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Friedman BE-50 deluxe or Mesa Boogie TC-50?

docrock

New member
Joined
Mar 11, 2003
Messages
24
Hello everybody,

I have the possibility to buy a pretty much new Friedman BE-50 for only slightly over the cost of a brand new Mesa TC-50. As you might understand, I´m looking for a three-channel amp. I´ve tried the Friedman and it´s quite ok, but the Mesa looks tempting as well. Unfortunately, I don´t have the possibility to try it out anywhere near.
Has anybody in the forum had the chance to play both? I would really appreciate your opninions.
FYI I usually play a LP Custom black beauty with Lolar pickups but also play a 335 with stock pickups and a Tele 72 deluxe-style custom-made guitar with Lollar Imperial pickups.
Thanks!
 

Pellman73

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 9, 2016
Messages
1,762
hey man-- since nobody answered I'll give you my thoughts even though they are not exactly what you are looking for. but maybe they help.

I've had two friedmans and one mesa. all sold... and not long after getting them

the friedmans, I thought, sounded kinda sterile, not organic... almost like something more modeled? again this is MY take. I had a small box 50 and a dirty shirley mini

you can get that great marshall sound but it just does not seem that dynamic or organic to me.... I'm sure someone will disagree. but this is my take!

I had a mesa 5:25..... too many goddamn buttons and switches and eq things and it took a lot to get everything dialed in. and as in too long I mean never !

I think great amps should only have a few dials and sound good no matter what you do to them--- again MY TAKE and where I've gone!

I've been lucky enough to sample some really great amps like my Carr Mercury V and my Park Rock Head 50..... and once you go to those places its hard to go back to other things.

amps are so subjective. I think there are predudices too that our brains make

why do you want 3 channels?

sorry if this post is not helpful-- again since there were crickets I thought I'd chime in.
 

Thundermtn

Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2016
Messages
548
I am pretty familiar with a bunch of boogie stuff. The TC-50 was my least favorite amp of theirs i ever tried. Tons of noise on the gain channel and the crunch channel wasn't as good as the 5:25 ex. The clean channel was ok but for the price it should be. I spent 10 minutes on it with a known amazing R8 and it was so "meh" that I never thought about it again.
 

thejaf

Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
527
Good responses above. If you're really serious about finding "your" amp sound, my recommendation (what worked for me 20 years ago) was to take a week of vacation and go to a bunch of shops in and around metropolitan or music-centered areas (Nashville, east coast USA, Austin, etc.).

I went to Raleigh NC area in 1999 when so many boutique amps were popping up everywhere, and tried dozens of amps at about 5 or 6 different stores. Of all the standard and boutique brands I tried over a course of 5 days, I walked away with a Bogner Shiva for my "tone in the head" at that time. I knew in the first 12 seconds of turning on the amp. :hank
 

thejaf

Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
527
A 20th Shiva is next on my try list. Any suggested settings?

I have not tried the 20th. As for settings, my only recommendation for the Shiva is to understand that the master volume on Shivas is a post effects return gain stage, very similar to the Dumblator. Thus, keep it low and crank up each channel volume to get maximum fullness, then only bring up master volume to designed stage volume.
 

SimonBarSinister

Active member
Joined
Aug 24, 2003
Messages
1,874
I currently own several Friedman's, original Marshall Metal Panels and a TC-50. In the last 2 years I also owned a Boogie Recto 25, v:25 and v:35 combo.

The Friedmans I have now are the Wildwood version of the Small Box (3 channel similar to the one you are looking at) and the regular Small Box. I love them they are fantastic amps. I recieve compliments on them everytime I play live. That being said, they need to be opened up to really get to that WOW sound. I have used Marshalls since the 70's so I find that tone very easy to dial in.

The Mesa's on the other hand are a different animal. I liked them all but the only one I really loved until now was the V:35 combo. That amp was really great I could get a good tone out of it no problem. Liked the Mesa 90 Speaker as well...

The Triple Crown is kind of different for Mesa. It is much easier to dial in a great tone on each channel. It kind of sits between a Mesa and a Marshall. There are some of both in there but it is different. I like it alot. Sounds better than all of the other mentioned amps at lower home volumes. In addition, while it looks like a lot of knobs, it really isn't... each channel is the same so it is easy...

In summation... The Friedman is all about the Marshall Plexi/Hot Rod Sound. Its a great tone... Kind of limited in that it just a different degree of that tone as you move through the amp's stack. Its an awesome tone...

Mesa TC has a lot of different tones. No one tone makes you go WOW like the Friedman will but you get a lot of different tones for the $$$ and they are all pretty great.

If you are looking to cover a lot of different bands in a cover band and need different tones it is no contest get the TC. If you told me I could only own one amp the rest of my life it would be the Friedman WW Small Box... That is my opinion.
 

Pellman73

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 9, 2016
Messages
1,762
I'm not sure what your budget is but PLEASE look into maybe having Mitchell Colby do an amp for you

he is great to work with, his amps are awesome and my Park Rock Head 50 is just the perfect marshall amp-- two channels, very organic. clean is great and the gain channel has everything you want!

he also has his own Colby "mod machine" which would do a lot of the things I think you want to do. MIght be the last amp you ever buy...

look at what happens when he adds the second gain stage... pretty awesome. so its like you could have everything from a early marshall to something modern and high gain...

anyhow... I really am happy w mine.

 
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