Picking up a Framus Cobra tonight.. what to expect?

[cyndicate]

Found one locally for a good price so why not try it out , What can I expect? Best p;ower tubes with it? Preamp tube combinations?

 

[cyndicate]

Also I remember hearing a lot about reliability issues or something in the past, what was the deal with that? Anything to watch out for?

 

[Mailman1971]

Hold on to your hat!
Its one of the MEANEST sounding amps I have owned.
I would grab another in a second if I had a chance for a good deal.

 

[DiezelMonster]

I've only heard of issues with the effects loop board coming loose when the amp heats up, but that could have been an early design flaw not in the amp anymore.

Take come rig shots and post when you get it! I love how the cobras look!

C

 

[Gsxrbusa]

No issues with mine. I ran Ruby BHT or STR EL34's and it sounded great. I recommend a VHT Fatbottom cab or a greenback cab. It sounds ok with a V30 cab but fucking slays 3rd world countires with the Fatbottom! Nice score man.

 

[cyndicate]

Hold on to your hat!
Its one of the MEANEST sounding amps I have owned.
I would grab another in a second if I had a chance for a good deal.

Can't wait to try it out tonight I've played it a couple of times at a friends house, but it wasn't with my Guitars..

I've only heard of issues with the effects loop board coming loose when the amp heats up, but that could have been an early design flaw not in the amp anymore.

Take come rig shots and post when you get it! I love how the cobras look!

C

Great to hear, couldn't remember what the whole deal was with them, but it seems plenty of people have one and it's working great for them. Will post up pics when I get the chance.

No issues with mine. I ran Ruby BHT or STR EL34's and it sounded great. I recommend a VHT Fatbottom cab or a greenback cab. It sounds ok with a V30 cab but fucking slays 3rd world countires with the Fatbottom! Nice score man.

Is there any specific reason it sounds better with a VHT? I see a lot of people using these with the Cobras. Hopefully it will sound great with my G12K-100/V30 4x12.

 

[RJF]

Found one locally for a good price so why not try it out , What can I expect?

You can expect it to bang your old lady, punch you in the face, and drive off with your wheels while flipping you the bird.

Seriously..... you might as well start looking for a Cobra cab (good luck on that one) with the greenbacks. Cobras don't mesh with V30's. My Cobra sounds much better with it's own cab. I did try it with my VHT fat bottom before I sold it off, and it sounded good, again.... not like the Cobra cab....

 

[Mailman1971]

Found one locally for a good price so why not try it out , What can I expect?

You can expect it to bang your old lady, punch you in the face, and drive off with your wheels while flipping you the bird.

....

That described my old one as well!

Now the GAS FLAMES are rising for that amp!

 

[Gsxrbusa]

No issues with mine. I ran Ruby BHT or STR EL34's and it sounded great. I recommend a VHT Fatbottom cab or a greenback cab. It sounds ok with a V30 cab but fucking slays 3rd world countires with the Fatbottom! Nice score man.

Is there any specific reason it sounds better with a VHT? I see a lot of people using these with the Cobras. Hopefully it will sound great with my G12K-100/V30 4x12.

The Eminence P50e's in Fatbottom cabs have been called Hot rodded greenbacks, also those cabs are very tight and punchy. Sound great with Framus.

 

[cyndicate]

No issues with mine. I ran Ruby BHT or STR EL34's and it sounded great. I recommend a VHT Fatbottom cab or a greenback cab. It sounds ok with a V30 cab but fucking slays 3rd world countires with the Fatbottom! Nice score man.

Is there any specific reason it sounds better with a VHT? I see a lot of people using these with the Cobras. Hopefully it will sound great with my G12K-100/V30 4x12.

The Eminence P50e's in Fatbottom cabs have been called Hot rodded greenbacks, also those cabs are very tight and punchy. Sound great with Framus.

I see. I picked it up last night, pretty cool amp, still need to tweak it a bit and try it with different guitars. Reminds me a lot of Mako and VHT voicings. Those notch switches are so useless, turns the amp from sounding monstrous and aggressive to scooped shit I Haven't tried it with Greenbacks yet, will probably plug it in tonight into my Splawn 4x12 loaded with Greenbacks. This amp has an insane amount of gain on tap, I don't use more than like 11:00 on the lead channel, any more and its way too much. Too bad my guitar strings are all dull and rusted, need to do a string change and probably need to check the bias on the tubes since the prior owner never touched the bias knob ever.

Any tips for running stuff in the parallel loop? I haven't used the parallel loop in so long that I can't get the fx to work correctly. Found a mod online that has a series/parallel switch, maybe I'll attempt that later.

 

[Gsxrbusa]

No issues with mine. I ran Ruby BHT or STR EL34's and it sounded great. I recommend a VHT Fatbottom cab or a greenback cab. It sounds ok with a V30 cab but fucking slays 3rd world countires with the Fatbottom! Nice score man.

Is there any specific reason it sounds better with a VHT? I see a lot of people using these with the Cobras. Hopefully it will sound great with my G12K-100/V30 4x12.

The Eminence P50e's in Fatbottom cabs have been called Hot rodded greenbacks, also those cabs are very tight and punchy. Sound great with Framus.

