OVERDRIVE- Friedman DIRTY SHIRLEY.......was it worth the wait????

  FRIEDMAN DIRTY SHIRLEY  

$199.00 USD

Friedman brought out the BE-OD overdrive pedal and within a few months it became the #1 in both OD sales and on everyone else's wish list.
It was based off of their best selling amp. The amp is a beefed up Marshall JTM 45.
The JTM 45 is in fact ...a barely tinkered with ...Fender Bassman amp.

Friedman showed off a new pedal at the Winter NAMM in January. The Dirty Shirley. A low to medium gain pedal based
off a their Dirty Shirley small combo.

The point of course is that this has been a long wait to see what this follow up pedal will be.
                                   

SO WHAT DO WE GET?

To my ears it is more Plexi than JTM 45. It has a deep low end and a very fat lower mid range. It does however have a small switch to tighten the lows it seems to move the mids up into a higher range.
The tone is actually quite rich  ...even sumptuous. It is nearly opposite of the BE-OD.
It is very well thought out and it has an excellent sound.
It is fatter then the BE-OD and has a lot of headroom which is evident on the attack ...a near percussive attack with lots of bite.

Well I got one. My initial impression was right.
Both the Shirley and the BE-OD have been designed with a 'expander" circuit which actually slowly raise the level of the note so instead of just an even compression the signal slowly rises in level. This happens naturally if you are playing loud enough to initiate some feedback but it works even when you play quietly. I believe this has been a critical key in both pedals popularity. Yyou feel like the sound is literally taking off !!!  Just plain exciting.!
I soon found I much prefer the Shirley over the BE-OD.
For the BE-OD's extreme settings I have other OD's that do this better...so I am selling the BE-OD.