NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Red_Label

Red_Label

New member
FedEx gal just dropped my Dirty Shirley off here at work. Will be a long afternoon, as I wait to heat up those tubes tonight. Will give my impressions after I've had a chance to do that. I've had the Mini Dirty Shirley at home before and it was awesome. I would imagine that the full-sized Shirley will be just like that, but more massive sounding. I'll be going straight to playing some "Back In Black" era ACDC, "High & Dry" era Def Leppard, The Darkness, Thin Lizzy, and Brother Cane songs when I plug in tonight. I expect this amp to kill for those tones.

Btw... I've had plenty of "holy grail" amps over the past decade, but lest anyone get the impression that I'm "loaded"... I usually have to sacrifice one holy grail amp to fund another. In this case, I traded my Friedman Smallbox head straight across to a TGP'er for his Dirty Shirley. He needed a two-channel head for a new gig that he's doing, and I'm in love with my new Fender DRRI Ltd for the cleans... so I just wanted a head that sounds amazing for those classic rock tones. We both got what we wanted no doubt.
 
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Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Lampy H said:
+1 for Brother Cane!
Click to expand...

Dood... I friggin LOVE Brother Cane. Damon Johnson specifically. The guy was just such a tasty tone monster from the get-go. I love to play through the entire Seeds album regularly. In fact... there's NO doubt that I'll be playing along with it tonight. I usually run music through my PA so I can play along on whatever tube amp I'm playing at something close to gigging volume. I've been doing it for years and the neighbors haven't complained yet. I do try to play nice and keep my subs powered-down though. :banana:
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Last night's session with the Dirty Shirley was great. On the high input with the gain dimed, it's very similar to the BE channel of the Smallbox, but with more punch and girth. I played along with most of ACDC's "Back In Black" and Def Leppard's "High & Dry" albums and this amp was nailing those tones. I also played a little Darkness and the new single from The Pretty Reckless ("Take Me Down") and was very happy with those tones as well. I pretty much tweaked the amp to where I wanted it and left it for the night. I didn't use any OD pedals because I wanted to hear the amp by itself. Only used a tad of Blue Sky reverb here and there.

I will be experimenting with different settings as time goes on, as well as trying different guitars and other cabs. I used one of my Anderson Classic strats and my V30/H30-loaded 4x12.

I'm very happy with this amp and it's exactly what I hoped it would be... a classic rock/blues and hard rock machine. Just a killer amp. Rolling back the guitar's volume left the shimmery highs and cleaned-up well, just like most Friedman amps are known for. An amazing amp for sure. VERY happy with the trade for the Smallbox so far.
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

These are some of my favorite amps made today. They are extremely dynamic, and can get loads of sounds with just the volume knob of the guitar.
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Mincer said:
These are some of my favorite amps made today. They are extremely dynamic, and can get loads of sounds with just the volume knob of the guitar.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. At higher gain settings, the Shirley sounds pretty similar to the Smallbox that I traded for it. But it seems to have more mojo happening at lower gain settings so far. I've got lots of exploring to do yet though. I've spent a fair amount of time with the Mini Shirley and I could see picking one of those up down the road for a backup, and daily practice rig.
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Open lane said:
Luckkkky man!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I do feel very fortunate to have owned and/or played several Friedman amps, as well as Tom Anderson guitars. In my pretty varied experience of owning a lot of nice gear over the years... those two brands are as good as it gets. I just haven't found anything out there that's "better" or even close for my purposes. Especially regarding the Anderson guitars. Best strats made IMO (and that includes the Suhr Classic that I had).
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

pics please.

Can anyone say what in essence Freidman does to a Plexi circuit ot make it so great/ I have a Plexi style amp ( Tranot Bassmaster) I want to egt modded, and Iv've seen a few mods , like the Jose, and stuff.I really want a hot rod Plexi.
 
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Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

MetalManiac said:
pics please.

Can anyone say what in essence Freidman does to a Plexi circuit ot make it so great/ I have a Plexi style amp ( Tranot Bassmaster) I want to egt modded, and Iv've seen a few mods , like the Jose, and stuff.I really want a hot rod Plexi.
Click to expand...

Done!

I'm no amp tech, so I really have no idea what magic Dave does to his circuits. But having owned most modded-Marshall style circuits I can say that his is definitely one of the most pleasing to the ear.

P.S. I owned three Traynors, but they were all the newer ones (a Custom 50 Blue combo and two YCS100H heads). In the end, I wasn't really all that fond of those amps after a while. But I've always heard great things about the older ones like you have and was very close to buying a few times on ebay.

20160928_200336_resized_zpsnmw8dbzq.jpg
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Today, my work moved a mile from the second best Guitar Center... Sherman Oaks, Ca. Their premium room is fully stocked with Friedman amps. Yeeah!

So, of course, I'll be over there all the time blasting away. Today, I finally got to spend an hour with a Dirty Shirley, alpine white SG, PRS Mira, and rosewood neck tele.

