Should I buy a BE100 Deluxe?

J

Jon BCN

Active member
A Friedman BE100 Deluxe is available in my area. I have heard mixed reviews about it, some say it's amazing but others claim it doesn't sound as good as previous BE's and it's more fuzzy/harsh sounding, which it's something that seems you can hear in the youtube videos of the amp.

I don't know what to do.
 
There's also a new Smallbox, which I guess it's closer to the “traditional” BE tone with some vintage tweak, but I'm not sure if it's tight and aggressive enough for what I like.
 
If I had the dough and it was nearby and reasonably priced, it would be really hard for me not to snap it up. If it doesn’t totally blow your skirt up, you can probably move it for a close enough price that any difference would be well worth it to have had it available for however long you keep it to really put it through its paces.
 
Id take his Jake E Lee signature amp over a BE Deluxe simply because it’s less refined and even more rowdy than the BE Deluxe. Just my personal preferences though.

 
I mean, based on what you’ve said so far? Absolutely not. But also remember, Friedman’s are also often owned by bedroom players and people afraid of high end, I’d take the “harsh and fizzy sounding” comment with a huge grain of salt… to me, that probably means “ it actually has high end and isn’t neutered”… let the flaming begin.
 
I dunno man. Mine is pretty killer. Harsh is not something that comes to mind when I think of mine. You can get a lot more high end than the previous versions if you want it...not sure where harsh coming from though, unless you just aren't any good at dialing in? It is very expensive for an amp, and I'm not going to say awww it's the best ever everything else sucks. I'll say just say it's a great amp with a ton of flexibility for whatever genre of rock you're into.
 
Bxlxaxkxe said:
I dunno man. Mine is pretty killer. Harsh is not something that comes to mind when I think of mine. You can get a lot more high end than the previous versions if you want it...not sure where harsh coming from though, unless you just aren't any good at dialing in? It is very expensive for an amp, and I'm not going to say awww it's the best ever everything else sucks. I'll say just say it's a great amp with a ton of flexibility for whatever genre of rock you're into.
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I had a BE100 2016 and based on the clips of the BE100 Deluxe I've heard, the gain structure seems to be different with more of that fuzzy like distortion (the plexi channel doesn't seem to suffer from that, though).

And it seems some other BE users had the same impresion, so I'm not sure if I would like the amp as much as other previous itinerations.
 
PDC said:
If I had the dough and it was nearby and reasonably priced, it would be really hard for me not to snap it up. If it doesn’t totally blow your skirt up, you can probably move it for a close enough price that any difference would be well worth it to have had it available for however long you keep it to really put it through its paces.
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It's from a dealer, so it's the full price. 3800€ to be precise. I would lose money instantly if I decide to sell it later.

I guess I could use the return policy and return if it doesn't blow me away in those few first weeks.
 
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glpg80 said:
Id take his Jake E Lee signature amp over a BE Deluxe simply because it’s less refined and even more rowdy than the BE Deluxe. Just my personal preferences though.

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Based on the clips I’ve heard of it, it seems like it’s an amp that would still be smooth and not raw/recorded sounding compared to something like an old Marshall or Wizard, but brighter/higher mids and maybe more attack than BE’s. Would be interesting to hear it in person. Too bad they didn’t make many
 
braintheory said:
Based on the clips I’ve heard of it, it seems like it’s an amp that would still be smooth and not raw/recorded sounding compared to something like an old Marshall or Wizard, but brighter/higher mids and maybe more attack than BE’s. Would be interesting to hear it in person. Too bad they didn’t make many
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Based on some Marshall clips I compared it to, which can be taken with a grain of salt, it seems highly mid scooped sounding for some reason?
 
glpg80 said:
Based on some Marshall clips I compared it to, which can be taken with a grain of salt, it seems highly mid scooped sounding for some reason?
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I don’t remember getting that impression, but I definitely heard that more filtered sound and rolled off top end that his amps tend to have (lacking bite or sizzle), but with the brightness coming from the upper mids

This is one of the clips I’ve seen:

The recent demos of his other amps sounded better to me
 
Jon BCN said:
It's from a dealer, so it's the full price. 3800€ to be precise. I would lose money instantly if I decide to sell it later.

I guess I could use the return policy and return if it doesn't blow me away in those few first weeks.
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For that amount, are they able to set you up in a room with a 4x12 and your own guitar for 30-45 min to run this baby through its paces? FWIW, I am really impressed with the clips of the BE100 Deluxe that I have heard online. A friend of mine bought one (I haven’t heard it in person yet) and he is floored. He absolutely loves it.
 
The only clips I really liked of the BE100 Deluxe are the Rabea and the Peach Guitars demos.

But Rabea uses IR’s and I don't like how IR’s can literally make everything sound amazing, I prefer a more real scenario.

I usually like Michael Nielsen demos, but in his demo of the BE100 Deluxe I heard that “shrilliness” too when he was playing the BE/HBE channels.



The Plexi channel sounds great and seems amazing for classic rock tones, but is nowhere near the level of gain I usually want to play with.
 
Jon BCN said:
The only clips I really liked of the BE100 Deluxe are the Rabea and the Peach Guitars demos.

But Rabea uses IR’s and I don't like how IR’s can literally make everything sound amazing, I prefer a more real scenario.

I usually like Michael Nielsen demos, but in his demo of the BE100 Deluxe I heard that “shrilliness” too when he was playing the BE/HBE channels.



The Plexi channel sounds great and seems amazing for classic rock tones, but is nowhere near the level of gain I usually want to play with.
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IR clips cannot be trusted. I almost hit that Hi Gain Hiwatt a few months back based on an IR clip. But after hearing some in the room clips of it, I passed…
 
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