Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

[stupendous silly]

Gentlemen I want a Marshall type amp, and I intend to order a Friedman Dirty Shirley Mini head from abroad very soon. Dirty Shirley Mini is the highest priced amp I can get through the customs in my location, and I am near-certain I will like it better than any alternatives in the price range. On the other hand, an unused Smallbox is offered here by some miracle, and although it would very much stretch my budget, it is quite certain I could never ever have a chance again acquire that amp at the price this guy is asking for it, and very possibly at any price at all. I believe Smallbox covers more musical ground that I am interested in. I am not sure how well I can get Shirley to do tighter sounds for 80s hardrock type of things. The thing is, this is for apartment playing for the forseeable future and 50 watts may just be non-practical. I am also not sure that I can get non-disappointing attenuation at reasonable prices. Finally I can get something like a Pink Taco to cover the sounds I may be missing with Shirley at some point, but the Smallbox just seems to sound better and ideal. You think it is worthy to struggle for the Smallbox in my situation, as it probably will be the final stop in my amp seeking? Thanks a lot.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

lots of ifs in there. the small box is by most accounts a totally kick ass amp but 50w can be a lot if you are trying to keep the volume down. at the same time the overall volume between 20w and 50w isnt all that much. id go small box if it were me

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

lots of ifs in there. the small box is by most accounts a totally kick ass amp but 50w can be a lot if you are trying to keep the volume down. at the same time the overall volume between 20w and 50w isnt all that much. id go small box if it were me

There is no 'if' about the fact that there will never be another chance to get a Smallbox as long as I live in my present country . I believe Smallbox must be just the right sound I am seeking, although Shirley is obviously great at what it does. The crucial question, assuming I can afford it somehow, is whether I can make good use of Smallbox in an apartment, how much volume it demands to give its goods. The word is that Shirley is very good in that regard. Thanks a lot for the input.

 

[MrTondo]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

Indeed the Wattage is the wrong discussion here. 20 vs 50 W is more a headroom thing than a volume thing (not to mention the two amps sound different anyway). They will both be loud when you turn them up. So don't let the 20 vs. 50W thing be an issue if it is purely volume considerations.

The real question here is: How do they sound at low volumes. For that you need someone who owns one of them to chip in. I would base the choice on your preffered sound and whether you like the low-volume Smallbox or Shirley better.

Any chance you will use it outside of the apartment in the future? In that case, go with the Smallbox, because you already mention that it would be your ideal tone.

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

Indeed the Wattage is the wrong discussion here. 20 vs 50 W is more a headroom thing than a volume thing (not to mention the two amps sound different anyway). They will both be loud when you turn them up. So don't let the 20 vs. 50W thing be an issue if it is purely volume considerations.

The real question here is: How do they sound at low volumes. For that you need someone who owns one of them to chip in. I would base the choice on your preffered sound and whether you like the low-volume Smallbox or Shirley better.

Any chance you will use it outside of the apartment in the future? In that case, go with the Smallbox, because you already mention that it would be your ideal tone.

I pretty much know mini DS sounds good at low volumes, I am not sure about the Smallbox in that regard. Very useful input thanks.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

I'd love to know what you end up with. I haven't tried the Small Box, but the DS is an amazing amp.

 

[stratguy23]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

The Smallbox is the best amp I've ever played. I tried it at NAMM at medium volume (much higher than apartment volume), and it was an incredible experience. When people talk about amps as instruments, the Smallbox exemplifies that. It was just this responsive, breathing, purring, roaring thing that became an extension of me and the guitar. It's the only amp that's ever made me sound better than I really am!

That said, Friedmans are good amps in general. I realize it's difficult to make a decision without playing in person. The DS Mini will be good (I haven't tried one myself). I don't think 20W or 50W would make much a difference volume-wise for apartment playing. You would probably have to apply an attenuator to both to get them in the sweet spot without neighbor complaints.

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

Gentlemen I am getting the impression that quite possibly I can tighten up Shirley's sound adequately for 80's type guitar music with pedals when I need to. It would be great to hear your opinion on that. I came across no demos for this, not any adequate one at any rate. The existing demos are not promising, very boomy Van Halen riffs licks etc...

 

[Mincer]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

As someone who never tried the Smallbox, what is its "thing"? How is it different than the DS?

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

As someone who never tried the Smallbox, what is its "thing"? How is it different than the DS?

