New Rig Day!

[nobozos]

As I'm getting older and setting up and tearing down is getting harder on my back, I'd been looking for a solution that would produce a great tone in a more compact form factor. I've tried a couple "amp in a box" pedals in the past, but they just didn't hit the mark. One of the guys I work with just bought a Friedman IR-X and it didn't give him what he was looking for, but he is more of a Metal guy, so I'm not sure that was the right solution for the kind of tone he is used to. He offered to let me demo it, and I have to say that it is going to find a home on my pedal board, and will likely be the rig I take with me to gig with from here on out.

Aside from the fact that it sounds great responds like a tube amp, I think of all the set-up time it will save. I just plug in my power to my pedalboard, plug in my guitar, and connect a mic cable to my board. Done. My back will thank me.

For all those interested, the tone on channel two is very close to early Van Halen on it's own, and the boost button can take it up a notch on the gain with tweaking the trim pots on the side of the pedal (for boost only). The interesting thing about the boost volume is that it is independent of the channel volume, so, you can use it to boost your leads, but you can also turn the boost volume so it is the same volume or lower than the channel volume, basically turning it into a four channel amp, if that is how you want to use it. My preference is to leave the Ch. 2 gain set moderate and slam the front of it with a Blues Driver to kick it into higher gain VH tones, or just kick on my 5150 Overdrive on Ch. 1. To my ears through my PA, I can't tell any difference between the tone of this or the tone of a tube amp, and the responsiveness while playing feels like a tube amp as well.

[Jedi McFly]

Nice! I'm all about the smaller rigs these days too. All the demos I've heard of the Friedman sound great. It's a well balanced bridge between old and new tech. Happy riffing!

[joezlo]

Is it the Friedman or the Lion that has the built in EVH & ACDC setting?

[nobozos]

Is it the Friedman or the Lion that has the built in EVH & ACDC setting?

It must be the Lion, because the Friedman doesn't have presets. It is basically the pre-amp section of a Friedman amp with IR's for power amp and speaker cabinet on the back end. The software lets you load different IRs, and controls Presence, and Thump settings, but that's about it. The controls are the knobs on the pedal otherwise, with no canned presets. You have the ability to save your settings into a MIDI device, but I have no idea how to do that and I wouldn't use it that way. I appreciate the simplicity of this pedal. It is like having my amp controls at my feet. That's the one thing that turned me away from all the other higher end amp modelers. I don't want to have to navigate menus with endless options to get what I want.

[nobozos]

Nice! I'm all about the smaller rigs these days too. All the demos I've heard of the Friedman sound great. It's a well balanced bridge between old and new tech. Happy riffing!

I watched the demos too, and they do sound great. I can't get it to sound like any of the demos, but when I plug it in with my pedals, it sounds like me, lol. That is a good thing though, as I can get the same tones from it that I can get from my 5150LBXII and 2x12 speaker cab.

The IR's are really impressive though, and make a huge difference. I was impressed with the IRs that came pre-loaded on the pedal, but then I loaded the 1960 Greenback IR, as well as the Creamback IR for channel 2, and those pushed it over the top. Each IR also describes the Mic combinations they are emulating as well. I never imagined they would ever be able to make a direct-into-PA solution that was THIS good.

[CatchAsCatch]

As I'm getting older and setting up and tearing down is getting harder on my back, I'd been looking for a solution that would produce a great tone in a more compact form factor. I've tried a couple "amp in a box" pedals in the past, but they just didn't hit the mark. One of the guys I work with just bought a Friedman IR-X and it didn't give him what he was looking for, but he is more of a Metal guy, so I'm not sure that was the right solution for the kind of tone he is used to. He offered to let me demo it, and I have to say that it is going to find a home on my pedal board, and will likely be the rig I take with me to gig with from here on out.

Aside from the fact that it sounds great responds like a tube amp, I think of all the set-up time it will save. I just plug in my power to my pedalboard, plug in my guitar, and connect a mic cable to my board. Done. My back will thank me.

For all those interested, the tone on channel two is very close to early Van Halen on it's own, and the boost button can take it up a notch on the gain with tweaking the trim pots on the side of the pedal (for boost only). The interesting thing about the boost volume is that it is independent of the channel volume, so, you can use it to boost your leads, but you can also turn the boost volume so it is the same volume or lower than the channel volume, basically turning it into a four channel amp, if that is how you want to use it. My preference is to leave the Ch. 2 gain set moderate and slam the front of it with a Blues Driver to kick it into higher gain VH tones, or just kick on my 5150 Overdrive on Ch. 1. To my ears through my PA, I can't tell any difference between the tone of this or the tone of a tube amp, and the responsiveness while playing feels like a tube amp as well.

Nice! Glad you like it and thanks for sharing because I've been contemplating something similar.

I always thought I would have to be drug away from a "real" amp kicking and screaming but honestly I'm reaching the point in life where having time to even play with people anymore is a rarity. So the idea of being able to do more of the actual playing and less of the lugging around and setting up/tearing down is pretty appealing.

