I know this is a car forum, but thought a few of you might enjoy this. On the guitar boards, we have things like "NGD" (New Guitar Day) and "NAD" (New Amp Day), and do little pic-stories about the joyous process of possessing new equipment. It's kinda like getting a new set of rims for the ride. Just fewer boxes. Considering the name of the piece of gear, I thought you all would enjoy it. I first played through a Framus Cobra a few years ago at a NAMM show. I had tried their Ruby Riot combo and really liked it. Plugged (the Diablo Light Scotch) into the Cobra and that was it. I knew someday I'd have one. No rush though....I liked my Rivera TBR-2SL and it's served me and a plethora of Jemfest artists quite well over the last decade. Well, a great deal on a Cobra reared it's head and......I bought it. Of course, I watch the 10:30A FedEx guy drive right on past the house. Yes- I know full-well that he's got my box on board. He does too. But for some reason can't seem to find the brakes (or just doesn't give a crap). At about 2PM, he rolls back around and dingity-dongity, I sign for the package: Jeez. Tape much? LOL Time to whip out the iSlice that Rachel got me for Xmas: Hmmm...as cool as that thing is, I don't think it's going to fare well versus the hold-an-engine-block-together packing tape on the box. We're gonna need a bigger boat. Or in this case, knife: Benchmade FTMFW! That thing is a single flick away from WIN. The box had a type of lid made for it, so the tape holding the lid on was sliced: Popping the lid open: Nice pack job! Damn...more tape! Sneaky peeky! Packing on the amp was done extremely well: I know this is usually what you see after the money shot in an Jules Jordan flick, but today it's just a cardboard box that's empty: Foot switch was also nicely packaged with a couple of layers of thickass bubblewrap: Voila! Wait. WTF is behind the grille? Time to break out the 19.2V and find out what's going on: Oh....it's the tubes! Nothin' like a line of EL-34s and 12AX7s to cap off a day of waiting for FedEx not to screw up: Back into the box goes all the bubblewrap: Time to fire up the bad boy! Oh yeah! I'll take some of that! I'm diggin' the sound on the Cobra so far (only played with it for about an hour). I'll probably change out the GrooveTubes 12AX7's for something a little more my style, but keep the GTs as backups. The only downside is that there's no reverb, but no worries; I'll get that from my 2101 PRO. So far, a nice solid 3-channel amp with good cleans, great crunch, and a wonderful high-gain channel. FIN
Nive head Kevan, never heard of that company though. What other heads would sound similar in your opinion? I've always wanted to go the Rivera route but they're a bit pricey and not so easy to find at stores.
Thanks folks! Framus has been around for a long time (German based), but only in the last decade started doing distro here in the U.S.A. My Rivera was great, and I had no complaints about it save for the weight (just over 90 lbs.!), but....it was 320W of all-tube beauty. BTW- If you do go the Rivera route, get ready for GREAT customer service. I called to get instructions on how to bias my TBR, and Paul Rivera Sr. actually picked up the phone! And walked me through the entire process! Awesome folks over there. I'd say the Cobra is the "younger cousin" of the Diezel Herbert or a Bogner Uberschall. Just a little less gain than those two monsters. It's a lot like the old-school SLO-100 heads, with maybe a Keeley mod'ed OD pedal in front of it. I'm very happy with the tones thus far. I'm sure the new pre-amp tubes will help even more.
