Friedman Nailed The Plexi Tone... Big Time! | Friedman PLEX | Gear Corner
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2024
- #guitaramp #friedmanamps
It's New Amp Day and I still can't believe how good this thing is. The Friedman Plex is the perfect modded, vintage amp, only brand new and reliable. Duuuuude...
Check out the Plex here (Thomann affiliate link):
lmy.de/gnJeY
Follow me on instagram: @kris_barocsi
My Merchandise:
Check out my shirts, hoodies and coffee mug and thanks in advance for supporting the channel with your purchase:
my-store-11427232.creator-spr...
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:30 Intro track
1:37 The story with the Plex
2:16 PLAYING | LP | Full gain
2:40 The rig I'm using
3:28 PLAYING | LP | My intro setting
4:12 The "Variac" switch
5:00 PLAYING | LP | Normal vs Variac mode
5:49 MVC Master volume
6:20 PLAYING | Strat | crunch
7:12 The Volume (Channel) knobs / Bright switch
8:11 PLAYING | Tele | Almost clean
9:12 PLAYING | LP | The two inputs tested (High / Low)
9:51 Who is this amp made for?
10:28 PLAYING | Strat | Clean
10:53 PLAYING | Strat | Drive and fuzz pedals
12:07 No FX Loop - no problem
13:30 PLAYING | Tele | Full gain
13:52 My thoughts on the Plex
16:13 PLAYING | LP | EVH
Gear used - signal chain:
(the short links are Thomann affiliate links)
-Fender Telecaster CS '53: bit.ly/40qKWi1
-Gibson Les Paul CS '58: lmy.de/YZPvY
-Barocsi "Frankenstrat"
-Friedman Plex: lmy.de/gnJeY
-Formula B Fuzz Rangers: lmy.de/VYhzW
-Kasleder Pelion: lmy.de/mYX
-Kasleder Toxic Twins: bit.ly/2VJRDiO
-UAFX Astra Modulation: bit.ly/3ycxXFu
-Universal Audio OX BOX bit.ly/2IyOeuj
-One Control Agamidae: bit.ly/3HHhoG3
-Evidence Lyric cables: bit.ly/3QJHQ40
-Evidence Audio patch cables: bit.ly/2Ixylo1
-DR Strings: bit.ly/3QcKUon
-UAD Apollo x4 interface: lmy.de/XmPqMQah
Other gear I use in my videos:
-Gibson Les Paul Jr. lmy.de/UpOC
-Harley Benton Fusion-III bit.ly/3He3utv
-UAFX Galaxy delay: bit.ly/3KNrOFj
-UAFX Golden Reverb: bit.ly/3vS36JN
-Xotic Super Clean: bit.ly/36fsHka
-REVV D40 Dynamis: lmy.de/tbkQ
-Tone King Imperial MkII: lmy.de/qqrSUDcZ
-Supro Tremolo: lmy.de/Tnul
-REVV Tilt boost: bit.ly/3L10wLO
-Analogman King of Tone analogman.com
-Two Notes Captor X: bit.ly/33FPfcW
Recording:
-Sennheiser MKH 416: bit.ly/2w1EAMP
-Warm Audio WA-67: lmy.de/EQnSQVRB
-Warm Audio WA273 pre: lmy.de/KlgYdmEc
-UAD Apollo x4 interface: lmy.de/XmPqMQah
Check out the Thomann Music channel for some wicked guitar videos:
/ musikhausthomann
Cheers,
Kris - เพลง
I ordered one in January, got it early May. I bought my first real Plexi in 1971, absolutely loved it. This new PLEX is, in my opinion, even better than the original.
That’s awesome to hear! Yeah man, this amp is like the best, modded original WITH a variac. Unbelievable.
I am glad people build amps like this, just adds more choices the world.
What a great demo and review of the Plex the best thus far imo. Such clean playing too. Great job
Hats off to Friedman, and you Kris, this sounded amazing the entire video. I have an older Dirty Shirley mini head and Dave just knows how to design a great sounding amp👍
Outstanding review!!
Great demo of this amp!!
The video has been out for a couple days while I was on holiday, didn't want to watch it on my phone so I wouldn't ruin the experience... Now I am back and just watched on properly on real speakers... Maaaan, I am really happy for you, it really shows how happy you are with this amp and it truly sounds incredible... Definitely the ultimate holy grail of all plexi style amps! Use it, feel it and most of all enjoy it as much as possible!!!🤘
Hey brother, thanks so much! 🤗 I hope you had an amazing time with the fam. 🙌
Sir one great review! Three guitars, low and higher gain tones (not metal I know), and lots of different settings. I want one too!
Congrats that you've got the Plex, Kris! I've got mine 1,5 weeks ago. It's just awesome! I was hyped for it ever since Dave teased it long time ago on Tone Talk. After watching your video from NAMM I was completely sold and needed to have it. One could really see how much you enjoyed playing it there. I ordered mine from Thomann on release day, but then got delayed a bit. But it was so worth the wait, I couldn't be happier.
