows are boosted at a lower frequency. The Butterslax may have the same resonance circuit but I'm not sure on that. Its a damn good amp.

My JJ is pure sonic sex.

Just had to say it.

 

[Ventura]

Friedman amps are addictive. I've said this time and time again but I'll say it again. Dave has nailed the perfect IMO Plexi meets JMP/JCM hybrid with the Brown Eye design. I love that fact that he uses the BE design as a basis for his other amp designs but doesn't stray to far off the grid where it sounds completely different. Its smart, good business sense. Soldano has kind of done the same thing with taking the SLO lead channel design and basing all his amps from that. Bogner should of done the same with the XTC blue channel IMO but he's done fine.

Ok to the OP, in my case, I want a JJ. Jerry's tone has always been a love affair of mine and to be honest I can get close with the BE channel with SAT engaged with the Gain style to the left (.68uF cathode/ 500P on CF) but its still missing the big extended low end of Jerry's resonance circuit that's only on that amp that I'm aware of. The resonance cap is a bigger value compared to the BE resonance cap and the lows are boosted at a lower frequency. The Butterslax may have the same resonance circuit but I'm not sure on that. Its a damn good amp.

My Slax is pure sonic rough sex.

Just had to say that too.

 

[danburton]

I have a 50-watt Smallbox Wildwood edition & a 40-watt Dirty Shirley. They're pretty different, so no real overlap. Next week when my BE50DLX arrives, it may or may not force the SBWW out of the collection.

 

[RedPlated]

I have had them all. Still have the BE.

 

[Ventura]

I have had them all. Still have the BE.

Best answer so far

 

[Silenceborn]

I have a 50-watt Smallbox Wildwood edition & a 40-watt Dirty Shirley. They're pretty different, so no real overlap. Next week when my BE50DLX arrives, it may or may not force the SBWW out of the collection.

I was just wondering, did the BE50DLX forced the Small Box out of your collection yet? What are your thoughts so far? Cheers,

 

[BrentSP]

I have a 50-watt Smallbox Wildwood edition & a 40-watt Dirty Shirley. They're pretty different, so no real overlap. Next week when my BE50DLX arrives, it may or may not force the SBWW out of the collection.

I was just wondering, did the BE50DLX forced the Small Box out of your collection yet? What are your thoughts so far? Cheers,

I know this wasn’t for me but I’d be interested in this also. I think it depends how much the player values the Plexi channel. Because the DLX can’t do it, even with the structure set low it’s still a 3 Gain stage circuit with 2204 levels of gain. The plexi channel is a thing of beauty.

 

[CrazyNutz]

Ok to the OP, in my case, I want a JJ. Jerry's tone has always been a love affair of mine and to be honest I can get close with the BE channel with SAT engaged with the Gain style to the left (.68uF cathode/ 500P on CF) but its still missing the big extended low end of Jerry's resonance circuit that's only on that amp that I'm aware of. The resonance cap is a bigger value compared to the BE resonance cap and the lows are boosted at a lower frequency. The Butterslax may have the same resonance circuit but I'm not sure on that. Its a damn good amp.

Actually I've played around with this on my BE100 clone. The bigger resonance cap does not really do that. What it actually does is make the amp tighter in the low end. This cap is on the slax as well.

It's just a 0.0022uf added in parallel to the existing 0.0047uf, can easily be added, you could put it on a switch.

 

[RACKSYSTEMS]

What the value does is shift the bass frequency lower, so yes it takes away some of the mud hence tighter but deeper bass. Going the other way shifts it up in fequency.

 

[CrazyNutz]

Thanks Dave, I graphed it out on my white board yesterday at work so I could visualize it. It's shifting the shelving frequency back.

It's definitely tighter, removes some mud on the down tuned stuff (good thing, and appropriate for these amps). However It does not sound "big/extended" to me, as BrentSP mentioned. There are less low frequency's being boosted (i.e. the low frequency band being boosted is narrower).

None the less, this was clearly one of the keys to keeping it nice and tight on the Slax, and JJ. I admire your cleverness!

