It needs a screamer for sure I played it today at the store for 2 hours and liked how it sounded for hard rock but for metal it was lacking bad until the screamer made it lot better also the couple irs you can use without a computer only one was good… I will say the 1st channel is better than the high gain channel. 1st channel Sounded really really good all that to say it’s overpriced by about 200 bucks to be honest… I know it’s gotten nothing but amazing reviews but it’s not worth 500 bucks.. black star made a unit like this couple years ago and you can buy it all day for like 150 the Friedman does sound better but not 350 better
Bought it the first day it came out. It's a champ of a unit! You can literally get any amount of gain you need from the unit itself and it can still do pristine cleans. Well worth the money if you ask me.
Bought the Mooer Micro Preamp Friedman because of your review back in the day and used it for 5 years as my main source of tone. After I tried the IRX I had to buy one and now I use that! Been happy ever since :)
I grabbed this immediately when it was on preorder at Sweetwater. I absolutely love this unit over the amp modelers I've been using! Never looking back at amp modelers again! I just can't stop playing it because it makes my ears and brain tingle with excitement with which each note being played!
That final thump level reminded me of the look that live sound engineers would give you on stage as soon as you turned the stage volume up over "acceptable levels". 🤘🤘
Ive been using mine live with a powerstage 170, it does it all. And for metal, i use the built in boost and a tubescreamer together. I expected it to chug, but the good cleans were a bonus
Hey, so are you running out of the IR-X effects send into the PS? I’m thinking of doing the same thing but just trying to figure out how people are running this kind of setup. I’ve heard that the class D Seymour Duncan power stage can feel real stiff, but I feel like that is coming from people using it with other modelers. Wondering if the Friedman having tubes negates that
@@stephenscala3114i am biased. My day job involves working on class D amps, (non guitar related) but i was using a 6505+ the last 14 years, this combo has replaced heads for me completely. If you want my full signal chain, buckle up. It feels like a real amp to me. Regardless if I’m using my 1x10, 1x12, 2x12, 4x12, or with IR’s into headphones or studio monitors. Live it goes like this, cheap amazon wireless-> tc electronic brainwaves-> crybaby 95q wah-> korg microblack tuner-> tc electronic sentry noise gate, inside of the gate loop is a wampler ego compressor, an ibanez tube screamer mini, a klon clone, into the IRX ,preamp out goes into the return of the noise gate loop. The output of the noise gate goes to a 10 band EQ, then a bbe sonic maximizer set below noon on both knobs. Boss dd-200 delay, tc electronic hall of fame delay is the last item. If I’m using the powerstage like i am live, the reverb goes into the powerstage which is running a 1x12 cab mic’d with an sm57 into our PA and in ears. If I’m using the IR’s and balanced outs at home, ill route the reverb into the IRX fx return. Its a super versatile unit. And beats a modeler. As you can tell, id rather tap dance to get my tones than have a “preset”
@@stephenscala3114i am using the effects loop, so I’m coming out of the “balanced” out, but I’m using a regular non TRS cable, so its unbalanced, and I turn the IR’s off. I tried it the other way, where the end of my effects chain went into the PS, but the volumes were all wonky, it was much more even doing the tradition “4 cable method.” Ive been gigging with this rig 2-3 times a month since october, and it has done well for me. I have speaker cabs on all 3 floors of my house, and one at my bands rehearsal space. I travel with just the board and a guitar
@@cz875wireless, into tc electronic brain waves, crybaby wah, wampler ego compressor, and tubescreamer before the friedman. Volume pedal. Delay and reverb in the effects loop. The powerstage 170 ran into a 6505+ 1x12 combo speaker. Mic’d with a 57. We use in ears.and my mix was much less noisey than when Id run my 6505+ head into the same speaker
Sounded pretty good man ! Hey Ola you should do a comparison between all these tube powered pre-amp pedals. This vs Victory Kraken V4 vs Driftwood Purple Nightmare preamp pedal etc.