Hope to see it in a lot more of your videos. You sounded great playing it!
Aww man, that’s awesome to hear. Yeah I felt exactly like how I looked in that video, haha! 100% mind blown from this thing. 😆
Wow, congrats! This is probably one of the first PLEX in whole Germany. You lucky bastard you! 😉
And it sounds fucking awesome. Great job Dave Friedman.
Thanks so much Mario! I am a lucky bastard, indeed. 😅
This sounds absolutely balls! 🔥 Also, F# is such a great key and you know it.
Haha, thanks man! F# is awesome and always there to help whenever you‘re in the „I’m so fed up with A and E“ mood. 😆
Sounds killer!
Thanks a lot!
Love the Sound and your playing❤
Man, you’re the best. Thank you so much. 🙌
Dave don’t mess around he hits the nail on the head!
Yeah, with a sledgehammer. Booooom, haha!
@@KrisBarocsi I will forever know him as the wife whisperer. 😂 he knows why but I’ll just say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas 😂
@@PooNinja You know what? I really wanna hear that story so let’s meet up in Vegas. I guess it’s allowed to tell it there, right? So when is your plane leaving? 😆
@@KrisBarocsi just watch the tone talk with jake e lee 😂it’s long but sooo worth the time
sounds so good
Sweet sounding amp!
Sounds amazing! I completely understand why you had to have one of these.
Great video Kris! Just like you I couldn't wait to get one of these. Mine arrived last week and it's a fantastic compliment to my Friedman Twin Sister!
Awesome, congrats buddy! How would you compare the TS to the Plex?
@@KrisBarocsi The TS has more of the JTM saggy/squishy feel along with a looser and more substantial low end response. The TS is loud at 40w, but the Plex is WAY louder at 50w. Like with some of the old Plexi amps when measured, I really wonder how much the Plex is putting out. I will say the TS with it's master is far more controllable in my opinion. The Plex master doesn't really seem to lower volume until you get it cranked around to 2 or lower. That said, I wanted a full on modern wild plexi so I have ZERO complaints with the Plex.
Out of the box the TS is voiced darker, but adjusting the tone stack especially the Bass and Deep knobs will open it up. The Plex out of the box, is just "there" as far as tone EQ for me. And definitely like you, I'm finding I like the bright switches set in default position most of the time, although to the left on channel 2 really is fantastic in my opinion.
I think now with having both of them I have the ultimate pair of a modern JTM style amp along with a modern Plexi. You should definitely give the TS a shot!
When the TK Royalist came out last year I AB’d with my Twin Sister and for me there was no contest. The TS went out the door straight away because it is very muted by comparison. When the Friedman Plex came along I wanted to AB again and throw a BE50-Dlx with custom Channel 1 Plexi into the comparison. Again the BE-50Dlx with Plexi channel fell well short and I found the new Friedman Plex giving a far more natural tone. It also made the excellent Royalist seem more sterile in tone than the Friedman Plex. I swapped the BE50-Dlx out for the new Plex and thought I might be letting the Royalist go too. But back at home when trying both the Royalist and Plex together I started to feel more magic in tandem. I have to say what I find most surprising is how pleasing the Plex clean tone comes across. It has a very sweet treble which really gives it a HiFi quality but in a lush way, not analytical. This Plex is one great amp, but I must admit I am experiencing it through a Fryette Power Station for ultimate control of the amp with FX loop. Without a Fryette PS other users might find the other amps more flexible for their own use.
Wonderful amp, and great playing, to my satisfaction I can come quite close in SQ using my Gibson Goldtop Jazz+57 -> DSL 20H at 1W -> 4x12 Creamback, tubescreamer or soul food for different screaming, the max 20W is a little too weak for a hard hitting drummer so I have used my 100W Jet City(very cheap Soldano-clone) when playing live, in the mix with a full band it's very good enough even if far from "high end" would love a Friedman but yeah I can come close enough for me :)
Sweet as a Marshall jcm800 and 900 guy this made me very happy
Sounds like a great amp! If I didn't already own a Bogner Helios, I'd definitely be considering this to cover the hot-rodded plexi thing.
Thanks man! Oh yeah that Bogner is insane too, have fun with it!
Love the tones. 6:17 at first I understood "If you wanna get HURT, I recommend cranking that thing" and I was like 'yeah let's do it! Wait, what did he just say?" :D
😆 Well, if you crank this thing and stand right in front of the cab, it will hurt you.
Btw I ask myself all the time, pretty much every single day „What the hell did I just say?“ At least I keep myself entertained, haha!
