Friedman raises the standard with new flagship BE-100 Deluxe guitar amp
Dave Friedman's latest boutique marvel is a 100-watt portal into Plexi nirvana
The latest boutique guitar amp head from Friedman Amplification is hand-wired in the USA but, make no mistake, the sound it is channeling is 100 per cent British. The BE-100 Deluxe, unveiled as Friedman’s flagship model, takes Dave Friedman’s much-celebrated “BE” circuit and runs with it.
Those who know and love the BE-100 will find all those lush Plexi tones on-tap – only now there are three channels instead of two. And so many options for shaping your sound.
The BE-100 Deluxe takes the BE and HBE drives channels of the BE-100 and applies each their own separate gain and master controls, allowing users to access the full potential of the circuit. The third is named the “Small Box Plexi” channel and is a clean channel based on the Plexi channel of Friedman's Small Box combo. It promises to have plenty of headroom but via the gain, volume and three band EQ it should break up nicely.
Strat and Tele players will surely love the fat switch. Rock and metal players will similarly love the saturation switch for squeezing a little more gain and compression out of the amp. But everyone is going to love this, surely.
Specifications
- 100 Watt all-tube head
- Three channels
- Handwired in the USA
- Custom USA made transformers
- 4 x EL34 power tubes
- 5 x 12AX7 preamp tubes
- BE channel – Gain, Master, Bass, Middle, Treble (shared with the HBE channel)
- HBE channel – Gain, Master, Bass, Middle, Treble (shared with the BE channel)
- "Small Box" Plexi channel – Gain, Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble and fat switch
- C45 voicing switch (BE/HBE channel)
- Saturation switch – adds saturation
- Voice switch – varies top end response
- Gain Structure switch – Lowers gain of BE / HBE channel
- Ultra-transparent series effects loop
- Response switch - varies negative feedback
- Frequency switch – changes frequency of the Thump knob
- Thump knob - varies lowered response of amp
- Two-button foot switch for channel selections
- 4, 8 and 16 ohm Impedance selector switch
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Dimensions: 8.75" (D) x 29.25" (W) x 12.25" (H)
- Weight: 43 lbs
- FriedmanAmplification.com
Check out Friedman Amplification for more details.
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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.