# 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

johnfv said:


> 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

jmp45 said:


> 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.


----------



## solarburn

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

flyinguitars said:


>




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

flyinguitars said:


> 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. 



acidvoodoo said:


> 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

Bloodrock said:


> 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. 



wakjob said:


> 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

flyinguitars said:


> 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

chiliphil1 said:


> 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

chiliphil1 said:


> 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

Ufoscorpion said:


> 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.


----------



## Ufoscorpion

chiliphil1 said:


> 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.


Definitely , the best and most comprehensive review on YouTube is by EytschPi42 . Well worth a look , he reviews everything in his fully equipped pro studio really comprehensively and isn't an Eddie wannabe .


----------



## flyinguitars

I've heard good things about the evh of too. A friend has it and loves it....my son went over and tried it and said that he liked it too.

I suspect that it is similar to the new crop of OD pedals. I think it's important to have a decent base clean sound to build upon.

Have you tried running into your fx loop return? If you have one (loop), plug your guitar into the BE-OD and then BE to the FX return. That may change the tone (for better or worse) but worth a shot.


----------



## chiliphil1

flyinguitars said:


> I've heard good things about the evh of too. A friend has it and loves it....my son went over and tried it and said that he liked it too.
> 
> I suspect that it is similar to the new crop of OD pedals. I think it's important to have a decent base clean sound to build upon.
> 
> Have you tried running into your fx loop return? If you have one (loop), plug your guitar into the BE-OD and then BE to the FX return. That may change the tone (for better or worse) but worth a shot.



No I haven't and I'll tell you my pig headed reason for not doing it. 

I want a pedal that I can use over my clean channel to give me a Marshall tone, if I have to plug into the loop then it defeats the purpose of having the pedal thus if I have to use it that way it isn't for me.


----------



## flyinguitars

OK I understand. I suggest to give it a try because that will give you access to the pure clean sound of your power amp without any influence from the preamp. If it's good, then you can probably get close by tweaking your clean channel. If it's still not want you like, then you gave it every possible chance..lol


----------



## Derek S

I'm still happy with my BE-OD pedal (nabbed one at launch so I've had it a good while now, honeymoon period has legally expired anyway lol). I use it for anything from light crunch to super tight heavy rhythm to chewy, saggy leads, does them all well...but as several have mentioned, it's (semi) dependent on the amp it's running into - I say "semi" because I think it's a little less picky than some of the other new breed of high gain amp like pedals these days (like the bogner line, etc), which REALLY seem to need fender type, super high head room, raw clean channels to be optimal, whereas the BE-od is more forgiving of that (but not THAT much), and with a Recto, I dunno, I mean I'm not that familiar with those, are they considered as having a killer clean channel, a balanced amp for use as a pedal platform? Just curious, never actually played one. I always thought (heard) they were somewhat mid scooped in feel, and the BE-od is also slightly lacking in the mids, so the match would not be good from the get go. But who knows...I also heard someone say they did NOT like their BE pedal in front of their Marshall DSL yet I tried it in front of my JCM2000 green channel and loved it lol, go figure. What speakers are you running that MESA through?


----------



## solarburn

The clips I don't like are when it sounds metallic. I hear a too tight sound. So tight it's taught.Lol

Then there are clips that sound pretty daem good and I enjoy.

Anyways until I demo one I can only go by clips. I'm divided but some of my fav players here love it which I do not brush off easily to say the least. Quite the opposite.


----------



## chiliphil1

Derek S said:


> I'm still happy with my BE-OD pedal (nabbed one at launch so I've had it a good while now, honeymoon period has legally expired anyway lol). I use it for anything from light crunch to super tight heavy rhythm to chewy, saggy leads, does them all well...but as several have mentioned, it's (semi) dependent on the amp it's running into - I say "semi" because I think it's a little less picky than some of the other new breed of high gain amp like pedals these days (like the bogner line, etc), which REALLY seem to need fender type, super high head room, raw clean channels to be optimal, whereas the BE-od is more forgiving of that (but not THAT much), and with a Recto, I dunno, I mean I'm not that familiar with those, are they considered as having a killer clean channel, a balanced amp for use as a pedal platform? Just curious, never actually played one. I always thought (heard) they were somewhat mid scooped in feel, and the BE-od is also slightly lacking in the mids, so the match would not be good from the get go. But who knows...I also heard someone say they did NOT like their BE pedal in front of their Marshall DSL yet I tried it in front of my JCM2000 green channel and loved it lol, go figure. What speakers are you running that MESA through?



The clean on mine is very nice. Lots of Fender character to it. I don't think running a pedal into this amp is a bad idea. It works quite well with the tube screamer. 

The major problem I think I have with it is that there isn't a lot of flexibility without tweaking. Theoretically I would like to have the ability to go from say JMP to JCM with the guitar volume. I find that I can't do that with this pedal. It does either of those tones but only 1. It doesn't seem very receptive to changes from the volume and so it has to be set for a certain sound. If I want plexi I have to dial it that way, if I want JCM I have to change the knobs around. Not really what I wanted. Also, the tight knob is another thing. It helps it to keep it's composure when using a lot of gain but it thins out the tone. Then when you're running lower gain you have to turn the tight down to compensate and add body, so you have to balance those and really, it's a hassle. 

At the moment I've got my eye on the jubilee pedal posted above. I think I'm going to take the Friedman back and give that one a try.


----------



## Derek S

chiliphil1 said:


> The clean on mine is very nice. Lots of Fender character to it. I don't think running a pedal into this amp is a bad idea. It works quite well with the tube screamer.
> 
> The major problem I think I have with it is that there isn't a lot of flexibility without tweaking. Theoretically I would like to have the ability to go from say JMP to JCM with the guitar volume. I find that I can't do that with this pedal. It does either of those tones but only 1. It doesn't seem very receptive to changes from the volume and so it has to be set for a certain sound. If I want plexi I have to dial it that way, if I want JCM I have to change the knobs around. Not really what I wanted. Also, the tight knob is another thing. It helps it to keep it's composure when using a lot of gain but it thins out the tone. Then when you're running lower gain you have to turn the tight down to compensate and add body, so you have to balance those and really, it's a hassle.
> 
> At the moment I've got my eye on the jubilee pedal posted above. I think I'm going to take the Friedman back and give that one a try.


