Dirty Shirley 40 - 40-watt Tube Head Review

The sound of Rock & Roll

If you long for the amp tones, harmonic richness, and build quality of yesteryear, look no further. Dave Friedman has built the perfect classic rock amp, while adding some amazing mods to suit the modern player's needs. If you love single channel JMP/JTM/JCM goodness, this amp is for you. This amp can easily handle anything from Zeppelin to 90's Grunge/Metal. Although it seems… read more to be a dying art, riding a guitar's volume knob is the way to achieve tonal excellence with this amp. Roll off the volume pot to get a chimey clean that is super touch responsive, but breaks up nicely when you add dynamic oomph. Then, when you're ready to take a solo, turn your guitar knob up all the way and bring your favorite boost pedal along for the ride. It's really all you need. This amp loves P90's and PAF humbuckers. With the low and high inputs, along with a gain cut/stage switch, this amp can get very grungy/sludgy as well. All the along the way, however, it never loses its tonal and harmonic richness. Just fire this amp up with Dave's suggested manual presets and hit an open E chord. You'll be sold. A fully buffered effects loop makes adding modern time-based effects a breeze. At 40 watts, it can handle almost any application for the modern gigging player, while still functioning as a great bedroom amp. It's my second Friedman amp, and I love it.

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The best

I've got the twin sister and this. I prefer the simplicity and the global sound of DS40. Fat clean, fat crunch, fat ligh dist sound! It takes pedals very well for adding channel! Perfect!

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There isn't enough words available to describe how amazing this amp is

Let me start by saying I've been playing guitar for 20 years and though I love the sound of Marshalls from the 70s and even a really good jcm800, Marshall Now does not offer quality hand-wired and super Welbilt products, the best products they offer now are cut corner reissues of their old hits and though they still sound fairly good they have all the problems that the originals… read more did which were a really crappy master volume if the amp even had one and a subpar effects Loop, Friedman comes to the scene and answers all my Marshall prayers with a dirtyshirley 40 watt head. It is the single most amazing amp I've ever played or heard, for being one channel it is extremely versatile I can go from beautiful Jimi Hendrix and John Frusciante cleans to Gnarly Angus Young and Jimmy Page crunch all the way to Jerry Cantrell and Adam Jones saturation just by manipulating my guitars volume knob and I assure you you will not be left wanting with the tones it produces nor the feel of the gentle sag and bounce beneath your fingers that beckon you to bend and hammer on notes to produce more fat juicy thick lead lines. It has this chewy gnarly mid-range bark while maintaining an organic and very natural Overdrive reminiscent of the old Plexis, in fact if you keep the gain at Bay and dime the master you will be in Plexi tone heaven it just Nails those classic Marshall album sounds and the master volume is absolutely exceptional as well as the effects Loop though I can't imagine ever wanting anything more than what the amp produces other than maybe a boost delay and wah, this thing also takes pedals like no other so whether you want top notch, superb amp gain And a super Dynamic and touch responsive amp, or an exceptionally well made pedal platform this amp as you covered in spades

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Desert Island Amp

I've waited something like 10 months now to review my DS40 head, so I'm well past honeymoon. First, what this amp ISN'T: a JTM45. It's also not a JCM800. It's some weird fusion of the two, but in a very good way. Like an idealized Marshall. The three position gain toggle along with the hi and low inputs makes this single channel amp incredibly versatile. There's plenty of… read more gain on tap in the hi input with the switch up. Hit it with a boost or OD pedal and there's more than I'd ever need. The bottom end can get a little flubby if you're not careful with the bass control so as gain goes up, bass goes down. No problem. It's an INCREDIBLE pedal platform for overdrive and distortion pedals. You can get edge of breakup at reasonable volume levels which is perfect for that use, where your OD or distortion pedal melds with the amp and sounds like the amp instead of a pedal. Even with the gain up, the amp responds to picking dynamics and guitar volume knob. Cleans right up with the guitar volume down. If I had to choose only one amp to have on a desert island, it'd be this one. The amp itself is perfect. The matching 112 cab is good, but mine needed to be reinforced by Dave Friedman so the back panel stopped vibrating and buzzing. And this wasn't just a problem with one cab. I've been through three brand new ones that exhibited the same behavior. Now that it's reinforced, it's perfect.

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Possibly the Greatest Amp Ever

First let me acknowledge that I love amplifiers more than guitars. Amps are my passion and I have had many many tube amps spreading across Fender Blackface, through Soldano, through Splawn, Peavey, Bogner, Diezel, Etc. I am generally a fan of a medium gain type amp that can be boosted into high gain, or rolled back into clean. Bogner Goldfinger for example, is a wonderful amplifier.… read more As is the Vox AC30 or Dr Z Maz series. However... nothing in this world... NOTHING... compares to the Friedman Dirty Shirley. It's simple put -- the greatest amplifier on the market today. Here are the benefits; picture perfect fx loop, simple user interface, great tone no matter where the dials are set, perfect amount of gain and compression, and most importantly, the best (most satisfying) feeling for you as a guitar player. The response and the thickness of the tone, whether clean or dirty, is incredible. It feels like you are playing a thick, chewy chocolate shake, yet the tone is clear. It's rich with complexity, yet powerful. The craziest thing about it is, it sounds great whether the master volume is on 1 or 6. If you're experienced enough to control the gain of your amp with the volume pot on your guitar, this amp is for you. Clean to scream with a roll of a volume control. Touch responsive doesn't do it poetic justice. Does it metal? Yup. Does it country? Yup. Does is have enough headroom for a loud drummer? Yup.

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