Best High Gain Amp to Complement the Friedman BE100 Deluxe?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jbru91
  • Start date Start date
J

jbru91

Active member
Hi all,

Have the BE100 Deluxe which I love - covers a lot of ground and no plans on moving it. What are some high gain alternatives that would complement it? i.e. different voicing, more gain, less "saturated" etc. Curious to see what options there are to justify adding another high gainer that isn't too alike the Friedman, or if anyone has a current setup where they have the Friedman and something else, please share. Can be single channel or multi-channel.

Budget is wide open.

Cheers,
Jesse
 
braintheory said:
If you want a different flavor the first thing that comes to mind mind would be one of the Boogie amps. The Recto’s or Mark’s will both be a nice contrast to the Friedman. I like my Badlander a lot for a modern amp
Click to expand...

I was able to try the Badlander recently and I was impressed. Much easier to dial in than my Mark V 35. Aside from the vintage boogies, i'd love to try a JPC-2 as well.
 
You could always go the preamp route...and use your BE100 as a PA for it.....switch between them.
 
I’d go recto myself as well. You want something with more swim but less saturated, the recto is the way. Rectos are surprisingly less saturated than people would have you believe. They can be more saturated sounding, but they are arguably some of the most dynamic sounding amps in the high gain realm. If you want less saturated, none of the modern or OG versions of the 5150 is what you want at all.
 
Purpleibby said:
You could always go the preamp route...and use your BE100 as a PA for it.....switch between them.
Click to expand...

Interesting, have to admit, my familiarity with preamps is minimal. Curious to learn more now...
 
VESmedic said:
I’d go recto myself as well. You want something with more swim but less saturated, the recto is the way. Rectos are surprisingly less saturated than people would have you believe. They can be more saturated sounding, but they are arguably some of the most dynamic sounding amps in the high gain realm. If you want less saturated, none of the modern or OG versions of the 5150 is what you want at all.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I really did like the Badlander when I was able to try it. I could get a pretty good sound at any volume fairly quickly. I haven't had the opportunity to play a Rev F or Rev G Rectifier. I know there's a whole hierarchy of Rectifiers for the purists out there.

Fryette? Wizard? Any others to consider?
 
jbru91 said:
I was able to try the Badlander recently and I was impressed. Much easier to dial in than my Mark V 35. Aside from the vintage boogies, i'd love to try a JPC-2 as well.
Click to expand...
The JPC is nice too as far as modern amps go, but I’d recommend a mark iii or IV instead of you can
 
Cant say as I've never tried the BE but I've played many hours in a 2 guitars setting with many different amps and imo a +1 for the 5150/6505 it seemed to work well with any other amp we had.

I think what works best with any amp is another amp with a different eq range. Hard to explain but if you have an amp with a very present low mid sound then you want an amp with a high mid sound.

I would be more concerned with frequencies if that makes sense.
 
jbru91 said:
Interesting. I really did like the Badlander when I was able to try it. I could get a pretty good sound at any volume fairly quickly. I haven't had the opportunity to play a Rev F or Rev G Rectifier. I know there's a whole hierarchy of Rectifiers for the purists out there.

Fryette? Wizard? Any others to consider?
Click to expand...
Wizards and Fryettes’s are also very good amps. I’ve got a Wizard MTL myself. They will also have some good contrast to the Friedman, but nowhere near as much as the Boogies would. Worth trying all 3 of those if you can
 
I’ll throw in a recommendation for a Recto. I’ve had a Rev G Dual Rectifier for a few years now, and I just picked up a BE-50 Deluxe yesterday. They each cover pretty different sonic territory. From a tonal “coverage” standpoint, I think that they give you a really wide base to work from.

I haven’t had the BE long enough to run it in stereo with the Recto or layer it into a recording, but that would probably work well.

I’m also really jonesing to try a Badlander, but I haven’t had a chance yet. Based on clips, that could be a solid option. The clips sound a lot like my Peters Fire Hammer, which also covers different sonic territory than the BE or Recto (it fits somewhere in between but with more aggression than both).
 
jbru91 said:
Interesting, have to admit, my familiarity with preamps is minimal. Curious to learn more now...
Click to expand...
The thing is if you use your Friedman as the Poweramp for them you still may feel it sounds pretty Friedman-y due to its Poweramp being used. Other than my Demeter pre that sounds killer, most other pre’s I’ve had sounded and felt very compressed, not dynamic, almost like a modeling amp to me. Some guys really like pre’s and the whole rack thing, but I wasn’t impressed with most pre-amps
 
The Roadshow said:
I’ll throw in a recommendation for a Recto. I’ve had a Rev G Dual Rectifier for a few years now, and I just picked up a BE-50 Deluxe yesterday. They each cover pretty different sonic territory. From a tonal “coverage” standpoint, I think that they give you a really wide base to work from.

I haven’t had the BE long enough to run it in stereo with the Recto or layer it into a recording, but that would probably work well.

I’m also really jonesing to try a Badlander, but I haven’t had a chance yet. Based on clips, that could be a solid option. The clips sound a lot like my Peters Fire Hammer, which also covers different sonic territory than the BE or Recto (it fits somewhere in between but with more aggression than both).
Click to expand...
I’ve not tried a Fire Hammer, but had a Peters Body Hammer, FSM, Chimera, Vega and tried the Gryphon, GNL and a few others and to me the Bad Lander is a completely different sound and feel from his amps
 
I ran a JVM and vh4 in stereo...it fuckin killed....Also ran a JCM800zw with a t-verb...it really fuckin killed. Never played a Friedman but I "assume" they are Marshallesque, so I would run a different flavor of something.
 
braintheory said:
I’ve not tried a Fire Hammer, but had a Peters Body Hammer, FSM, Chimera, Vega and tried the Gryphon, GNL and a few others and to me the Bad Lander is a completely different sound and feel from his amps
Click to expand...
You’ve given me enough of a reason to buy a Badlander sight unseen! If I can sneak it past my wife then I’ll provide a review, OP.
 
I have a BE 100 Deluxe and also have an Engl Blackmore that I like very much and which is not as dry and tight as other Engl amps but still much stiffer and less saturated than the BE Deluxe.
 
FormerlyKnownAsMaddnotez said:
Cant say as I've never tried the BE but I've played many hours in a 2 guitars setting with many different amps and imo a +1 for the 5150/6505 it seemed to work well with any other amp we had.

I think what works best with any amp is another amp with a different eq range. Hard to explain but if you have an amp with a very present low mid sound then you want an amp with a high mid sound.

I would be more concerned with frequencies if that makes sense.
Click to expand...
I have to admit, I didn't really give much thought to where certain amps fit with the mids. Just given the limited high gain amps (especially in the boutique world) i've been able to try, it is hard to peg where the Friedman sits relative to others. I know there are hundreds of comments on the forum about the Wizard amps and where they sit in the mids (MCII - upper mid, MTL - lower mid) but I really don't have a frame of reference where the Friedman is relative to other amps per se to determine what other options provide a different tonality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top