Great point about the settings and adjusting, I should've mentioned in my situation, it's no biggie, just a bedroom wanker and it's no issue to set the pedal for one specific tone, hit record, then tweak it for something different and go again, etc. I could see this pedal being a hassle in a band setting because like you say, you're having to fuss with it too much when dialing in those various marshall flavored tones.

Anyway, sounds like you know it's not for you - which is always nice when that's clear pretty quick so you can go swap it out without any lo$$!! Let us know how that Jub pedal works out with your gear if you go that route.


----------



## MileHighStack

Hey dudes. 

I don't think that pedal should be called an overdrive, its clips too hard. By all rights its a distortion pedal. Generally the more gain a device has, the more one has to thin out the frequencies that will turn it to mush at higher gain settings. So any pedal with that much gain doesn't make a good overdrive because when you turn the gain down it gets thin. The tight knob probably dials out even harmonic content, making it sound thinner.

I own several Marshalls and one Mesa Dual rectifier two channel. I did the same thing as you, I kept trying to make it sound more like a Marshall, a best of both worlds wish. In the end I concluded that it's voicing is just plain contrary to the idea. It's extended lows and highs deflate the mids, where the Marshall grind occurs. When you try to give it more mids, instead of getting a more Marshally sound one just flattens the EQ curve, and adjusts away what is so attractive about the mesa, "CHUNK-CHUNK". One needs to run EL34s for mid grind, but its voiced for 6L6 type tubes, and Marshall voicing is the ticket for EL34 types. That's just my conclusion of course, your receivers might tell you different. 

Quit making that Mesa ashamed of being what it is! You listen to a mesa with your liver.


----------



## Snow and Steel

Have you tried that pedal on another amp?

When I ran Mesa's I found there were some pedals it just didn't like due to the EQ structure. I literally was going to toss some pedals for sale after a couple weeks of frustration and on a whim I tried them on a Fender amp - suddenly sounded good! Moral of the story - try another amp; perhaps your Mesa just doesn't like that pedal.

FWIW - for that kind of "faux Marshall" tone, I always preferred the MI Audio Crunchbox.


----------



## chiliphil1

Snow and Steel said:


> Have you tried that pedal on another amp?
> 
> When I ran Mesa's I found there were some pedals it just didn't like due to the EQ structure. I literally was going to toss some pedals for sale after a couple weeks of frustration and on a whim I tried them on a Fender amp - suddenly sounded good! Moral of the story - try another amp; perhaps your Mesa just doesn't like that pedal.
> 
> FWIW - for that kind of "faux Marshall" tone, I always preferred the MI Audio Crunchbox.



I ran it straight into my interface with cabinet simulations and it worked pretty well. Thing is though, the mesa is my amp and if this pedal doesn't work with it then I have no use for the pedal. I'm going to try the Alexander jubilee next and hopefully that works, if not I'll move on to something else. I'm just trying to add a Marshall flavor to the clean channel to have a little more flexibility now that I'm doing mostly covers.


----------



## Snow and Steel

chiliphil1 said:


> ...the mesa is my amp and if this pedal doesn't work with it then I have no use for the pedal...



If its the only amp you use, then that is a deal breaker for sure.

I could recommend the MI Audio Crunchbox - its relatively inexpensive yet well made and high quality without a super flubby low end. If you want really pronounced aggressive mids then the Keeley 1962X with the gain dimed [flipped over to the kt88 mode] is also very happening, and it has a nice tight bas response.


----------



## chiliphil1

Snow and Steel said:


> If its the only amp you use, then that is a deal breaker for sure.
> 
> I could recommend the MI Audio Crunchbox - its relatively inexpensive yet well made and high quality without a super flubby low end. If you want really pronounced aggressive mids then the Keeley 1962X with the gain dimed [flipped over to the kt88 mode] is also very happening, and it has a nice tight bas response.



Cool, I'll check into those. Thanks!


----------



## Coronado

Phil, I gave it every attempt with my Mesa and it sounds like dog shit. I don't know why, but for some reason, I cant seem to find a good tone on any channel, watt, or gain level on the Mesa. Its like the amp rejects the pedal altogether! HA!  I have no idea why, but it works great with my DSLs, JCM, JVM, JMP, and SL-5, (and even my fender Pro Junior), but *no bueno* with the Mesa. Going to see if making any adjustments (open it up and lower the gain) and see if that helps. But for now, the BE is exclusively being used with just my Marshalls.


----------



## chiliphil1

Coronado said:


> Phil, I gave it every attempt with my Mesa and it sounds like dog shit. I don't know why, but for some reason, I cant seem to find a good tone on any channel, watt, or gain level on the Mesa. Its like the amp rejects the pedal altogether! HA!  I have no idea why, but it works great with my DSLs, JCM, JVM, JMP, and SL-5, (and even my fender Pro Junior), but *no bueno* with the Mesa. Going to see if making any adjustments (open it up and lower the gain) and see if that helps. But for now, the BE is exclusively being used with just my Marshalls.



Yeah, I wouldn't say it was bad though. Just not as flexible as I was looking for. Really, I want more of a "hot plexi" type thing and the BE is more hot 800 to my ear. Just too much and wasn't responsive to the volume on the guitar. I think the best tone I had was copying the settings in flyinguitars video. Presence about max, bass around 3:00, treble about 12:30ish, gain max, tight max. 

Those were good setting but more than I was looking for. I did mess with the internal pot and it still didn't get where I wanted it.


----------



## Coronado

chiliphil1 said:


> Yeah, I wouldn't say it was bad though. Just not as flexible as I was looking for. Really, I want more of a "hot plexi" type thing and the BE is more hot 800 to my ear. Just too much and wasn't responsive to the volume on the guitar. I think the best tone I had was copying the settings in flyinguitars video. Presence about max, bass around 3:00, treble about 12:30ish, gain max, tight max.
> 
> Those were good setting but more than I was looking for. I did mess with the internal pot and it still didn't get where I wanted it.



