Guitar Gear Forum

I missed out on the Friedman IR-X for a good price in the classified section, so I said fuck it and found a Synergy SYN-1 and SLO module on TGP and bought it. Been curious about the Synergy stuff since it came out especially since the actual amp brands are involved in the modules. The SLO was really the main one I wanted to try, but the Friedman BE Deluxe also seems right up my alley. Won't be shipped until Monday, so I have some waiting to do.

You're not going to regret it. The SLO module is awesome!

Very cool. I have been heavily considering picking up a Syn 2 myself. I just got a stereo poweramp just in case, lol. I want to see what the Black Friday sales look like this year. There are a handful of modules I am curious about, like the Uberschall, Ultra Lead, 6505, Powerball, and IICP.

The Syn1 and SLO quickly became my main tone. If you use the Sag knob to barely activate the red light, the pick attack is a touch faster. I find it useful anyway.

The BE module is a bit too soft for me. The Vai, Deliverance, and 6505 are really good as well. Have not tried any others yet.

Congratulations. U will b happy.

I’m probably going to get a syn2 on black friday.

Shask wrote:Very cool. I have been heavily considering picking up a Syn 2 myself. I just got a stereo poweramp just in case, lol. I want to see what the Black Friday sales look like this year. There are a handful of modules I am curious about, like the Uberschall, Ultra Lead, 6505, Powerball, and IICP.

I am also curious about all of these modules lol. We have 3 guitar players in my band using a Mark VII, Powerball 2 and a 5150, so would be cool to have them all as options for recording without having to bring the amps. Very tempting.

NinjaRaf wrote:

Shask wrote:Very cool. I have been heavily considering picking up a Syn 2 myself. I just got a stereo poweramp just in case, lol. I want to see what the Black Friday sales look like this year. There are a handful of modules I am curious about, like the Uberschall, Ultra Lead, 6505, Powerball, and IICP.

I am also curious about all of these modules lol. We have 3 guitar players in my band using a Mark VII, Powerball 2 and a 5150, so would be cool to have them all as options for recording without having to bring the amps. Very tempting.

All the Brootalz modules, lol.

I also think these are different enough they would bring something different to the table. For example, I think the Ultra Lead and Deliverance would probably sound similar. Same with the SLO and 6505.

Congrats, the Syn stuff is fantastic... Been using it for a few years and I've owned most of the modules, and played them all.
They all have their own thing going on and sound incredible.

https://youtu.be/r46Qx5pRe0s?si=z_CXPFugSsByVAHX

Comparison of all the brutz except 6505.

I'll be running it into the loop of my VTM60 to start with. If I really like them I'll probably go with a dedicated power amp like the KSR PA50 or even the SYN50/50 since I love stereo setups.

I need to suck it up and buy the desktop module.

bubbastain wrote:I'll be running it into the loop of my VTM60 to start with. If I really like them I'll probably go with a dedicated power amp like the KSR PA50 or even the SYN50/50 since I love stereo setups.

I would just run it with the VTM. You can select between VTM, and the 2 channels of the Synergy giving you a 3 channel amp. Works flawlessly that way. Congrats!

These modules, are they still kinda interchangeable between Synergy, Randall, and some other brand?

Mike Oxhuge wrote:

bubbastain wrote:I'll be running it into the loop of my VTM60 to start with. If I really like them I'll probably go with a dedicated power amp like the KSR PA50 or even the SYN50/50 since I love stereo setups.

I would just run it with the VTM. You can select between VTM, and the 2 channels of the Synergy giving you a 3 channel amp. Works flawlessly that way. Congrats!

Yeah, this should be stellar!

linthat22 wrote:These modules, are they still kinda interchangeable between Synergy, Randall, and some other brand?

Yes, Egnater would be the other... Though they all started with Bruce Egnater.
If you use the Synergy modules with the Randall you'll only get one channel though.

There's a company in NJ named Jaded Faith that's modding the old Randall hardware to fully work with the Synergy modules. As well as addressing some other issues they had.

I've been thinking about getting a RM100 and sending it to them to do all the mods. I think I'd cost me about 1800-2k all in, which is not unreasonable.
But the other issue with the Randall heads is their weight, they're one of the heaviest 100w heads out there, so at the point you might as well just buy a rack system.


I would love to see a Synergy 100w head.

Can the desktop unit be slaved in as another channel on, say, my MarkIII? Or is it either or?

TurboPablo wrote:Can the desktop unit be slaved in as another channel on, say, my MarkIII? Or is it either or?

Yes. It is designed to run with your amps loop to switch between your MarkIII preamp and the Synergy. You would have a 5 channel amp with an SYN-1

Mike Oxhuge wrote:

TurboPablo wrote:Can the desktop unit be slaved in as another channel on, say, my MarkIII? Or is it either or?

Yes. It is designed to run with your amps loop to switch between your MarkIII preamp and the Synergy. You would have a 5 channel amp with an SYN-1

Interesting.

bubbastain wrote:I'll be running it into the loop of my VTM60 to start with. If I really like them I'll probably go with a dedicated power amp like the KSR PA50 or even the SYN50/50 since I love stereo setups.

