Framus cobra lacking saturation

[guitarman967]

 

i'd rather have a clearer drier sound than the saggy saturated sound. But thats just me. I say boost it for when you want it more saturated.

 

 

Same hear. I like an amp that's keeping it real:thu:

[hc4965]

Wtf, If I had about 3000 euros I'd buy an Engl Se right now, but unfortunately I don't so i'll have to wait until next year. And for {censored}s sake I'm not trying to hide my mistakes behind gain. I'm a pretty good player (playing for many years) an I have no problem with my amps gain cause there is plenty of it. I'm talking about sound here and power tube saturation. I kinda found out some settings that give me more sag and saturation. The thing is that saturation comes suddenly at about 3/5 of the master volume. And should be used with lower channel volume. And yes, i believe changing tubes will help also. I'll try it and see what happens

[jnurp]

 

Wtf, If I had about 3000 euros I'd buy an Engl Se right now, but unfortunately I don't so i'll have to wait until next year. And for {censored}s sake I'm not trying to hide my mistakes behind gain. I'm a pretty good player (playing for many years) an I have no problem with my amps gain cause there is plenty of it. I'm talking about sound here and power tube saturation. I kinda found out some settings that give me more sag and saturation. The thing is that saturation comes suddenly at about 3/5 of the master volume. And should be used with lower channel volume. And yes, i believe changing tubes will help also. I'll try it and see what happens

 

 

Dude dont feel bad, these guys said the same stuff to me when i first got my Cobra and complained about it. blank out the sarcasm and focus on the helpful points in this thread. Give this amp a chance. it WILL grow on you. The crunch channel without the notch flipped is the most original metal channel i have ever heard. If you are playing in E standard you might want to consider dropping your tunings because i feel the cobra works best with lower frequencies and it has massive low end, the riffs sound devastating. You cant play dokken on this amp, im not sure what kind of music you are into, but it wont do that style at all. it does a modern drop tuned metal better than anything else i have heard. give it a try, stick with it, tweak it till the wee hours in the night, but dont give up. Remember it is very dry, your palm mutes will sound much different, your open chords will sound different...but the clarity, the depth...ooh man im gettin a chubby thinkin 'bout it! LOL...its awesome.

[guitarman967]

Dude dont feel bad, these guys said the same stuff to me when i first got my Cobra and complained about it. blank out the sarcasm and focus on the helpful points in this thread. Give this amp a chance. it WILL grow on you. The crunch channel without the notch flipped is the most original metal channel i have ever heard. If you are playing in E standard you might want to consider dropping your tunings because i feel the cobra works best with lower frequencies and it has massive low end, the riffs sound devastating. You cant play dokken on this amp, im not sure what kind of music you are into, but it wont do that style at all. it does a modern drop tuned metal better than anything else i have heard. give it a try, stick with it, tweak it till the wee hours in the night, but dont give up. Remember it is very dry, your palm mutes will sound much different, your open chords will sound different...but the clarity, the depth...ooh man im gettin a chubby thinkin 'bout it! LOL...its awesome.

 

Wow, you hit the nail on the head with alot of your comments. I agree with you on alot of this and Yes I've found that the Cobra sounds meaner and meaner as you tune down. I don't like it quite as much in Standard tuning. Thankfully I never really go higher than E Flat for my metal stuff.

With a Boost I'm sure that it's a whole different Story..

I Too used to dream of playing the Cobra when I was at work when I first got it dialed in right. The palm mutes are purely addicting!!

It's got a different type of voicing and I think for some guys with a less modern approach to heavy guitar have trouble with it. Although Traci Guns plays one so..

[guitarman967]

Wtf, If I had about 3000 euros I'd buy an Engl Se right now, but unfortunately I don't so i'll have to wait until next year. And for {censored}s sake I'm not trying to hide my mistakes behind gain. I'm a pretty good player (playing for many years) an I have no problem with my amps gain cause there is plenty of it. I'm talking about sound here and power tube saturation. I kinda found out some settings that give me more sag and saturation. The thing is that saturation comes suddenly at about 3/5 of the master volume. And should be used with lower channel volume. And yes, i believe changing tubes will help also. I'll try it and see what happens

 

Dont worry man, no one's accusing you of hiding behind the gain.. Just trying to point out that the Cobra's a different kind of amp. I find the Voicing and gain structure quite unorthodox..

It seems either User's learn to bend their style to work with it's strong points or they find an amp that's more their thing. Unfortunetly a high percentage of them never really use the Cobra to it's full potential in the first place and sell it quickly.

I'm just chiming in here because I think that new Cobra users could use someone to point out a couple things to get them going in the right direction.

Case in point, I see that you're setting your Channel volumes on the Low side.

If this works for you then stick with it but after many hours of tweaking the amp and gathering input from others online I've found that the Best tone's the Cobra has to offer are found when the CRUNCH or LEAD Channels Volume Controls are set to around 2:00.

This is the Most saturated area for the Preamp while still retaining the Clarity and note separation that the Cobra has.

Adjusting the Volume Control further, to around 3:00 will increase the Poweramp sound and taper off the more of the Preamp saturation. The Control's are very sensitive and results are very dependant upon the type of pickups you are running into the amp.

I recently found 1:00 is a Good area for a S series Ibanez with stock pickups.