I can't comment on the other 2 but I bought the Kraken V4 preamp and I was sorely disappointed with it. I was running it through my Marshall DSL40CR and it sounded thin and lifeless. The onboard Marshall channels sounded leagues better. I now own the Karken VX mark 1 amp and it sounds a lot better. Personally, I'd either buy the new Mark 2 Karken amp or either of the other preamps you mentioned.
@@Brennosguitarsandgear DSL40CR mate. Sounded crap. It wasn't like I ran through a bad amp either. In Victorys own demo of the preamp, they tried it on a Hot Rod deluxe and it sounded killer even though it was never ment to do that. However through my DSL40CR it sounded shite even though it was ment to sound more "metal" I had the brightness set to 0 on the preamp (highest it can go) and I had the Presence and Resonance on full on the amp and somehow it sounded like it had no low and it also sounded like a blanket over the speaker. It was rather shocking to say the least.
I really like mine! A very useful feature set. The only problem I’ve found is not being to load my own IR’s when using Windows 10. I emailed Friedman about it but nothing but crickets…. My workaround is to use my old Macbook to load IR’s until hopefully an update to the software will fix this.
Every now and again I comment this but ima give it another shot in hopes you see it or others will and pass it on but … I would really like you to demo the peavy valve king amp head (mark 1) I would argue this is more bang for your buck then the boss katana and peavy vypr. It comes with its own boost and paired with decent high output pickups and optional overdrive or clean boost pedal this thing rips it for heavy stuff, the cab it comes with is not the best tho but there’s always Harley Benton v30 2x12. I got my half stack for 280$ CAD and there all over the used market
For a user it is kind of odd we can't see or change nob values in the software. But if it's a raw preamp it makes total sense. Pricing seems ok, you get a preamp + IR loader, so it's awesome for studio and live, and Friedman was never cheap but always built like a tank.
So how would this sound as an all-in-one to IEM system and FOH? For example, my lead guitar player who had the real full amp set up does most of the playing (I am the singer and play a few songs on guitar). I just a pedal board solution. I tried this setup Guitar -> Boss Noise Supp (OD 1 ) -> Tonex (Friedman amp & cab) -> DI box (XLR out) to IEM system and FOH. It doesn't sound as good as my TSL JCM2000 and 2X12 Cab mixed-up. the tonex seems to lack that oomph a real amp does. Would this Friedman IRX be basically like my Tonex but with the tubes?
Edit: you hinted that you might do another video showcasing the flexibility of the … unit? Don’t want to call it a pedal. Would you consider running it in the fx loop of one amp as a preamp and splitting the signal before it hit the IR-X into a 5150? Get that classic pairing? I feel like it may be beautifully disgusting. This had to be done. And you were the one who needed to do it. I haven’t watched a second yet and I’m stoked.
Oh mayn, every other week a new pedal or multi effect. I love that now almost every company is trying to get in multineffect business which is great for us guitarists. The only problem is that the prices are just weirdly calculated. Why buy this and not line 6, or moor or give a bit more get dsp neural...etc. hard to decide. I wish we all can just buy everything and test out with our own ears :)
Ola: Put this in the loop of your dual rectifier, using the balanced output, and don't forget to disable the IRs. Not all of us own 35 amp heads so this kind of versatility goes a long way. This was just what I needed
Got mine and love it, but I didn't at first. Threw a graphic eq in the loop, and that wasn't what I wanted. I found out it takes OD pedals awesomely. Boosted with a Wampler Tumnus and Triumph sounded nicer to my ears than a Tube Screamer, like a little mid boost before the pre-amp. The built in boost sounds nice too. I downloaded Ola's Hesu cab IR and bam, there it is, shit, lol.
@@VelhosNovosvery very much so. More than my real amps. Its very dynamic. Responds to pickup strength, and picking strength. And volume, all these things effect it much more than my 6505+ which is very compressed
Ugh, sounded so rad. Would be a great studio tool. Maybe I'll sell my Blackstar stage100 mk2. I could buy that and a power amp... Maybe. Damn inflation.
