Friedman BE OD

[JeffB]

It's decent. I like it better than the DLS MKIII, but not as much as the Bogner Blue or the Plextortion, or Distortron.

I have spent six hours with the BE, through three amps, run into all manner of clean, barely crunchy, mildly crunchy or used as a moderate boost. LOUD to low bedroom volumes.

Not feeling the love or getting the hype.

Even with the internal trim pot backed all the way off, its got too much gain to do an old marshall crunchy sound. Its got an unatural haze/muddiness over the midrange no matter what settings you use, and especially kills something off in the high midrange. It doesn't clean up all that well with the volume pot, and kills off some natural sustain until you get the gain up beyond 9 oclock. At which point, my volume and tone controls are pretty much worthless except as on/off switches. It also flat out made a couple of my pedals (phase and chorus) sound like @$$.

Even through the very fenderish clean green on my dsl, it didn't "take".

It does have a very tube like warmth..the warm fizzies...kinda like my OR15 has. More warm/tubey than the catalinbread dls or bogner blue

Sounds decent if you are playing mostly single note high gain lead work and heavy distorted power chords. (Cowboy/complex chords kind of smear into a muddy mess).

The controls are very interactive and I was able to dial in my DSL, OR15 and even my little Blackstar to get the EQ where it needed to be for each amp.

Im just a tube snob I guess. Id rather have the amp do the work and hit it with a pedal if need be. Much more natural sounding and dynamic.

 

[always SD]

Re: Friedman BE OD

6 hours !
if It has a very tube like warmth
that's what we want
what did you expect said G Clooney ? !

 

[JeffB]

Re: Friedman BE OD

I can get better tube like warmth out of a radial plexitube.

My point- its not as reality bending as people make it out to be. Its a decent one trick pony distortion pedal. Its not going to replace any decent tube amps. My DSL red channel still sounds better for that kind of sound.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Friedman BE OD

I know Friedman is the newest cool kid on the block, coming up behind Bogner, especially on the LA amp scene.

However, I wouldn't trade any of my Bogner products for Friedman.

I'm basing my opinion on real play time on both companies. I even cranked a $5000 BE100 halfstack today. I still like the Dirty Shirley 40W enough to own one, but I still think Bogner amps and pedals are more worth the high dollars than Friedmans.

The difference is in Bogner's tonal range, where Friedmans just sound like improved Marshall 800's.

I can't knock Friedman at all though. All of them sound great, and I'm sure I'll own a Dirty Shirley when the opportunity arises.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Yeah, the Bogner Blue is definitely the more versatile pedal, within it's scope. The Friedman is more adaptable to different rigs because the eq/shaping tools are so powerful.

I like the small box and especially the dirty shirley as far as Friedman's amps go. But if I was gonna go that modded Marshall route, I'd be talking to David Bray I think.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Well, amp-wise, I really dig the Dirty Shirley, but no idea how that would translate into an overdrive pedal.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Thanks for the review from someone who's ear I trust.
I am looking for a gnarly overdrive pedal, and this was on the short list.
My list is now: 5150, Palladium.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Friedman BE OD

I was really surprised it wasn't better or at least prtty dsrn good through ONE of my amps. The weirdness with the midrange...muddy and choked off.

It probably sounded best through the Blackstar ID10. :lol:

You should probably check out a Bogner Red too, Ben

Edit, I also used it as a preamp into the loop of both the DSL and OR15. Overall, no better OR worse than into the front of them, but it doesn't have enough volume/output. Maybe @18v would be better

 

[JeffB]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Gave up.

Going back.

Maybe better through something like a deluxe reverb...

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Friedman BE OD

did you try it in both 9 and 18v? Im sure the dif is very subtle, but just wondering.. I like my OCD on 18 v

 

[JeffB]

Re: Friedman BE OD

I did not. I have a 18v power supply, but I couldn't locate it. I'm not sure it would help with the fundamental issues I have with the pedal, but I can see it being a help when running the pedal into a fx loop return for sure!

