Friedman Be-od, I'm Disappointed!

[chiliphil1]

I did it, I bought into the hype and pickup up the BE-OD.. Man, it is not what I was hoping it would be.

Don't get me wrong. The pedal has some good tone available but it seems to me it's either one of two things. You can have a high gain fire breather which to my ear doesn't have a lot of definition, or you can have a thin and wimpy sounding plexi tone. I've tried all kinds of settings with this pedal but I just can't seem to make it seem like it's worth $200.

First off, the original idea was to run into the clean channel on the recto and have a "Marshall" tone and Mesa tone. However, I find that when I run the pedal as a low gain classic rock tone it is super thin sounding, if I bump the gain it starts to move into similar territory as the recto making it redundant.

I think pretty much everyone out there loves these things but somehow, I just don't get it?

 

[johnfv]

I was impressed by the Pete Thorn demo and was considering trying one (even though I do not need another OD pedal). Objective opinions are always appreciated-

 

[chiliphil1]

I was impressed by the Pete Thorn demo and was considering trying one (even though I do not need another OD pedal). Objective opinions are always appreciated-

That demo is the reason I bought it. I'm just not getting those tones. Plenty of people are in love with it though. To be honest, if you want a really hot hotrodded marshall tone this is a good pedal. Personally though next to the recto the high gain tone of the BE is loose and mushy, not a lot of clarity. I would prefer to use it as a low/mid gain Marshall in a box type thing which it works well for but sounds thin.

I don't want to give the impression that it's all bad because it isn't I just don't think it fits into my set up like I imagined it would. Of course the amp it's running into is probably a big factor as well and mine having 6l6's probably isn't helping me.

 

[jmp45]

Pete Thorn here too. For all purposes I can get my v-twin to sound almost exactly like the BD-OD. Which may explain how you observed with your Mesa, hard to say, I don't have a recto. But the BE-OD has a little different edge to it, has that chunk Pete was getting. It has it's place on my board. Tweak the trim pot before you return, might find it more useful, down to 25% or so. I'll admit a few days ago I wasn't impressed. Then just yesterday I gave it another spin and it was right where it should be. I'll keep it.

 

[chiliphil1]

Pete Thorn here too. For all purposes I can get my v-twin to sound almost exactly like the BD-OD. Which may explain how you observed with your Mesa, hard to say, I don't have a recto. But the BE-OD has a little different edge to it, has that chunk Pete was getting. It has it's place on my board. Tweak the trim pot before you return, might find it more useful, down to 25% or so. I'll admit a few days ago I wasn't impressed. Then just yesterday I gave it another spin and it was right where it should be. I'll keep it.

I'm on the fence. I did move the internal trim a bit, 0% 15% etc I'm sure there's a sweet spot in there somewhere. I just haven't found it yet. I'm going to keep trying, I have up to 45 days with it, im sure I'll know by then if I want it or not.

 

[jmp45]

Keep receipts .. It's working ok with my slp and small box. 6CA7s. Side note, I stopped into a shop when the trem-o-verbs came out. I really liked that amp. I have an IA Blues 60 that kind of fits that niche. I'm hoping to have time over winter to open it up for a review here.

 

[solarburnDSL50]

Pete Thorn sounds good no matter.

There is something with this Friedman pedal I haven't liked with all the clips I've heard.

Cool some really dig it.

 

[flyinguitars]

I bought one for my son for Christmas and we like it. As far as the new designer OD pedals, We have the Plexi tone, the Mesa Boogie flux five, and now the BE-OD. I think they are all pretty close with the flux 5 maybe taking the win for maximum adjustability and tone. That said I think the BE-OD is the easiest to quick adjust and go. I would probably choose the BE-OD for walk in gigs that have amps/backline provided. Its real easy to dial in and get a good tone.

here is an on the fly iphone clip of my son playing the BE-OD through a Marshall clas 5

 

[The Ozzk]

Great tone and playing right here.

That C5 sounds fantastic

 

[acidvoodoo]

The clip above with the class 5 sounds great!

I picked one up a few weeks ago, at first compared to my bogner ecstacy red & uber pedal I didn't like it. Sounded super scoped. After some tweaking I got it were I like it. Sounds very similar to my uber pedal. Here's a quick iphone clip I did

 

[chiliphil1]

I bought one for my son for Christmas and we like it. As far as the new designer OD pedals, We have the Plexi tone, the Mesa Boogie flux five, and now the BE-OD. I think they are all pretty close with the flux 5 maybe taking the win for maximum adjustability and tone. That said I think the BE-OD is the easiest to quick adjust and go. I would probably choose the BE-OD for walk in gigs that have amps/backline provided. Its real easy to dial in and get a good tone.

here is an on the fly iphone clip of my son playing the BE-OD through a Marshall clas 5

Sounds great. Your kid is one of those though.. Haven't hear a bad thing from him..

Where do you have the internal gain set? Having the outer gain control maxed gives me a fizzy mess.

The clip above with the class 5 sounds great!

