I ran a test of the Judge vs Friedman BE/BB (BE channel)

[Lespauled]

After reading a post that the Judge and the Friedman BE sound similar, I had to give it a shot. I don't have a Judge module, but I do have a Judge channel in my Randall LynchBox LB103. I already have my Synergy running through it, so I just loaded up the Friedman BB/BE module, and ran a quick test.

With everything on 5/10, you could tell they were similar, but the Judge had more gain. So I pushed the gain on the BE module to 8/10, and tweaked the Judge with a little more mids (very little). With a couple of tweaks I felt like I had it dead on.

I asked my son to come down, and start playing through the amp. While he was playing, I was constantly switching between the amp and the Synergy. I asked him if he heard anything. He had no idea what I was talking about. In his ears, they were exact!! He didn't hear any change.

To make sure everything was working properly, I turned the gain down on the Friedman BE, and everything was working perfectly. There was a major difference. Turned the gain back to 8, and it was identical again. It seems the Judge is basically a Friedman BE with more gain.

Now I'm considering possibly selling the Friedman BB/BE. But, I love the cleans from the BB. I also love the cleans from the Super V channel of the amp. I'm torn.

 

[notyet]

I know that my Judge module was very close to the BE side of my BEBB module. I'm hoping someone can confirm that the BE side of a BEBB is the same as the regular BE module.

Someone here said the regular BE module had a weird mids thing going on.

I didn't realize the LB103 had that tone too. Its pretty much the Friedman BE sound. I wonder what other amps Friedman has been behind.

 

[Parker22nd]

I have a BE/BB but I've never played the Judge so all I can do is add my 2 cents about the BE/BB. The BB side of that amp has a beautiful clean tone but I agree the BE side could use a little more gain - it's great for a classic rock/hair metal tone or an Alice in Chains tone if you turn the gain all the way up. But it takes pedals like a champ and the pedals I have on my board (other than my Mesa Toneburst, which is always-on as a clean boost) are cheap pedals to add occasional character: Donner Dark Mouse (Rat Clone), Donner Sytlish Fuzz (Big Muff Clone) and DOD Boneshaker (for a bearded stoner tone). All of those pedals bring the gain up while adding their character to that tone so if you haven't already ran an overdrive or distortion pedal into the front end of the BE side of the preamp, try it. My other module (Engl Savage) gives me all the gain I need for rhythm but I like to use the BE/BB (with the BE gain at 3 o clock, bass at noon, mid at 1:30 and treble at 3 o clock) with the Dark Mouse/Rat distortion barely up (like 8:30) and the filter at noon for leads (I have some delay and a noise gate going on in the effects loop of my TC electronics G Major).

 

[notyet]

I picked up a BE module and it has the same great Friedman BE sound that the Judge and the BE/BB have.

I originally asked about this because somebody said the BE module had a weird mids or something that the BEBB didn't have. I don't know if they had a bad one or I have bad hearing but the BE module sounds great to me.

I've also seen it described as having a "mid hump" which I also don't know what they are talking about. A common FMV tone stack is incapable of a mid hump. I'm assuming they just meant "it isn't as radically scooped as some other things"

I wonder what other "stealth BE" circuits are out there other than the Judge modules/channels.

 

[Elric]

So, is the BE red channel on the BEBB pretty much the same as the Red channel on the BE module, then? I would assume so... the BEBB is pretty attractive due to the versatility of that clean channel.

 

[notyet]

The red and blue channels on the BE sound identical to me. The gain levels seem similar to the Judge also. I think the Judge was pretty much the same as the BE channel of the BEBB.

I just picked up a BE-modded JF-modded Plexi. It sounds pretty much the same as well.