That's awesome! I set the tight only half way - haven't really messed with that feature too much yet. 

On my JMP, I love the BE - 1/4 (9:00) volume, 1/4 gain, 1/2 (12:00) tight, push the treble and presence up pretty far. Really gives it a great bite. On my JCM800, its 1/2 (12:00) volume, no gain, rest of the settings the same. Just a great sound.

On the Mesa, I've been using a modded TS-9 - Full volume on the TS-9, 4x12 of V30's, 1/3 volume on the amp, gain about the same. Very cool low end chug. Its been a lot of fun.


----------



## chiliphil1

Coronado said:


> That's awesome! I set the tight only half way - haven't really messed with that feature too much yet.
> 
> On my JMP, I love the BE - 1/4 (9:00) volume, 1/4 gain, 1/2 (12:00) tight, push the treble and presence up pretty far. Really gives it a great bite. On my JCM800, its 1/2 (12:00) volume, no gain, rest of the settings the same. Just a great sound.
> 
> On the Mesa, I've been using a modded TS-9 - Full volume on the TS-9, 4x12 of V30's, 1/3 volume on the amp, gain about the same. Very cool low end chug. Its been a lot of fun.



Yep, I dig the rectos for sure. Mine just took a poop. So I have to see what it's going to take to repair it or I may have to return the thing and try to find something else. Only problem is that I got mine at a steal for $650 and the other similar models listed are all $1k.. So, I'll have to either pay to repair it or come up with cash on top to get another.


----------



## MemphisMarshallMan

I bought a BE-OD and was happy for a couple of weeks. Then I heard a Texas Harmonics Hot Mod800 pedal and picked one up. It has so much more raw tone and doesnt sound as compressed as the BE-OD that I just threw that pedal into a drawer. The Hot Mod800 has a better tone that interfaces with my Dsl100 heads much better than the BE-OD. 
Its not that the BE-OD is bad, its just that the Hot Mod800 sounds SO much better in my opinion.


----------



## Coronado

MemphisMarshallMan said:


> I bought a BE-OD and was happy for a couple of weeks. Then I heard a Texas Harmonics Hot Mod800 pedal and picked one up. It has so much more raw tone and doesnt sound as compressed as the BE-OD that I just threw that pedal into a drawer. The Hot Mod800 has a better tone that interfaces with my Dsl100 heads much better than the BE-OD.
> Its not that the BE-OD is bad, its just that the Hot Mod800 sounds SO much better in my opinion.



Damn frickin' Reverb!!! If I go there _one more damn time_ only to find the item I'm looking for is _sold_, or the sale has ended... I would say that 95% of the time when I see something listed for sale, when I click on the item on Reverb, its sold. They really need to pull their damn ads! Sorry for the vent session, that's literally the 3rd time _this morning alone_ that I've been searching for something on Reverb just to find the ad was either from 2 years ago, or its sold. I saw a Texas Harmonics Hot Mod800 for sale ($100 bucks!) and figured I'd give it a shot. I have heard good things - plus its made right here in good ol' Fort Worth!  Going to keep my eye out for this pedal. Thanks for the tip!


----------



## Coronado

chiliphil1 said:


> Yep, I dig the rectos for sure. Mine just took a poop. So I have to see what it's going to take to repair it or I may have to return the thing and try to find something else. Only problem is that I got mine at a steal for $650 and the other similar models listed are all $1k.. So, I'll have to either pay to repair it or come up with cash on top to get another.



Damn! - $650? That's awesome! Hopefully its not a major fix and they can get that bad-boy fixed up for ya. I'm digging Mesa - may need to keep this one company with a Mark Series! Would love to hear the two together (Rect and a Mark).


----------



## chiliphil1

Coronado said:


> Damn frickin' Reverb!!! If I go there _one more damn time_ only to find the item I'm looking for is _sold_, or the sale has ended... I would say that 95% of the time when I see something listed for sale, when I click on the item on Reverb, its sold. They really need to pull their damn ads! Sorry for the vent session, that's literally the 3rd time _this morning alone_ that I've been searching for something on Reverb just to find the ad was either from 2 years ago, or its sold. I saw a Texas Harmonics Hot Mod800 for sale ($100 bucks!) and figured I'd give it a shot. I have heard good things - plus its made right here in good ol' Fort Worth!  Going to keep my eye out for this pedal. Thanks for the tip!



Looks like you can buy it right from the manufacturer for $165. Nice deal. I've gotta decide now if I want this one or the jubilee pedal. Though both will probably have to wait till the recto is movin again.



Coronado said:


> Damn! - $650? That's awesome! Hopefully its not a major fix and they can get that bad-boy fixed up for ya. I'm digging Mesa - may need to keep this one company with a Mark Series! Would love to hear the two together (Rect and a Mark).



Yeah, it's something to have them together. The mark is tighter and more focused. It doesn't have that big boomy bottom but it's got huge mids. If you put them together they literally fill the entire frequency spectrum.

If you think of it this way, the mark is everything the recto is missing and the recto is everything the mark is missing.


----------



## Coronado

chiliphil1 said:


> Looks like you can buy it right from the manufacturer for $165. Nice deal. I've gotta decide now if I want this one or the jubilee pedal. Though both will probably have to wait till the recto is movin again.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, it's something to have them together. The mark is tighter and more focused. It doesn't have that big boomy too but it's got huge mids. If you put them together they literally fill the entire frequency spectrum.
> 
> If you think of it this way, the mark is everything the recto is missing and the recto is everything the mark is missing.



Man, that sounds frickin' perfect!!  Which would you prefer for leads?


----------



## chiliphil1

Coronado said:


> Man, that sounds frickin' perfect!!  Which would you prefer for leads?



Mark all day. They have the fat juicy mids and a singing top end. They're much prefered by lead players like Petrucci. 

My recto though I bought for a specific reason, from the internet folklore archives the info says that "The tremoverb is more concentrated to upper mids than all other rectos, it's smoother and darker" etc. I specifically wanted a ToV for this reason, I can say that it handles lead work just fine. Thing is though, a Mark IV would be about the same price as a ToV, mark V would be about $500+ more, so really, it just depends on how much it's worth it to you. 