[nobozos]

Thanks Catch. I've tried lightening the load in the past. I've tried Modeling Amps. I've tried a Fly Rig. Up to this point, I haven't found one that I felt could replace a tube amp. It's not even a matter of how they sounded as much as how they "felt". There is just a responsiveness that wasn't there with the others. I don't know how to put it into words, but you know it when you play it. Also, it reacts exactly the way a tube amp would when you roll the guitar volume back. It cleans up nice and doesn't sound like it's choking out.

It might not be the tone for everybody, but for Classic Rock and Hard Rock, I don't think you can get any closer to the sound of a Mic'd tube amp through the mains as you can with this pedal.

[CatchAsCatch]

Thanks Catch. I've tried lightening the load in the past. I've tried Modeling Amps. I've tried a Fly Rig. Up to this point, I haven't found one that I felt could replace a tube amp. It's not even a matter of how they sounded as much as how they "felt". There is just a responsiveness that wasn't there with the others. I don't know how to put it into words, but you know it when you play it. Also, it reacts exactly the way a tube amp would when you roll the guitar volume back. It cleans up nice and doesn't sound like it's choking out.

It might not be the tone for everybody, but for Classic Rock and Hard Rock, I don't think you can get any closer to the sound of a Mic'd tube amp through the mains as you can with this pedal.

Awesome. I'm going to check one out.

I like and have owned older Fenders so I had been looking at that TC Electronic 65 deluxe pedal. The price on it is right in the "how bad could it be?" range lol.

[Majestic]

Is it the Friedman or the Lion that has the built in EVH & ACDC setting?

It’s absolutely the Lion 68, yes.

[ScottyBHarris]

Nice! I'm all about the smaller rigs these days too. All the demos I've heard of the Friedman sound great. It's a well balanced bridge between old and new tech. Happy riffing!

Jedi, what was it you switched over to? Was it the Helix, or something smaller?

[Jedi McFly]

Jedi, what was it you switched over to? Was it the Helix, or something smaller?

Yup, Helix via HX Stomp and Helix Native in my DAW.

[CatchAsCatch]

Yup, Helix via HX Stomp and Helix Native in my DAW.

So when you guys run the amp sim type pedals, you just go DI into a PA? I've never really used one so I'm kind of curious about is there any kind of lag or latency? Are you able to get feedback (the good kind) with these types of pedals?

[Jedi McFly]

So when you guys run the amp sim type pedals, you just go DI into a PA? I've never really used one so I'm kind of curious about is there any kind of lag or latency? Are you able to get feedback (the good kind) with these types of pedals?

99% of the time it's direct into the PA with in-ear monitors. Very rarely it'll be standard floor monitors instead of IEMs. No latency issues, they limit the DSP to ensure latency doesn't get out of control the way it used to with older plugins. And if you're on stage with IEMs you'll probably experience less latency issues as you don't have an amp 10 feet away vs. a floor monitor 2 feet away vs. the other side of stage's floor monitor 15 feet away, etc.

@nobozos gets all those same benefits with his IR-X, but with the added authenticity of a tube preamp.

[nobozos]

So when you guys run the amp sim type pedals, you just go DI into a PA? I've never really used one so I'm kind of curious about is there any kind of lag or latency? Are you able to get feedback (the good kind) with these types of pedals?

So far, I have only run mine into a PA using the TRS to XLR adapter and coming into the PA on a XLR cable. I don't have any issues that I can perceive with latency.

Something to keep in mind if you are running it direct into the PA: You can't compare what you are hearing to standing on stage in front of your amp. You have to compare it to what you would hear standing in front of the stage coming though the mains from your guitar mic's, or if you were listening to a recording of your guitar through the board.

I think that is what a lot of people have a hard time getting over. I think the negative reviews come from people who are plugging these things in and expecting it to sound like standing in front of their Marshall. It's not trying to do that. It is giving you the sound of what your audience hears when you play with a mic'd up cabinet through your main speakers.

The thing that I have not tried yet, is going from the effects send of the pedal, into the effects return of an amp and into a cabinet. I haven't tried that, because that isn't the reason I got it. I got it so I don't have to bring an amp with me, so it seems pointless to me to invest energy into configuring the pedal this way.

Hope that helps.

Oh, I've also reconfigured the board slightly.

[CatchAsCatch]

99% of the time it's direct into the PA with in-ear monitors. Very rarely it'll be standard floor monitors instead of IEMs. No latency issues, they limit the DSP to ensure latency doesn't get out of control the way it used to with older plugins. And if you're on stage with IEMs you'll probably experience less latency issues as you don't have an amp 10 feet away vs. a floor monitor 2 feet away vs. the other side of stage's floor monitor 15 feet away, etc.

@nobozos gets all those same benefits with his IR-X, but with the added authenticity of a tube preamp.

Nice. Thanks.

The "stages" I'm playing on are so small the amp is usually jammed half way up my *cough, cough* and the only monitors are the ones with football games on. lol. But that's exactly why the floor rig appeals to me.