As someone who has magic ears perfectly evolved to hear through utube videos, I think Smallbox compared to Shirley is tighter bottom, more high-mids, yet still vintagey sounding... and I believe it will be closer to the Marshall tones I personally have in my head. I look forward to see better informed answers too, of course.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

As someone who has magic ears perfectly evolved to hear through utube videos, I think Smallbox compared to Shirley is tighter bottom, more high-mids, yet still vintagey sounding... and I believe it will be closer to the Marshall tones I personally have in my head. I look forward to see better informed answers too, of course.

Thanks for this- I understand. If that is the case, I'd still pick the DS.

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

Thanks for this- I understand. If that is the case, I'd still pick the DS.

Sorry if I was misunderstood - I meant 'better informed answers than mine'. I have only utube impressions.

I found this demo impressive on my part:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4_8hXYkZdQ8
So are the DS demos... I am most likely to go for it because I was a little late to make the offer for Smallbox. Thanks for the interest you are taking in this, I appreciate.

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

I would hate to offend any of you guys, that was not my meaning, I was just being verbose.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

No worries...I honestly had never heard one. It is certainly hard to tell in videos what an amp feels like, too.

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

For anyone interested I got the mini Dirty Shirley, I missed the opportunity for Smallbox while trying to collect the funds. I am in the process of discovering the mini DS, getting a proper closed-back cab soon. But so far quite impressive, better than any amp I had before obviously, and my distortion boxes look just silly now that I got this. Any question on the amp let me know.

 

[soundsgood]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

I had a question for the mini DS - Do you find the bass knob does not make any changes after 2? I can hear change between 0-2 but nothing between 2-10. On Mid and Treble I hear change through out range. I find I have to basically keep the bass completely rolled off or the low end is way to loose to play anything w/ the gain up. Seeing if I should return this for another one or look to replace with a different amp.

 

[B2D]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

Get the Smallbox. Quick, before someone else does.

 

[SavageRiffer]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

Two VERY different amps there. The Dirty Shirley mini is a lot of fun to play, but nowhere near as flexible as the Smallbox. The Smallbox has that X-factor. I am very familiar with the Dirty Shirley and its mini version. They're both a lot of fun to play. However, if you play heavier styles or need a really good clean, that's not going to do it. The Smallbox can get better low volume tone than the mini -- in my opinion -- because the Dirty Shirley really needs that power tube saturation to sound good. Even the mini can get loud before those EL84s start burning. If it's not loud enough, the Dirty Shirley sounds a bit anemic to me. Maybe others disagree, but that's been my experience.

I own a Smallbox Wildwood which has an additional gain boost. It uses the line level as a volume, and it comes with a 2-button footswitch, so it's like a 3rd channel. Anyway it's one of the best amps I've ever owned. I still like using overdrives for more saturated gain which is one of the greatest things about that amp. The Smallbox is not like a JCM800. It's like a clean plexi on channel 1 and a hotrodded plexi on channel 2. It's pretty open sounding, so it's great to add overdrives and distortions to get high-gain levels without sounding too compressed. The FX loop is close to perfect.

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

I had a question for the mini DS - Do you find the bass knob does not make any changes after 2? I can hear change between 0-2 but nothing between 2-10. On Mid and Treble I hear change through out range. I find I have to basically keep the bass completely rolled off or the low end is way to loose to play anything w/ the gain up. Seeing if I should return this for another one or look to replace with a different amp.

I agree with the observation that the bass knob doesn't make a big difference from 2 on... and if I cut it all the way off it spoils the amps character for lead playing esp, in my experience, it gets anemic. I tried a bit with ods to tighten up the sound - a Maxon 808 and some Weehbo's - but the natural overdrive sounds too good to spoil with a pedal, or I just didn't find the right OD for it yet.

 

[stupendous silly]

Re: Dirty Shirley Mini or Smallbox

I am not all that pleased with DS minis low volume sound either, to confirm your point. I put the cab in a closet for a while to work the new speaker, and it had a much different character at high volumes, it sounded like a roaring monster in there. I am planning to raise funds, maybe even sell my car, to fly to a EU country and pick a Smallbox. I am not unhappy that I got the DS mini, I just need more of a hard-rock voice as my main amp and that is the Smallbox I believe. I am also planning to get a EVH 5150 lbx temporarily. Your input is very useful, thank you.