Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Red_Label

Red_Label

New member
LOL... brought home a Friedman Smallbox yesterday from my friend's shop to try out. I've already had a Smallbox in the man cave for an afternoon (as well as a BE100 and a Pink Taco)... but at the time I wasn't in the mood to spend money or really give the amp a chance. My buddy's always sending this crap home with me, trying to get me to bite. In fact, I had a Gibson LP RO Reissue over this past weekend. Very nice axe, but I really didn't feel or hear anything different from my LP Standard (both are loaded with Fralin Pure PAFs).

Anyways... I really dig the Smallbox. It's definitely got that Marshall plexi thing going... mild to wild. I would say that it's richer than any Marshall I've ever played (at sane volumes anyways). Me and my buddy's plan was for me to keep the Friedman, and bring my Ceriatone Chupacabra in on-trade. So after several hours of swapping back and forth between my Splawn Quickrod and the Smallbox (using both my LP and Anderson Drop Top Classic strat), I decided to warm-up the Chupacabra one last time. It's only a single channel amp, but DAMN... that sound that it makes is just awesome. It's capable of a lot of tones, but the one I have dialed-in is just richest, most-vibey Marshall kerrang I've ever heard. And after playing it last night I got "confused" again. I really shouldn't do it... but I'm thinking about just buying the Smallbox and keeping the Ceriatone. And I love the Quickrod, so it's not going anywhere. I swore that i was gonna stop hoarding and stick to my "one-in, one-out" gear policy. But dammit... I don't wanna have to choose between the Friedman and the Ceriatone.

Friggin first world problems... :guilty:

P.S. Please excuse the crappy cell phone pic...

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Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Gearjoneser said:
Does your house look like this? http://www.paragonstl.com/wp-conten...26-ent-hoarders-hmed.blocks_desktop_large.jpg

If not, go ahead and get the Friedman. You are not a hoarder. :laughing:
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Thanks GJ. I did several hours of swapping back and forth between all three heads and in the end decided that the Chupacabra (while an awesome tone), was the "weakest" of the three. It's been a great amp, but in light of my one-in, one-out, wife-approved gear policy... it's going into the shop in trade today. My buddy says he'll give me $900 on-trade for it. A very fair deal. I would also add that the loop on the Ceriatone is the weakest on the three. The loops on the Friedman and Splawn are awesome. So off she goes to another happy player. So let it be written, so let it be done! :D
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

This really shows how good the Ceriatone stuff is... If it's that hard to let it go to get a Friedman, then that says it all! always like you're adventures in amp moving!
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

xxxplorer said:
This really shows how good the Ceriatone stuff is... If it's that hard to let it go to get a Friedman, then that says it all! always like you're adventures in amp moving!
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It IS that good indeed! My music shop buddy has sent me home with the Smallbox and BE100 before and at the time I didn't feel that I was justified in replacing my Chup or Quickrod. I didn't want to bite off that much at the time, so I was invested in not being wow'd by the Friedman stuff. But the fact that I was able to justify not immediately dumping the Ceriatone in favor of the Friedman amps is proof indeed of how great Ceri amps are. I've had three of them and all were top notch. In fact, I'm still curious about the Yeti. But what's the point? It's not like I can do better than a Friedman and Splawn! :-)
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Shooter.556 said:
Sweet Freidman but I am in love with the Splawn..
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I do love me my Splawn! In fact, the shop that I got the Friedman from has a nice used Quickrod as well. I pondered skipping the Friedman and getting the QR instead. But then I'd have two QRs and no Friedman. I used to be all about having twins/spares of everything that I really liked. But lately I'm more about having different gear to cover different territory. Not that the Splawn and Friedman are massively different... but I've found that when I have gear that is even slightly different, it allows me to take a break from one thing for a bit while I enjoy the other, and then when I come back to the original thing it's fresh again. When I get too many of the same thing I tend to get bored with it and dump it to try something else and freshen things up a bit. There's really no way I can do any "better" than the Splawn and Friedman amps... so I may as well just keep those. The only two amps that I've still got a slight bit of GAS for are the SLO (never played one), and the Bogner 20th Anni XTC (I owned an XTC Classic). That's pretty much it. I used to want to try a Diezel amp, but I think that those amps would not be in my comfort zone tonewise. I like things brown, slightly saggy, and with less gain as I get older.
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Updated pic of my tandem rig-from-heaven with Fralin-loaded LP. :headbang:

