A lot of the reason this amp sounds great is the Neve pre he’s running it through!! Don’t be fooled there is much more at play than the head.

Thanks for listening and watching! I have the VHT up next, then the Marshall 8100, the Soldano SLO30 and more!

"It's like the instant switch to turn your amp into shit!"...I'm dead, haha. So scooped.

Always wanted one, never had the chance to though. Never even played through one but back when I was constantly trolling the harmony central amp/gear forums in like 2007-2009, the amp forum was constantly buzzing about the Framus Cobra. It helped that Killswitch were using Framus heads at the time, both the dragon and cobra. They do sound absolutely killer though, though frankly John anything you play sounds pretty fucking stellar. You know what amp I'd love to hear you demo? Another one that I gassed for hard back in those days, thanks in large part to the HC amp forum. The Splawn Nitro. Also an amp that KSE used at one point in time. I did get the chance to own one albeit very briefly about a decade ago, and it was one of the best amps I'd ever played through.

i always considered the cobra as a dual rectifier on steroids.

Dude, I always love watching your vids, the fact that you're an insanely good guitar player totally trumps the anxiety that I can only imagine comes with the visually apparent issues that come with the neck/spine issues you're dealing with. I was born with underdeveloped limbs, specifically the issue was mostly in the development of my hands and lower parts of my legs. I have slowly been able to start airing my creative juices online without creating some sort of veil I can use to protect my own mental fragility. Thanks to you and many other youtubers reminding me what really matters, and that's the sounds that we create, and not necessarily how pretty we look behind our instruments. Thanks for the inspiration and being a badass and having the sack to do what you do with no fucks given. If you're interested in chatting, as I'm curious to the circumstances of your neck issues, let me know, I'm always stoked on chatting with mates who can at least relate a bit to struggles in our chosen walks of life. On the subject of amp demos and reviews, have you ever had an opportunity to try out an Egnater Vengeance??? If it's something that is possible I would love to see this! I've been drooling over them for a while and see them pop up and then hear horror stories about transformer issues, then others tell me that Rob Egnater has guaranteed repair on a manufacturing issue. So I wanna really just wanna see an in depth look at one of the Egnater tweaker style amps but in UBER metal form. Cheers John, keep up the riffage. PS Metallica is king and James Her field is RIFFMASTER.

You've definitely become one of my favorite guitarists. I'm a bassist but I'm starting to play guitar and you're the reason I'm trying out CGCFGC tuning instead of regular Dropped C

Went to a bury your dead show and their guitar player let me try his out. Remember thinking it sounded awesome. Back in 04-05.

I have one and it's funny how extremely recognizable the sound is! Like when I hear a 5150 in a youtube video it doesn't really feel like mine through all the different setups etc. Here however: yep, that's a Cobra

Yesss! Sounds huge. Might I suggest trying a Quad track - a couple of tracks with a chewy amp like a 5150, and a couple of tracks with that scooped mode Cobra underneath to really fill out the top and bottom for a wall of WIN

10:17 I love this riff so much :D

The sad part about these amps (and the Dragon) is the massive quality issues. Ever wonder why Rose Of Sharyn has a different guitar tone than the rest of End Of Heartache? Because the Cobra they were blending with the 5150 fucking died lol

I have no idea about caps, amps etc. I'm just watching to hear Browne play. Man, you amaze me very time, much love

I heard one of these live in a club in Syracuse... Sounded like someone ripping a thick piece of canvas. So pissed off sounding, I complimented the guy when I saw him at the bar. He just got the amp, and was still on a high from it. So excited I could tell.

There were never any problems with the amps only faulty jacks on some cabs were problematic. I'm using a Dragon V1 and a Cobra V1 for about 18-22 years now. They are made in Germany partially handwired and work flawlessly since day 1.

Bought one from Ken Susi and it's a beast. I prefer my Rivera knucklehead ii. A very under rated metal amp.

Framus should do a lunchbox of this.

