romanianreaper
Well-known member
Ok, not pantless. Got the Friedman JJ Jr. on Sunday and have been able to play around a bit with it and decided I'd do a little review. I'm sure anyone interested in this amp has watched vids at nauseum so you have an idea of what the features are, various switches, etc.
Disclaimer: I did not use a guitar cab and this is soley based on XLR direct out
I haven't owned a tube amp (before my recent Keeley combo purchase) probably since 2010, so been awhile. I actually had a Friedman modded Marshall Plexi but was loud as hell and wasn't gigging anymore anyway, so sold it. This is before any of the Friedman production amps came out and was just working on the "Marsha".
So I'll start with the XLR direct out. Awesome feature and sounds killer! I'm sure when I finally get this connected to an actual cab I'll be even more impressed with the amp but definitely very usable. I originally was going to do some clips but didn't get around to it so maybe down the road. You can hear some online with the direct feature. The two settings sound really good and easy to get a nice tone for recordings. Like I said, can't compare yet with real cab tone.
Clean channel: The clean channel is one of those "it is what it is" kind of deals. There is only the one knob so you can't adjust EQ, etc. With that said, awesome to even have a clean channel included so I'm not complaining. I know for this channel especially, will probably be way better with a real cab. It is not this really beautiful clean but still sounds good. There are three settings. The right and left ones sound brighter and the middle setting was more subdued, which brings me to my next thing.
Clean channel with pedals: I plugged my Keeley pedalboard into the amp. The right and left settings sounded a tad harsh with my overdrive pedals but the middle setting was perfect!! My pedals sounded great thru the amp so definitely an option there to use your pedals with the clean channel for a different vibe.
BE/JJ channel: I have played a BE 100 in a store and was really impressed. The BE channel on this amp has that same killer crunch and sounds awesome. Of course you don't have the other switchable options so think bare bones BE. If you need a tad more of anything though, a great boost easily gets it into HBE land.
The JJ option just sounds so killer. It is hard to even describe what you hear when it switches over but there is more of that layered, saturated tone (think "We Die Young" riff from AIC) and then has kind of this dry "chunk" to the tone. Like I said, hard to describe but is awesome. That dry sound with the saturation is a tone where you can hear all of the notes separately and never gets muddy. Just has that great modded amp sound.
As others have mentioned, you are never going to get boomy low end with this amp. You could get a very bass dominant amp and would probably be perfect with this amp. I used to have a Genz Benz with alot of low end and imagine it would compliment the JJ Jr. nicely.
Anyway, great amp and can't wait to get a cab with it!
Disclaimer: I did not use a guitar cab and this is soley based on XLR direct out
I haven't owned a tube amp (before my recent Keeley combo purchase) probably since 2010, so been awhile. I actually had a Friedman modded Marshall Plexi but was loud as hell and wasn't gigging anymore anyway, so sold it. This is before any of the Friedman production amps came out and was just working on the "Marsha".
So I'll start with the XLR direct out. Awesome feature and sounds killer! I'm sure when I finally get this connected to an actual cab I'll be even more impressed with the amp but definitely very usable. I originally was going to do some clips but didn't get around to it so maybe down the road. You can hear some online with the direct feature. The two settings sound really good and easy to get a nice tone for recordings. Like I said, can't compare yet with real cab tone.
Clean channel: The clean channel is one of those "it is what it is" kind of deals. There is only the one knob so you can't adjust EQ, etc. With that said, awesome to even have a clean channel included so I'm not complaining. I know for this channel especially, will probably be way better with a real cab. It is not this really beautiful clean but still sounds good. There are three settings. The right and left ones sound brighter and the middle setting was more subdued, which brings me to my next thing.
Clean channel with pedals: I plugged my Keeley pedalboard into the amp. The right and left settings sounded a tad harsh with my overdrive pedals but the middle setting was perfect!! My pedals sounded great thru the amp so definitely an option there to use your pedals with the clean channel for a different vibe.
BE/JJ channel: I have played a BE 100 in a store and was really impressed. The BE channel on this amp has that same killer crunch and sounds awesome. Of course you don't have the other switchable options so think bare bones BE. If you need a tad more of anything though, a great boost easily gets it into HBE land.
The JJ option just sounds so killer. It is hard to even describe what you hear when it switches over but there is more of that layered, saturated tone (think "We Die Young" riff from AIC) and then has kind of this dry "chunk" to the tone. Like I said, hard to describe but is awesome. That dry sound with the saturation is a tone where you can hear all of the notes separately and never gets muddy. Just has that great modded amp sound.
As others have mentioned, you are never going to get boomy low end with this amp. You could get a very bass dominant amp and would probably be perfect with this amp. I used to have a Genz Benz with alot of low end and imagine it would compliment the JJ Jr. nicely.
Anyway, great amp and can't wait to get a cab with it!