I was amazed that a 40W 6L6 amp could nail all my favorite Marshall EL-34 tones at the most ideal volume level. Even though it's a single channel amp, I was pleasantly surprised to find that both inputs were equal in sound quality and useability....... on Marshalls, it's too much gainy treble or too much dull bassy tone.

It's got such a nice bouncy feel under the fingers, and it sounds like a cranked 100 watter at normal band volume. Plus it has an FX loop, which most amps like these lack.

I'm so attached to my Bogner that nothing can replace it, but I could see myself selling any other amps to get one.

I think the Friedman DS halfstack next to a Deluxe Reverb could be the most ideal rig.
You did great acquiring those two!
 
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Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Red_Label said:
Done!

I'm no amp tech, so I really have no idea what magic Dave does to his circuits. But having owned most modded-Marshall style circuits I can say that his is definitely one of the most pleasing to the ear.

P.S. I owned three Traynors, but they were all the newer ones (a Custom 50 Blue combo and two YCS100H heads). In the end, I wasn't really all that fond of those amps after a while. But I've always heard great things about the older ones like you have and was very close to buying a few times on ebay.

20160928_200336_resized_zpsnmw8dbzq.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that quite a bit of the tone that you get out of any given amp, including Friedmans, has alot to do with component selection. For instance the transformers. I got curious about what kind of iron he uses and found this thread over on Rig Talk: http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=158295

It's an interesting read if you're an amp nerd like I am, and it's worth a chuckle if you want to see Dave's response to being accused of using Chinese transformers. Lol. I also wouldn't be surprised if you found some premium capacitors & resistors in there either.

And congrats! I've been jonesing to try out one of the Jerry Cantrell heads, myself.
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

The first Friedman amp I've ever come across was at Chicago Music Exchange this summer. I didn't even know what it was - just plugged into it as a random amp in the amp room. Man did it sound great. And man was it expensive! But I was seriously digging the tone. It honestly sounded good no matter what I did with it.
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Gearjoneser said:
Today, my work moved a mile from the second best Guitar Center... Sherman Oaks, Ca. Their premium room is fully stocked with Friedman amps. Yeeah!

So, of course, I'll be over there all the time blasting away. Today, I finally got to spend an hour with a Dirty Shirley, alpine white SG, PRS Mira, and rosewood neck tele.

I was amazed that a 40W 6L6 amp could nail all my favorite Marshall EL-34 tones at the most ideal volume level. Even though it's a single channel amp, I was pleasantly surprised to find that both inputs were equal in sound quality and useability....... on Marshalls, it's too much gainy treble or too much dull bassy tone.

It's got such a nice bouncy feel under the fingers, and it sounds like a cranked 100 watter at normal band volume. Plus it has an FX loop, which most amps like these lack.

I'm so attached to my Bogner that nothing can replace it, but I could see myself selling any other amps to get one.

I think the Friedman DS halfstack next to a Deluxe Reverb could be the most ideal rig.
You did great acquiring those two!
Click to expand...


Dood... I completely agree with all of your post, and yeah, my Dirty Shirley + Deluxe Reverb rig is just a friggin tone MONSTER for any kind of tone (except maybe scooped-out metal ala Rammstein). I'm pretty stoked. I may have landed a new rock gig and if I do end-up playing with them, most of the time I'll just use my Shirley for everything. I can use the clean input with low gain, and kick on the BE-OD for crunch and leads. Or, I can just use the high gain input and roll off my volume. The amp just sounds great no matter what. In fact, I prefer the Shirley's hairy clean tone to the Smallbox' clean channel any day of the week. I'm pretty satisfied with the trade. I would have been nice to get the newer version with the three-way gain toggle, but I can send it in and have Dave mod it easily enough down the road.
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Gone_Shootin said:
I'm going to guess that quite a bit of the tone that you get out of any given amp, including Friedmans, has alot to do with component selection. For instance the transformers. I got curious about what kind of iron he uses and found this thread over on Rig Talk: http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=158295

It's an interesting read if you're an amp nerd like I am, and it's worth a chuckle if you want to see Dave's response to being accused of using Chinese transformers. Lol. I also wouldn't be surprised if you found some premium capacitors & resistors in there either.

And congrats! I've been jonesing to try out one of the Jerry Cantrell heads, myself.
Click to expand...

Agreed on all counts man. I'd love to try a JJ, SS, and the Phil X heads, but it's doubtful that my buddy's shop will order those, unless a customer specifically requests one to buy. My buddy is very good at knowing his market and not wanting to buy things that just sit around forever. He's got a BE100 that he had me buy from a forum member at Rig-Talk, but he's never even ordered a new one for the store because he knows that level of amps will sit around too long here in the sticks of MT. But he's been selling the hell out of the Mini Dirty Shirleys, a few Tacos and Smallboxes, and now is stocking the Runts. He's also sold out of two big orders of the BE-OD pedals.
 
Re: NAD! Friedman Dirty Shirley...

Hows the new friedman pedal add up the your amp? played the pedal it was nice I guess there coming out with DS pedal soon:)
 
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