This is definitely the BEST playthrough of any amp I seen so far on YT...thanks, John! Good to see that the Cobra obviously has been modeled very well in STLtones new ampsim (Amphub) \m/

Lamb Of God guitarist Willy Adler used this the first decade or so of the bands career.

Would love to see what you do with a Laney IRT 120

Remember all the controversy with Madison divinity amps back in the day? I remember them being really sought for then something happened and people were trashing on them. That would be a good revisit.

Love your channel. Especially appreciate how you generally crank the master volume. Most demos don't do that. Personally if I'm looking for a 100 watt head I'm going to use it cranked with a band. Most demos have the master on like 1 or 2. The tone of the power amp is important to hear IMO.

I loved this amp when Heaven Shall Burn used them in their antigone album, nasty ass sound and would still love to buy one someday

I love the snarl of this amp. It's one of my favourites that you've tried.

Sold my Cobra when I got my Kemper it sounded great with greenbacks which is what the matching cab had. Sounded awesome with a boost. I regret letting it go, but you had to crank it.

I wanna see ya play more 7 strings with these amps. Do both. Your such a dynamic player it’s great to see you play both and the tones you get.

Oh dat riff noodling at 11:34! Thanks for the inspiration Mr. Browne!

Glad to see some love for this amp, one of my favorites!!! Had one for 5 years or so, but sold it when I got my AxeFx Standard. Really wish I had kept it! I never had any issues with it and I played a good deal of shows with mine too, I must've gotten one of the good ones.

5:50 This sound is the clean tone of My Curse by KSE =D

I have one of these that i haven't dusted off in a while, and I was considering selling it,.. quite glad I watched this vid first, as it's changed my mind

@ 15:50 "And that is really quite heavy rain - isn't it?" -- I looked outside and it actually just started raining 🤔

I used one once at a gig where I wasn't using my own amp head, going for a Marshall-esque tone with it, and I remember that it sounded phenomenal. I was mega impressed with the sound I got, but it's way too big and has too many knobs for me to ever get one myself.

I will never be able to afford any of this gear, but I love hearing it, particularly in the hands of John Browne.

Man. You are a down picking beast!!! I cant keep up that pace for any longer than 4min then my fore arm starts burning like fuck. Luv the vids John, thanks for sharing with us and keep up the good work mate.

Sounds killer. Gotta love that crunch channel.

Thank you for actually demoing the clean channel for more than 8 seconds.

Respect for your techneek, John ! I am always happy to listen your style ! Learned alot !

Actually there were a lot of rumors spread in forums about Cobra reliability and Technical issues, but it's NOT TRUE! No more issues than with dual rectos, I have had 2 cobras for ages - great amps, well built gear!

I was very fortunate to get myself a Cobra that was in very, very good condition and well kept. It sounds so fricken good even compared to modern day amps. The bright and notch switch actually has a pretty dramatic tone difference on mine and has been kicking hard ever since I got it like 4 years ago. I didn't even know about their quality issues though. Quite a shame. :/

4:06 Sons of Apollo!

That first clean riff really reminded me of Adam Jones. It was cool.

The saturation on this amp is amazing.

Sounds really tight! Never really heard these reviewed properly before! Great work again John

Its almost a soldano SLO, but with a Baxandall EQ, I did make a clone of it when i was 16.

*Reads title*. TRIGGERED! The Framus Cobra is still my main amp, and has my favorite tones. The lead channel has a lot of interaction between bass/mids and treble/presence which trips a lot of of people up. For anyone that wants a cobra tone, the kazrog Thermionik Serpent is based off of my personal amp.

Johnee, that sweet riff from the Box of Doom demo is just beyond epic, love it!

Had the Cobra Halfstack, but I never was really happy with it. Maybe a different cab could have fixed my problems.

Would also love to see you do the Laney irt15w studio head. Loved your tone with it back in the day. Would be a great amp to re visit

Geez! This thing sounds right up my alley! I'm very glad now I own decent monitoring cans so that I can hear all these amps I fell in love with properly. It has been awesome.