Sounds awesome! I have a Ceres and it's pretty damn awesome but it also sounds a bit 'clinical' and this may be the best option as it has actual vacuum tubes in it.
I think I liked the sound at 3:58 the best, that was a pretty good blend of low and punchy highs that I enjoyed! But, of course, your IRs are always the best :)
@@mrcoatsworth429 I know. But some other manufacturers "lower" there prices a for oversees at least a bit so that the price is a bit more similar worldwide. Would have been lovely here too but well things are what they are.
@@s.schmidt5923 I think this is mostly the case with far eastern produced products that are being shipped to both the US and European markets. This thing is manufactured in the US. And I actually think 499 USD is a pretty good price for a unit with an analog tube preamp. I would have expected it to be more expensive in general.
With the tube screamer the sound is incredible, it gives the right touch that was missing for a heavy sound.
Boss SD-1 works great too!
Kind of like pushing the front end of an amp with a drive pedal huh? 🤔
@@wootks I totally agree, it is a matter of personal taste.
@@MeTuLHeD Exactly, this pushes the clean signal of the guitar a bit more to get a crunchier and more defined sound mainly in the palm mutes.
It needs a screamer for sure I played it today at the store for 2 hours and liked how it sounded for hard rock but for metal it was lacking bad until the screamer made it lot better also the couple irs you can use without a computer only one was good… I will say the 1st channel is better than the high gain channel. 1st channel Sounded really really good all that to say it’s overpriced by about 200 bucks to be honest… I know it’s gotten nothing but amazing reviews but it’s not worth 500 bucks.. black star made a unit like this couple years ago and you can buy it all day for like 150 the Friedman does sound better but not 350 better
Bought it the first day it came out. It's a champ of a unit! You can literally get any amount of gain you need from the unit itself and it can still do pristine cleans. Well worth the money if you ask me.
Do you know what preamp is the lead channel based on ?
@@IloveRillettes pretty sure the lead channel is basically a Friedman BE Deluxe synergy module (the one that came out this year)
Great! Does it clean up well with guitar volume?
@@VelhosNovos oh absolutely. Behaves just like a tube amp in that regard.
Bought the Mooer Micro Preamp Friedman because of your review back in the day and used it for 5 years as my main source of tone. After I tried the IRX I had to buy one and now I use that! Been happy ever since :)
I grabbed this immediately when it was on preorder at Sweetwater. I absolutely love this unit over the amp modelers I've been using! Never looking back at amp modelers again! I just can't stop playing it because it makes my ears and brain tingle with excitement with which each note being played!
That final thump level reminded me of the look that live sound engineers would give you on stage as soon as you turned the stage volume up over "acceptable levels". 🤘🤘
Ive been using mine live with a powerstage 170, it does it all. And for metal, i use the built in boost and a tubescreamer together. I expected it to chug, but the good cleans were a bonus
Hey, so are you running out of the IR-X effects send into the PS? I’m thinking of doing the same thing but just trying to figure out how people are running this kind of setup. I’ve heard that the class D Seymour Duncan power stage can feel real stiff, but I feel like that is coming from people using it with other modelers. Wondering if the Friedman having tubes negates that
@@stephenscala3114i am biased. My day job involves working on class D amps, (non guitar related) but i was using a 6505+ the last 14 years, this combo has replaced heads for me completely. If you want my full signal chain, buckle up. It feels like a real amp to me. Regardless if I’m using my 1x10, 1x12, 2x12, 4x12, or with IR’s into headphones or studio monitors. Live it goes like this, cheap amazon wireless-> tc electronic brainwaves-> crybaby 95q wah-> korg microblack tuner-> tc electronic sentry noise gate, inside of the gate loop is a wampler ego compressor, an ibanez tube screamer mini, a klon clone, into the IRX ,preamp out goes into the return of the noise gate loop. The output of the noise gate goes to a 10 band EQ, then a bbe sonic maximizer set below noon on both knobs. Boss dd-200 delay, tc electronic hall of fame delay is the last item. If I’m using the powerstage like i am live, the reverb goes into the powerstage which is running a 1x12 cab mic’d with an sm57 into our PA and in ears. If I’m using the IR’s and balanced outs at home, ill route the reverb into the IRX fx return. Its a super versatile unit. And beats a modeler. As you can tell, id rather tap dance to get my tones than have a “preset”
@@stephenscala3114i am using the effects loop, so I’m coming out of the “balanced” out, but I’m using a regular non TRS cable, so its unbalanced, and I turn the IR’s off. I tried it the other way, where the end of my effects chain went into the PS, but the volumes were all wonky, it was much more even doing the tradition “4 cable method.” Ive been gigging with this rig 2-3 times a month since october, and it has done well for me. I have speaker cabs on all 3 floors of my house, and one at my bands rehearsal space. I travel with just the board and a guitar
My god that sounds absolutely incredible
Would work perfectly for clinics and/or small gigging rigs
I played a bar with it last weekend, and it sounded better than my 6505+ did in the same room
@@Ottophil what was your signal chain? Did you go Direct to house, or run any sort of monitor?