 

[Gadzz]

Dirty Shirley for me! Perfect gain stand alone .... If you need more throw a pedal at her!? But cranked all alone she cuts nicely in a live band!

 

[GtarLover]

Got an SS100 first...great tones, both clean and dirty. Then, “needed” to try a BE100...most versatile of the bunch, seriously great tones available here (plus Dave did some magic on this one for me), this is mine for the duration.
Then, a SILLY deal on a JJ100 came up locally and I couldn’t pass it up. Awesome.

Think I’m all set now

 

[tripstan]

Everyone needs a Dirty Shirley and at least one Friedman with the BE circuit.

 

[GOHOINC]

I have a jj and now a slax is on the way. Why? Because I can and because I want them... I'm a Jerry fanboy and a mastodon fanboy so for me it's as much to collect the signed heads as it is for the tones. I'd love a buxom betty and a dirty shirley too but I think I'm done with amps for quite some time.

 

[atrox]

I had this setup for literally a day.

The Butterslax came with a broken headshell, so i sent it back regardless. However, i sat for 3 hours comparing the two through the 412 and the BE-100 just won by a little bit. The Butterslax was phenomenal as expected and Bill has been trying to get me to buy one before they were even in production (He's a local dude and played in a bunch of bands around here before Mastodon. He bought my 2203 after seeing my band play and he is the one who originally convinced me to buy the BE).

Anyway, i felt, in the end, the BE-100 was just slightly more my thing. I could hear it get super throaty and huge sounding as i turned it up and the Butterslax had that, but not as much. That's not to say it didn't sound huge, i just liked how my BE did it better. It's almost like i could hear the Power tubes starting to mix in on the BE, where i didn't get that feeling from the Slax. The HBE channel on the BE has more than enough gain for me, where i figured i'd probably never touch the third channel on the Slax.

Regardless, you can't go wrong with any Friedman IMO. I need a DS next

 

[Adambomb]

Well, because the Dirty Shirley is the first Friedman I plugged into back in 2013 and never has an amp blew me away more for classic rock than that amp. Then couple weeks later after playing the BE100 with all the mods and versatility, I was able to dial in a similar Dirty Shirley tone with the BE100, and got it sounding pretty dang close. When the Dirty Shirley Mini came out I called Dave as fast as I could.

The Friedman 4x12 and 2x12 are some of the best new speaker cabs I've heard with excellent projection. Regardless that I like matching heads/cabs, the tones were much better through those cabs with the Friedman amps, so it worked out great. Sold my Splawn 4x12, Marshall 4x12, and Mesa 2x12 cabs. Even the BE2x12 sounds better with these amps than the Bogner 2x12 I still have.

 

[danburton]

I have a 50-watt Smallbox Wildwood edition & a 40-watt Dirty Shirley. They're pretty different, so no real overlap. Next week when my BE50DLX arrives, it may or may not force the SBWW out of the collection.

I was just wondering, did the BE50DLX forced the Small Box out of your collection yet? What are your thoughts so far? Cheers,

I know this wasn’t for me but I’d be interested in this also. I think it depends how much the player values the Plexi channel. Because the DLX can’t do it, even with the structure set low it’s still a 3 Gain stage circuit with 2204 levels of gain. The plexi channel is a thing of beauty.

Sorry, I missed this one. Still have both amps - the "plexi" sound on the SB is basically one of a kind. Love both amps, basically so neither has forced the other out. I have a few different groups of buddies I jam with regularly and for one of them the SB is literally the perfect tone. So for that reason alone I think Id hang onto it. Still, I bought a Wizard two weeks after the BE50 showed up and the thought crossed my mind to fund the Wizard by selling the SB. Ultimately the "Wildwood Smallbox is definitely cool and fairly unique and NEVER get rid of a cool, unique tube amp" principal won out.

Another interesting idea...Ive thought about potentially setting the two of them up in stereo using my Helix to switch preamps. I did this with a PT and a DSM last summer and it was pretty awesome. I emailed Dave and he thought it would sound cool. I'll probably get around to that sooner or later.