Fryette Power Station

Very exciting, Corey! I'm not-so-patiently waiting for your review. I played a 5 watter this weekend that's really blew many skirt up.
 
Thanks.
Just got the email, it is on its way for a Thursday drop.

Rain this coming weekend, so it looks like it might be a good day to get some time in with it.
 
Nothing I do not think.
Here is my guitar board on the left, and the bass board on the right.
I do have three Blackstar ID amps that have modeling built into them though.

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Nothing I do not think.

Oh, I'm sorry Corey. I thought I remembered you having a Digitech thingy a while back.. The Fryette seems like such a compact power amp that would go great with a modeler. I must be projecting my own desires on you.
 
He he he...
Just found this with a quick search on the 'Tube.
All you need to do is add a cab.

Axe Fx II Ver17 & Fryette Power Station High Gain Amps Demo

 
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OK, the unit came Thursday, and I got it hooked up Friday evening.
Very easy to hook up.
Take a speaker cable from the rear of your main amp, and run it to the Amp In jack on the rear of the Fryette.
Then take another cable and run it from the Speaker Out One jack into your cab(s).
Since I am running two 8 Ohm cabs, I set the amp and the Fryette each to 4 Ohms.
Also have the Ground Lift button engaged as it had some hum with it disengaged.
Got my first chance to play it today.

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Sits on the cab very well.

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You can see the 6L6 tubes glowing below.

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Mesa head on top of the Fryette.
I was a little concerned with heat at first, but both the Mark Five 25 and the Fryette are equipped with fans, and also there is air space between both units.

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So how dies it sound?
With the Fryette in standby I have both channels on the Boogie turned down low as to not piss off the neighbors.
Gets great sound that way still.
I engaged the Fryette with its volume off all the way and turned up both volumes on the Boogie to around 9 o'clock.
That is only about 1/4 of the way up, but believe me even with both channels set to 10 watts that is enough to make things rattle in my place and is insanely loud.

After turning them up to 9 o'clock I increased the Fryette's volume up some and it sounded better this way since the Boog's poweramp was working harder.
Also I could use the two toggles on the Fryette to add more highs or edge with the top toggle, and add in more warmth and bass with the bottom toggle, very nice.

I also experimented by diming both channels on the Boogie and with the Fryette's volume at zero, you can hear some sound getting past.
I prefer the sound with just leaving the Boogie's volumes at 9 o'clock.

I may make a video at a later time if I get time.
Overall I am very happy with Steven Fryette's creation here.

I also turned up the Fryette's volume quite high briefly for a nanosecond, and it was insanely loud :D

One more thing, this unit is 15 lb, it is extremely beefy and heavy.
Smaller than a Blu-Ray player, but weighs several times of one.
 
OK, I now understand why these things have a built in amp, both this and the Bad Cat Unleash.

What they do is take the entire output of the source amplifier - everything - into a load box, soak up all the wattage, and then convert that output into a line level signal. Without something coming from the Fryette's tube amp, you'd get no sound at all.

So it isn't only the sound of your amp, attenuated, that's feeding your speakers.

What you're actually getting is the Fryette's amp powering the speakers, amplifying a line level signal that your amp's output has been converted to. The added power amp isn't merely a cool accessory, it's the sine qua non of what makes the system work. Without it, the Fryette system wouldn't be able to power the speaker cab.

Fryette's kind of coy about how this system works, but the information's widely available and has been mentioned in some of the mags. So all the Fryette amp has to do is run clean, and act like a hi fi amp being fed by the line signal from the load box part of the system.
 
Just re-read Fro's reply again in post # 5, and I am going to experiment again with the Mesa master up higher than 9 o'clock.
You can even use this thing to run your iPhone, iPod, Android phone into the Line in jack on the far right on the rear to jam with MP3s or use the Drum Beats app like I have on my phone.
Most tube amps do not have a MP3 input, but most solid state modelers that have come out in the past few years do.
 
Just re-read Fro's reply again in post # 5, and I am going to experiment again with the Mesa master up higher than 9 o'clock.

I think that's the whole point of what the Fryette is built for, run the master as high as you want.

With the load box operating, your guitar cab is not getting that signal directly, the load box is absorbing it, converting it to a line level signal (we're talking about an audio signal at this point, not a power thing), and putting out sound from its own power tubes. That sound can be whatever level you want it to be, it's completely separate and independent from the power level you set your amp at.

That's the secret of why you don't get that typical congested sound that most load boxes have from a stifled guitar amp.

That way, you're getting the tone of a cranked amp. Of course, that tone is reproduced by the Fryette's built in power amp, and pushed through the speakers, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if it sounds better than the congested tone you get with most attenuators.

The built in amp on the Fryette plays that tone into the speakers, as though it were a hi fi amp playing a recording. But the point is it sounds like it works.

The limitation, of course, is that what's missing with any attenuator or box like this is the tone you get from an overdriven speaker, which is a big part of distorted guitar tone that we all know and love. Still, this is a great idea.