Give this a try if you haven't already and let us know what you think.

[hc4965]

A Cobra that's dry and open? No {censored}, that's how the Cobra's supposed to sound. Next thing you know, you're going to say Marshalls are crunchy.

 

Yeah right, instead of trying to be a smartass, why dont you spend some time thinking about how a REAL LEAD channel MUST sound. But I know, some people stick to those nice, dry, tight crunch channels simply cause they will never be able to solo. Anyway I found the solution, now you can stick your "crunchy marshall" in your butt. And remember. This is no place for smartass gay people. This is a place to help each other.

[hc4965]

I've found that the Best tone's the Cobra has to offer are found when the CRUNCH or LEAD Channels Volume Controls are set to around 2:00. This is the Most saturated area for the Preamp while still retaining the Clarity and note separation that the Cobra has. k.

 

 

Yes buddy, thats what I mean lower channel volumes. I personnaly think that the best setting for my rig is about 01:00, but I believe it is different for everyone according to his rig (guitar, pickups etc.) Thanx anyway

[guitarman967]

Yeah right, instead of trying to be a smartass, why dont you spend some time thinking about how a REAL LEAD channel MUST sound. But I know, some people stick to those nice, dry, tight crunch channels simply cause they will never be able to solo. Anyway I found the solution, now you can stick your "crunchy marshall" in your butt. And remember. This is no place for smartass gay people. This is a place to help each other.

 

Hmm that's funny, I just wrote about 3 paragraphs trying to help.

And By the way, it's the complete opposite as far as lead's go, I have no problem playing Leads on the Cobra because I do not rely on Saturation to play leads. It sounds like you might.. Maybe an ENGL is for you

[cobrahead1030]

http://disvisioned.net/clips/CobraLeadQuicky.mp3

 

lead channel gain @ noon

[guitarman967]

 

Yes buddy, thats what I mean lower channel volumes. I personnaly think that the best setting for my rig is about 01:00, but I believe it is different for everyone according to his rig (guitar, pickups etc.) Thanx anyway

 

 

1:00 isnt really considered a low setting. Anything under 12:00 would be considered low

[JoshuaLogan]

http://disvisioned.net/clips/CobraLeadQuicky.mp3 lead channel gain @ noon

 

that sounded nice

['63-Strat]

 

QFMFT The only amps I've known to do this moreso than the Cobra, are Bogners.

 

 

+1

 

MY XTC-C is not very forgiving at all, IMO. Very clear. Its smooth and sags, yes, but it shows up any problems with dynamics quickly.

[Metalcore5150]

 

the cobra is a pretty dry sounding amp, especially on the crunch channel but not so much on the lead...still if you want saturation like an engl you should get an engl what cab are you running? personally i don't like the cobra with front loaded cabs, and i think they bring out the dryness in the wrong way and tend to have cold/stiff feel (others will disagree which is fine, this is just how i feel) if you're running the factory power tubes and bias, definitely swap those out and get it biased properly...that will open it up a bit where are you running your channel and master volumes? i keep my channel volume around 3:00 and master from about 10:30-noon...if you can't get it up that loud that may be an issue as well

 

 

What are the best tubes for the cobra?

[guitarman967]

 

What are the best tubes for the cobra?

 

 

For me, I've found that the Stock Electro Harmonix work great for what I want to get out of the Cobra.

Ruby EL34B STR's are an upgrade of sorts to the Cobra's poweramp as they give the amp a clearer bolder Sound. I've found that they take to being biased hotter as well.

For the Preamp, I've experimented with just about everything other that the NOS stuff and the Chinese tubes work well. They will reduce a bit of the Cobra's High end and change the Mid voicing slighty. Overall they're not as Agressive as the Electro harmonix.

I do have a trick to get more saturation in the Cobra at Lower volumes though if anyone's interested.

I used a Mullard AT7 in the Phase inverter and it seemed to introduce a lot more of the preamp sound at lower volumes. The tone was also alot warmer.

I'd suggest any Cobra owner check this out as it does make for a totally different tone and feel

[hc4965]

Hmm that's funny, I just wrote about 3 paragraphs trying to help. And By the way, it's the complete opposite as far as lead's go, I have no problem playing Leads on the Cobra because I do not rely on Saturation to play leads. It sounds like you might.. Maybe an ENGL is for you

 

Dude, that smartass thing wasn't going for you.... Your info really helped

[cobrahead1030]

 

What are the best tubes for the cobra?

 

 

i agree with guitarman on the power tubes...ruby el34bstr's are my favorite so far

 

i'm running a mesa spax7 in v1 which just sounds beautiful on the clean channel, i've got the stock EH tubes in all other spots only i'm running an eh 12at7 in the PI slot (stock was 12ax7)

[guitarman967]

 

Dude, that smartass thing wasn't going for you.... Your info really helped

 

 

No problem man. Glad I can help. Feel free to Hit me up for any info you need:thu:

[stangme01]

damn i play almost always in standard, sometimes drop D. I haven't been playing all that long so i'm trying to just keep learning while i'm in standard and i've never tried even playing lower than drop D except maybe a few times. I love the sound of low tunings but i don't really even feel like i know how to play my guitar when i downtune (below Drop D) lol. Do any of you guys play the Cobra in standard tuning and love it?