Framus Cobra v. Bogner Uberschall

[JohnnyC]

cant comment on the uberschall but ive owned and gigged with the cobra with both the dragonV30 cab and the matching Greenback cab.

the crunch channel is defnitely more voiced for GBs but hte lead channel sounds good with both speaker types, however IMO the cobra is solely a modern metal amp...geared to for the modern percussive tight playing style.

 

[tonmazz]

The Uberschall is a wall of sound, addictive to play from what I have experienced. If the Cobra is indeed an SLO clone, I can't see it being better for metal. IMO of course.

 

[Erock]

like others have said, both really great amps, but very different sounding. The Cobra was tighter and drier than the Uber, kind of a high gain one trick pony IMO, but a sick clean channel which made up for it. For my tastes, it was a true rhythm and lead channel for metal, I liked boosting it too. The Uber had more range for me, but the clean was a bit difficult to get that super chimey clean clean matched up with the lead channel, the way I liked it dialed. Big huge lowend, bit looser and more saturated, definitely preferred it with a boost for the faster metal riffs.

Both had some small tricks that could make or break it for someone IMO. The Cobra had to have the channel volumes above 2-3:00 for my taste, and the master controlled the volume. Really changed the character of that amp IMO. The fx mix seemed to sound best around 12:00 IIRC, where other positions seemed to take something away from the tone. The FX loop could be a bit finicky with what it liked too as I remember, some fx boxes I tried with it sounded like ass on that loop. It was another amp that came from the factory biased pretty cold too, warranty purposes I imagine. Sounded much better to me biased correctly.

The Uber was pretty simple for me to find a great tone IMO, however the presence control could be a bit tricky. It seemed to affect not only the topend, but the mid character as well, I liked it up higher than I use on most amps. I kept the bass pretty low too compared to other amps I owned. Still had a massive lowend push with the bass even on 10:00.

completely different amps
only thing in common is that they're both high gain and bass/mid heavy
but the gain structure and feel are so different
the bogner has that sludgy thing on the mids and low end, while the cobra has open clean mids and dry picking response, more like a tighter and punchier SLO
I wouldn't say the cobra is more versatile, but it has a flawless fender bassman clean channel
for metal only, I'd probably pick the cobra, but I'd love to have an uberschall for some heavy modern rock, like Down or Tool

agreed. I didn't see the Cobra in your gear pics Eric, where is she!

 

[ACShreds]

what happened to you gasing for an ENGL?

 

[Big Rich]

both amps are awesome, i chose the bogner just for the nicer build quality

ive heard nightmare stories about how framus amps are put together. im sure thats not the case with some of them but i try and stay away from amps that have numerous complaints about QC

 

[smucarolina]

what happened to you gasing for an ENGL?

haha. I still have invader gas for sure...that and the bogner have been on my mind a lot. i would trade for a invader in a second if someone offered.

when are you going to come check out the cobra? i heard some of your clips on myspace...you need to give me some lessons haha.

 

[JohnnyC]

The FX loop could be a bit finicky with what it liked too as I remember, some fx boxes I tried with it sounded like ass on that loop.

the issue with framus loops is that they are line level (0db...not +4d like most rack fx are) and that it is also parellel and not 100% series even with the fx mix knob on full.

for anything to work in the loop it has to be linel level AND have a kill/dry feature. if you put an instrument signal stomp box in the fx loop...the amps fx loop output (0db) will overload the pedals -10db instrument signal.
the other think most often mistaken for tone sucking is the have phase cancellation issues of a parallel loop when the pedal is bypassed (eg bypassed signal running in parralel with dry signal)

ive battled with the framus loops (on the cobra plus my current CS) and the only things i could get to play well with it were rack units or the eventide timefactor (that had both line level options AND kill/dry features)