Huge Props for the Friedman BE OD Deluxe Pedal

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PDC

PDC

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Title says it all, I guess. For fun, I cycled through several ‘amp in a box’ pedals during COVID. Never buying new and always letting the ones go that didn’t really grab me. I find myself coming back to the Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe and the JHS @. I recently took the plunge on a used BE OD Deluxe and I’m extremely impressed. I did splurge on an 18 volt adapter to hear it as Dave intended. I really dig the internal gain trim pots (there are two of them). As delivered, the internal gain trims were around 8 or 9. I ended up rolling them back to right at 5 / 5.5 each. That gives me just enough gain to get comfortable playing leads on the ‘lower’ gain blue channel. Then when I step on the higher gain green channel, it just adds that little extra bit of Friedman ‘squish’ that makes legato lines almost play themselves. With a dedicated full tonestack for each drive channel, you can make them sound as similar or as different as you choose. Also, with that much tweakability on each channel, I cannot imagine a power / speaker combo that you could not dial in a solid, workable tone with this pedal. My Wampler Pinnacle and JHS @ may be looking for new homes...

FWIW - I am not using my amp in a box pedals on my main board. I just play around with them in front of my small practice amp that hides behind the sofa in the living room for scales and chops duty. I did plug the new BE OD Deluxe in front of the clean channel on my QR and it did not disappoint. And QRs are not renowned for their clean channels - its perfectly ‘workable’ with a touch of chorus and verb, but nowhere near as warm and ‘3-D’ a clean as other offerings. I‘d love to hear this BE OD Deluxe in front of a Fender Twin.
 
I’ve got one of these on the way. Hope it’s as good as everyone says.
 
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I've had one for a while and still love it. The blue channel is my favorite. I set both internal trimmers pretty low tho, like 9:00 or so if I remember right.
 
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If it wasn't for the Friedman amps on the FM3, I would have kept it, but amazing how that pedal can hook up to nearly any clean channel and produce that intense Friedman sound. Possibly one of the best drive/distortion pedals out there with a real amp flavor.
 
PDC said:
Title says it all, I guess. For fun, I cycled through several ‘amp in a box’ pedals during COVID. Never buying new and always letting the ones go that didn’t really grab me. I find myself coming back to the Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe and the JHS @. I recently took the plunge on a used BE OD Deluxe and I’m extremely impressed. I did splurge on an 18 volt adapter to hear it as Dave intended. I really dig the internal gain trim pots (there are two of them). As delivered, the internal gain trims were around 8 or 9. I ended up rolling them back to right at 5 / 5.5 each. That gives me just enough gain to get comfortable playing leads on the ‘lower’ gain blue channel. Then when I step on the higher gain green channel, it just adds that little extra bit of Friedman ‘squish’ that makes legato lines almost play themselves. With a dedicated full tonestack for each drive channel, you can make them sound as similar or as different as you choose. Also, with that much tweakability on each channel, I cannot imagine a power / speaker combo that you could not dial in a solid, workable tone with this pedal. My Wampler Pinnacle and JHS @ may be looking for new homes...

FWIW - I am not using my amp in a box pedals on my main board. I just play around with them in front of my small practice amp that hides behind the sofa in the living room for scales and chops duty. I did plug the new BE OD Deluxe in front of the clean channel on my QR and it did not disappoint. And QRs are not renowned for their clean channels - its perfectly ‘workable’ with a touch of chorus and verb, but nowhere near as warm and ‘3-D’ a clean as other offerings. I‘d love to hear this BE OD Deluxe in front of a Fender Twin.
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Can you expound on the differences between the BE-OD Deluxe and a Pinnacle Deluxe? I have the Friedman but have always wondered about the Pinnacle
 
Findthetone1 said:
Can you expound on the differences between the BE-OD Deluxe and a Pinnacle Deluxe? I have the Friedman but have always wondered about the Pinnacle
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Yes - to my ear the Pinnacle is less compressed and has less overall gain than the BE. I hear the Pinnacle as reminiscent of Ed’s Fair Warning through 1984 tones, which were less overdriven and more organic than the 1st VH album. There is a lot of sparkle and string separation in the Pinnacle. I flat love the Pinnacle and I’m sure mine will still get plenty of use after my honeymoon with the BE.
 