The guy to ask is @SonVolt because he runs a triple recto and a mark V.


----------



## Silverburst

I owned a BE100. although I loved it a lot, like can't stop playing a lot, I sold it because it is just stupid expensive.

So I tested a friend BEOD in front of:
- Legacy I clean, clean headroom for decades. 6L6. Takes it very well! Tight croncky crunch.
- YJM. well... that sounded instantly more early EVH than the BE100. Someone also told me the BE100 is rather jcm800 base than Plexi. And I found the BEOD, although it is a distortion pedal, let's the amp's original guts shine through very well.

So I bought one instantly. You have to lower the internal trim to get a more usable range on the front knob. A bit the same problem with the BE100 btw. At a certain point you lose your right hand dynamics, don't like that.

But the BEOD has most certainly the BE100 voicing/gain structure to me. On top of a Marshall you just get more Marshall than a hot rod clone.


----------



## PSH

I am playing the BE OD into the clean channel of the 20 watt 6505. The internal and regular gain pots are both set at about 9 o'clock and I am getting a good scorpions, Iron Maiden, dokken tone. It definitely gives some good Marshall tone to the peavey with these lower gain settings. However, the Friedman OD with high gain settings doesn't really do anything that the 6505 lead channel can't already do.


----------



## MileHighStack

chiliphil1 said:


> 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.



Hey man, if you really have to get a Marshall sound out of that amp, buy a palfx 959. You won't do better.


----------



## MileHighStack

The 800 emulator will obviously give you something closer to a hot JCM800, but it won't get that plexi chunk as accurately, which is probably more important.


----------



## MileHighStack

http://pedalpalfx.wixsite.com/inicio/our-pedals


----------



## ricksconnected

phil,

that sucks bro.
ive not seen a review of this pedal through a boogie.
that might be the actual problem in itself ya know.
maybe its a great pedal for a marshall but just doesn't chime well
with a boogie format. its possible. I didn't read the whole thread but I hope
you can return it for your $$ back. nothing like being stuck with some shit ya cant use
or don't need. especially at that price.

I don't know if your gonna get a solid marshall tone out of a boogie.
it might come close but due to all the amps you've had that were marshalls
you might not be satisfied with what you find just because its not the real
deal and you will hear the differences because you've owned the Real Deal.
just my thoughts, I could be wrong, but I might not be either.


----------



## chiliphil1

ricksconnected said:


> phil,
> 
> that sucks bro.
> ive not seen a review of this pedal through a boogie.
> that might be the actual problem in itself ya know.
> maybe its a great pedal for a marshall but just doesn't chime well
> with a boogie format. its possible. I didn't read the whole thread but I hope
> you can return it for your $$ back. nothing like being stuck with some shit ya cant use
> or don't need. especially at that price.
> 
> I don't know if your gonna get a solid marshall tone out of a boogie.
> it might come close but due to all the amps you've had that were marshalls
> you might not be satisfied with what you find just because its not the real
> deal and you will hear the differences because you've owned the Real Deal.
> just my thoughts, I could be wrong, but I might not be either.




Yeah, I ended up trading it to a friend for something he had. I don't want to give the impression that it's a bad pedal in reality it's phenomenal. My thing was that it was a little too hot and had too much bottom end to nail the Marshall tone. It did hot rod Marshall spot on but I was hoping for more of a stock Marshall thing. 

Either way, if someone is interested in these I wouldn't steer them away.


----------



## Mystic38

I have the BE-OD

Based upon my understanding that this essentially is athe BE100 pre-amp in a box, it means that it is extremely sensitive to what amp you put it into.. so my conclusions are:

1. Running this into my DAW..
Using solely the Two Notes Wall of Sound Plugin in (power amp, cab, mic, reverb) which i D/l'd for this test, I had the best tone EVER out of my computer monitors bar none.. in like, 10 mins after downloading the plug-in. Open, organic..like wtf holy crap territory of goodness.

2. Into the FX return of my Vintage Modern..
Sounded really really good.. but then, dont i already have a hi gain mode on that amp?..lol.. a conceivable option for a 3rd channel using G system and some routing if i can be hacked...

3. Into Clean channel of the Rocker 30..
If you didnt know, the R30 "natural" channel is just that.. its a flat response with a single 12ax7 gain stage..effectively a pure preamp.. and here the BE-OD also shines.. clearly a different character to the thick raw dirty channel of the R30 but very impressive and its difficult to hear that its a solid state rendition of a preamp for sure..

4. Into a Deluxe Reverb..
yeah.. its a decent distortion pedal. And this is the entirety of the discussion... we have stacked the BE tonestack on top of a fender mid scoop and its just just ok/good.. perhaps with differing B/T settings, but more likely will try with an EQ pedal along the way.

My summary..
1. its a flat out great pre-amp, with a gain range from medium to really high.. open, organic lively, harmonically rich.. just great.
2. it does not really do low gain.. I currently have the internal trim pot at 9 o clock and its still to much gain for (say) AC/DC ..
3. if you are running this into an amp input you WILL need EQ to compensate for the two tone stacks...rationally, how else can you expect great tones?.. but remember, then you won't be hearing a BE at all.
4. The BE-OD can seriously be part of a pedal only rig..after checking out the WOS plugin, i ordered a Torpedo CAB.. practice amps be damned.

cheers, Ian


----------



## Coronado

The BE sounds awesome with my Marshalls - sounds like crap with my Mesa's. Tried everything, but Mesa just seems to work best (for me) with the SD1 and TS9.


----------



## dslman

Toward the end of Pete's video,he runs it through a dirty channel, and it didn't impress.
Also got the impression from his mannerisms, that he wasn't thrilled either.
I've tried several amp in a box/distortion pedals in the past, and they always sound thin and lifeless on the dirt channel.
When this pedal came out ,I thought it was a distortion pedal for a clean amp, based on my ears.
Seems that is the main use of this.
Some other ones to consider for you clean channel guys.
VFE Alpha dog
Crunch Box
EVH 5150 OD.
just to name a few.