I picked one up a few weeks ago, at first compared to my bogner ecstacy red & uber pedal I didn't like it. Sounded super scoped. After some tweaking I got it were I like it. Sounds very similar to my uber pedal. Here's a quick iphone clip I did

That sounds nice. That really shows my thing with it though, your clip and this pedal when I give it some gain sounds almost exactly like the recto which makes having a $200 pedal which sounds just like the $1,000 amp it's plugged into sort of pointless. I was hoping for more Marshall grind but this pedal definately has that Mesa flavor to it..

More tweaking is in order.

 

[Bloodrock]

Here's the pedal you need. Just picked one up. It's fantastic. Never heard a better Marshall in a box!

 

[wakjob]

Looks like you need a Class 5 chiliphil1.
Hands down, the best I've heard that pedal sound.
Nice work, because up til' now, I didn't like it at all.

 

[chiliphil1]

Here's the pedal you need. Just picked one up. It's fantastic. Never heard a better Marshall in a box!

Been looking at those too and the weebo jcm drive.

Looks like you need a Class 5 chiliphil1.
Hands down, the best I've heard that pedal sound.
Nice work, because up til' now, I didn't like it at all.

Nah, I just need the chops that kid has.

 

[flyinguitars]

Thanks guys! Chill, the internal gain is where ever they set it stock. I will check later and let you know.

I like the pedal myself. I think I could play a walk-in with the BE-OD and a delay pedal if needed...like a an open mic or a fly in where you couldn't bring your head.

I really like the Flux 5 too but it has the slide eq faders and they are super sensitive so it takes some tweaking to get it just right. It's almost too adjustable. We found that the BE-OD was pretty easy for us to twist and go.

 

[chiliphil1]

Thanks guys! Chill, the internal gain is where ever they set it stock. I will check later and let you know.

I like the pedal myself. I think I could play a walk-in with the BE-OD and a delay pedal if needed...like a an open mic or a fly in where you couldn't bring your head.

I really like the Flux 5 too but it has the slide eq faders and they are super sensitive so it takes some tweaking to get it just right. It's almost too adjustable. We found that the BE-OD was pretty easy for us to twist and go.

I'll agree with you. Good tones can be had fairly easily. I think the hype was just too much though, I was expecting some earth shattering thing and to me it just isn't. I tried again earlier and using the settings in your video I got the best sound I've had from it. Your video taught me that when the gain goes up the tight goes with it.

The problem I had was that the higher the tight knob was the thinner it sounded. Then you lower the tight and it gets flubby. Best results were with the internal gain about 10:00 gain maxed, tight at about 3:00 with the eq just like yours. The other end of the spectrum was with the outer gain knob all the way down and the tight at about 10:30 or so. The range was from an ac/dc vibe and maxed it was in the ozzy/priest neighborhood. I couldn't get it to do Metallica (early stuff) because it was either too bright or too loose.

I kept tweaking and I could get it to sound amazing with soloing but it wouldn't sound right with rhythm stuff. Then I turned my amp up pretty freakin loud and the pedal really sounded horrible. It was so icepicky and lowering the presence or adding bass made it flubb. I tried to eq the amp clean channel to the pedal and same problem.

All in all I think it's a good pedal but it isn't for me. I'm going to be returning it.

 

[eastwood6]

Pedal has far more gain than I ever can reasonably play with, and is pretty much unusable with single coils due to the hum and buzz. Fun to try, but not for me.

 

[Dmann]

All in all I think it's a good pedal but it isn't for me. I'm going to be returning it.

Nothing wrong with that man, nothing at all. For me it's a keeper. Paired with an EL34 100 watt power section I think it's great.

 

[Ufoscorpion]

I did it, I bought into the hype and pickup up the BE-OD.. Man, it is not what I was hoping it would be.

Don't get me wrong. The pedal has some good tone available but it seems to me it's either one of two things. You can have a high gain fire breather which to my ear doesn't have a lot of definition, or you can have a thin and wimpy sounding plexi tone. I've tried all kinds of settings with this pedal but I just can't seem to make it seem like it's worth $200.

First off, the original idea was to run into the clean channel on the recto and have a "Marshall" tone and Mesa tone. However, I find that when I run the pedal as a low gain classic rock tone it is super thin sounding, if I bump the gain it starts to move into similar territory as the recto making it redundant.

I think pretty much everyone out there loves these things but somehow, I just don't get it?

See if you can try an mxr EVH od somewhere , might be what you need . You could then return the Be-od and get the mxr instead . Just a suggestion , my EVH od is awesome , super clarity at all gain levels an it roars like a lion ( or a Marshall ) should .

 

[chiliphil1]

See if you can try an mxr EVH od somewhere , might be what you need . You could then return the Be-od and get the mxr instead . Just a suggestion , my EVH od is awesome , super clarity at all gain levels an it roars like a lion ( or a Marshall ) should .

Would you say it's versatile? What I was really hoping for was a pedal that I could set as a "hot 800" type tone and then roll my volume to get into the plexi range.

That silver jubilee pedal posted above has my complete attention at the moment, since I'm looking purely for a Marshall tone and don't need high gain.