@@cz875wireless, into tc electronic brain waves, crybaby wah, wampler ego compressor, and tubescreamer before the friedman. Volume pedal. Delay and reverb in the effects loop. The powerstage 170 ran into a 6505+ 1x12 combo speaker. Mic’d with a 57. We use in ears.and my mix was much less noisey than when Id run my 6505+ head into the same speaker
@@cz875i give up trying to reply, I’m shadow banned
Doesn't sound bad at all. I'd love to see your take on UAFX Lion, to see if it can do metal properly.
When Ola says repeatedly that a unit “sounds good”, IT IS GOOD
It needs the gear of the year award.
Sounded pretty good man !
Hey Ola you should do a comparison between all these tube powered pre-amp pedals. This vs Victory Kraken V4 vs Driftwood Purple Nightmare preamp pedal etc.
I can't comment on the other 2 but I bought the Kraken V4 preamp and I was sorely disappointed with it.
I was running it through my Marshall DSL40CR and it sounded thin and lifeless.
The onboard Marshall channels sounded leagues better.
I now own the Karken VX mark 1 amp and it sounds a lot better.
Personally, I'd either buy the new Mark 2 Karken amp or either of the other preamps you mentioned.
@@jarrusjenkins it depends on what amp you run it through, I have the v4 kraken preamp and run it into my victory v30 mkii and it sounds massive
@@Brennosguitarsandgear DSL40CR mate.
Sounded crap. It wasn't like I ran through a bad amp either.
In Victorys own demo of the preamp, they tried it on a Hot Rod deluxe and it sounded killer even though it was never ment to do that.
However through my DSL40CR it sounded shite even though it was ment to sound more "metal"
I had the brightness set to 0 on the preamp (highest it can go) and I had the Presence and Resonance on full on the amp and somehow it sounded like it had no low and it also sounded like a blanket over the speaker.
It was rather shocking to say the least.
Thought of coming back to this comment thread. I got the Driftwood Purple Nightmare preamp pedal recently. It absolutely rules ! Love that thing.
I really like mine! A very useful feature set. The only problem I’ve found is not being to load my own IR’s when using Windows 10. I emailed Friedman about it but nothing but crickets…. My workaround is to use my old Macbook to load IR’s until hopefully an update to the software will fix this.
We need a Mesa Triaxis in this form factor.
Or an ENGL. Or two channels of Marshall JVM.
Nice dude, love Friedman, very inspiring company! Hope you are well dude.
Thanks for the review. What a phenomenal studio-ready piece of equipment man.
Every now and again I comment this but ima give it another shot in hopes you see it or others will and pass it on but …
I would really like you to demo the peavy valve king amp head (mark 1) I would argue this is more bang for your buck then the boss katana and peavy vypr. It comes with its own boost and paired with decent high output pickups and optional overdrive or clean boost pedal this thing rips it for heavy stuff, the cab it comes with is not the best tho but there’s always Harley Benton v30 2x12. I got my half stack for 280$ CAD and there all over the used market
Sounds KILLER🔥
Can't go wrong with Friedman for sure!