----------



## chiliphil1

dslman said:


> Toward the end of Pete's video,he runs it through a dirty channel, and it didn't impress.
> Also got the impression from his mannerisms, that he wasn't thrilled either.
> I've tried several amp in a box/distortion pedals in the past, and they always sound thin and lifeless on the dirt channel.
> When this pedal came out ,I thought it was a distortion pedal for a clean amp, based on my ears.
> Seems that is the main use of this.
> Some other ones to consider for you clean channel guys.
> VFE Alpha dog
> Crunch Box
> EVH 5150 OD.
> just to name a few.



The Friedman is definitely a clean channel pedal. I can't see it doing a good job as a boost, it just has too much of it's own personality. I think of this pedal more as a pre amp than an overdrive.


----------



## SonVolt

chiliphil1 said:


> Mark all day. They have the fat juicy mids and a singing top end. They're much prefered by lead players like Petrucci.
> 
> My recto though I bought for a specific reason, from the internet folklore archives the info says that "The tremoverb is more concentrated to upper mids than all other rectos, it's smoother and darker" etc. I specifically wanted a ToV for this reason, I can say that it handles lead work just fine. Thing is though, a Mark IV would be about the same price as a ToV, mark V would be about $500+ more, so really, it just depends on how much it's worth it to you.
> 
> The guy to ask is @SonVolt because he runs a triple recto and a mark V.




I put my Mark V on Craig's List to fund a JP-2C. One amp I will never sell is the Mark IV....


----------



## JAC

This pedal is easy to adjust and sounds excellent. I don't understand why anyone would complain about it. I feel it is one of the finer new distortions out right now. Go ahead and flame me but, that is what I feel and hear with it. I own close to 90 different pedals and a number of them are nice distortions. This one rates up there towards the top.


----------



## dslman

Key word "distortion"


----------



## el_bastardo

A friend of mine just bought this pedal last weekend. It sounds good into a very clean channel. It does not sound anywhere near as good as a real BE-100, nor does it work well with a crunchy/dirty amp. This is a pedal for getting a pseudo hot rodded Marshall tone from an amp that doesn't naturally have that type of sound.

So basically in my estimation, it's fairly useless. It's a distortion pedal amp-in-a-box type thing that works well if using clean amps with dirt boxes is your M.O.


----------



## chiliphil1

el_bastardo said:


> A friend of mine just bought this pedal last weekend. It sounds good into a very clean channel. It does not sound anywhere near as good as a real BE-100, nor does it work well with a crunchy/dirty amp. This is a pedal for getting a pseudo hot rodded Marshall tone from an amp that doesn't naturally have that type of sound.
> 
> So basically in my estimation, it's fairly useless. It's a distortion pedal amp-in-a-box type thing that works well if using clean amps with dirt boxes is your M.O.



Bingo. That's what I was trying to say about it. You've said it better than I did.


----------



## el_bastardo

chiliphil1 said:


> Bingo. That's what I was trying to say about it. You've said it better than I did.


As you noticed, the pedal doesn't do a classic crunch Marshall type tone well. You gotta remember what it is though. It's a "Brown Eye" pedal. The Friedman Brown Eye mod means one thing in guitar tone world - scorching Marshall tone. The pedal does that pretty well.

We used it into the very cleanest settings on the clean channel on an Orange TH30. Sounded great, but that's the only way it worked well with the amp. Crack in a little dirt on the amp, and it all kind of went to shit. The pedal into the dirty channel was absolute shit. So I think you'd need a very clean platform to start with for this pedal, and even then it's only useful if you want that super molten Brown Eye type sound.

It'd probably be great for Fender combo guys that need to switch back and forth from clean to hot rodded with one amp.


----------



## Derek S

I chimed in earlier in this thread and posted that I liked the pedal and it was sounding nice with my amps...so I figure it's only right that I also mention I eventually sold it and moved on. But nothing against the pedal (though it can be noisy, even with the trim dialed way back), it delivers what they claim (bitchin HIGH gain, Marshall flavored tones from a stomp), etc, but I think it was an impulse buy at the time as well as a learning moment where I simply decided, of the two options, I just prefer to get most of the gain from the amp and then use a light gain box or pure clean boost here and there vs a full on distortion box. That was the second time I convinced myself I HAD to have a distortion box too (Bogner Red) and the second time I quickly realized I was wrong. Still, a great tone device for sure, best dist box tones I ever sampled, loads of character, etc.


----------



## chiliphil1

Well guys in a strange twist of fate I bought the pedal back from my friend yesterday. 

This time however I also bought a dsl15h from him and I've got to say, this pedal is flat out amazing through the dsl. Running into the front of the clean channel this pedal is absolutely stunning. I've learned to just use it as the 1 trick pony that it is, and it is a very good trick. So far I'm quite pleased with it this time. I have not tried through the recto as I let him borrow that, I'll see how it goes whenever I get it back.


----------



## SonVolt

Friends don't let friends borrow amps! That's how they get powered on without a speaker load.


----------



## Ufoscorpion

Enough said .


----------



## Ufoscorpion

appologies was trying to show a YouTube demo of an mxr 5150 od by Riccardo Gioggi , it's worth a watch .


----------



## chiliphil1

SonVolt said:


> Friends don't let friends borrow amps! That's how they get powered on without a speaker load.



Nah, he's good. I trust this guy. It won't even leave his house.


----------



## el_bastardo

chiliphil1 said:


> I've learned to just use it as the 1 trick pony that it is, and it is a very good trick.


I think that is probably the key to that pedal. It's very good at the one thing it can do. It's awfully expensive for a one-trick pony, but it's trick is good.


----------



## JAC

el_bastardo said:


> As you noticed, the pedal doesn't do a classic crunch Marshall type tone well. You gotta remember what it is though. It's a "Brown Eye" pedal. The Friedman Brown Eye mod means one thing in guitar tone world - scorching Marshall tone. The pedal does that pretty well.
> 
> We used it into the very cleanest settings on the clean channel on an Orange TH30. Sounded great, but that's the only way it worked well with the amp. Crack in a little dirt on the amp, and it all kind of went to shit. The pedal into the dirty channel was absolute shit. So I think you'd need a very clean platform to start with for this pedal, and even then it's only useful if you want that super molten Brown Eye type sound.
> 
> It'd probably be great for Fender combo guys that need to switch back and forth from clean to hot rodded with one amp.