Off topic but I noticed the other day when attempting to run a 2 amp/stereo fx setup between my VTM60 and Powerstation (each on their own cab) for the first time that the fx send of the VTM60 is apparently dependent on the amp's volume....I had to run the VTM loud as balls for the signal from it's send to actually be heard in the Powerstation

Obv this won't matter since i assume you'll just be running the Syn in to the VTM's return only

Devin wrote:

bubbastain wrote:I'll be running it into the loop of my VTM60 to start with. If I really like them I'll probably go with a dedicated power amp like the KSR PA50 or even the SYN50/50 since I love stereo setups.

Off topic but I noticed the other day when attempting to run a 2 amp/stereo fx setup between my VTM60 and Powerstation (each on their own cab) for the first time that the fx send of the VTM60 is apparently dependent on the amp's volume....I had to run the VTM loud as balls for the signal from it's send to actually be heard in the Powerstation

Obv this won't matter since i assume you'll just be running the Syn in to the VTM's return only

That's true for a lot of amps tbh. Most modern Marshalls are like that too... DSL, 900 etc. All EVHs and Peavey 5150/II.


Usually if an amp only has only a channel volume, it's before the loop, at the output stage of the preamp, and the power amp is ran wide open at all times. The VTM is a single channel amp so the "master" is actually the channel volume.

If the amp has a channel volume and a global master volume, usually the channel volume is before the loop and the global master is after the loop.

GuitarBilly wrote:

Devin wrote:

bubbastain wrote:I'll be running it into the loop of my VTM60 to start with. If I really like them I'll probably go with a dedicated power amp like the KSR PA50 or even the SYN50/50 since I love stereo setups.

Off topic but I noticed the other day when attempting to run a 2 amp/stereo fx setup between my VTM60 and Powerstation (each on their own cab) for the first time that the fx send of the VTM60 is apparently dependent on the amp's volume....I had to run the VTM loud as balls for the signal from it's send to actually be heard in the Powerstation

Obv this won't matter since i assume you'll just be running the Syn in to the VTM's return only

That's true for a lot of amps tbh. Most modern Marshalls are like that too... DSL, 900 etc. All EVHs and Peavey 5150/II.


Usually if an amp only has only a channel volume, it's before the loop, at the output stage of the preamp, and the power amp is ran wide open at all times. The VTM is a single channel amp so the "master" is actually the channel volume.

If the amp has a channel volume and a global master volume, usually the channel volume is before the loop and the global master is after the loop.

Nice, I've never even attempted something like this before. Makes it really hard to tweak the fx levels etc of the second amp. Guess I need to get some kind of Y splitter pedal before the amps instead

Here's a shitty iphone vid of it - pedalboard going in to VTM input > VTM send to stereo chorus > stereo out of chorus to seperate stereo delay inputs > one delay output to VTM fx return > one delay output to reverb > Powerstation



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL5qrMSGXLM

Shask wrote:I also think these are different enough they would bring something different to the table. For example, I think the Ultra Lead and Deliverance would probably sound similar. Same with the SLO and 6505.

I have not tried the Ultra Lead yet, but the SLO and 6505 sound different enough to me that I can justify keeping both. If I could only have one module though, it would be the SLO.

The rumor mill is that Synergy could possibly release a new version of the SLO with B/M/T for each channel. Would be in on one of those if that ends up being the case. The shared EQ has not been an issue for me up to this point, but I could see dialing in the Overdrive channel a little differently than the Crunch if I had that option.

Devin wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:

Devin wrote:

bubbastain wrote:I'll be running it into the loop of my VTM60 to start with. If I really like them I'll probably go with a dedicated power amp like the KSR PA50 or even the SYN50/50 since I love stereo setups.

Off topic but I noticed the other day when attempting to run a 2 amp/stereo fx setup between my VTM60 and Powerstation (each on their own cab) for the first time that the fx send of the VTM60 is apparently dependent on the amp's volume....I had to run the VTM loud as balls for the signal from it's send to actually be heard in the Powerstation

Obv this won't matter since i assume you'll just be running the Syn in to the VTM's return only

That's true for a lot of amps tbh. Most modern Marshalls are like that too... DSL, 900 etc. All EVHs and Peavey 5150/II.


Usually if an amp only has only a channel volume, it's before the loop, at the output stage of the preamp, and the power amp is ran wide open at all times. The VTM is a single channel amp so the "master" is actually the channel volume.

If the amp has a channel volume and a global master volume, usually the channel volume is before the loop and the global master is after the loop.

Nice, I've never even attempted something like this before. Makes it really hard to tweak the fx levels etc of the second amp. Guess I need to get some kind of Y splitter pedal before the amps instead

Here's a shitty iphone vid of it - pedalboard going in to VTM input > VTM send to stereo chorus > stereo out of chorus to seperate stereo delay inputs > one delay output to VTM fx return > one delay output to reverb > Powerstation



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL5qrMSGXLM

It sounds great!!!

As for the VTM volume control, just add one of those little JHS volume boxes right before the VTM fx return. That will give you a master volume past the fx send levels.

https://www.sweetwater.com/c771--Amp_Ac ... lsrc=aw.ds

GuitarBilly wrote:It sounds great!!!

As for the VTM volume control, just add one of those little JHS volume boxes right before the VTM fx return. That will give you a master volume past the fx send levels.

Oh shit that's a good idea....I could probably even do that with an OD pedal with the gain turned off right?

I already have a zillion of those