gringopig's guitars
Friedman JEL-20
A Jake E Lee signature modded Marshall amp but with Dave Friedman's signature sound built in. All the mods that created the sound of the 1980's metal roar but with a sweet Plexi style channel that sounds very juicy! The 20 Watt version of the limited edition monster that is so sought after is here.
Click on gallery for larger version
Friedman Amplification is synonymous with the sound of the modded Marshall, given that Dave Friedman started out modifying amps for the likes of Eddie Van Halen and Jerry Cantrell plus doing repairs and builds of amplifiers in California in the 1990's for various well known companies. He eventually formed Friedman Amplification (initially named Marsha Amps cheekily) and subsequently got into business with Boutique Amps Distribution in 2014 and made his design ethos available to the world. Boutique Amps Distribution make his designs in Los Angeles and also do Soldano, Tone King and others but Dave apparently comes in and play tests ever amp that goes out the door and signs each one.
The guitar world loves an amp guru and since Alexander Dumble, much Mysto Steam™ has been swirling around the modern day figures such as Dave Friedman, Mike Soldano, Bruce Egnater and the like.
Now, a lot of this may be hype and guitar amplifier design isn't exactly rocket science compared to other areas of electronics and I know this from experience but a good sound is a good sound and Dave Friedman knows how to make a good sounding amp.
Boutique Amp Distribution do build them though and I did have a Friedman Twin Sister that had a fault and had to be returned but that may well have been a consequence of the times, having being built in those heady heady days of bed wetting and oxygen deprivation due to multiple layers of masks that we endured not that long ago.
Maybe they couldn't get the capable ones in to do the soldering but the one I got was a dud and I wasn't going to persevere with it.
I was therefore a tad apprehensive on buying this new model but luckily it's fine!
Here's Dave...
So the amp is a 20 Watt head and a signature model of Jake E Lee who played guitar for Ozzy Osbourne but to my shame not really someone I knew much about to be honest. I didn't buy the amp because of the player but I am sure a lot of people will as it is a 20 Watt version of a 100 Watt monster that came out some years ago as a very limited edition. Quite a brutal amp as far as I understand.
This one is much more manageable and a normal production model too in the line of Friedman amps that also contains the JJ Junior, Little Sister, Pink Taco and the Runt 20. Thes smaller format amps are super popular as they are loud but also not so loud you would get thrown physically from venues by the soundman. However, 20 watts is not quiet. Not a home amp unless you attenuate or use a master volume.
Luckily, this pretty red jewel has 2 master volumes! One for each channel.
The arrangement is that each of the 2 foot switchable channels has individual control over gain and master volume, allowing the player to have 2 unique sounds at the press of the switch. Channel 1 is a Plexi sound. Still grunty and gainy (especially when boosted) but retaining the character of a Marshall Plexi head. Think Hendrix or any of the players from the late 1960's who used them.
Dave Friedman is a fan of that amplifier and basically uses this template to form the origin point for his trademark sound.
Channel 2 is the gained out modded channel with huge amounts of fat punchy saturated gain but retaining a spiky transparency that defines the 1980's metal sound. Both channels have a popular mod available: the limiting diode Sat switch which takes from the legendary modder like Jose Arrenondo and this switches in a sound which sounds like power amp sag and a tad more grit. Couple this with the pull out extra gain on channel 2 and you had better hope your pickups are potted!
Round the back there is a presence control to globally effect the top end response and it does indeed work although not radically altering the fundamental sound. Here's a shot of the front panel. Click on it for a magnified view:
There is a cab available but I just bought the head and due to a fortunate pricing error by the shop, I managed to buy this for a wee discount. Nice!
I'm exploring the sounds and you can get a lot out of this amp. I can't find any internal shots of it yet and am reluctant to take mine apart but I did check the back of the chassis to make sure the valves were intact and hadn't lost vacuum in transit, so I did see 3 pre-amp valves and 2 EL84 power valves plus some nice big transformers. Unlike the new Marshall JTM20 which has the puniest mains transformer I have ever seen in a 20 Watt amp. I played that and was left very unimpressed.
Not this one though. The Friedman sounds absolutely amazing and through my Zilla cab with an EVM 12L fitted it totally rocks. I could record a demo using the speaker cab or even use the silent XLR out recording feature with built in analogue cab sim and mic placement option.
Check out my demos of the 2channels in the videos below and watch in 1080p for best effect.