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Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Red_Label said:
I do love me my Splawn! In fact, the shop that I got the Friedman from has a nice used Quickrod as well. I pondered skipping the Friedman and getting the QR instead. But then I'd have two QRs and no Friedman. I used to be all about having twins/spares of everything that I really liked. But lately I'm more about having different gear to cover different territory. Not that the Splawn and Friedman are massively different... but I've found that when I have gear that is even slightly different, it allows me to take a break from one thing for a bit while I enjoy the other, and then when I come back to the original thing it's fresh again. When I get too many of the same thing I tend to get bored with it and dump it to try something else and freshen things up a bit. There's really no way I can do any "better" than the Splawn and Friedman amps... so I may as well just keep those. The only two amps that I've still got a slight bit of GAS for are the SLO (never played one), and the Bogner 20th Anni XTC (I owned an XTC Classic). That's pretty much it. I used to want to try a Diezel amp, but I think that those amps would not be in my comfort zone tonewise. I like things brown, slightly saggy, and with less gain as I get older.
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I live in a patio home in a restricted community in town so I couldn't do a Quickrod right now but we're going to build a new house in the country and when we move I am gonna get one for my mancave and be in plexi and JCM800 heaven! I am the same way, I like having a few amps around and sometimes I live on certain channels and then change to others depending on where my muse takes me.
That keeps you out of a rut. My buddy has a VH4 Diezel and while its badass it's not that Marshall tone.. I am currently playing an EVH 5150iii combo for my patio home, that 1 watt option is a blessing for me at the moment..
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Shooter.556 said:
I live in a patio home in a restricted community in town so I couldn't do a Quickrod right now but we're going to build a new house in the country and when we move I am gonna get one for my mancave and be in plexi and JCM800 heaven! I am the same way, I like having a few amps around and sometimes I live on certain channels and then change to others depending on where my muse takes me.
That keeps you out of a rut. My buddy has a VH4 Diezel and while its badass it's not that Marshall tone.. I am currently playing an EVH 5150iii combo for my patio home, that 1 watt option is a blessing for me at the moment..
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Yeah, I figured that the Diezel stuff if probably a bit stiff feeling to truly get that Marshall tone. Kind of like the Engl Powerball II I had. Was great for the seven-string tones of the band I was playing in at the time, but when I quit that band and stopped playing the seven-string, I was back to looking for my comfortable Marshall brown sound and I couldn't find it in that box. I've been reassured by other Engl Powerball owners that it's in there, but I disagree. I will say however that the Ritchie Blackmore sig Engl I played years ago certainly had that in there. One of the better "Back In Black" tones I've heard over the years.
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

CONGRATS!!! Never heard of the small box. Of all the amp demos Ive seen and heard, I believe a Freidman BE would be my dream amp. tho Ive not had the chance to play one.. I believe you told me once that the Chup was killer for the 80s metal hot rodded marshall tones..
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

BloodRose said:
CONGRATS!!! Never heard of the small box. Of all the amp demos Ive seen and heard, I believe a Freidman BE would be my dream amp. tho Ive not had the chance to play one.. I believe you told me once that the Chup was killer for the 80s metal hot rodded marshall tones..
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The Chup is an AWESOME amp. As I posted, I was seriously considering just keeping it and taking the Smallbox back. But once I got the volume up another notch or so I heard that Smallbox magic. It's pretty awesome! So smooth and rich.

In regards to the BE, it's pretty awesome too. I had my music store buddy's latest edition BE in the man cave earlier this year (I bought it from a Rig-Talker for him) and it was cool. But it didn't blow my doors off. Then again... maybe I wasn't pushing it enough either, like my Smallbox. At any rate... my buddy has both the Smallbox and that BE and he thinks that the Smallbox is his favorite, and his daily player. He does say that there are a few things that the BE does better, but that's pretty much related to the higher-gain tones. Which really makes no difference to either of us because we're mostly old school.

I've played through a bunch of ACDC, Def Leppard (High & Dry era), AIC, Tool, and Candlebox with the Smallbox and love it all. I would say that I might slightly prefer my Quickrod for the higher-gain stuff, but then again, I haven't tried boosting the Smallbox for that stuff yet. The buddy I've been talking about boosts his Smallbox with one of the new Bogner pedals (Harlow or one of the others) and just LOVES that tone, raving about it all the time. He prefers using the cleaner plexi channel, boosting with the pedal, and rolling his guitar volume back to taste. He's owned just about everything (even more than I have) and says that the Friedmans are the best amps he's ever played in terms of being able to roll your volume back and still retaining dynamics, feel, and richness. So far, I am agreeing with him.
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

GAS-a-holic said:
You sir, are officially killing me! Congrats!
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Ha ha... sorry about that. I'm pretty fortunate in that my buddy runs a music store and will send me home with anything I want to try out, and then give me lots 'O time to pay for it (while I continue to play it). I've been buying gear from him for 25+ years. I spent about $15K in his store during 2012. I'm on track for about $8-10K this year. The "downside" is that I often do buy the stuff he sends home with me. So I always owe him money. But I would say that I take 1/4-1/3 of it back after trying it. Just took an R0 LP Reissue back when I picked the Friedman up. Was an awesome LP with Fralin pickups, but so is my 2001 Standard (and it's got Fralins too).