PDC said:
Yes - to my ear the Pinnacle is less compressed and has less overall gain than the BE. I hear the Pinnacle as reminiscent of Ed’s Fair Warning through 1984 tones, which were less overdriven and more organic than the 1st VH album. There is a lot of sparkle and string separation in the Pinnacle. I flat love the Pinnacle and I’m sure mine will still get plenty of use after my honeymoon with the BE.
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Thanks! Sounds like I may need to score one of those as well.
 
Just got one. Sounds as it should. Need to get inside and turn down the internal gain pots as others here have said.
One thing is it came with a cable that has "3 'female" ends.
So I take it one goes into a double ended mail plug into the pedal and the other two get split into 2 9 V inputs?

Once again his lack of manual has me feeling stupid. PLUS, the cable provided has one different sized plastic barrel so is that what goes to a male plug and into the pedal?
 
John4021 said:
Just got one. Sounds as it should. Need to get inside and turn down the internal gain pots as others here have said.
One thing is it came with a cable that has "3 'female" ends.
So I take it one goes into a double ended mail plug into the pedal and the other two get split into 2 9 V inputs?

Once again his lack of manual has me feeling stupid. PLUS, the cable provided has one different sized plastic barrel so is that what goes to a male plug and into the pedal?
Click to expand...
Yes... you can run it 9v... or 18v... if doing 18v, then two ends into the pedal power supply and one end into the pedal.
 
John4021 said:
Just got one. Sounds as it should. Need to get inside and turn down the internal gain pots as others here have said.
One thing is it came with a cable that has "3 'female" ends.
So I take it one goes into a double ended mail plug into the pedal and the other two get split into 2 9 V inputs?

Once again his lack of manual has me feeling stupid. PLUS, the cable provided has one different sized plastic barrel so is that what goes to a male plug and into the pedal?
Click to expand...
FYI... the two ends have to go into two different 'channels' (or whatever it's called) in the power supply... parallel vs. serial? Not sure if that makes sense, but how they work, pick two HORIZONTAL outlets vs. vertical outlets (typically).
 
It's an incredible pedal.......I prefer it to the high gain channels of a couple of my amps......just explodes through a clean channel...:)
 
Thanks CoolGG
I understand what you meant to get two different groups of inputs on the power supply to achieve 18v


Just put it in my rack pedal drawer so I access all my amps through my RJM switching system.
The BE OD Deluxe loves the clean channel on my Bogner 20th Anniversary Shiva .
It really shines going into this amp. Others not so much but since the 20th Shiva doesn't have any gain per say so the pedal just gels prefecto.:thumbsup:

Surprised how much control the EQ has .


I was going to say the hell with it and send it back until I tried it with the Bogner.
 
It is a fantastic pedal for sure and good to have around.
 
John4021 said:
Thanks CoolGG
I understand what you meant to get two different groups of inputs on the power supply to achieve 18v


Just put it in my rack pedal drawer so I access all my amps through my RJM switching system.
The BE OD Deluxe loves the clean channel on my Bogner 20th Anniversary Shiva .
It really shines going into this amp. Others not so much but since the 20th Shiva doesn't have any gain per say so the pedal just gels prefecto.:thumbsup:

Surprised how much control the EQ has .


I was going to say the hell with it and send it back until I tried it with the Bogner.
Click to expand...
Yes, definitely works with super clean
 
necro-bump:
I got one since this weekend and I haven't played so much guitar as the last couple of days because of the pedal.

So far I've tried it in the clean channels of my Engl Savage 60, EVH 5150III 50W, Roland JC120H and the Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet.
For me, it sounds the best in the Engl, with the EQ set fairly mid-scooped...but since it's still quite a middy amp, I'd recon it would shine in certain Marshall clean(ish) channels too.

It really is extremely amp-like and the blue channel with lower gain settings does great classic rock too, with a little more brightness added.
Does anyone know of the blue channel is the same as the Dirty Shirley pedal?
 
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