BE Deluxe 100w mod with Dave Video

[cragginshred]

Drove the LA and got to meet with Dave Friedman in person to mod my BE dlx to my taste. Funny how I'm getting a few comments on my YT page asking why I would do this? I'm certain I've never heard one comment here about the factory BE voicing being raw or open to cut in a mix. In any case this vid allows you to hear the 3 voicings I now have on tap -Be, Raw and more mids and more Raw and crazy mids. I prefer the 2nd voicing. Enjoy!

 

[GuitarAddicted]

Congrats, I love my BE 100 Deluxe.
The best amp (for me) that I have played in the last 20 years.
I just bought a new one, because my first BE 100DLX got destroyed in a flooding two years ago.

 

[cragginshred]

I will add, sitting with Dave was an insanely cool experience. As others had said his shop is in a bad part of No Ho (N. Hollywood). I walk in and there are box's everywhere from guys who shipped their heads in for mods or work to be done. There were 2 other techs in his shop also working on heads. The guy to my right was working on 2 JJ 100w heads owned by one of the smashing pumpkins guitarist. So the shop is the go to place for amp work in LA.

Seeing Dave with a soldering iron and doing his thing was very cool. At one point he had to get pencil and paper and give himself a visual of what he set out to do -put a new 3 way switch in with 3 different resistors proving the voicing. Through the process he was using jumper clips to allow me to A/B voicings. Some were drastic and clear what I wanted others were less so and harder to choose. As you can imagine it put a bit of pressure on me not wanting to waste Dave's time, yet I had to live with what I opted for


The BE Dlx and nabbed used was a like new 2020 and according to Dave did not have some features in the base circuit that the newest ones have so fixing that was what I meant in this video when I said the 'stock BE tone is altered'.

Lastly, it was a bit awkward when we first plugged it in because Dave switched on the c45 and said 'this has less compression and slightly more gain' I say 'not to my ears'....... he shrugs and we move on. My point is what pretty much everyone on the forums and my other friends who own the BE agree on is the factory voicing is what Dave likes and despite the newer ones being voiced more open, they are still too smooth and compressed. In any case this was an experience of a lifetime and I am very pleased with the outcome tonally speaking!

Guess what all this cost me -mod and 50w snakeskin shell?

 

[Mongillo19]

Guess what all this cost me -mod and 50w snakeskin shell?

Does he charge extra for meeting with him?

If so I'd say $4000

 

[cragginshred]

Does he charge extra for meeting with him?

If so I'd say $4000

I was bracing myself for a 1k fee for meeting and tweaking to my taste. He charged me $100 for the mod and $320 for a shell that would normally run $380 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was floored! I doubt he will make a habit of doing this but my approach in the e-mail was' Hey Dave I live 6 hours north of you can I drive down and meet with you to mod my BE 100w Dlx'? He respond sure!! I had also mentioned to him that the forums have a lot of chatter about a particular mod that opens up the amp and shifts the mids. That may have perked his interest too

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Thats awesome. Nothing better than someone tweaking an amp to your own taste. Thats a proper mod.

 

[Mongillo19]

I was bracing myself for a 1k fee for meeting and tweaking to my taste. He charged me $100 for the mod and $320 for a shell that would normally run $380

I totally thought you meant you bought the actual amp as well

That's awesome and a great experience I'm sure!

 

[la szum]

Very cool. So did you essentially have Dave put the Marshall back in that he took out in design and production??

Not meant as snarky. Just that sounds like what you may have had him do.

 

[cragginshred]

Very cool. So did you essentially have Dave put the Marshall back in that he took out in design and production??

Not meant as snarky. Just that sounds like what you may have had him do.

Great question which I've answered on YT and other forums.

Short answer all the good none of the bad, right?

Longer one -owned a 79 JMP. Great one trick pony. I need a 3 ch amp and already owned a BE Dlx twice. Like a few friends who have struggled with the blanket over the mids thing that cannot be fixed with the eq ended up selling the previous ones.

This one I got a killer deal on with this plan in mind. We all have that tone in our heads that has been modded to sound too compressed and low mid which does not really cut in a mix unless your standing in front of the cab.

Anyhow the Dlx checked all the boxes and now with this mod I have two Marshall esque voicings that have all of the good and none of the bad a Marshall has, with 3 channels and the Friedman quality build. And the slick 50 shell makes it sooo much easier to transport!

