Synergy Friedman BE-BB Reviews

2 different classic tones in one module

I bought this on the strength of what I heard about the BB (Buxom Betty) side, for clean tones, figuring that the BE (Brown Eye) side would be a "bonus" that at least I would not dislike.

The other one I'm using is the Deliverance (like another reviewer here).

The BB side is a very sweet and warm clean channel. It's nice in itself and takes pedals well. The only star I take off here is that it doesn't get crunchy at maximum gain - more of a bluesy, tweedy kind of breakup. That's not a huge deal either and admittedly I did not buy it for that. I am only looking for reasons to knock one star off because it's not "mind blowing" (just "very good").

The BE side is also very good. It's moderate/high gain - if you want more of a modern metal tone you can get close to it but you'll need to hit it with an overdrive or boost of some kind. I've used an EQ/boost and also a Rangemaster clone, and found it takes those really well. They can tighten the bass, push the mids to the front and add more overall gain. It has been enjoyable to play something with less gain and just appreciate the dynamics in it though, which it has plenty of.

The start of the Browneye transient has a bit of vintage Plexi in it (a bit of that clean "scrape" and "clank" in the sound), while the sustain is very modern and harmonically rich, and unlike a vintage Plexi, the frequencies stay glued together and it doesn't fart and fuzz. That's magical and very enjoyable to play.

It's a good counterpoint to my Deliverance which is more of a blank canvass and a wild card. These two BE-BB sounds are very much a known quantity but they do it exactly right.

Synergy Friedman BE-BB clean/crunch

Synergy Friedman BE-BB is the best clean of all the Synergy modules in my opinion, plus the ability to customize crunch with the Friedman character! This was the first module I bought. Paired with HBE, they complement each other very well.