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Yeah, I dont think its going to change your opinion of the pedal, but just wondered what benefit (if any) it would have on the tone

 

[GAS-a-holic]

Re: Friedman BE OD

My co-guitarist has one. We've both come to the same conclusions as the OP. The BE seems to need a clean platform to really shine. The biggest drawback for me is there's no taming the thing! I live in the low/medium gain range most of the time and that's not what this pedal wants to do. Even with the trim pot dialed back there's almost too much gain. In the end I decided to stay with my 3 dirt box setup (Zendrive for leads, TS for boost/low gain, Fallout Cloud for fuzz). Just my .02.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Friedman BE OD

I thought you nailed some perfect tones like a year ago - I forget what set up. You still chasin' or just trying stuff out?

 

[JeffB]

Re: Friedman BE OD

I thought you nailed some perfect tones like a year ago - I forget what set up. You still chasin' or just trying stuff out?

Just looking for a lower volume alternative. My DSL is great when Im able to get the volumes up way loud. But these days I don't get the opportunity very often.

 

[fgreco]

Re: Friedman BE OD

I totally agree.

I spent a week with the BE-OD. I was expecting awesome-ness based on all the reviews. I tried it on my board with a Rivera Quiana, a Boogie Mark II and even a BJ. Initially I really wasn't that impressed. Even turning the internal trim pot down to 8am (from its default of 12noon) it was overly compressed, mushy and an annoying multi-millisecond latency. I was about to send it back. Boosting the bass on my JRockett Animal (with snarl switch engaged) got a similar and more 'airy' sound (if you know what I mean for an OD). Someone yesterday suggested running it through the effects loop return. I tried last night and its a huge difference. Sounded 100% better. The mush and overdone compression was gone and it sounded more like I expected. I didn't expect an OD to sound better through the loop instead of in-front (unlike some reverb/delays), so it was quite surprising to me.

Of course this makes my rig more complicated than I wanted (some pedals on my board would go thru the front of the amp and some others thru the loop).

I think there was a bit of 'bubble' around this pedal recently. Its a very good pedal thru the fx loop for higher-gain stuff or for certain leads. Its not a general-purpose OD by any stretch.

It's decent. I like it better than the DLS MKIII, but not as much as the Bogner Blue or the Plextortion, or Distortron.

I have spent six hours with the BE, through three amps, run into all manner of clean, barely crunchy, mildly crunchy or used as a moderate boost. LOUD to low bedroom volumes.

Not feeling the love or getting the hype.

Even with the internal trim pot backed all the way off, its got too much gain to do an old marshall crunchy sound. Its got an unatural haze/muddiness over the midrange no matter what settings you use, and especially kills something off in the high midrange. It doesn't clean up all that well with the volume pot, and kills off some natural sustain until you get the gain up beyond 9 oclock. At which point, my volume and tone controls are pretty much worthless except as on/off switches. It also flat out made a couple of my pedals (phase and chorus) sound like @$$.

Even through the very fenderish clean green on my dsl, it didn't "take".

It does have a very tube like warmth..the warm fizzies...kinda like my OR15 has. More warm/tubey than the catalinbread dls or bogner blue

Sounds decent if you are playing mostly single note high gain lead work and heavy distorted power chords. (Cowboy/complex chords kind of smear into a muddy mess).

The controls are very interactive and I was able to dial in my DSL, OR15 and even my little Blackstar to get the EQ where it needed to be for each amp.

Im just a tube snob I guess. Id rather have the amp do the work and hit it with a pedal if need be. Much more natural sounding and dynamic.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Interesting! I didnt think you were supposed to run OD pedals thru the loop..???

I am guessing that this pedal wasnt meant to be a versatile od pedal. Im pretty sure that its sole purpose is to simulate the gooey BE tone without the BE price.. Id like to try one just for that.. But... reading all the reviews, Id be worried I wouldnt be able to find the tone with it and be disappointed.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Is it being run through the loop with input coming from the effects send? Or is it being run into the effects return with the guitar going into the pedal's input, bypassing the amp's preamp?

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[JeffB]

Re: Friedman BE OD

Is it being run through the loop with input coming from the effects send? Or is it being run into the effects return with the guitar going into the pedal's input, bypassing the amp's preamp?

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

The latter. Running the pedal as the pre-amp and using the amp's power section.