NAD!! Friedman Dirty Shirley 40w

[Guitarbilly]

It arrived today. Great service from AMS, pretty much overnight




Sounds great!!!! Lots of headroom and punch on the bigger amp. Other than that they sound very similar. The additional Presence knob on the big amp is also a welcome addition, since this is inherently a warm sounding amp and having more control over the top end is great.

Happy with the purchase. Is it a keeper? Possibly but it's too early to say. Not because the amp is not great, it certainly is, but because the 20w is actually very close to this one in terms of tone and punch. Volume wise, the 40 leaves the 20 in the dust very quickly though.

So it will come down to whether I think the extra horsepower will be necessary. I have to wait until Saturday band practice to make that decision. So we'll see. But both these amps are awesome.

[spawnofthesith]

What circuit is the DS ?

AMS has been my go to lately

[Guitarbilly]

What circuit is the DS ?

AMS has been my go to lately

It's basically a mix between a BE, a 2204 and a JTM45.

The Power section is the JTM45 with 6L6s and a tube rectifier. The preamp section is basically the 2204. Then the gain structure switch add the diode clipping stages of the BE100.

[Guitarbilly]

It's going back lol

[macaronisalad]

MFPOMFS

[andvari7]

It's going back lol

What did it?

[spawnofthesith]

/Friedman l’d

[ninjaraf]

LoLoL

[Guitarbilly]

It's going back lol

What did it?

Honestly, the 20w is really, really close. Sure, the 40w can get louder but I don't think I'd even use that extra volume, because the 20w is certainly loud enough for just about any use. The times I'd need it to be louder would probably be situations where I am mic'ing the amp through a PA anyway.
I don't know what Friedman did to that 20w power section, but it's significantly bolder than other amps around the same wattage. There are no signs of the issues I've experienced in the past with 20w EL84 amps. No flub, nothing. It's just a tight (for rock tones), loud amp.

The smaller size, lighter weight and the fact that I paid $850 for the 20w (used) and $2700 for the 40w (new) seals the deal. There is just no way for me to justify the nearly $2k in difference between these 2 heads, not because the 40w is not good, but the 20w is certainly close enough.

I didn't expect these 2 amps to be this close.

[spawnofthesith]

That makes sense, if the mini is that good no need to have both

Tbh after sitting in with my homies band a few times now and hearing his mini recto in action a lot I’ve started to wonder if the problem is me and not the el84s