Did you even attempt to adjust the internal gain trim pot?


----------



## Derek S

JAC said:


> Did you even attempt to adjust the internal gain trim pot?


Not to mention the pedal shares the DNA of the amps he builds, which all clean up extremely well when you roll your guitars vol back - and I recall that being the case with the pedal too, so players should try getting a nice medium to even lowish gain crunch with it that way FWIW before writing it off as a "0-100mph" pedal only.


----------



## el_bastardo

JAC said:


> Did you even attempt to adjust the internal gain trim pot?


I personally did not. The other guy did and his report was it didn't matter much.


----------



## chiliphil1

Derek S said:


> Not to mention the pedal shares the DNA of the amps he builds, which all clean up extremely well when you roll your guitars vol back - and I recall that being the case with the pedal too, so players should try getting a nice medium to even lowish gain crunch with it that way FWIW before writing it off as a "0-100mph" pedal only.



I don't know. Mine doesn't seem to respond to guitar volume level at all, it just will not clean up.


----------



## Derek S

^^Maybe it was a pickup thing, but rolling the vol back worked well enough for me with an old super distortion...not great, but decent. It is still at the end of the day a mondo hi gain first box.


----------



## el_bastardo

We use pretty mild pickups, and the pedal still didn't allow for good vol roll off for us


----------



## jericbrazier

Derek S said:


> I'm still happy with my BE-OD pedal (nabbed one at launch so I've had it a good while now, honeymoon period has legally expired anyway lol). I use it for anything from light crunch to super tight heavy rhythm to chewy, saggy leads, does them all well...but as several have mentioned, it's (semi) dependent on the amp it's running into - I say "semi" because I think it's a little less picky than some of the other new breed of high gain amp like pedals these days (like the bogner line, etc), which REALLY seem to need fender type, super high head room, raw clean channels to be optimal, whereas the BE-od is more forgiving of that (but not THAT much), and with a Recto, I dunno, I mean I'm not that familiar with those, are they considered as having a killer clean channel, a balanced amp for use as a pedal platform? Just curious, never actually played one. I always thought (heard) they were somewhat mid scooped in feel, and the BE-od is also slightly lacking in the mids, so the match would not be good from the get go. But who knows...I also heard someone say they did NOT like their BE pedal in front of their Marshall DSL yet I tried it in front of my JCM2000 green channel and loved it lol, go figure. What speakers are you running that MESA through?


I LOVE my be od through my dsl40 green channel. On the other hand, I have a Mesa Studio 22+ that I hate the be od thru. I'd try the Bogner Ecstasy Red, if I want roaring Marshally tones thru the Mesa, the Bogner's awesome!


----------



## Coronado

jericbrazier said:


> I LOVE my be od through my dsl40 green channel. On the other hand, I have a Mesa Studio 22+ that I hate the be od thru. I'd try the Bogner Ecstasy Red, if I want roaring Marshally tones thru the Mesa, the Bogner's awesome!



Gotta agree, LOVE the BE through some of my other amps - the DSL green channel (low gain setting on amp), 74' 1987, Fender Pro Junior, SL-5, and even on the JCM800 (again, lower gain on amp). I add volume boost on the BE, with pretty much zero gain from the pedal. Sounds really good - big, warm tone. Now on the Mesa Mini Recto and RA100, it just doesn't translate very well. Seems to sound thin and over saturated, even at the lowest settings. Side-by-side comparison with a TS9, SD-1, BB Preamp, and OCD: they all seem to work pretty well, but the BE just farts out with the Mesa. But it do like it with my other amps.


----------



## ricksconnected

jericbrazier said:


> if I want roaring Marshally tones thru the Mesa, the Bogner's awesome!




who would want that?


----------



## El Gringo

ricksconnected said:


> who would want that?


I agree, forget all the others and use a Marshall .


----------



## ricksconnected

El Gringo said:


> I agree, forget all the others and use a Marshall .




Marshall is a step down from Mesa Boogie in just about every way bro.


----------



## El Gringo

ricksconnected said:


> Marshall is a step down from Mesa Boogie in just about every way bro.


I think they are different flavors and different taste .Mesa is good at what they do for instance the Boogie ,but that really is not a Marshall sound to me because it is a small box Princeton or Champ that is souped up on steroids for that thick high gain and sustain that does not quit and thinking back when a friend a couple blocks away got one (and this was the first one I ever seen in person and he was playing thru it with a late 50's Strat and the sustain he was getting was jaw dropping to me .Back then I had to turn up my Twin to 10 and use a Fuzz face to get even close to a tone like that with my Les Paul with humbuckers . I remember playing thru a friends NMV Marshall ( way back in the late 70's ) but I had to turn that amp up really loud to get that SOUND . So I was very impressed with the Boogie because I had to use pedals to try to even get close to that sound .Think like that sustain that Carlos Santana was getting and I could not touch it at all .So Mesa has a place on the menu of flavors for tone .To me it's like going out to eat steak at your favorite steakhouse and one of the steaks is a NY Strip ,and the other one is a Porterhouse steak and the other one is a Filet Mignon .That's all I am saying and for me all of my life I have been chasing tone and when I got my 2555X ,with my 2551 AV I was finally there .No more overdrives or distortions needed for myself .Now it's really fun because I only have myself to bitch at about my playing and chops because the sound is there and now I just have to deliver thru my fingerboard to make the magic happen which some days is better than others .


----------



## ricksconnected

good reply Gringo. pretty much agree too.