I see. I picked it up last night, pretty cool amp, still need to tweak it a bit and try it with different guitars. Reminds me a lot of Mako and VHT voicings. Those notch switches are so useless, turns the amp from sounding monstrous and aggressive to scooped shit I Haven't tried it with Greenbacks yet, will probably plug it in tonight into my Splawn 4x12 loaded with Greenbacks. This amp has an insane amount of gain on tap, I don't use more than like 11:00 on the lead channel, any more and its way too much. Too bad my guitar strings are all dull and rusted, need to do a string change and probably need to check the bias on the tubes since the prior owner never touched the bias knob ever.

Any tips for running stuff in the parallel loop? I haven't used the parallel loop in so long that I can't get the fx to work correctly.

Oh man, those notch switches are fucking useless. What the fuck were they thinking Someone has a mod for the notch switches to actually make them usefull, forget if it was Jerry or who Honestly man, I never had any luck running anything in the loop, All I use are stompboxes so maybe rack shit would work better. IDK

 

[cyndicate]

No issues with mine. I ran Ruby BHT or STR EL34's and it sounded great. I recommend a VHT Fatbottom cab or a greenback cab. It sounds ok with a V30 cab but fucking slays 3rd world countires with the Fatbottom! Nice score man.

Is there any specific reason it sounds better with a VHT? I see a lot of people using these with the Cobras. Hopefully it will sound great with my G12K-100/V30 4x12.

The Eminence P50e's in Fatbottom cabs have been called Hot rodded greenbacks, also those cabs are very tight and punchy. Sound great with Framus.

I see. I picked it up last night, pretty cool amp, still need to tweak it a bit and try it with different guitars. Reminds me a lot of Mako and VHT voicings. Those notch switches are so useless, turns the amp from sounding monstrous and aggressive to scooped shit I Haven't tried it with Greenbacks yet, will probably plug it in tonight into my Splawn 4x12 loaded with Greenbacks. This amp has an insane amount of gain on tap, I don't use more than like 11:00 on the lead channel, any more and its way too much. Too bad my guitar strings are all dull and rusted, need to do a string change and probably need to check the bias on the tubes since the prior owner never touched the bias knob ever.

Any tips for running stuff in the parallel loop? I haven't used the parallel loop in so long that I can't get the fx to work correctly.

Oh man, those notch switches are fucking useless. What the fuck were they thinking Someone has a mod for the notch switches to actually make them usefull, forget if it was Jerry or who Honestly man, I never had any luck running anything in the loop, All I use are stompboxes so maybe rack shit would work better. IDK

Haha yeah, when I was demoing it at the guys house he turned that switch, and I was wondering what he did to make it sound like ass so I wouldn't do the same I guess I'll try messing with the Killdry function on my g-system to get the loop to work correctly. Not a fan of parallel loops

 

[Mailman1971]

I never used the MID CUT on my Cobra either.
Like it just KILLED THE AMP!
But overall its really a powerfull sounding amp!!

 

[ericsabbath]

make sure you have the drive channels volumes high, greenbacks, go easy with the bass and deep controls, never engage the notch switches, learn that the crunch channel always sound better than the lead channel (less fizzy, clearer, more middy, more open), on the clean channel, +gain = +body
if you don't use effects, you can use the fx loop to cut volume
the notch switches can be rewired as many useful things (gain boost or gain cut, mid boost, treble cut, resonance, mid shift...)

 

[cyndicate]

make sure you have the drive channels volumes high, greenbacks, go easy with the bass and deep controls, never engage the notch switches, learn that the crunch channel always sound better than the lead channel (less fizzy, clearer, more middy, more open), on the clean channel, +gain = +body
if you don't use effects, you can use the fx loop to cut volume
the notch switches can be rewired as many useful things (gain boost or gain cut, mid boost, treble cut, resonance, mid shift...)

Thanks for the tips! Do you have any links to mod layouts/schematics for the Cobra? Main one I'm interested in is making it a serial loop.

 

[RJF]

Like said, run your channel volume at max, the amp looses a bunch of fizz with the volume dimed. I run my gain on the lead channel at about 3oclock without a boost and 1 o clock with a clean boost. I also have the notch engaged all the time, without it I find the amp to be a mid happy honky bastard.

Use a boost with the Cobra, it's amazing how well it takes a clean boost.

 

[tnourse]

I hope you like it. I absolutely hated the one I had.

I've heard kick ass clips, but I couldn't dial it in at all. Was very happy to get rid if it.

Engl for me!!

 

[cyndicate]

I hope you like it. I absolutely hated the one I had.

I've heard kick ass clips, but I couldn't dial it in at all. Was very happy to get rid if it.

Engl for me!!

If this doesn't work out for me, I'm most likely going to try a ENGL Savage or Invader after Which ENGL do you have? When I first got it I thought it was very fizzy sounding, but I was able to dialed it out fairly quickly, who knows how it will sound when I play with it tonight. Wish the loop was serial though, if I like it enough dry I might attempt to mod it to serial.

 

[Mailman1971]

I had the Savage, Invader 150 and the Fireball 100.
The Invader 150 was my favorite ENGL that I owned.

 

[JohnnyC]

if you dont have fx units with line leve AND kill/dry function...dont bother with the framus loops

but happy NAD
i miss my cobra