Friedman BE Mini

[Ewizard]

If this is anything like other Freidman products, it is most likely going to be an OEM amp with Friedman's pre-amp grafted in and of course his logo. For Freidman to make this amp at this price point, it must cost less than half of that to produce it, likely 1/3rd the cost. My bet is that the production cost of this thing is around $100, perhaps even less.

Let's keep in mind that is essentially his BE pedal with a 30-watt amplifier built-in. The power supply is a run-of-the-mill laptop charger-style unit. I bought a 30-watt amplifier module from an eBay auction a while back for about $6. The amp module didn't even require a power supply module, simply connect a laptop charger to it and send it a signal! The Mooer Baby Bomb is a prime example of what I built with this $6 amp module. SUPER CHEAP OEM stuff from China. My bet is that the cabinet to house all the electronics costs more to produce than the actual amp itself.

Freidman does have some stuff that is 100% legit, but he also has quite of few things that are complete BS that are made solely for the purpose of making money with his name. While he deserves to make a buck, there are a few things that he has that are egregious. Business is business though.

[devastone]

See my post with link to a power amp module.

[Phantasmagoria]

Honestly, Friedman's sound pretty cool for the most part ...but I did'nt think this thing sounded any different to to the mini Oranges or Joyo's for that matter (@ double the price)...

I've been gassing for a Hotone 'Captain Sunset' (the mini Slo) ....way better/more tubey & realistic imo. They have a mini Friedman too ....I guess Dave does'nt like losing out

[devastone]

Hard to tell if it is more "tubey and realistic" from a youtube video, but yeah, those are the same idea, a FET preamp circuit into a class-d power amp.

[Phantasmagoria]

Well yeah, I agree ...but youtube video's being what they are, the "Captain sunset" sounds a lot more convincing as a 'recorded' Slo than the mini Friedman sounds like a 'recorded' BE100, at least to my ears. That's pretty impressive considering it's just 5 watts, pure SS (no tube pre/buffer) & way cheaper.

[Ewizard]

I'm honestly not surprised that many like the sounds of more modern guitar electronics; not considering digital either. For the longest time, Boss, Ibanez, Digitech, EH et all were making analog pedals to do something into an amplifier. The pedal was designed to work along with the amp du-jour. I think it took a really long time for the vendors to realize that people really wanted more of an AIAB ( Amp In A Box ) type pedal. The more modern pedals are going with the AIAB idea. I NEVER liked regular distortion pedals because they were always too this or too that and there were never enough controls to make them just what I wanted. I won't buy a dirt pedal unless it has 4 knobs on it with two being bass and treble. I prefer the AIAB format.

Now we have Wampler, JHS, Freidman, and many more creating pedals that are really good AIAB solutions. So much so, that you probably don't even need a guitar amp to use them. You could simply plug them into an IR loader or into a power amp with a speaker cab and you will have a great sounding " guitar rig ".

Class D amplification has become the end all be all to amplification. It is extremely linear, has great power density, and is also VERY efficient with most Class-D amps being 90+% efficient at converting wall power into amplified output! They are also very affordable. A 30watt Class-D amplifier can fit in a mini-sized pedal box and the module at the retail level can be found for around $10! Scale that to enterprise-level and a 30watt Class-D amp module can probably be made for a couple of bucks. It will sound great and is extremely economical.

I think we will start to see more of this type of format coming out. Orange has kind of already done it with the Mini Terror. I can see Wampler, Bogner, and others coming out with a budget amp like this to capitalize on the cheap yet highly refined technology.

[Van Noord]

Loving mine. I have no problem switching from my all tube MT15, EVH 5153 or Krank RevJr to this Mini BE.

This little thing can get pretty thick and sick sounding if you know what you're doing.

I've never liked the Orange Terror series and owned a few Hotone amp models which were cool micro amps, but neither of them come close to the Mini BE.