----------



## chiliphil1

El Gringo said:


> I think they are different flavors and different taste .Mesa is good at what they do for instance the Boogie ,but that really is not a Marshall sound to me because it is a small box Princeton or Champ that is souped up on steroids for that thick high gain and sustain that does not quit and thinking back when a friend a couple blocks away got one (and this was the first one I ever seen in person and he was playing thru it with a late 50's Strat and the sustain he was getting was jaw dropping to me .Back then I had to turn up my Twin to 10 and use a Fuzz face to get even close to a tone like that with my Les Paul with humbuckers . I remember playing thru a friends NMV Marshall ( way back in the late 70's ) but I had to turn that amp up really loud to get that SOUND . So I was very impressed with the Boogie because I had to use pedals to try to even get close to that sound .Think like that sustain that Carlos Santana was getting and I could not touch it at all .So Mesa has a place on the menu of flavors for tone .To me it's like going out to eat steak at your favorite steakhouse and one of the steaks is a NY Strip ,and the other one is a Porterhouse steak and the other one is a Filet Mignon .That's all I am saying and for me all of my life I have been chasing tone and when I got my 2555X ,with my 2551 AV I was finally there .No more overdrives or distortions needed for myself .Now it's really fun because I only have myself to bitch at about my playing and chops because the sound is there and now I just have to deliver thru my fingerboard to make the magic happen which some days is better than others .



Great post man! I'm glad you found your tone, people spend a lifetime chasing it, so it's awesome when it all clicks. I'll definitely agree with everything you've said here, 2 flavors. Marshall has their thing, mesa has theirs. I think there is no better combo in the world that one of each working together. My last band, we did that on purpose, I had the Marshall, the other guitar was on a mesa. That was completely intentional because we wanted to cover the entire spectrum. The mesa brought the thicker bottom end and the Marshall had the punch and it cut right through. 

I also find it cool how over the years they've both tried to cross into the others territory. Mesa with amps like the stiletto and Marshall with the JVM. I love how competition has driven them to make such stellar amps. In the end though, its preference as to which flavor you prefer and most of us end up with one (or more) of each! 

I'll say this though, I think mesa build quality is miles ahead of any other manufacturer, especially Marshall with their plastic board mounted pots.


----------



## jericbrazier

ricksconnected said:


> who would want that?


I use my Mesa as my pedal platform, and I like to have different distortion voicings. I've got a dsl40, which I love! I run one amp wet and one dry with an aby box.


----------



## ricksconnected

what mesa you got?


----------



## ampmadscientist

chiliphil1 said:


> 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?



I'm dissapointed in all distortion pedals. I will never spend a dime on one.

I can't see why anybody would have a tube amp like Marshall or Boogie, and plug a distortion pedal into it.

First of all, tube overdrive sounds better than any pedal...second, transistor distortion sounds like crap.

*"...I think pretty much everyone out there loves these things..."*

Think again. There are many of us out here who think transistor distortion pedals suck. I gave them up when I was a teenager.
No, it does not sound like a Plexi...or a Boogie...it just sounds like a fart in a bathtub.


----------



## El Gringo

ampmadscientist said:


> I'm dissapointed in all distortion pedals. I will never spend a dime on one.
> 
> I can't see why anybody would have a tube amp like Marshall or Boogie, and plug a distortion pedal into it.
> 
> First of all, tube overdrive sounds better than any pedal...second, transistor distortion sounds like crap.
> 
> *"...I think pretty much everyone out there loves these things..."*
> 
> Think again. There are many of us out here who think transistor distortion pedals suck. I gave them up when I was a teenager.
> No, it does not sound like a Plexi...or a Boogie...it just sounds like a fart in a bathtub.


 You are preaching to the choir because to me they are obsolete since I purchased my 2555X .I have all the overdrive/distortion that I will ever need right in front of me .When I was using Fender amps I was buying every flavor of the month pedal all the while chasing that tone of the Marshall .Think that firebreathing clean as a razor clean tone that will rattle your teeth and with a footstomp to go to the lead channel to make the hairs on your neck stand straight out and punch you right in the face . Why would I ever want to use a stompbox when all the sounds are right in front of my control panel and yes it is righteous and glorious


----------



## jmp45

The Marshalls I use the most SLP, 69 1987, 72 Major and 800 2204 don't have loops, I'm ok with that. So pedals in front are useful for me.


----------



## MemphisMarshallMan

After doing more research and experimentation with my BE-OD pedal I have changed my mind and pulled it out of retirement and put it back on my pedal board. It has a lot of tonal variations that I did not spend the time to find when I first got the pedal. I did dial the internal trim pot back and then I found useable tones. After doing that I am, at least for now, satisfied that I can use it. My band is hitting the road in a couple of weeks and it's going with us. I'll either love it or hate it by the time we get back. If I end up hating it I will give it a fitting burial in the lake behind my house.


----------



## chiliphil1

MemphisMarshallMan said:


> After doing more research and experimentation with my BE-OD pedal I have changed my mind and pulled it out of retirement and put it back on my pedal board. It has a lot of tonal variations that I did not spend the time to find when I first got the pedal. I did dial the internal trim pot back and then I found useable tones. After doing that I am, at least for now, satisfied that I can use it. My band is hitting the road in a couple of weeks and it's going with us. I'll either love it or hate it by the time we get back. If I end up hating it I will give it a fitting burial in the lake behind my house.



Good to hear that you're liking it. I did the same thing, I actually sold the pedal to a friend of mine and he had it for a few months, decided to sell and I bought it back. Now I am running into a DSL15 with it rather than a recto and honestly, I love this pedal. I use it 80% of the time when I play. The DSL does a good classic rock tone on it's own and then with a boost it'll do nice 80's tones but that Friedman has something special. The way it saturates and the big bottom end it has are fantastic. I just had to spend some time dialing it in but man, now it's a keeper for sure. No question about that.


----------



## jericbrazier

el_bastardo said:


> I personally did not. The other guy did and his report was it didn't matter much.


I have to disagree, seems like the internal pot has a big control sweep, and the external is for fine tuning. I set the internal to 8, 8:30 ( o'clock), and get really nice medium gain sounds. I'm running thru clean channel of dsl40. FWIW, sounds like shit thru my Mesa Studio 22.


----------



## jericbrazier

ricksconnected said:


> what mesa you got?