Sounds really good to me!
I would be really curious to hear it through a poweramp/ cab combination!
I’ve been running it through a fryette 2/50/2 and really like it.
For a user it is kind of odd we can't see or change nob values in the software. But if it's a raw preamp it makes total sense. Pricing seems ok, you get a preamp + IR loader, so it's awesome for studio and live, and Friedman was never cheap but always built like a tank.
Gotta love Friedman.
Yooo man, there we go man, all good man! Ola, just one question you prefer the TS9 better to the TS808?
Sounds very good to my ears
Thank you ,this helps me to focus on all the good things in life.
Needed that Tube Screamer, sounded amazing with it!!!!!
Awesome review Please do a review with the Friedman JEL 20 Watt Amplifier.
Hey Ola what do you reckon this vs the KRS Ceres, I brought my Ceres from your review and I love it!
So is this basically the synergy BE/BB but in pedal format with power amp sim and IRs?
So how would this sound as an all-in-one to IEM system and FOH? For example, my lead guitar player who had the real full amp set up does most of the playing (I am the singer and play a few songs on guitar). I just a pedal board solution. I tried this setup Guitar -> Boss Noise Supp (OD 1 ) -> Tonex (Friedman amp & cab) -> DI box (XLR out) to IEM system and FOH. It doesn't sound as good as my TSL JCM2000 and 2X12 Cab mixed-up. the tonex seems to lack that oomph a real amp does. Would this Friedman IRX be basically like my Tonex but with the tubes?
The brutality @ 8:07! 🤘🏼
i like so much of this series. Thanks Ola!
1. Idk if anyone has made a better preamp pedal (for metal) than Ibanez..
2. Why am I still waiting for a lefty Type-X, Ola?
I haven't checked in for months. This reminds me why. One sound, one expectation, and most of the time no result. The humor is missed. 🤘
Now yeah!, A good combination of pedals, and the TS always with its magic, it's an incredible pedal.
Edit: you hinted that you might do another video showcasing the flexibility of the … unit? Don’t want to call it a pedal. Would you consider running it in the fx loop of one amp as a preamp and splitting the signal before it hit the IR-X into a 5150? Get that classic pairing? I feel like it may be beautifully disgusting.
This had to be done.
And you were the one who needed to do it.
I haven’t watched a second yet and I’m stoked.
Got mine and sending back. What ever I try and do I can not get it set up to get any sound out of it. I know I’m not really into computer stuff etc
Oh mayn, every other week a new pedal or multi effect. I love that now almost every company is trying to get in multineffect business which is great for us guitarists. The only problem is that the prices are just weirdly calculated. Why buy this and not line 6, or moor or give a bit more get dsp neural...etc. hard to decide. I wish we all can just buy everything and test out with our own ears :)
Just got one…going to try some nos tubes in it😌
It's true, every thing you plug into just ends up sounds like Ola. Interesting. Every guitarist has a sonic fingerprint.
Now we're talking. Sounds great!
Sounds great!!
Been waiting for you to drop this review!!!!!
I'm thinking of buying this and running it through my orange pedalbaby???
Ola: Put this in the loop of your dual rectifier, using the balanced output, and don't forget to disable the IRs. Not all of us own 35 amp heads so this kind of versatility goes a long way. This was just what I needed
What would be the point of using a balanced output to connect to an unbalanced effects return?
Sounds so sick
How about creating a new CHUG pedal with speaker simulation and Ola’s IR’s built in? 🤘😀🤘
Does Marshall JMP-1 sound better?
Love the t-shirt! Hollow Knight is amazing!
It's perfect. Exactly what I've wanted forever. Sounds filthy too. 🤘
Got mine and love it, but I didn't at first. Threw a graphic eq in the loop, and that wasn't what I wanted. I found out it takes OD pedals awesomely. Boosted with a Wampler Tumnus and Triumph sounded nicer to my ears than a Tube Screamer, like a little mid boost before the pre-amp. The built in boost sounds nice too. I downloaded Ola's Hesu cab IR and bam, there it is, shit, lol.