I do something different -- acoustical attenuation.

I use a gobo to record guitar amps. It simply is an acoustical absorber that you put in front of the cab, and it physically absorbs a good bit of the loudness. You put a microphone between the cab and the gobo, and you've not only given yourself the ability to crank the amp, you've also isolated the microphone from extraneous noise.



However, the limitation is that the sound of the cab in the room is muffled by the gobo, and the closer you put it to the cab, the more it is muffled. This is great for when you're recording, because remember, the mic is hearing the full-on amplifier, but it's not meant for practicing or just messing with the guitar.

Still, I think it's the best solution for recording because it is the cranked tone of your actual amp with no "middleman." I can also isolate drums, vocalists, and other instruments with these, and they're relatively inexpensive. But again, not a "have fun with your guitar" kind of a solution.

I'm impressed with Pete Thorn's demos of the Suhr Corso, a 5 watt amp that is designed to sound like a bigger amp, and I have seen one in person, but didn't get a chance to play through it. It's not much more than the Fryette. In any case, a very low wattage amp is another potential solution, but of course, only if it sounds good!
 
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Yep, I tried it dimed yesterday, then backed it to 9 o'clock, hence why I will re-try a little later.
And if the tone I am hearing is actually the 6L6 tubes and not the Mesa's EL84s that is OK, as 6L6 are my favorite tubes from when using the modeling feature on all of those Blackstar ID amps I have.
Seems to have more low end punch.
 
This whole thing is a bit of a mystery to me. As suggested above, the deal with these things is that the device is an active-load attenuator followed by an amplifier. The attenuator is designed to knock whatever you throw at it to line-level so the re-amper is working at an optimal dynamic range. They even give you a trim setting with a light bulb to help you set line-level out of the attenuator. I don't have the Fryette, but I do have the BadCat. In the case of the BadCat, it's a solid state Class D amp that is presumably designed to be as transparent as possible.

The "mysterious" part to me though, at least so far as the Bad Cat is concerned, is that when I'm using the thing as an attenuator....that is, so that the overall SPL out of the speakers for a given source amp setting is lower than what it would be without the device in-line.... it sounds no better than any other good active-load attenuator. No worse, but no better. But, if you set the output SPL to a value higher than what the amp would be by itself, the overall system seems pretty transparent. Stick the thing on my DG30 to try to tame it to a lower volume...and it's sort of yucky. Stick the thing on my 2061X to give me more clean headroom at gig volumes, and it sounds great. By my reckoning, it should be equally bad (or good, depending on your point of view). Just louder.

The only thing that I can think of is that reactive loads don't "react" as well when they are hooked up to a high power output stage that is cooking....but they "react" better when hooked up to lower power amps, with smaller output transformers and tubes that aren't cooking quite as much. I have no clue though, so I'll stop before I dig myself in too deep.

As to the both of these things (the Fryette and BadCat) I do think that they are a bit misleading in the way that they represent themselves. Without actually coming out and saying so, they lead you to believe that there is some new principle of attenuation, when there really isn't. Personally, I'd expect that I'd prefer the BadCat over something with tube outputs because the goal is to not color whatever it is that you're running through it, but some might find that it actually adds to the personality of their amp I guess...
 
All I know is I like it very much, and I at the end of the day, that is what matters to me.
I just got done jamming for about an hour, and I tested it without the Fryette with the Mesa turned down to living room (who plays in their bedroom?) volume, then I engaged the Fryette and had it set to the same output, and the sound was pretty transparent to me, they sounded the same.
Now when you crank up the Mesa and then attenuate with the Fryette, yes the EQs on the Fryette can color it more, and you will hear more of the 6L6 at a louder output.

I like the sound of both normal and then with the Fryette engaged.
 
I have no dog in this hunt, as I have neither the Fryette/Bad Cat kind of reactive load box, nor the traditional kind of power soak deal.

I have used the traditional kind, however it was something that didn't work out for my needs.

For me, a good master volume is fine for messing around, and a gobo with a cranked amp is the most authentic tone, because of speaker breakup in addition to full power tube distortion. However, I have also gone from a 50 Watt HXDA with a 2x12 to a 30 Watt HXDA with a 1x12, and of course, I went with the DG30 for similar reasons, namely, to be able to get as good a sound as I can for recording without having to resort to the various gizmos that are out there to solve the problem of amplifier volume.

One thing I did learn (and reported on in another thread here) is that something as basic as swapping out a high gain tube for a lower gain one in the V1 of the DG amp really made a heck of a difference. I'm getting a fantastic tone at noticeably lower volume, though I do have to kick in a pedal to push that preamp just a little (and for that I use a clean boost). Still, I can use the Master with that combination and get great low volume stuff happening.

As I said earlier, I'm very impressed with what Suhr and Jim Kelley were able to do with a 5 watt amp in their Corso. That thing sounds great, and it is a bargain for something that gives you real-deal sounds for recording. As it stands it's only a few hundred more than one of these attenuators!
 
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