Studio 22+


----------



## Dmann

I just picked up a Blackstar Fly 3 so I can play my Electrics in the park (for $80 CDN it simply the best battery powered portable amp I've ever heard or used) and decided to try the BE-OD into it's clean channel. It actually sounds pretty ridiculous and crushing.

I'm so happy I bought this pedal and kept it. So far it's worked great with every other device I've tried it with.


----------



## ricksconnected

they are cool amps.


----------



## The panda

Well I was just about going to throw mine on ebay and start looking for something else. The problem I had with the BE OD was that I could'nt seem to get the character of my low output single coil Tele pickups to come out….they were buried beneath a ton of gain. If all I could get was the scooped sound then It wasn't going to be versatile enough for me. I didn't like it as much as my old Reeza Fratzits which I had used for years. When I think of a single coil tele tone good enough to eat I always refer to the intro to "Sting Me" by the Black Crowes….lots of gain but the character still well and truly present. Hey it might not even be a Tele on the track but I can still imagine it coming from a tele bridge pickup. Anyway if I could achieve that tone from a 15 watt solid state marshall then I was going to have to be able to get it from this pedal! I can happily report that it is achievable and the BE is staying for a while longer. Through tweaking I have realised that the Tight, Presence and treble controls are just different levels of high end and can be mixed accordingly. If i want the single coil character to come out then the tight goes up to around 3 o'clock and the treble and presence are backed off to around 10 o'clock….or a bit lower to taste depending on amp. As the tight is lowered, presence and treble are raised etc. I haven't been experimenting for long due to thinking that the pedal only had one usable setting (for me). I have now realised that any pedal with 6 knobs is going to take a while to get the most out of. The three high end knobs are so sensitive that a millimetre either way seems to make a big difference to the sound. I like the fact that I can dial out excess treble in 3 different ways. The BE seems to react well to volume tweaks on the guitar as well. I'm going to stick with it and see what happens on my next gigs….I think it could be a keeper for me.


----------



## chiliphil1

The panda said:


> Well I was just about going to throw mine on ebay and start looking for something else. The problem I had with the BE OD was that I could'nt seem to get the character of my low output single coil Tele pickups to come out….they were buried beneath a ton of gain. If all I could get was the scooped sound then It wasn't going to be versatile enough for me. I didn't like it as much as my old Reeza Fratzits which I had used for years. When I think of a single coil tele tone good enough to eat I always refer to the intro to "Sting Me" by the Black Crowes….lots of gain but the character still well and truly present. Hey it might not even be a Tele on the track but I can still imagine it coming from a tele bridge pickup. Anyway if I could achieve that tone from a 15 watt solid state marshall then I was going to have to be able to get it from this pedal! I can happily report that it is achievable and the BE is staying for a while longer. Through tweaking I have realised that the Tight, Presence and treble controls are just different levels of high end and can be mixed accordingly. If i want the single coil character to come out then the tight goes up to around 3 o'clock and the treble and presence are backed off to around 10 o'clock….or a bit lower to taste depending on amp. As the tight is lowered, presence and treble are raised etc. I haven't been experimenting for long due to thinking that the pedal only had one usable setting (for me). I have now realised that any pedal with 6 knobs is going to take a while to get the most out of. The three high end knobs are so sensitive that a millimetre either way seems to make a big difference to the sound. I like the fact that I can dial out excess treble in 3 different ways. The BE seems to react well to volume tweaks on the guitar as well. I'm going to stick with it and see what happens on my next gigs….I think it could be a keeper for me.



Thanks for the post, lots of helpful info in there! Glad you're liking the pedal. I flat out love mine now, I sold it and now have bought it back and I play through it probably 80% of the time. The controls on this pedal, as you said can be confusing and it's such a versatile thing that it can be hard to dial it in just right. The best tricks I have learned are to MAX the presence and run the treble low, and when the gain goes up the tight needs to go with it. Knowing those things now I absolutely love the pedal.


----------



## The panda

Thanks for the tips….i'll give it a try. It certainly has more than enough balls for pretty much anything so that is a great start!….sometimes its just a case of backing off things more than you would expect…like when you plug into a little solid state amp and turn on the gain switch…..you get a million wasps in a beer can…..then you back off the treble to near zero and suddenly have a fantastic tone.


----------



## JAC

Dmann said:


> I just picked up a Blackstar Fly 3 so I can play my Electrics in the park (for $80 CDN it simply the best battery powered portable amp I've ever heard or used) and decided to try the BE-OD into it's clean channel. It actually sounds pretty ridiculous and crushing.
> 
> I'm so happy I bought this pedal and kept it. So far it's worked great with every other device I've tried it with.



A number of different ODs and distortions actual sound very good through the Fly 3. It does take a strange power supply with center post positive. I got mine when they barely hit the market. I was blown away by it. I had to order the power supply and it was actually not easy to get just on its own from what I remember. Now you got me curious about playing my BE OD through it.


----------



## Ufoscorpion

The be od deluxe looks pretty interesting .


----------



## Trelwheen

jmp45 said:


> 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.



Interesting that the V-Twin sounds similar to the BE OD.

I don't hear of too many folks out there rocking the old V-Twin. I've had one for ages, I doubt I'll ever sell it. I don't use it all the time anymore, but when I need it it's good to have


----------



## jmp45

Trelwheen said:


> Interesting that the V-Twin sounds similar to the BE OD.
> 
> I don't hear of too many folks out there rocking the old V-Twin. I've had one for ages, I doubt I'll ever sell it. I don't use it all the time anymore, but when I need it it's good to have



I've been using the V-Twin for years. I've never changed the tubes, no need to. Not sure what they are off the top. It's one of my favorite drives. It doesn't have that chunk the BE-OD has but soloing can be pretty darn close with the blue channel in some ways better for my tastes.


----------



## jericbrazier

Ime, the BeOd sounds great in front of a el34 powered amp. For ex., into my dsl40c, beastly. Into my el84 Mesa Studio 22+, shite.


----------



## Marshall4Metal

I have the Friedman and I really like it. I mainly use it as an always on boost with the gain around 9clock and the level at noon. It's great for high gain to though very versatile .


----------