It's a pretty cool relationship that enables me to try or own gear that would normally be off-limits to me (being a working family man).
 
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Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Kinda like a pusher huh.... here... try this...... heh heh heh.. It is very cool that you can do that tho! Plus, Id LOVE to see his store, cuz Ive never been to a place that carries high end gear like that!!
 
Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

BloodRose said:
Kinda like a pusher huh.... here... try this...... heh heh heh.. It is very cool that you can do that tho! Plus, Id LOVE to see his store, cuz Ive never been to a place that carries high end gear like that!!
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Oh it gets better!

So I was getting ready to gig my new Friedman head on Saturday night and my music store buddy texts and says "c'mon down to the store and grab the Friedman 2X12 cab to take to your gig. You can't pack your 4X12s around anymore with your bad back!". I think "why not". So I drop by with my wife to pick it up and then he sends me out with a red Anderson Classic strat to demo as well. It's been around the shop for a while and has been calling my name, so I took it.

Well... one of my 4X12s went back to the store today and the Friedman 2X12 and the red Anderson strat stayed in the man cave.
icon_smile_big.gif


And by the way... the Friedman rig sounded awesome at the gig. Despite a soundman that stunk-up the band's mix... I got a ton of compliments from friends and musicians in the audience. One of them said he is going to dump his Marshall TSL heads and get a Friedman. Can you say MAJOR upgrade???
smiley_smartass.gif


This little corner in my man cave is really starting to shape-up!

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Re: Friedman NAD!!! I think...

Dang...

Spent three hours in the man cave this afternoon pushing the Friedman rig a little harder than I had thus far. First, I tuned my Anderson sunburst Drop Top Classic down to Eb, because I wanted to really explore tones of a bunch of my favorite artists that tune to Eb. From Van Halen, Armored Saint, WASP, and Brittney Fox... to Kamelot, AIC, Injected, Primal Fear, Iced Earth, and Puddle of Mud.

So I started by playing some AIC for a while on the Splawn Quick Rod halfstack. It was its usual, chewey, rich inspirational tone. Enjoyed it as always. Then I plugged into the Friedman rig. I expected to be less than overwhelmed with the thump of the 2x12 after spending a while getting in-synch with the Splawn rig. The Splawn slant 4x12 is the thumpiest slant cab I've ever heard. I generally only buy straight 4x12s, because I like the increased girth and thump of straight cabs. But the Splawn cab is plenty big sounding.

Anyways... back to the Friedman rig. I flipped back and forth between the Friedman and Splawn rigs. After several songs, I powered the Splawn off. The Friedman 2x12 kept up with the Splawn just fine. Sure, the 4x12 is bigger sounding, but not by much at all. The Friedman rig really lives in the mids, including low-mids. So it has plenty of thump. The smooth, rich, organic, articulate tone of the Small Box is just on a slightly higher level. I edged-up the master volume over time and eventually was running it at about 9:00, with the gain varying between 2:00 an 3:00. Didn't matter whether I was playing early Van Halen, or Steel Dragon's "We All Die Young", the Friedman rig just nailed the tones and sounded big, but tight and thumpy. After about three hours playing pretty loud (wearing rubber ear plugs), my ears were finally fatigued enough that I elected to quit. That's about as long as I've ever been able to last playing loud in the man cave. The Friedman rig is that smooth sounding.

I've been going through gear and playing for thirty-one and a half years. I've had some seriously killer boutique holy-grail gear this past decade, but today there was NO doubt in my mind that this is the best tone I've ever had. It was so good and inspirational, that at one point I almost felt like I could just take my hands off of the guitar and it would keep playing itself! That's a testament to how effortlessly the Anderson plays, as well as how responsive the Small Box is. I was getting goosebumps at times. I'll bet this rig records killer tone! I'll have to set-up the mics here at some point and lay down some tracks and see what I can get down.

It was an amazing afternoon and as I found myself nailing the classic Van Halen brown sound playing songs like "Unchained", "Meanstreets", "Hear About It Later", "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", "Feel Your Love Tonight", and "Ain't Talkin Bout Love"... I wanted to friggin start a Van Halen tribute band just so people could hear the perfection that is this beast. I feel like I could've taken over the world if I'd have had this rig as a young player in the 80s... LOL!

LOVE this amp (and the Anderson guitars)! I'm sure I'll eventually pick up a BE100 and maybe bestow the Splawn rig on my son. I still think very highly of the Splawn rig, but there's no question about the Friedman being my desert island rig. If you haven't treated yourself to some quality time with a Friedman amp yet... I HIGHLY recommend it! :headbang:
 
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