More than a year later, I still have this amp and it continues to sounds amazing gig after gig and has been completely reliable. Extremely happy with it and the great service from Dave! At approx 30lbs in weight and a smaller headshell, it is very easy to take from gig to gig and just works for me. No complaints!
You said you were going to go for an ACDC tone and didn't....you went straight to high gain. Now, this was probably the best demo I've seen on this amp so amazing job. For me, the fact that this amp doesn't appear to do ACDC tones really well is the reason why I'm selling it and also why I've owned numerous dirty shirleys. I experimented with the amp quite a bit last night and had a hard time dialing in an articulate crunchy sound a la classic plexi; going to try again today messing with the gain stage switch but if I can't get that Angus tone this amp is for sale......
This is the video that made me pull the trigger! Got mine about 6 months ago - can't believe how it goes from silky smooth to full flamethower mode with a click of the foot switch.
"This is the big one! Elizabeth I'm coming to join you!" ha ha ha. What a beast of an amp (and player)! : ) Thanks for the demo, as you always knock it out of the park! Friedman definitely has their act together! \m/
Tell the boss his amps will soon rule the world. Thanks for making a few that are affordable. With all the junk being made nowadays you guys deserve a lot of credit.
this might be the most tonally versatile amp i've ever heard. i think it might be my next big purchase. paired with the friedman pedal board, with a stryman big sky, timeline, and mobius plus a few other unique pedals to round out my sonic pallete and there really is no need for another amp.... ever!
Would be really cool to see Mr. Friedman take this beast for a ride! We never get to see him rippin' the guit. Michael still rocks the shit out of these amps, but would make a real cool video to see Dave talking, rippin' his own creations.
Dude , watched a few of your vids now ( which are great ) and couldn't work out where I've seen you before . It came to me today , you were one of the ant hill mob .
According to the website, it's not the Buxom Betty clean, it's "inspired by" the Buxom Betty clean. They're hand-wired, which is part of why they now cost $3,699.
I Recently bought off of Ebay an early 90’s all tube made in USA 25w Peavey Bravo combo. I own a Friedman and a Marshall. The Peavey is right up there with both of them, and right up there with the most expensive boutique amps out there. Hook it up to a good 2x12 or 4x12 and look out... the amp opens up incredibly well... killer tones. I would definitely record with this amp and use it live. Paid less than $200 for it at auction. Best $$ I’ve ever spent. Killer amp if you can find one.
This amp has the clean channel that the BE100 should've had! I have the newest version of the BE100 and I've never used the clean channel, its just not bright enough!
I've never had an issue with my clean channel on my BE100 not being bright enough. I keep it on the brightest option, but I'm always pulling back the treble to kill some of the brightness
cofap meliante Dave is currently building me a custom Runt 20 with BE gain channel & voice switch for PT option, sat switch & c45 switch. It’s basically a BE 20.
How did you get in touch with them? I asked it for Wildwood and they told write for Friedman, but never answer. Another option is to change the first channel of the Small Box for the Dirty Shirley and a third channel as the HBE. Perfect!
this amp sounds great but i just got my EVH 5150 III 1 X 12 combo for less that half the price and i would have no problem putting it side by side with the Friedman
Haha.. I had the EVH 5150 III for a week, then returned it to thomann. Its a ok amp, pretty good cleans actually, but to compare it with this... naaa :) Whole different ballpark. I would compare it to marshall dsl line, cheap, pretty decent.
Is this raw? Are there effects anywhere in the signal path? Post Prod effects? Freaking amazing either way. But dying to know if this is pure Guitar + Amp or effects and if so, what? Thanks
Are you using a preamp pedal in front? How does everyone get so much gain on the BE channel. I bought one of these used from Guitar Center and it sounds like a clean channel with your BE settings at 7:27. The only way I can get close to that is to max out the gain with the master at eight and the effects return cranked, switch on m in the back and a SD-1 in front of the amp? I'm sure its user error, but gonna have to return it if I can't figure this out. How is everyone getting so much gain with the master volume at 2? Thanks everybody.