Does it clean up well with guitar volume?
@@VelhosNovosvery very much so. More than my real amps. Its very dynamic. Responds to pickup strength, and picking strength. And volume, all these things effect it much more than my 6505+ which is very compressed
sounds great.
I'm curious what stock 12AX7's are in the pedal and how easy they are to change.
Ugh, sounded so rad. Would be a great studio tool. Maybe I'll sell my Blackstar stage100 mk2. I could buy that and a power amp... Maybe. Damn inflation.
Sounds good but it's more of the same from Friedman , at that price I'd go for an HxStomp personnaly.
Sounds awesome! I have a Ceres and it's pretty damn awesome but it also sounds a bit 'clinical' and this may be the best option as it has actual vacuum tubes in it.
definitely on my wish list
I’m curious to see how far it goes as far as usability with various plugins ect.
I think I liked the sound at 3:58 the best, that was a pretty good blend of low and punchy highs that I enjoyed! But, of course, your IRs are always the best :)
Friedman nailed it with this pedal. It sounds so good.
Sounds great
God Bless Ola and family! From Burns in the PNW
Thank you
This is the future. Maybe include the power tube also.
0:15 -
Ola, that was My foot!!! 😖😤☹️
That Evergrey riff though…
Which Evergrey song?
I think it's pretty incredible.
Sick! Some Evergrey riffage in there 🤘
The Hollow Knight shirt
Are the internal gain trims still there like the OD Deluxe?
This sounds fucking SWEET!
TS-9 just took it to the promised land. Friedman gets it. All the Bells and Whistles. They're listening. \m/
I want to hear this thru amp 1 iridium pedal return loop.
Awesome Ola
2:34 "I like Gain" Ola Englund 2023
It is 499 $ (fair price) in the US but 636 $ in europe it seems! A bit too expensive in my opinion.
It's made in the US. No import taxes etc.
@@mrcoatsworth429 I know. But some other manufacturers "lower" there prices a for oversees at least a bit so that the price is a bit more similar worldwide. Would have been lovely here too but well things are what they are.
@@s.schmidt5923 I think this is mostly the case with far eastern produced products that are being shipped to both the US and European markets.
This thing is manufactured in the US. And I actually think 499 USD is a pretty good price for a unit with an analog tube preamp. I would have expected it to be more expensive in general.
It's £499 in the UK.
@@saarangnarayan123 that's 612 USD or 573 EUR.
What guitar strap are you using?
you really should test some of the Friedman Amps
I'm here for dat Hollow Knight shirt
Do you play anything other than metal?
Just curious, as your skills are up there dude :)
Bit noisy, but a nice noisegate would fix that - it has some great sounds!!
I use a tc sentry with my IrX . Its silent
Been waiting for this one. Great tone. It’s got angry snarl 😊
The IR-X paired with a hx stomp would be fuckin deadly.
like a fancier Tech 21 unit
Brutus loves him some tubage.
That said, no noise gate? sounds like it could really use one
Tech21 pedals are analog.
I know. Is the Friedman digital?@@bassyey
@@Brutuscomedythe back end of the Friedman is digital, but you can get the all analog tube signal from the fx send as I understand.
awesome pedal!
It’s Fried, man
Hello, Kemper player next😉. Great demo
and i thought Friedman only makes higher component quality copies of old Marshall amps.
Sounds awesome with the tube screamer, but the price doesnt
Love the hollow knight shirt!
Good day, Ola.
He should do a version with a 100w class D power amp in it.
Ola rules 🤟🏻
Two high voltage Friedman tube preamps, $500, enough said!
Hand Cameo by Joel?
Uncle Roger looks a lil different these days!!!😜🤘
Legal pedal fredman etc🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥⚔️
Какая же крутая гитара прям ух хд)))))
Only 599 € for two channel distortion pedal.
Yes, I know it's actually tube preamp.
Boss Metal Zone
Thanx for showcasing another boutique piece of shit that most of us will never be able to afford. 👏👏👏👏