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Yesterday was "new" Friedman day. Picked-up a nice, used Friedman Buxom Betty. I've been moving away from higher gain amps lately, preferring boutique Fender-style amps. This is my sixth Friedman amp. Started with a regular Pink Taco head, then a Smallbox 50, then Dirty Shirley 40, then a Friedman BE100, then a Wildwood Edition Pink Taco head (what a friggin little BEAST!), and now the Betty. All were awesome amps. I've just been more in Fender mode lately. I use my Friedman Dirty Shirley, Fulltone OCD, and Bogner Harlow pedals for varying levels of compression, crunch, and gain.
The Betty is such a great sounding amp. One of the best glassy cleans I've ever had. Right there with my Tone King Metropolitan that it's pictured next to. These are the best cleans I've ever had between these two amps. Some other great clean amps (or channels) that I've had were a Peter Straub one-off custom head, Sweetwater Fender Deluxe FSR, Fender Twin, Fender Supersonic Twin 2x12, Bogner EL34 Shiva, Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk I, and maybe my Bogner XTC Classic. All of those amps qualify as the clean amps or channels of note in my amp history. Every amp listed has stood above the cleans on other amps that I've owned (many of which have been long forgotten). My Splawn Quickrod, VHT Pitbull UL, Engl Powerball II, and some other heads had decent cleans, but nothing that excited me to play clean. I list all of these amps for context, in terms of what I'm comparing the Buxom Betty (and Metropolitan) to.
I've had the Tone King for several months and right now, my impressions of the Buxom Betty are very similar. The Tone King has a power-scaling feature, and a channel that's got Tweed voicing (that I never use). So it's technically more versatile, but not how I use it. The Betty is LOUD... so I've been keeping the volume at 8:00 or below. That's where the Metro has it beat so far. It's more usable volume-wise, and it's easier to haul because it's a lightweight 1x12 combo. Only time will tell ultimately how I feel about the Friedman versus the Tone King. But right now I definitely feel blessed with a dearth of great clean tones between the two. Both take my OD pedals like champs. I plugged my Schecter USA Traditional strat and early 80s Ibanez Artist semi-hollow into both amps yesterday and was able to generate so many great tones... from Eric Johnson (clean and lead), so ACDC "Back in Black", to The Darkness, to a bunch of country stuff ala Brad Paisley. So I'm definitely not limited in the variety of tones that I can generate with the help of pedals. Since I've owned so many great channel-switchers over the years, I would not be willing to settle for sub-par crunch and lead tones. And I haven't settled at all. Which is why I let the last two Friedman amps go. Switchers are great, but I'd just rather start with a pure, clean tone and go from there to get my various tones these days.
I haven't tried programming some great patches on my Line 6 Helix LT modeler yet, and running it into either of these amps (without cab modeling). But it's something that I want to try. So far I've only been running my Helix direct, but I have a feeling that with some time and tweaking, I can get some damn cool stuff with it. Especially if I run it stereo out to these two amps. I want to try to get some convincing high-gain tones using the Helix into these amps... just for the getting-rare day when I feel like playing some Alter Bridge, Lacuna Coil, or some drop-tuned metal piece or something. If it doesn't work well, I get some great high-gain tones just going direct from the Helix.
The Betty is such a great sounding amp. One of the best glassy cleans I've ever had. Right there with my Tone King Metropolitan that it's pictured next to. These are the best cleans I've ever had between these two amps. Some other great clean amps (or channels) that I've had were a Peter Straub one-off custom head, Sweetwater Fender Deluxe FSR, Fender Twin, Fender Supersonic Twin 2x12, Bogner EL34 Shiva, Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk I, and maybe my Bogner XTC Classic. All of those amps qualify as the clean amps or channels of note in my amp history. Every amp listed has stood above the cleans on other amps that I've owned (many of which have been long forgotten). My Splawn Quickrod, VHT Pitbull UL, Engl Powerball II, and some other heads had decent cleans, but nothing that excited me to play clean. I list all of these amps for context, in terms of what I'm comparing the Buxom Betty (and Metropolitan) to.
I've had the Tone King for several months and right now, my impressions of the Buxom Betty are very similar. The Tone King has a power-scaling feature, and a channel that's got Tweed voicing (that I never use). So it's technically more versatile, but not how I use it. The Betty is LOUD... so I've been keeping the volume at 8:00 or below. That's where the Metro has it beat so far. It's more usable volume-wise, and it's easier to haul because it's a lightweight 1x12 combo. Only time will tell ultimately how I feel about the Friedman versus the Tone King. But right now I definitely feel blessed with a dearth of great clean tones between the two. Both take my OD pedals like champs. I plugged my Schecter USA Traditional strat and early 80s Ibanez Artist semi-hollow into both amps yesterday and was able to generate so many great tones... from Eric Johnson (clean and lead), so ACDC "Back in Black", to The Darkness, to a bunch of country stuff ala Brad Paisley. So I'm definitely not limited in the variety of tones that I can generate with the help of pedals. Since I've owned so many great channel-switchers over the years, I would not be willing to settle for sub-par crunch and lead tones. And I haven't settled at all. Which is why I let the last two Friedman amps go. Switchers are great, but I'd just rather start with a pure, clean tone and go from there to get my various tones these days.
I haven't tried programming some great patches on my Line 6 Helix LT modeler yet, and running it into either of these amps (without cab modeling). But it's something that I want to try. So far I've only been running my Helix direct, but I have a feeling that with some time and tweaking, I can get some damn cool stuff with it. Especially if I run it stereo out to these two amps. I want to try to get some convincing high-gain tones using the Helix into these amps... just for the getting-rare day when I feel like playing some Alter Bridge, Lacuna Coil, or some drop-tuned metal piece or something. If it doesn't work well, I get some great high-gain tones just going direct from the Helix.
It's all tonez dudez
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