Conclusion, Friedman overall sounds great! the only thing I "missed" was the IR-X into the orange. Basically, would it still be that big of a difference between the pedals? Still, Great video, and channel!
I have a 100 watt tube amp,a Quad Cortex and just recently bought a IR X. They are all great but at this point in time I’ll probably use the IR X out at gigs since it is so portable and sounds awesome .
Sure you are going to get close to the JJ. This is the weakest amp Friedman makes. It is a good and cheap way to put your toe in the water. You do not need to have the Friedman tone to get pussy. Some people are calling this box the @ Dirty Shirley`s in one. HA HA.!!!
I've actually had all three of these pedals, and still have the IR-X and Friedman JJ Jr. The main thing the JJ Jr has over the IR-X is the bigger low end and mids. I noticed that listening back to my recordings with my band, the JJ Jr. is easier to hear than the IR-X. That said, the IR-X is the next best solution to a real tube amp and I'd take it any day over a multi-effects pedal, like a FM9, Quad Cortex, Kemper, etc. I have the FM9 and while it sounds good, it takes a lot of works to get a good sound, whereas you can just turn on the IR-X and either go into a tube amp or direct to FOH/PA and it sounds good without any work.
Thank you for demoing how these products really sound! Most guys promising comparisons just get on here and wank off fancy arpeggios and speed drills - which helps nobody decide anything and just strokes the ego of the RU-vidr. You're a real one. Keep up the good work!
Orange amps have really great clean channels, and their single channel amps really do clean up well. Rocker 15 Terror, Dark Terror, Dual Terror 30, OR15/30, Micro Dark/Terror Stamp, Super Crush/Pedal Baby, etc. I feel like they're honestly underrated as pedal platform amps, or amps you can set to edge of break up and use the neck for clean and the bridge pickup through an OD pedal for gain, likely because they already sound good for high gain. They're really versatile, and that says a lot in regard to their value proposition IMO.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It speaks volumes for the gear when you can forget you’re listening to a gear review and you’re just sorta jammin out to the demo track. Some gear just works like it should and it’s easy to get into the song. Other stuff though can kinda have qualities that stick out in less pleasant ways. This makes it harder to just sit back and enjoy the song. I got to enjoy the music through this whole video. I guess the gear passes the vibe check. lol
The IR-X compared exactly how I thought it would to the JJ Jr. The BE is a darker and smoother amp and that's exactly what the IR-X sounded like. The JJ is quite a bit more aggressive, which is why metal players tend to like it more than the BE. What surprised me was the BE-OD. I thought it sounded the most aggressive of the bunch. Definitely fizzier than the JJ but I think that sizzle made it cut a bit better. I wonder how much of that sound is from the Orange power amp? Would've been cool to hear it through the JJ's, instead. Interesting!
Do you ever make videos for live performance setups? Like running modelers into the fx return of an amp and micing the cabinet? That would be an interesting video.
I have that same Sweetwater exclusive version of the BE-OD Deluxe pedal with my Fender Blues Deluxe. I do also have a Friedman amp. BE100D. All of them sound good.
nice video! Seems like a Friedman IR-X into a Marshall origin 50 will get you a Friedman amp, or at least 90% of it. Would love to see you try that, if you have that amp available :D
In the event I owned a cleaner sounding amplifier-Maybe a Fender Mustang, this would be good run through the FX loop. I think it may be close to having 2+2= 4 amps, if the Friedman IR is dialed in properly. The IR needs a delay to make it sound real, In my opinion. These are about 500.00 now.-I have already seen one being sold as used 75.00 less.-In the event you can wait (I sure can) pick one of these up for 350.00?? might be a good way to update your rig. If you want to go into the Friedman direction. Believe it or not. there are people that can live with out a Friedman amp tone, and still get laid. Unlike some people.
I have the Rocker Terror head. That BE OD through the terror sounds just as good as that Friedman head. The Freidman head is a little thicker,but the tone comparison is very close. Start adding some basic effects, and it would be very difficult to hear a difference.
The Head unit sound brighter, maybe a bit better note separation, but i feel like you could easily get 99.9999% of the head's sound with the right EQ and IR tweaks.
