Fryette power station

Adamski

Wow this could solve multiple problems for me and have the added bonus of providing power for something like a Helix or Axe FX should I wish to get one.

It's such a good idea I'm surprised it's not widely used by loads of manufacturers!

ElectroDan

This looks like a great piece of kit to suit different applications. I read paulmapp8306's review yesterday. For the price and versatility it seems like a no-brainer.

What's with that LXII that seems to have been "coming soon" for years?

Cabicular

paulmapp8306;978162" said:

It's a reactive load for the first stage the same as the suhr attenuator. This stage has two toggles. One for high freq and one for low offering flat response, then two stages of bright or depth.

However, where other attenuators or loads pass the attenuated signal to you'r speaker, the Fryette sends it to a flat response, clean (like a hifi) 5ow valve power stage, which has its own presence and depth rotory knobs (noon is flat).

This means you can have a 100w beast tamed to bedroom levels, or a 5w amp that can't keep up at gig levels boosted to that level.

You can use the line in as a pure mono power amp for pre amps, modellers, ipods, or even record decks. Add to that a really neutral fx loop, so you can add that loop to an amp without one such as the frieman buxom betty.

All this for £500. OK it's far eastern built but QC seems great as I haven't really been able to tell The difference between this and the us built 2/50/2 power amp I owned. Time will tell of course. But I couldn't be happier at present.

I bought one from Peach a few weeks ago
Arrived the next day
Genuinely one of the most useful devices I have. Must have for the gigging musician
Makes loud amps quiet
Quiet amps loud
Adds FX loops to non Fx looped amps
Makes modellers punchy and useable live
Fairly light
Well built
If they did a stereo version I would be on it like Graham Bonnet

Deijavoo

Can you use it with your amp head and no cab plugged in? Silent recording etc...

Fortheloveofguitar

Deijavoo;978599" said:

Can you use it with your amp head and no cab plugged in? Silent recording etc...

I copied the following from the gear page forum



This is from the long Power Station thread we had earlier, from Fryette support. They changed the unit so that it doesn't need an external load for silent recording.

You don't need to use a hotplate or other external load to use the PS as a silent load. You simply set the PS to Operate and turn the volume down. All you need to do is plug a shorted phone jack into the Speaker Out to kill what little signal bleed is there when the volume is at zero. There is a simple mod available now to make it to that you can use the PS as a silent recording dummy load with no power turned on. Units we are shipping now have this mod already incorporated into the design. We're working on a tech doc to outline the mod and will have it available next week.

David Phelge
Fryette Technical Support

Deijavoo

Muchos Gracias.

paulmapp8306

Deijavoo said:

Can you use it with your amp head and no cab plugged in? Silent recording etc...

Theres no Cab emulation on the line out though - it is compensated but you need to run through a Cab ir - either in a modeller or as a plugin in a DAW.

AS I understand it though - the Power is just for the re-amp section.  The line out (and FX send) are taken before this point, so all you are doing in reality is turning off the power section, and running the unit (no power needed) as a basic reactive load a la the Suhr reactive load.  

Actually, when you plug your speaker into the output, turning the unit into bypass, bypasses the whole unit (direct feed trough) at unity gain on the load.  This makes it dead easy to set the toggles, and rotaries to  match your amp.  Effectively flicking the standby on/Off gives you an instant A/B of the straight amp sound, and the attenuated/re-amped sound.  It also means when you turn the amp down (or up in the case of a small amp) you can still A/B and then adjust the toggles/rotories to compensate for the FM effect.  Its crude as you only have a couple of things to work with - but is useful.

paulmapp8306

ElectroDan said:

This looks like a great piece of kit to suit different applications. I read paulmapp8306's review yesterday. For the price and versatility it seems like a no-brainer.

What's with that LXII that seems to have been "coming soon" for years?

Thats what I had been waiting for, as I would have preferred a 1U rack...BUT

1.  The PS sits on top of the rack like a head on a cab, so no real biggie.

2.  The PS is lighter than the LXii,  AND as its not in the rack the rack is 4Kg lighter (removed the MAtrix) rather than 6Kg heavier if Id put an LXii in.

3.  I only use mono anyway - though I would have "hard wired" the 2 channels to the AFX's 2 outputs - its not a problem swappingthe lead over though.

4.  The Flat response, is the same option you have on the LX11 for flat - so Ive not lost anything.

5.  You gain an attenuation, FX loop and silent recording capability you wouldn't get on the LXii (and As Im looking at quality single channel amps where Id need an attenuator anyway - and a lot dont have loops - is an added bonus).

The only down side I see (appard from theLXii being save in a rack - albiet a heavy one) is you loose the ability to run as a traditional power amp - ie one that saturates and distorts at high levels, so using it with a traditional rack Pre (like the Triax or JMP1 for instance) wouldnt really work that well (I dont think anyway).  I dont need it fore that so....

Cabicular

I have the rack kit for mine
Not expensive

paulmapp8306

Cabicular said:

I have the rack kit for mine
Not expensive

Only have 1U available in mine though - and its already heavy with the Matrix.  I may rack it later, along with the Matrix (as Backup and other uses) in its own 4U rack.

SunDevil

Id recommend trying out some lower gain valves in the preamp position - think I settled on a 12au7 to tame the somewhat trigger happy volume control - a 60w amp and a LP with 2x12 Greenbacks is still putting out around 90dB with the Fryette volume on about 1 - so the slightly softer ramp with a lower gain valve helps with fine tuning if your getting one of these for home use

exocet

paulmapp8306 said:

Brilliant thing.

Used one when trying a Buxom Betty at peach.  Worked Soooooo well.  The power state stays flat and clean all the way up - just  like a good valve Hi-Hi Amp would.

So impressed I went back to try it with my AFX rig as a pure Flat response power amp.  Bugger me.  Brought the authority and Clunk back to the lows, and the transparency/seperation back to the low mids and thunk back that was missing with the Matrix.  Top end is pretty identical. Its better than my old 2/50/2 as its lighter, mono (which is all I need) and flat.  The 2/50/2 was fairly neutral for a valve power amp - but not as flat as this and was much heavier (which is why it went in the first place)

Im in love all over again. 

So when using the Power Station with the AFX, are you playing into a Guitar Cab or a Full Range Monitor?

paulmapp8306

Cab. 2x12 zila with a v30 and g12h 75 creamback.

hotpickups

I've just heard about these. Great idea and bit of kit if it really works?

Cabicular

It does

hotpickups

What's all this stuff I'm reading about their investment problems I.e. Kickstart website. They don't seem to have any in stock going by their website. Seems a bit worrying ?

paulmapp8306

The kickstart was/is nothing to do with the power station - it is another piece of gear.

stock is because they have sold really well and supply cant keep up.

hotpickups

Phew that's a relief. I'd hate to see it disappear as it seems perfect for my future needs and when I feel I need one I'll probably get one

paulmapp8306;1011329" said:

The kickstart was/is nothing to do with the power station - it is another piece of gear.

stock is because they have sold really well and supply cant keep up.

Si_

Anyone here still using these? looking to finally pick up a used one and wanted to make sure there were no issues with the V1 of these as I know the V2 is out now.

Jeremiah

Wasn't it the Valvulator GP  DI that was the kickstarter project?

I think it got delayed a lot but now seems to have made it into production.

Actually it looks like the Power Station and the GPDI would work well together if you have the budget...