 

[Whizzinby]

What a cool experience. That’s awesome.

 

[la szum]

Great question which I've answered on YT and other forums.

Short answer all the good none of the bad, right?

Longer one -owned a 79 JMP. Great one trick pony. I need a 3 ch amp and already owned a BE Dlx twice. Like a few friends who have struggled with the blanket over the mids thing that cannot be fixed with the eq ended up selling the previous ones.

This one I got a killer deal on with this plan in mind. We all have that tone in our heads that has been modded to sound too compressed and low mid which does not really cut in a mix unless your standing in front of the cab.

Anyhow the Dlx checked all the boxes and now with this mod I have two Marshall esque voicings that have all of the good and none of the bad a Marshall has, with 3 channels and the Friedman quality build. And the slick 50 shell makes it sooo much easier to transport!

Sweet! It's why I don't do Friedmans.

Makes me wonder if Dave will unmod his modifications in future production models.

That super smooth, really dark, and kind of bloated and tubby thing is not my bag.

 

[la szum]

What's the least Friedman Friedman amp currently in production that you have tried or owned??

 

[cragginshred]

What's the least Friedman Friedman amp currently in production that you have tried or owned??

The most raw Marshall ish amp is the V2 Pink taco. My mod is pretty much there but 100w punch. I need a dedicated solo channel so I sold the Taco. May get one again for rehearsals but my Fm3 covers that for now

 

[la szum]

How about the JEL? Isn't supposed to have a Plexi Channel and a Modded JCM800 Channel?

 

[cragginshred]

How about the JEL? Isn't supposed to have a Plexi Channel and a Modded JCM800 Channel?

the plexi on the Jel, smallbox and BE are all pretty much the same. The 100w JEL ch 2 really fought me. I thought the 20w version was good but still had a weird low end voicing I could not dial out making the mids elusive

What amps and style do you lean toward?

 

[Achilles]

The most raw Marshall ish amp is the V2 Pink taco.

Read a few guys who've played Jose modded heads and say the V2 most reminds them of that.
I had the V1 Taco and JJ Junior and the V2 is in another league as far as aggressiveness goes and
just feeling really great to play.

 

[cragginshred]

Read a few guys who've played Jose modded heads and say the V2 most reminds them of that.
I had the V1 Taco and JJ Junior and the V2 is in another league as far as aggressiveness goes and
just feeling really great to play.

I asked Dave what he did on the V2 and he said 'it's just 2 resistors'...

 

[la szum]

What amps and style do you lean toward?

The Friedmans I have tried in the past were all disappointing. I expected them to
be akin to the ultimate Marshall, and they didn't measure up. I actually had an
hard time finding the Marshall in them, to be honest. I get modern amp designs
are to make amps smoother and darker, with thumping low-end (sorry Bassists!)
and a super polished top end. Neither of which I want.

The ironic thing is the Friedman models in the Fractals are exactly like I remember
the actual amps being. I never use those either.

 

[Whizzinby]

I’m kind of interested in his new vintage Plex amp. Curious to see how that turns out. (Should be released in the next few weeks)

 

[GuitarAddicted]

View attachment 22042



The Friedmans I have tried in the past were all disappointing. I expected them to
be akin to the ultimate Marshall, and they didn't measure up. I actually had an
hard time finding the Marshall in them, to be honest. I get modern amp designs
are to make amps smoother and darker, with thumping low-end (sorry Bassists!)
and a super polished top end. Neither of which I want.

The ironic thing is the Friedman models in the Fractals are exactly like I remember
the actual amps being. I never use those either.

It really depends on the amp etc.
I had several Friedmans but in my humble opinion the 100 Deluxe can nail almost every sound of the others. The JEL is more like a hot rodded 800.
The Phil X is probably the Friedman with the rawest sound and the SS100 V2 is very percussive.
The good thing about Friedman is that Dave will tailor you amp exactly what sound you are after.
When I ordered my first BE100 Deluxe (from Germany) I contacted Dave before and he did some mods for free before the amp was shipped overseas.

I also had the Fractal AXE 3 and I was not able to get a sound similar to my BE 100 Deluxe. The Deluxe can get really nasty with a fizzy top end if you want.
There was a beta firmware in the Axe with a BE 100 Deluxe but it was removed by Cliff in later versions.

But at the end, sound is always subjective and there are so many amps around that everyonuxan be happy.