Friedman: A Guide to the Amps and Pedals
Do you know Dave Friedman? Dave Friedman knows tone. As one of the pre-eminent amp modders of the 90s, he’s responsible for many of the top hard rock tones we’ve all loved over the years.
For years now, Friedman has been releasing his own range of tube amps. More recently, the brand has branched out to include pedals and even high-end guitars, making Friedman a one-stop shop for hard rock gear. There’s a love for 80s hard rock within the brand that actually predates the company’s operating history, but tonally, they are right on the money!
My aim today is to show you some key pieces from across the spectrum of Friedman products, so that you gain a real understanding of what they do.
Spandex and headband not required, but definitely recommended…
Contents
Friedman’s Backstory
I’ll briefly sketch out David Friedman’s backstory here. His story with guitar amps starts in the late 80s. Moving to Los Angeles from Detroit, he worked in a musical instrument rental place. A customer brought in a Soldano SLO 100 head that had been modded by Bruce Egnater. Impressed, Friedman reached out to Egnater, who eventually became his mentor.
He modded his own amplifiers and soon won the admiration of players like Eddie Van Halen and Steve Stevens. Custom amp builds commenced and their popularity led to Friedman starting his own company in 2008.
From there, it was all about Brown Eyes, Pink Tacos, Jerry Cantrell and authentic tube tone.
So that’s where he came from. Now: the gear!
Friedman Amplifiers
Friedman’s amplifiers are hand built in California, to Dave’s own designs. There’s obviously a stylistic inspiration to be had from a certain British amp builder, but Friedman always take things in their own direction. Dave himself said the following on the subject of amp design:
"Guitar players generally don’t want to hear completely new sounds. They want to hear tones based on a set of sounds from the past but with some variation, like more gain or some other added features."
Here’s a couple of their main players…
Friedman BE50 Deluxe
Otherwise referred to as the ‘Brown Eye’, the Friedman BE50 Deluxe is a 50 watt, all-tube head that brings 3 channels and a ton of control knobs to the party. Whether it's low gain tasteful or high gain meltdown you’re after, I’m struggling to think of an amp that can give you those things better than this.
The original Brown Eye amp was the 100 watt BE100. This was based on a cranked, modded Marshall head used with a Variac. A Variac is a Van Halen thing, and some tone fiends online can really hyperventilate over this subject. Read more in my How to Sound like Van Halen blog, but let me just say that, in playing terms, the variable voltage provided by the Variac allowed more gain and compression. This is recreated in the BE amps, and this model keeps things friendly with its 50 watt power rating.
There are two drive channels, but there’s also the clean channel from Friedman’s ‘Buxom Betty’ amp, which will surprise any guitarist who comes to this amp with prior expectations, let me say that!
This is more than an amp. It’s an instrument, and it’s a masterpiece.
Friedman JEL-20 Jake E Lee
Is Jake E Lee Ozzy’s most underrated sideman? Dave Friedman must think so, since he has honoured the LA guitarist with his own signature amp! The Friedman JEL-20’s great, too: full of all of that harmonic crunch and detail that we expect from the brand, with added features that Jake needs.
It’s a two channel amp with two master volumes, so you can take advantage of headroom on one channel, and push the other harder for maximum gain. Here’s what Jake has to say about it…
“this amp puts the two specific tones I use to create my sound in one head: The sweetness and warmth of a classic Plexi and the more aggressive slant of the master volume amps of the ‘80s -- all tweaked to my taste. Dave has an innate understanding of where I’m coming from as a player and we’re alike in the way we hear tones. Dave doesn’t hear things as a technician, he hears things like a musician, and that made him really easy to work with.
I grew up in the ‘70s and those muscular, articulate rock tones were the tones I always sought, but I made a name for myself in the ‘80s when you needed a little more aggression and a little more scream. I’ve always tried to retain a little of that ‘70s heart and I still do, and that’s what this amp does -- though it’s got plenty more on tap if you need it!”
Friedman Effects Pedals
Friedman has focussed mainly on drive pedals so far, which seems like a good idea considering! Some pedals are regular stompboxes - which mostly seek to recreate the sound of key amps in a pedal format, like the Friedman BE OD Brown Eye Overdrive pedal.
Other pedals fall into the ‘amp in a box’ blueprint, for guitarists who prefer not to use a traditional amp. These form the nucleus of a player’s tone just as an amp does, but uses impulse response technology to let players ‘go direct’ to a PA system and still sound great.
Friedman IR-X Dual Tube Preamp
The Friedman IR-X is a great example of this type of pedal. It’s effectively a proper tube preamp, operating in the same manner as a regular tube amp. Instead of a power section that leads to a speaker (as you’d find in a standard amplifier), the IR-X utilises built-in impulse responses to mimic the reactions and behaviour of a ‘real’ speaker.
This is a full Friedman amp stuffed into a pedal, with 2 channels that each have their own boost switches.
Friedman IR-D
If the IR-X was based on the Brown Eye sound, then the Friedman IR-D is a pedalboard version of the Dirty Shirley amp. Again, it's two channels with a boost on each, but a different tonal profile and response. This box is a real tone machine, offering up a myriad of tones and textures that can cover a ton of bases. That said, I’d say that this is more retro sounding than the high-gain, modded sounds of the IR-X. Why not try both?
Friedman Guitars
With their guitars, Friedman have brought the 80s full circle. This collection of artfully bashed-up bolt-ons has been co-designed and built by none other than Grover Jackson (yes that one). This means that one of the most game-changing and iconic guitar builders of the gunslinger era is in charge of these instruments! It’s quite the coup, and Jackon’s guitar designs for Freidman are a very cool blend of modded classic S & T types. Anyone looking for more background on Grover can click through to my article Jackson Guitars: A Brief History, but let’s get back to these guitars. You want a few current examples?
Friedman Cali
The Friedman Cali is your iconic superstrat style. I’ve picked out this one in Graffiti Yellow since it’s awesome looking, but there are a host of finishes available, some limited and some evergreen.
So, it’s an H-H affair here, utilising Friedman’s own pickups. We have a Friedman Classic in the neck and a Classic + in the bridge, both of which have tasty alnico 5 units. High in output but still clear and articulate, these are just the job for freaking out with a whammy bar.
Which is perfect because this Friedman Cali has a Floyd Rose tremolo, as you’d probably expect!
Friedman Vintage T
This is another type of guitar that Friedman love to put out. Based on a mid 70s T-style, it’s hardly a ‘gunslinging’ axe, but Friedman are about more than that anyway. These Vintage T models are so full of vibe and tone: they are inspiration machines with custom made P90 pickups and superb necks. For an antidote to the full-on shred of the Cali model, this guitar is a total blast.