Great explanation and vid of the Plex... I own one too and also like it a lot but Plexi's are so different . i have many and its more a matter of taste; i think Friedman did a great job. Kris, I would ove to know youre OX setting in this clip;mic,cabonet, Reverb,delay, eq,compress ? cuz this does a lot for the sound in this clip
Love this video. I already have a Magnatone M80 super 59, that's why I'm thinking of buying a Friedman Twin Sister instead of this awesome Plex. Any advice?
(I also have a Soldano SLO30, a Marshall Mini Silver Jubilee, a Custom Audio OD50, A Victory V30 MKII)
Playin' Slash on tele...illegal 🤘🏻
Haha, all hail the anarchy. 🤘😆
Besides the obvious use of having some reverb and delay from the Ox does it sound better with the MCV cranked up and using the attenuater in the Ox vs the MCV on low?
Hi, yeah the MVC is great but the amp sounds best when the knob is at least over 12 o'clock. So a good attenuator is the way to get the most out of the Plex.
The L.V. mode has more a Twin Sister character
16:14 - Where's the 316ms echoplex delay?
Dammit,, I’ve been resisting and now I have to get one….
The Variac, as used by Eddie Van Halen, reduced the voltage in the plate from 110V to 82/87V. Maybe that's what actually is happening in the Friedman, instead of increasing the voltage?
Yes, sorry if it came through the wrong way but that‘s exactly what I meant. The H.V. (normal) power setting is the full power and the L.V. (Variac) setting is reduced power. So nothing increases the voltage, it’s quite the opposite. 👍
nice, I love it. I think I need one as well. The only problem in your video is that your OX is destroying the sound. This digital crackling is horrible. Play it with a real speaker ;).
Great review! Can you compared with the Little/Twin Sister?
Thanks! Someone shared his experience with the Twin Sister and the Plex:
Tomshoemaker662: "The Twin Sister has more of the JTM saggy/squishy feel along with a looser and more substantial low end response. The TS is loud at 40w, but the Plex is WAY louder at 50w. Like with some of the old Plexi amps when measured, I really wonder how much the Plex is putting out. I will say the TS with it's master is far more controllable in my opinion. The Plex master doesn't really seem to lower volume until you get it cranked around to 2 or lower. That said, I wanted a full on modern wild plexi so I have ZERO complaints with the Plex.
Out of the box the TS is voiced darker, but adjusting the tone stack especially the Bass and Deep knobs will open it up. The Plex out of the box, is just "there" as far as tone EQ for me. And definitely like you, I'm finding I like the bright switches set in default position most of the time, although to the left on channel 2 really is fantastic in my opinion.
I think now with having both of them I have the ultimate pair of a modern JTM style amp along with a modern Plexi."
@@KrisBarocsi thank you so much. It’s what I feared. I need both. 🤣
@@mrnorbotron3308 Sorry for the „bad“ news. 😆
@@KrisBarocsi 🤣
Dang, that does sound good eh? wow
Thanks brother! It's ridiculous. In person even more so. 🫠 Cheers bro!
Maybe it's just the eq over TH-cam, but as it is the amp seems to lack bottom end, unless that's just the way you like to set it up.
TH-cam compresses alot, so it may be that.
What are you listening on? No lack of bottom end in good headphones here.
Yeah, it sounds a little different in my DAW compared to YT but it's not a huge difference. The thing with these plexi style amps is, that the power amp distorts, so you can't really add extra umph with resonance knobs, etc. If you want it to be as crazy tight as this is, you can't have the rumble, at least not as much of it as modern amps sometimes have. Also, I have a low cut on the guitar track, which is the first thing every sound engineer does anyhow.
I mean, check out a few EVH recordings from his Plexi era, those amazing guitar sounds also don't have a lot of low end. Cheers!
@@KrisBarocsiThat's the bass player's job.
@@KrisBarocsi Yes Chris; any amp by itself is going to be eq'd differently if mixed into a track with other instruments. I'm probably basing my taste for fuller low end on an old late sixties 100 watt plexi I used to own, and the 100's sound quite different from the 50's, in that the 100's have more dynamic kick or attack, whereas the 50's are what Yngvei describes as "sweeter and mire compressed." My old plexi was extremely loud ( probably the transformers varied a lot in the early Marshalls) and therefore the amp had beaucoup headroom, but it was a much warmer and darker sounding amp than some of the later ones; after all it had no master volume. This sound actually persisted, though, even in studio mixes from the late seventies that I still have, and I often found I had to avoid making it too muddy by cutting some lows, but still enjoyed a sound that was fat. Gradual deterioration of filter caps in some old Marshalls can often not be noticed by the player whose ear adjusts to accommodate the slow death of highs. Then again many don't like the fizzy top end that sometimes goes with power smp saturation in Marshalls and subconsciously wind out the highs to avoid it, fir instance many Eric Johnson solo licks are so muffled it dounds as if he's Kenny Burrell playing in the next room with a wet blanket over the quad. I haven't spent much time listening to EVH although I've heard some of his early albums, snd I don't reslly like the guitar tone that much because it's a little too sharp for me, and I don't like the sound of thise Peavy amps he had either, but then his three piece sound is mixed with an extremely low bass track from Michael Antony who keeps tight out of the way, but mskes the guitar stand out mire than blend in. I suppose it's also the effect historically of sounds being compressed onto analogue tape that tends to smooth out the tone, but personally I find most amps in the modern era too bright, so it may be a generational thing, as well as personal taste. I had two Marshall 2210 amps ( JCM 800's) that sounded ok to me but didn't like the JCM900 amps that followed, but most folks I've spoken to find the 2210 100 watters too dark, so who knows? Maybe it's just personal preference as well as modern, master volumed, and 50 watted sound that's more popular, and that's even without involving the subtlety of the attenuated output before the speaker, and the crisp digital recording.
