Phenomenal job showing the versatility of this amp! Even those cleaner, edge-of-breakup tones are sublime. This is my favorite in the lineup of their lower wattage offerings. Stellar playing, by the way. I wish more demos were of this quality.
hi dan , the amp sounds great and your playing is awesome, how do the tonerider pickups compare to the originals, if you swapped them out yourself that is.
This was the absolute perfect demo of this amp. You dialed this in perfectly. I just got the head, and I'm picking my jaw up off the floor at how good this sounds. And, with the twist of the gain knob, with your guitar on single-coils you're smack into Texas R&B territory. It's just sooo simple. I covers every genre that inspired us to pick the instrument up for in the first place. I have the Buxom Boost, that Dave himself recommended, and I couldn't really find a tone I liked (yet). But, I'm still working with it. He was so passionate about that pedal with this amp, that I feel like I just need to work with it a little more. Would dearly LOVE to see you dial in a tone with that pedal, to see what I may be doing wrong. I'd gladly send a donation (if you're setup for that), for that video. I may pick up an SLO 30, but short of that (as far as low wattage amps go) this is the best amp I've ever owned. Money well spent. Btw, Dan...what are the pups in that LP?
Thanks for the kind words. The amp was only on loan from Friedman so I don’t have it anymore to make a follow up video I’m afraid. I love the buxom boost and I can see how they would pair well. Keep in mind the mids control is active so it’s ‘flat’ at zero. Another boost I love it the full sized TC spark 👍
@@montygibbon1905 That's a GREAT question, and is strangely enough, EXACTLY how I use it. *IMO it's the best part of the amp.* I purchased this amp for no other reason that because with an HSS Strat, once I get the EQ set, which...with my particular pickup setup/taste is a bit "mid-focused", I can get almost every tone I want with the gain knob. If never use the clean side of this amp with my bridge pup, but with my neck & mid pups together (how I always use it), then I dial the gain knob back to 9'oclock, or even less, and it cleans up like a Bassman. On my particular guitar, I'd rather use the Gain knob than my guitars volume knob (that makes a difference in my case, and I have no idea why...lol), but this amp is VERY warm. It's just a flick of the wrist, brother, and you go from clean, to Texas Blues to Classic Rock, with very little fuss, short of the gain knob. The only thing thing I haven't been able to get is that biting, mid-focused Sunset-strip, hot-rodded 800 tone, with this amp. It get's very close though. Dave himself, suggested (passionately, I might add) to push the front end with the Buxom Boost, and he said that pedal is the perfect compliment if you want the hot-rodded, "Brown" thing. When my studio is finished, I'll be playing around with that pedal, to see if that truly works. But, I couldn't be happier. I'll never get rid of this amp for that reason alone. Far more info than you wanted, but that's my overall experience. *I couldn't be happier. In my old age, the less tweaking/button pressing the better. One Gain knob, get's me 99% of the tones I want.* Hope that helps!
@@phillamoore157 There's no overstating the happiness of a sit down + nice cup of tea + some dunkin' biscuits and an amp with an sub-10 o'clock gain setting. Your help is much appreciated and honestly, it should be quoted in the amp sales brochure/web page.
Outstanding tones on this video Dan! I was able to play through a bunch of the smaller Friedmans (runt, jj jr, Little Sis) and came to the same conclusion as you. This is my favourite one by some margin. What really sealed the deal was the dynamics. It can go from rock crunch to spanking clean just by rolling back the gtr volume knob (very hard to find an amp that does that). In that sense I feel it’s even more versatile than the Runt or JJ even though it’s not channel switching. Also, where were you able to find the matching closed back cab with the same aesthetics as the head? I’m having a hard time locating one. I can find the matching open back cab, but not the closed back one. Thanks!
Friedman sent it with the head. Both the heads and cabs were only in for demos and then went off to their new homes. I can only guess the cab is out of stock at the moment.
