What's so special about Friedman amps?

WiresDreamDisasters

I've been drooling over Friedman amps recently. Electronically and historically speaking, what's special about them? They seem special to me. But I don't know if that's just amp GAS rearing it's ugly head!  

WiresDreamDisasters

Specifically the Butterslax and BE-100.

professorben

This surprises me, I never had you down as a Marshall type guy?  

WiresDreamDisasters

professorben said:

This surprises me, I never had you down as a Marshall type guy?  

Nah I'm a big Marshall guy. I love the JVM, well the Satch version, and the DSL and JCM900. The 800's are okay, but obviously need pedals. All my favourite amps are basically modded Marshalls of some description, the Diezel's have a Marshall lineage for instance. Also loads of my favourite players are Marshall guys at some level too.

octatonic

I think of them as hotrodded Marshalls with better built quality.
The reissue Marshalls seem to be pretty well made, but the more modern, fully featured ones seem unreliable.
It would appear that you have to choose between a Marshall reissue without some features like channels switching, multiple channels etc or go for a modern Marshall amp and hope it stays working.

Or go to Boogie, which isn't very Marshally, or Engl, Diezel, Bogner etc.
Friedman are the most Marshally of the lot but keep a modern spec that gives you an FX loop. channel switching etc.

WiresDreamDisasters

I've got my VHT SigX, Diezel D-Moll, Deizel VH4, and Orange Rockerverb MK3 100-watter. I think the Orange can go tbh (Ben will be happy to hear that!)

I do fancy checking out a Friedman at some point.

octatonic

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I've got my VHT SigX, Diezel D-Moll, Deizel VH4, and Orange Rockerverb MK3 100-watter. I think the Orange can go tbh (Ben will be happy to hear that!)

I do fancy checking out a Friedman at some point.

How much do you want for the Rockerverb?

WiresDreamDisasters

octatonic said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I've got my VHT SigX, Diezel D-Moll, Deizel VH4, and Orange Rockerverb MK3 100-watter. I think the Orange can go tbh (Ben will be happy to hear that!)

I do fancy checking out a Friedman at some point.

How much do you want for the Rockerverb?

£1100 would seal the deal. PM me if you fancy it!

PolarityMan

I didnt realise Diezel had some Marshall lineage, they sound pretty different to me.

WiresDreamDisasters

PolarityMan said:

I didnt realise Diezel had some Marshall lineage, they sound pretty different to me.

Peter Diezel got his start modding Marshall amps, eventually getting up to the point where he was completely gutting them and rebuilding from scratch. The VH4 came about because he never had enough room in the Marshall chasis to do what he wanted.

professorben

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I've got my VHT SigX, Diezel D-Moll, Deizel VH4, and Orange Rockerverb MK3 100-watter. I think the Orange can go tbh (Ben will be happy to hear that!)

I do fancy checking out a Friedman at some point.

How much for the Orange? 

WiresDreamDisasters

professorben said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I've got my VHT SigX, Diezel D-Moll, Deizel VH4, and Orange Rockerverb MK3 100-watter. I think the Orange can go tbh (Ben will be happy to hear that!)

I do fancy checking out a Friedman at some point.

How much for the Orange? 

Orange is too good for you pal. Stick to yer Mode Four.

professorben

WiresDreamDisasters said:

professorben said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I've got my VHT SigX, Diezel D-Moll, Deizel VH4, and Orange Rockerverb MK3 100-watter. I think the Orange can go tbh (Ben will be happy to hear that!)

I do fancy checking out a Friedman at some point.

How much for the Orange? 

Orange is too good for you pal. Stick to yer Mode Four.

My Mode Four intimidates you with its girth. 

DLM

WiresDreamDisasters said:

PolarityMan said:

I didnt realise Diezel had some Marshall lineage, they sound pretty different to me.

Peter Diezel got his start modding Marshall amps, eventually getting up to the point where he was completely gutting them and rebuilding from scratch. The VH4 came about because he never had enough room in the Marshall chasis to do what he wanted.

That's right. A mate of mine has one of the last "Marshall conversions" he did, it looks quite a lot like this, but the Tolex isn't red:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q245/acrossthedelta/FrontCustomDiezel.jpg

PolarityMan

Really interested to hear clips of the origins of diezel 

srato

Friedman Runt is the best sounding amp I've ever had and that's special to me.

andy1839

I've got the Friedman BE100 Deluxe, Buxom Betty and Runt 50.

I've been through loads of amps in the past, and I'm happy with these for the moment.

Between then they cover pretty much everything.

The FX loops are particularly good and they take drives really well.

The Betty is the anomaly where it doesn't have an fx loop, everything straight into the front.  It's so well sorted there's almost no noise and everything is so clear, even with stacked drives, reverb, delay, chorus and flanger on at the same time.  No master volume either so you have to get your drive from pedals or an attenuator.

They're solidly built and Dave Friedman actually responds personally to emails and is happy to stand behind his amps.

The runt is good fun and a monster gigging amp, loud and I think it sounds really good with some quality reverb and delay in the loop.

The BE-100D is so so good. I'll not witter on about it too much, but I'm completely in love with it.

They all sound brilliant at low volume too, even the BE-100D could be a bedroom amp, sounds the same at every volume.

I've had Marshalls, bluesbreaker, jvm410, 210, silver jubilee, jcm900 and SL5.
None of them stayed that long. 

The friedman amps are very different imo, the quality of tone is a step above all of the Marshall's I've had, and are just less fizzy and a lot smoother sounding in comparison.

dunstanmus

Well built with a really good preamp gain circuit and master volume resulting in a great sound at lower volume. This gets you into Marshall territory without an attenuator. 
Over the years the newer versions have improved. I have a Marsha from 2009 And the gain tone is nowhere year the new deluxe models. 
Not as super versatile with guitar volume as a true plexi (except for Phil X) but then I don’t think they can be with the circuit. 
Built to last, I have never had one fail. 

Modulus_Amps

They force the word Fried to sound like Freed.

professorben

Modulus_Amps said:

They force the word Fried to sound like Freed.

I blame Marty

Daiganzen

As an Avid Marshall Guy I do like the Friedmans but can't justify the price. Especially as My DSL 401 or my or JVM 410H sound as good. I don't want to say which is better as they have differences in their sound and its really personal taste. But I have to say from my point of view (I play Classic/hard/Metal Rock music) the standard Marshall 1960A or 1922 Cab doesn't cut the mustard and I do use a Custom cab with an eminence CV-75 and a Celestion Cream Back 75 in it and that really brings out more guts and power of these amps at full wack