The BE-OD sounds like a Friedman, but has the least headroom, which is expected being a solid state. The the IR-X is unbelievably close, to the full Amp, albeit slightly less headroom. But end of the day, Im blown away at how well even the solid state performs. I wonder how much the Orange tubes added to it though? Moral of the story, buy anything Friedman and you will be happy.
They all sound good but neither of the pedals can touch the amp. The BE OD has that "congested" kindof tone, like there are too many frequeincies present. Funny thing is I liked the IR-x better than the BE OD when you were comparing to the amp though the amp wins hands down but when head to head against eachother I liked the BE OD better. Good example of how perspective and context has a huge effect on your choices.
Wow! The IR-X sounds exactly the same, some times a very little darker, that Is not necesserely a bad thing. But the Be-OD is fantastic! It Is clear and You can feel an additional awesome punch in some frequencies comparing to the Friedman amp! So I slightly prefer the second pedal, but It Is a personal taste! And using the eq section probably they could sound exactly the same. Thanks for the well done test!
I wish Friedman amps were not ridiculously expensive. I ordered the friedman BE-100 Deluxe back in the day, while it was amazing, I couln't bring my self to live with that price tag. Sent it back and got three amplifieres for the same amount of money (Bogner GF SL, Silver Jubilee and ENGL SE). I basicly covered three different styles of gain with less money. And I also got the friedman Pedal which sounds amazing with the GF, since it has an amazing clean channel. You are absolutely right about trying to match the pedal with the right amp (The BE pedal sounds kinda bad with the Marshall, cause the amp colours the sound too much). Sorry for the long post. Great videa as always! :)
Great comparison. I agree they all sound great especially if you’re just recording. You can tweak them in a mix to get them very close to each other. I have the JJjr and the BE od live in the room. The amp is the best solution for me. The BE od into the JJ clean channel is definitely sterile sounding compared to the real amp. The IRX into a tube amp sounds awesome as it should because you basically have a full tube amp there as you said. 🤘🤘🤘
Incredible how close both the IR-X and the BE-OD sound, but still the amp sounds better to me, or maybe I’m biased and it depends on how you use them 😅
I agree with your assessment of the differences. I like the harder sound of the SS pedal/orange combo though, just leans a tad more direct and aggressive rather than lush and organic.
Hi John, i noticed you you had the bass control dimed on the JJ, any reason for that? I'd prefer the ir-x for recording purposes based on the sound alone, can't comment on the feelling and response which might be different with the amp. 20watt amps are great to collect though...
These comparison videos are awesome! You helped me find an amp I really love (Orange TH30). I really appreciate that you always use the same IR for easy comparison especially between different videos. Keep up the great work🤘🏻
I like that jj, but I never really have the be model a chance on helix. Oddly want the ir-x for the form factor, but could definitely get by with the pedal. 🤔
Thanks Jon... As always I enjoyed your video. That was quite helpful to me. I wonder if you could get this sound with an HX stomp with the Placater Dirty amp model. Would love to see that in a comparison. ❤
Jon your recorded tones always sound so amazing. I’ve been recording with the captor x for a long time and have been thinking about buying an amp central for quite some time now. Would you say the difference in sound quality is worth it? I just need someone to convince me haha. How big of a difference could you tell when you got yours compared to what you used before?
@@SonicDriveStudio I actually use room 1 from the York mv30 pack in IR B slot dialed back to -9db and blend that with every Rockbox IR I use. I find it makes it sound more full and realistic. It’s too bad OwnHammer doesn’t offer any kind of room mics in their packs. Maybe with a better loadbox I wouldn’t need to do that and I’m just compensating for whatever I’m missing from the captor x? Not sure really. Have you ever tried that method with any room IRs? I definitely gotta try that R7 though. I wonder if the suhr RLIR would get me there? It’s a bit cheaper. Not stereo though and not as many features.
I only have the original BE-OD Deluxe... but man I can tell you that thing through the power section of my Hiwatt absolutely rips (also higher wattage for producing those low freqs)... I'm glad you showed it through a different amplifier. There is definitely a difference in low end response, although I notice the bass is totally cranked on the amp. It was less apparent between the two preamps. If anything I feel most people are using these for recording so it prob fits better in a mix - at least in these examples. When playing the BE-OD through my Hiwatt (or otherwise) up loud, you wouldn't know to be honest though because it just sounds monstrous to begin with in person.