Fractal Talk

[Ed DeGenaro]

Dave has dealt with the demands of many of the most famous and most respected guitarists on the planet, he’s had his hands in many amps and tweaked the circuits to meet their needs. He’s built a good name for himself and IMO has a good idea of what guitarists want.

I don’t really see what’s wrong with selling tweaked Marshalls when that’s literally the thing people have been hiring him to do for decades - modding their Marshall.

I also think the dull/bloated thing is massively exaggerated in these parts. Soldano’s and many Bogner’s are way more rolled off and flat sounding compared to a stock Marshall IMO. A BE with 4 Ω NFB has plenty of brightness if you want it, and they can have plenty of attack too if you use the right cap and C45 accordingly.

I get why people dunk on him, but there are very few other amp techs out there who’ve had their hands in the amps he’s worked on, and also who have kept a roster of happy clients that is similar to his.

Newsflash it’s very much an apprenticeship/mentor program type type progression.

Afaik he learned the amp wrangling from Bruce Egnator.

As for the famous part, like EVHs amp that was pretty much at one point on the bench of everyone that built amps in the 80s?

Nothing is wrong with tweaking stuff, that’s how guitar amps came about and nothing changed.
Except that when I think of the original guys, like Fischer, Dumble, Rivera, Smith and even the second wave of Soldano, Bogner, Fryette, Marshall, Diezel, Larry. Most of them did actually more on their own than just a variation.

 

[JiveTurkey]

The newer hot rodded Marshall on a production scale thing that caught my eye recently was the Victory Super Sherriff thing. I still kinda want to give one of those a go

 

[la szum]

Dave has dealt with the demands of many of the most famous and most respected guitarists on the planet, he’s had his hands in many amps and tweaked the circuits to meet their needs. He’s built a good name for himself and IMO has a good idea of what guitarists want.

I don’t really see what’s wrong with selling tweaked Marshalls when that’s literally the thing people have been hiring him to do for decades - modding their Marshall.

I also think the dull/bloated thing is massively exaggerated in these parts. Soldano’s and many Bogner’s are way more rolled off and flat sounding compared to a stock Marshall IMO. A BE with 4 Ω NFB has plenty of brightness if you want it, and they can have plenty of attack too if you use the right cap and C45 accordingly.

I get why people dunk on him, but there are very few other amp techs out there who’ve had their hands in the amps he’s worked on, and also who have kept a roster of happy clients that is similar to his.

Uhmmm.... no one is everything for everyone in this world. And that is not my fault or Dave Friedman's. Just reality.

 

[la szum]

Naps are calling my name more than ever since I cut caffeine out of my diet about 2 weeks ago

But I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

Pretty sure we are all Toddlers our entire lives. If we get cranky it is one of 2 things, generally
speaking. Tired or hungry. Or the worst of all worlds. Tired AND hungry.

 

[ucnick]

A modeler can actually be tweaked to have MORE dynamics than the amp it models.

True dat.

 

[ejecta]

So how's that Snorkler working for you, @ejecta ???

Who does a better Marshall-inspired amp? Bogner or Friedman? Metropoulos?

Only heard a Metroppoulos being played at an amp show. Didn’t play it. It sounded really good though.

Played most of Friedman’s Marshall style amps. Owned a modded Plexi build he did the mods on. It was ok but not what I look for. Also for a hot minute owned a Cameron modded Marshall that Dave had put his basic clean channel in afterwards. Never saw what other people saw in the Cameron amps. Anyway Dave’s amps to me sound alright but not really a Marshall in feel and top end IMHO. That said in think his Plex is the better of his I’ve played.

I have a Suhr SL68 which is his take on a plexi. I like it a lot. Not played an old Plexi in so long so and that’s only been in passing so can’t say how it compares but it does what I like in a Plexi style amp so I keep it.

Anyway… did a decent amount of back and forth with it and the Bogner over the holiday weekend and they to do overlap more so than I thought it would. Honestly I thought maybe the Uber Ultra might have more in common. This one is pretty Marshall style. The Bogner Snokeler is very cool and more of a Marshall than the other Bogner amps I’ve tried like the Helios that I haven’t owned but played in Nashville. Since I don’t have to sell something right now to keep the Bogner I’ll keep both for now unless I need to move something then I’ll keep one and have a great sounding Marshall type amp covered. I like having a more straight up Marshall tone to mix with sounds from amps like Bogner’s or Fryette or the those thicker sounding modern amps. I think a great plexi mixed in at times with those heavier sounds is cool for what I like. So that’s why I have both modern and classic. I’ve given up on finding one amp to cover that ground like I’d prefer and being able to do that in the modeling world is easy and cool but I like doing it in the analog world too because it sounds great. I see why Adam Jones does it.

PS I think the blue channel on the Snorkeler is what I wished the XTC’s blue channel was like. The red channel is cool but man the blue is great too.

Need to let this get back to talking about Fractal

 

[TubeStack]

I bought mine used and he still responds to emails rapidly with no questions asked. I think it’s cool that he readily shares so much information and history and people can take or leave his opinions as they wish. So many companies want to gaslight or avoid helping you - they’ll ask for serial numbers, warranty information etc and have a load of back and forth before they’ll even entertain your question.

It’s similar to how active Cliff is to customers, it’s really appreciated when they’re so customer facing and helpful.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it was so cool when I emailed Friedman Amplification about a used Vintage T that I bought (killer guitar!) and Dave himself emailed me back, answering all my questions.

He does have some strong/niche opinions though, like he told me he thought 50s wiring was completely useless.

 

[GTR37]

But for the rest of us.......

I am taking Bogner over Friedman and Metropolis personally

 

[paisleywookiee]

I am taking Bogner over Friedman and Metropolis personally

I’d take Metropolis over the other two personally, which is why it’s not an obvious answer

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I’d take Metropolis over the other two personally, which is why it’s not an obvious answer

Well seeing that it’s the same as my obvious were getting closer to a quorum

 

[DrewJD82]

If you're his customer; he treats you great from all I've heard.

I've never purchased anything from him and he's responded to every email I ever sent him, aside from telling me what was in the vocal rack he built for Layne Staley in the early 90's, which he later answered on ToneTalk.

And I pretty much have the same lowbrow sense of humor