We're you playing with a load box?
@@rocker8692 Yes, with the OX Box. I used a 4x12 marshall cab simulation with Greenback speakers. If I used the cab right behind me I’d be deaf now. This amp does 120dB when fully cranked. 🫣
wait...., is that tele bridge pickup on strat? 🤔
Haha, yep. Coolest strat mod ever. 🙌
@@KrisBarocsi oh nooooo..., dont give me that idea 😅
@@teguharifandi3489 haha, too late I guess 🤪
The FX Loop missing makes no sense to me, I know that in the old days there were not, but anyway..
🌞🌞🌞
How does this amp take pedals?
@@silvel2edge It‘s amazing with a fuzz, a screamer, SD-1 or klon style pedals in front of it. If you keep it clean(ish) it‘s great with delays etc too. But it’s not your transparent drive pedal platform. 😅
@@KrisBarocsi how does the Plex compare to thr Small Box? Can the Plex do like Metallica tones as well on its own and/or can it if i push it with any other overdrive pedals in front?
@@silvel2edge The Small Box is much more modern but I‘m sure the Plex can „go there“ too somehow. This sounds like a subject that deserves a video, haha!
The Marshall SV 20 has an effect loops and sounds just as good or better than this amp from what I can hear, strange that Friedman didn’t add the effect loops as well
Hey, very interesting subject. I definitely wanna talk about this is my next Comment Time video.
The quick and dirty answer is: you can put a loop on an amp like this but it’s gonna distort everything in the loop, so what’s the point.
I’ve played both amps quite a lot, so I have an impression of their tone. I’ll talk about that in the q&a soon. 👍 Cheers!
@@KrisBarocsi sounds good! Keep up the great work!
Kris, ive watched you from your beginnings.Love you as a player,style and knowledge. But i have always had one criticism…when you say your name..SLOW IT DOWN! New subscribers like to hear your name, you say it so fast it’s crazy.🤪 But seriously, keep up the great work.
Haha, thanks so much man! 🙌 Actually I was thinking to stop introducing myself in the videos, now you suggest to slow down and pronounce it better. I guess you're right but at this point this quick intro sentence is like being on auto pilot. It happens automatically, I don't even realise that I said it. 😂
If only Friedman made a 1 WATT PLEX like Marshalls awesome 50th anniversary series.
Nail the old hippie geezers tone
@@kengyang1908 what else do you wanna nail with a plexi? Modern chuggy metal? You should check back here soon then. 🤘😏
Just get a Marshall 1959/1987 and an attenuator and you’re there. Much cheaper!
Ein Liebeslied muss gesungen werden, wenn es gesungen werden muss… ich bin so in Versuchung… aber ich werde ihn nicht kaufen… nein werde ich NICHT 😅
Soll ich‘s auch einmal? Du wirst ihn NICHT kaufen.
Besser? 😆
@@KrisBarocsi viel besser 😂
i am interested in this amp but to be honest the VH tone here is not good at all
This is no real Plexi sound for me, just some sort of hot-rod Fender (Bassman), which tries to sound like a Plexi, but - as Friedman typical - fails.
Became an instant return from me, but I anyway never bought any Friedman gear. As much as I like real (hot-rod) Plexis, Friedman amps are not at all my world.
But I anyway am happy with my own, much cheaper gear, which gives me more authentic Plexi tones easily for less.
To say a line6 modelling amp emulating a Plexi is okay is like saying its okay to be gay. Each to their own but nah..... were good!!
@@titahibayflier3160 😅 Let’s maybe not mix those two things together.
Hear me out: I‘ve heard other bands sound checks multiple times playing a Helix or a Kemper and I loved the tone through the pa. That doesn’t mean that I enjoy PLAYING a modeler nearly as much as playing through such an amp as the Plex. To me getting a great live tone is a very different thing compared to getting a great feel whilst playing.
I hope that explains what I said in the video. Cheers!