The Betty Boost!

[jjjimi84]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

This week is another trip down memory lane with an older build of mine, the farting betty boost. Digging out these old builds and putting them through the paces is quite the trip down memory lane. I remember building this pedal and not really getting it and set it on the shelf for a very long time. I bring it out for this run of boost demos and found it to be a really kick ass hifi boost. Having a three band eq and the tight control makes this something a bit more than your standard boost. The build itself is fairly standard and there was no unobtanium parts or fiddling around, just populate, box and rock!

 

[Gordo]

I'm adding this one to my to-do list.

 

[MichaelW]

I just built this one myself. It's a great boost but I find I like with the tone stack bypassed. That "tight" knob is so well voiced it can add some nice "bigness" to your tone but also tighten up the bottom end when under gain to keep things tidy. Really well voiced boost. Dave Friedman has some freak ears....

 

[jjjimi84]

I'm adding this one to my to-do list.

I recommend it!

I just built this one myself. It's a great boost but I find I like with the tone stack bypassed. That "tight" knob is so well voiced it can add some nice "bigness" to your tone but also tighten up the bottom end when under gain to keep things tidy. Really well voiced boost. Dave Friedman has some freak ears....

Is there a Friedman boost that is just the boost and tight controls? The added eq is nice but agree that a two knob (1590a) would be a great offering.

@MichaelW Have you played any Friedman amps? That BE-50 is catching my eye....

 

[MichaelW]

I recommend it!

Is there a Friedman boost that is just the boost and tight controls? The added eq is nice but agree that a two knob (1590a) would be a great offering.

@MichaelW Have you played any Friedman amps? That BE-50 is catching my eye....

My current "amp" is this (see below)....I've gone back to an amp-less rig and I've got 3 tube preamps on the analog side of things. The Friedman IR-D (which is essentially the pre-amp for the Twin Sister amp), and I'm using the SushiFX Particle Accelerator (@vigilante398) for my pure clean Fender tones (it's essentially the preamp section of a Fender Dual Showman) and I also have a Tubesteader Beekeeper for both Dumble style clean and dirty channels. (As you might have guessed it's a Dumble style pre-amp). I have these in 3 switchable loops so I can easily switch between them.

These feed the rest of my signal chain with my delays and reverbs before going into my Apollo interface, where I am virtually patching into the power amp section of either Friedman Dirty Shirley amp sim or the back end of any 6L6 based amp sim and then my IR's.

The BE-50 Deluxe is a killer amp. I actually prefer it over the BE100. The "clean channel" of the BE100 is a plexi style clean whereas the BE-50 has the clean channel of the Buxom Betty amp, which I think is one his best designs. It's the Friedman take on a Fender but it's married to an EL34 back end for some Marshall style crunch. The drive channel of both amps is the same, it's his Brown Eye circuit.

Really hard to go wrong with any of his amps. But my favorite is still the Dirty Shirley/Twin Sister/Little Sister amp family. It's like a JCM800 front end married to a JTM45 back end, with all the Friedman tweaks to make it sound huge. If I were to buy a Friedman amp right now it would be the Twin Sister, but I have the preamp for it in the IR-D and for my "silent rig" uses it's about 95% there of having the whole amp.

 

[jjjimi84]

My current "amp" is this (see below)....I've gone back to an amp-less rig and I've got 3 tube preamps on the analog side of things. The Friedman IR-D (which is essentially the pre-amp for the Twin Sister amp), and I'm using the SushiFX Particle Accelerator (@vigilante398) for my pure clean Fender tones (it's essentially the preamp section of a Fender Dual Showman) and I also have a Tubesteader Beekeeper for both Dumble style clean and dirty channels. (As you might have guessed it's a Dumble style pre-amp). I have these in 3 switchable loops so I can easily switch between them.

These feed the rest of my signal chain with my delays and reverbs before going into my Apollo interface, where I am virtually patching into the power amp section of either Friedman Dirty Shirley amp sim or the back end of any 6L6 based amp sim and then my IR's.

The BE-50 Deluxe is a killer amp. I actually prefer it over the BE100. The "clean channel" of the BE100 is a plexi style clean whereas the BE-50 has the clean channel of the Buxom Betty amp, which I think is one his best designs. It's the Friedman take on a Fender but it's married to an EL34 back end for some Marshall style crunch. The drive channel of both amps is the same, it's his Brown Eye circuit.

Really hard to go wrong with any of his amps. But my favorite is still the Dirty Shirley/Twin Sister/Little Sister amp family. It's like a JCM800 front end married to a JTM45 back end, with all the Friedman tweaks to make it sound huge. If I were to buy a Friedman amp right now it would be the Twin Sister, but I have the preamp for it in the IR-D and for my "silent rig" uses it's about 95% there of having the whole amp.

Thank you for the awesome write up! I have more questions if you have the time?

How do these preamps do for taking drives and fuzzes? It looks like a really great way to do things! Is this the same kind of set up you used to record your pedal demos? Your rig as surely changed but the analog preamp/digital power amp set up has been in use for a bit?

To come clean, I am not going to actually buy a Friedman... Going to build one using the AAelectronics boards.

 

[MichaelW]

How do these preamps do for taking drives and fuzzes? It looks like a really great way to do things!

Just like a real amp, it takes overdrives and fuzzes just fine.

Is this the same kind of set up you used to record your pedal demos?

I've only recently changed to this set up. The tube preamps were early Christmas presents to myself But I have recorded one demo with it.
I'll send you a link.

To come clean, I am not going to actually buy a Friedman... Going to build one using the AAelectronics boards.

I'm sitting on two of his PCB's right now for when I have the courage to try my hand at building an amp.
There's one vendor that sells a Dirty Shirley PCB as well. Check these guys out, they have some cool stuff.

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