Framus CS Top

This is a follow up review from my initial post...(im starting to think im the only person who uses this amp)

i decided to retube the amp with JJ EL84s and the preamp section with a mixture of tungsol,penta labs,jjs. a 12at7 mullard replaced the reverb and a JJ GZ34 replaced the rectifier tube.

the JJs defnitely really make a noticible improvement over the stock sovtek EL84s. its lost a lot of the gritty ness however still crunches and the leads have a nice smooth singing/sustaining quality to them. overall amp is very warm.

i have cranked this amp above half way several times for recording purposes (with the cab being isolated) i really love the clean channel when its on the verge of breaking up and slammed with a tubescreamer.

played with this with a drummer and bass player and singer and they all commented on how warm and unique this amp sounded. amp sounds better and better with volume

there are some clips of the amp here
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=780120&content=music

had it for over 6months and no issues at all. it gets very warm after long periods but that is a characteric of El84 amps.

i emailed framus (both australia distributer Dominant music and Framus germany) RE some questions and H.P.Wilfer responded himself.

the australian distributer (dominant) was not very good with technical questions

been playing over 10 years. have owned several tube amps (marshall) and previously a framus Cobra.

i love this amp more than the cobra as its more toneful/musical instead of all out metal assault.

features i wish this amp had...
- led indicators for the footswitch
- switchable fx loop
- switchable fx loop type between paralell/series)
- +4db or -10db fx loop (instead of 0db)

Framus Carlos Santana/Classic Stack 30W class A (4x EL84, %x 12AX7, 1x 12AT7 for reverb and a rectifier tube)
2 channel Head w/reverb

its a Vox style with the control panel on top
Clean Channel with Vol,Bass,Mid,Tre
Lead Channel with Gain,Hass,Mid,Tre and Master Vol.
Fx loop mix and reverb level control

rear panel as switchable ohms from 8ohms to 4ohms with 2 speaker jacks.
line level -0db fx loop send/return and a foootswitch jack.

after battling with my Cobra for over 2 years since i had left my metal band and been refined to tame this 100W beast to bedroom levels(tube changes etc and eventually hotplate)
and buying my first house i figured its New amp time, i decided it was time to let go of the cobra and get something more suited to homeuse. i loved the cobra but it was severe overkill for me, and the lack of in-between mid gain tones was starting to bother me. dont get me wrong... i loved the cobras pristine cleans and brutal crunch and lead channels for metal...but my taste has veered from the aggressiveness to seeking a more smooth lead dist.

enter my new Framus CS (Classic Stack/Carlos Santana) Top. yes i know...carlos santana! even i would have laughed at myself 2 years ago if i saw myself plugging into this head. i already have the matching 2x12 cab (downsized from a dragon cab after i left the band) which i swore i hated V30s...however concluded it was the cobras crunch channel which didnt gel (Greenbacks FTW!)
first i plugged my PRS CE24 with SD Custom/Jazz pickups straight into the amp.

CLEAN CHANNEL - i think this is meant to be a Vox AC30 but ive never played one. it is very much warmer compared to the Cobras which is more sharper/brighter.
tons of volume and only starts to compress at around 2-3oclock (which is unbearable volumes). its got that famous framus percussive thud with the low end and the top end chimes quite nicely.
a bit bassy with every thing at noon (easily fixed by rolling the volume knob on the guitar down) but i eventually notched the bass to 11oclock, and the mids down 10-11oclock.
very impressed with this channel.

LEAD CHANNEL - with the gain,bass,mid,tre to noon, i was initially quite dissapointed when i switched to the lead channel as i was greeted with a blatty/gritty type of blaahh distortion.
as i progressively lowered the gain this disssapeared and i can see why other reviews on HC have complained about this amp having too much gain. theres really not much room to tweak between slightly on verge of breaking up/crunch and full on distortion.
with gain at around 8oclock (7oclokc being zero) this has enough crunch to satisfy most rock players. think matchbox 20 type chord/riffs. i was happiest with the gain at around 9-00-10oclock which i could coax out some heavy chugging and pinch harmonics. this channle is very responsive to the gutiars vol/tone knobs and the mid gain tones can be had with a roll of hte vol. tweaking the eq i was happly playing opeth riffs on this channel.
the fluid/smooth lead tones on this channel was really what put a smile to my face. it is after all a santana amp...and i couldnt resist rolling off the tone knob on the guitar and bust out some black magic woman. not quite exactly santana but i put it down to my guitar/pickups...its close enough. more importantly its capable of the guthrie govan fusion lead style (now i just have to learn to play like him haha)
anyways for now, i ended up with the bass on 10-11oclock mids on 1oclock and treble at 11 oclock. very similiar to how i set up my cobras crunch channel.

i managed the master volume to 9 oclock which was a bit louder than my missus would allow (couldn get the cobras master to 9oclock without a hotplate)

so next i hooked up the hot plate and it is very transparrent and usable. before with the cobra (master vol at 9oclock) i had to set the hotplate it to -12db (when missues was not at home) and to -16db when she was. this added some fizz to the tone...however with teh new CS i can get away with the hotplate set to -8db and -12db with the lead master at halfway!!!! very very happy.

next i tried my BYOC screamer clone (modded) to boost the lead channel...holy smokes. much more effective than boosting hte cobras lead channelbut this thing went into harder rock/metal territory and i got my ibanez seven string (dimarzio blaze) for some low B chugging/unearth riffs.

i owned a cobra for over 2 years and had no issues.
only just got this amp and the reverb did not work in the store however they had it checked out and fixed it before i took it home

god help me if i have to contact framus germany

obviously this amp isnt hte first go to for that high gain metal sound but its certainly passable(certainly look elsewhere if you want that tech/death metal sound) but my taste/style in tone has in a kind of way matured.

i also tried an the eventide timefactor delay in the fx loop. i had to set the TF to line level and killdry to work with the framus parrallel fx loop. the fx loop mix had more volume at zero and a lot less at full. i set it to mid way. didnt have any issues with phasing as the TF was in kill dry mode. very happy with the bypass sound. i will eventually get a behringer FBC1010 to change the framus amp channels/reverb and the timefactors presets but for know i dont particurly feel like programing midi.

the reverb on the amp is a nice feature and is tube driven? but its nothing that exciting to talk about. i set it quite low as i ahve the timefactor anyways/

overall i know im still in the honeymoon phase, but the pluses of this amp over the cobra(in my situation regarding volume wise) outweight the lack of brutalness.
if i ever joined a band or played live again im sure this amp will be more than capable.

the only other amp i was deciding between was the cornford roadhouse 30...but unfortunately in aus they are harder to obtain (especially since its quite new)