Definitely a little better clean channel than on the BE 100 . Still not my kind of clean, but noticeable more pleasing. If the BE 100 I got had a better clean channel, i would have kept it.
Hey man I have a question. If I turn up the master volume really high on this amp, will I then get more power tube tone and power tube distortion, or will the amp just simply be louder and nothing else? Just curious, since the Friedman amps are based on modded Marshall plexis, Eddie Van Halen obviously used Marshalls in the early days of Van Halen, and I heard that his Marshall Super Leads were stock and would just crank the volume all the way to 10 (hence the power tubes are pushed to the max) and put every other control on 10.
CM rocker you technically would. What happens when you turn up the volume knobs is you’re increasing the gain in the power section. So the power tubes will start to over saturate, getting more of a gritty, distorted signal. How much more distortion you get, how it sounds, etc is up to the way the amp was built.
All these Friedman amps sound incredible at low volume. I’ve played the JJ JR, just bought a BE50 it’s more versatile than the JJ but the JJ is a smoker too, fuck man you can’t go wrong with any of these amps
Wonder how different this would be compared to a modded Runt 50...like say, a Runt with a SAT switch ? Granted, the Runt 50 only has the BE and not the HBE but...I bet you could get pretty close to some of the tones of the BE-50 Deluxe. Thoughts??
tomulator I just got mine (runt 50) back from being modded by Dave it's sounding fantastic. He added a lower gain JMP master volume mode instead of boost with pull-fat on the bass control. I would never play a high gain amp railed with pedals I use multiple overdrives. It's huge and the loop is the best I've ever heard and cleans up so well with guitar volume. Stock plexi no boost mode is brutal almost too much mid-forward presence. Maybe a little bit too much sag for me but bias can fix that. Maybe save some money try a runt they hold their value very well not much to lose.
Reality Warrior very cool! Thx for the details. I too have a Runt 50...gig it often and it does very well! Speaker emulated out is a great feature of it. Works great and is just so consistently good sounding...much better than traditional mic’ing of my cab. Was pondering sending it to Dave to see if a higher gain mod (maybe a SAT switch) could be added...still desperately want either a BE-100 or a BE-50 Deluxe though...
tomulator Dave is actually a great guy hell always answer your emails and help you understand your amp. Mine had a minor assembly issue so I sent it back and he offered to mod it for me. It sounds really amazing with two tube screamers on a relatively clean crunch setting. Amazing amp.
Reality Warrior sounds really killer! Agree, Dave’s the man...btw, have you tried a traditional boost of the front end of your Runt 50? I’m getting very good results using a Suhr Koko Boost pedal in front of mine...that’s my go-to high gain tone / lead tone at the moment.
Wishing you'd bought it and justifying what you bought. If this sounds fuzzy and thin, you truly need to have your ears checked. Perhaps it's your cell phone speaker lol. Nothing thin or fuzzy sounding about these amps.
It's always kind of bugged me that Dave stuck to that plexi design, this one in the 800 like case looks so fucking awesome. Oh and this is the greatest amp I've ever heard. .100 watt version...when?
Hey hopefully I can help elaborate. The BE-50 is quite different than the smallbox. The BE-50 has a new clean channel (Buxom Betty Style) with a bright switch. Has the BE and HBE channels both with independent volume and gain (new feature.) Has a thump (resonance) knob, response, and presence knob. Also has a variable negative feedback knob which I believe has an effect on how squishy or tight (tbd) the amp feels/responds to your playing. Also has all the switches from the BE-100 and contributing to the fact that it is now 50 watts instead of 100 watts it will have different feel and tonality. So all in all it really is different and offers something new to the Friedman line. Hope that helps!
I have emailed Dave a few times and he emailed back one time. Told Him that I have a question before ordering and His response was, Whats your question. I emailed him back and haven't heard back yet and that's been a few days back, also I have emailed him a few times more and still no response. Not to good of customer service, Might need to buy from a different brand. Oh well, loose customers that way.
Hey man, are you using any overdrive pedals to get that much gain? I recently purchased one of these oat Guitar Center and with the HBE gain maxed out still not Half the game you’re getting. I need to use an overdrive pedal and tub to get what you’re getting here.