Great demo Dan. Try a SoloDallas Storm V2 in front of the Friedman. It is uncanny how well it melds itself with the fundamental core tone of an overdriven Marshall. Not just providing level boost but simultaneously embellishing & fusing itself to the amp while taking it to its optimum performance. Friedman is modded 'boutique' Marshall for the masses. Well done ! 🔊💥👍
Ooopfh. Tough one.. I play with multiple bands, some heavier than the others, so I use both regularly. For the heavier rock projects, the JJjr is a special one, I love the two channel, and added gain/sat Option on the dirty channel and line out for FOH or recording. The breakup on the clean channel is great. The Heavy channel is definitely a fire breather, but can be tamed by dialing the volume back on your guitar, it’s very responsive. The LS though, is just amazing, warm, full sounding. It’s got a very versatile Three gain stage toggle switch and a bright/tight switch. I’ve got mine on the second gain setting, slightly broken up, but You can definitely get this one cranking heavy too. I’ve got my Friedman Buxom Boost that is the icing on the cake for boosting the amps. I can’t decide which I love more, and there’s prolly yet another Friedman amp in the near future, but hey, that’s the Friedman amp line for you. There’s always another one that we want to add to the collection. You can’t go wrong. Rock on, my friend! (Little sister) instagram.com/reel/CuFLLPVAT43/?igsh=MXU3aW5sc3ZhdXBx JJjr- instagram.com/p/C27q4sxrmXM/?igsh=MWp5ZzZxcjl0bHFqNw== I’ll post links to my IG where you can hear both live
Your video inspired me to find one used. Accomplished that. Question, the power switch appears to be only 2 positions, ON and OFF, without a middle click for Standby. The instruction manual talks about leaving the amp in Standby for a minute before moving to On position. Which is it? Thanks
About the bright/tight control, the switch acts on two parts of the circuit. I believe the first part reduces the amount of low end hitting the second gain stage between C3 and C4 (same as the BE Fat switch). I believe the second part bypasses the 820 ohm cathode resistor (R16) on V2A with 680nF (C8); you’ll notice a pop when you switch it. I think this amp would benefit from an additional bright switch. The amp would begin to overlap with the JEL20. If you then bypass R13 with 470pF you’ll have something strikingly close to the dirty channel of that amp. You’d need to fully bypass R16 to really get there, this is assuming the plate voltages are well in the vicinity between the two amps.
@@johnnyway8667 It really depends on your style of music, the pickups you like as well as the speaker you’re using. 1nF will give you that aggressive Marshall kerrang, while 220pf will just add top-end chime. If you like the top end with 1nF but feel like the amp is too brittle with the tight switch on then consider 22uF for C8.
God bless Dave Friedman. I love that guy. I heard him say he’s coming out with new amp that has a variack in it. I’m guessing kind of like the Toneking Royalist. That would be so insane . The Royalist isn’t hardwired but a printed circuit board. That’s why I was a little put off.
@@DanLeggatt Hi Dan, all good now thank you. I had saved a "System Image" back in August and managed to get back to that point. I then had to try to remember all the stuff I had updated since then and update it again. I have decided to save a new system image once a month from now on. Hope all is good with you. Cheers.
i really like these amps. I do not have the actual amp but do have a Michael Britt kemper profile of the dirty shirley and I love it. I through a little eq boost and tube screamer and and i can cover a lot of classic mashall type tones. I may have to get the actual amp sometime!
The bright/tight switch is not a traditional bright switch. It changes to a smaller coupling cap after the first gain stage. It's not affected by the gain control setting. It just cuts bass, it doesn't add any treble. (Got this from studying some gut shots of the amp I found online)
@@DanLeggatt I can wholeheartedly recommend the Harley Benton DC Jr Fat. I have been playing for 50 years and it is the most fun guitar I have ever had. I have no problem at all gigging with it totally stock.
Great job Dan! I decide to buy that little sister after your demo, do you think that a Friedman cab 212 with a vintage 30 and a creamback speakers would be a good choice to pair with the head? 😊🙌🏻
That sounds great man. I would like to be there for video number two in the rehearsal room please 😁 in return I’ll bring my Custom Shop collection for you to use!
I keep going back and forth watching videos of the PTv2 and the Lil Sis. I keep leaning Little Sister. I'd love to hear a demo seeing how much boost it can take. I sometimes stack a Greer Lightspeed into an EQD Plumes into a mid-gainy amp to really push it into really sight and sustained tones. Have you stacked multiple boosts into the Little Sister?
I can’t promise anything for these new amps. I would want the blessing of Friedman to do so as it’s a brand new product. More Kemper stuff will be on the way soon though.
I haven’t played some of their bigger flagship heads but I’ve played most if not all of their 20 watt offerings. Old DS mini, Pink Taco v1 & 2, Runt, JJ. I do think this probably is my favourite but there isn’t a bad one in the bunch tbh.
Fair point. Unfortunately it’s hard to find everything into one videos. Also I find it’s quite hard to show off low volume performance without normalising levels to compare or you’d have to crank up the video and then get your ears blown out when it comes back. It’s much more about how an amp ‘feels’ at a lower volume to me and you can’t really show that off in a video. I’ll try to remember to do something in future videos if I can make it work.
Okay thanks. The only thing I wanted to know was the functionality of the master. Some are claiming it's a good one. I like attenuators more but they claim this master does the job.
I don’t really get what you mean. I’m not sure how it’s much different to mic’ing up a cab. You’re still not hearing the cab in the room. You’re hearing a mic, on my personal cab, through an interface and listening back through RU-vid. For it to sound identical for you, you’d have to have exactly the same cab, mic, preamp etc. I think IR’s are great and bloody close to a good mic, on a good cab, in a good room. To be honest, a lot of people I talk to are using load boxes and IRs at home and even live now.
