[frankcastle]

Okay on a good week I practice 6 string twice. So I decided there was no point having a 7 string around gathering dust. So I put my Bowes 7 string up for sale/trade.

Best offer was for the Framus Cobra so I thought what the heck.

The tolex was a bit scuffed, the face plate was stained, the Framus logo had fallen off. Is it really attached with adhesive or did someone do a repair?

I had read mixed reviews on this amp and the youtube videoes focus on the high gain element of the amp.

After messing around with it here are my thoughts
lots of features.... I like that the three channels have their own EQ, Gain, Presence and voice switch. There are two master volumes that you can switch between using the footswitch. There are bias and midi options on the back that I don't really know what to do with but I'm sure someone else might care about that. There's also a depth knob that seems to control the boomyness of the amp. Wish there was one knob per channel for depth.

tone.... I think the mixed reviews comes from the fact that this amp is very sensitive (for lack of a better term). I started out with my JP6

The clean channel was excellent and sounded great with my piezo. I don't think youtube videoes give this channel as much attention as it deserves.

The crunch is pretty nice a bit old school sounding in my opinion.

The high gain channel is pretty crazy but I didn't dial it in very well. Probably need to tighten with a pedal.

Now here's the weird part I then plugged in my Fender Roadhouse Deluxe Start which has active pickups. It sounded like a blanket was thrown over the amp. With some tweaking it did sound better. I can't say I've ever experienced such a dramatic difference when switching guitars.

Another surprising feature was how much the tone changes by adjusting the Effect mix knob.

Overall not a bad amp. Pretty good clean channel. The amp is a little sharp though probably need to dial back treble and presence more than you think.

Not sure if I will keep this amp long term but it's not bad.

 

[Leon]

It definitely looks badass!

 

[frankcastle]

It definitely looks badass!

lol

If nothing else it could serve as a demonic night light and heater in a small room.

Forgot to mention that it definitely sounds big, Not sure what the science is behind that but I use the 2 x Vintage 30 for all my amps and this sounds big.

Since the face plate has some stains.... not sure how you stain metal..... but this amp benefits from dim lighting.

 

[Cassidy]

The finish on that grille tarnishes very easily, just through touching it, I think. I had one that was really heavily tarnished when I got it. I used cymbal polish on it, which blackens the finish right up. Looks cooler, but it does make the knob labels difficult to read. And, yeah, the logo really is just stuck on. That famous German engineering!

 

[1]

I love the sound of these. Boost it and rip the paint off the walls. :metal:

 

[frankcastle]

The finish on that grille tarnishes very easily, just through touching it, I think. I had one that was really heavily tarnished when I got it. I used cymbal polish on it, which blackens the finish right up. Looks cooler, but it does make the knob labels difficult to read. And, yeah, the logo really is just stuck on. That famous German engineering!

I would have never thought to try that. But I think I will leave it as is as reading the knobs is more important.

I was also disappointed that the Framus logo was plastic. Looks like something you could throw on the top of a birthday cake..... for some of the younger people here they probably have no idea what I am talking about.

 

[Josh]

Aww, you got rid of the Bowes?

Kevan had one of those, and I had a hard time getting it to not sound fizzy at less than wall-shaking volume. Cranked up to earsplitting levels it was much better.

 

[frankcastle]

Aww, you got rid of the Bowes?

Kevan had one of those, and I had a hard time getting it to not sound fizzy at less than wall-shaking volume. Cranked up to earsplitting levels it was much better.

As a work of art that Bowes was spectacular. But it deserved to be in the hands of someone who was going to use it and not hanging on my wall.

 

[budda]

I sense this is gonna be gone within half a year :lol:. Hopefully you can bond with it, if not I dunno how the Toronto market is for one of those.

Dial with your ears not your eyes haha :yesway:. I'm surprised it sounded like a blanket with the strat - how's the battery?

 

[frankcastle]

I sense this is gonna be gone within half a year :lol:. Hopefully you can bond with it, if not I dunno how the Toronto market is for one of those.

Dial with your ears not your eyes haha :yesway:. I'm surprised it sounded like a blanket with the strat - how's the battery?

LOL you're probably right.

The way I looked at it the Bowes 7 string is pretty specific market. The Framus isn't a whole lot better but from a $ standpoint it was a lateral move towards something I might use vs something that I wasn't using.

 

[budda]

Oh it makes sense - I have never tried one of those amps, but since SSO I've been curious. Maybe Shawn drops in and has some good tips.

 

[1528]

I had one of these. I recommend checking the bias first hand. It was running really cold and the fizzyness was gone after biasing it. I raised the amps to about 80% of max.

 

[406]

Nice one, congrats!
I liked maxing the gain out on the crunch channel and boost it for 3h metulz.

 

[105]

I had one of these for a while. The faceplate definitely gets dirty just by touching it. It's also very thin and can dent easily. I thought the clean channel was really nice in a Marshall sort of way. The distorted channel blended really nicely with my Mesa , But on its own I could never get a tone that I loved. I found that when I got it bright enough it was fizzy and when it wasn't fizzy it didn't cut enough for my tastes. However, I prefer the brighter and Marshall he tones then the darker Marshall tones. The cobra was definitely brighter than a Splawn that we tried. In the end I got the opportunity to get one of my Bucket list amps, the Überschall, And in order to afford that I needed to sell the cobra.

 

[James]

Speak to Adam (Cobra Commander), he bought Cassidy's one off him and spent a long time getting the best sound out of it he could. It ended up being a bit of a monster, but super hungry for frequencies, so it was hard to hear the rest of the band over it. Or if you adjusted the tone to hear the band, you couldn't hear the Cobra.

 

[eleven59]

Try turning off the preamp on that Strat and see how the passive Texas Specials sound through the amp on their own.

 

[frankcastle]

I will try and turn off the preamp in the Fender and see what happens.

I wonder what the science is that makes some amps cut through better than others.

not a huge deal as I am primarily just banging on power chords in the basement. lol

 

[Cobra Commander]

Put the fx loop at noon, and crank the fuck out of the channel volume - like 9/10. Gets rid of the fizz. Use a dark cab if you can, and keep the deep switch low. :yesway:

 

[Cobra Commander]

Seriously - channel volume at max, master volume for final levelling only.

 

[frankcastle]

thanks for the tips! sounds like I should reinforce my foundations!