I had one back in the day w/matching cab........when I was a youngster........before I knew how to use an amp. Wish I had it still.???

dude, would you bother trying our Diezel D-moll? :D

Love this channel bro! All these high gain reviews are wetting my appetite for a Fractal FM3😀

Thank you for playing We Are Creating At This Moment riff, that part made my day, one of my favorite songs.

Sounds absolutely killer here mate, you pulled a great sound from it

I own a cobra with the original cab loaded with greenbacks. It's one of the most brutal amps I have ever owned. The amp is turning 12 years old this year. Apart from new tubes I never had issues with it. So I don't understand where all these "reliability" complaints come from. I play the thing at home, band practice and gigs. Never had an issue. The only rhing that suck is the faceplate. Mine is all grimey with no way of cleaning it properly. But it gives the amp character. Like battle scars.

Sounds great man! I'm still using my Framus 4x12 for gigging.

I'm quite suprised this is one of my favorite tones from you of recent videos!

Last year I bought a brand new (!) Cobra from Thomann, apparently they had received a few remnant devices from Framus. I liked the sound although it was not an easy task to learn how to dial it in. After a couple of weeks I decided to finally go full digital and wanted to sell the amp again. A guy from cologne wanted to buy it. During his 2,5 hour drive to my place, I thought I‘d say goodbye to the amp and fire it up one last time. I plugged in my guitar, switched on the amp... and it was dead. The buyer arrived and it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life when I had to tell him that his 2,5 hour drive was for nothing because I didn‘t have an amp to sell anymore.

Dude you’re the biggest inspiration for me to play modern metal. I love your vids. Keep being a legend! 🤟🏻 Cheers from Hungary!

Awesome video, as always!!! But John, what's up with the T-shirt??? Is that bullet holes or for proper ventilation? Maybe that's the big secret behind your downpicking technic Idk... I'll try later during the schredule!

If it sounded good then, there’s no reason it shouldn’t sound good now. People still use the JCM800 and nobody questions whether or not it “still sounds good”. I think that’s a bit of a silly question to ask about an amp. Now, whether something new might sound better? That’s a different story, but it’s pretty subjective.

Great now I want a cobra.

I've heard some people say these amps suck through V30's and others say they only sound good through Greenbacks'etc. I am seeing if I can track one down.

Its an incredibly cold sounding clean channel. But it has a certain quality to it.

Yeah, the Cobra is 1000% the offspring of a 5150 block-letter & Dual Rectifier. At 2:40, & 4:30 even with that dark/notch switch, that clean channel is like a Recto clean tone that doesn't compress the shit out of the high-mids, it sounds really really fucking cool. Great video, can't wait to see what you do with the 8100 Valvestate in all of it's Deathy goodness

I would give my top 2 snowballs for that amp. 🤘🏽🎩

I still to this day find the channel 2 crunch to be grail metal tone. Reason I haven't sold mine since I bought it new in 06. I have had friends buy them after hearing mine and sold them soon after because they said it didn't sound nearly as good as mine. Generation 1's are special for some reason. But after the years I figured out why people disagree with these, it's their speaker selection. My cab was always stuffed with G12H30 Anniversaries. This amp is CRUSHING with a Green type of speaker, but the V30 doesn't pair well with the Cobra. Most metal players have V30s in their cabs, hence the reasoning for this amps short popularity life span I think. Mine has had zero problems in the 14 years I've owned it, and I won't part with it. Cheers for having it come across so we'll through KZfaq. Very recognizable tone. It's its own. 🤘

Reminds me a bit of a german amp like a diezel or a bogner uberschall. lots of bottom end and attitude. Cool amp!

This amp wasnt on my need list but just got a preamp module that is going for this amp. And I hope I get these sounds great sound and playing

Framus anything will always be relevant and the Cobra is no exception!

Great vid first time I’ve seen you finger pick sounded good! Also in one of your other vids you were like what’s a clean channel hahah lol! Also great sounding amp I might get one!

Thanks! Cobra sounding brutal, and I really like your playing! Signed up!

just noticed that you anchor your fingers to the body on your picking hand. people tease me for that relentlessly and simultaneously can't figure out why my right hand is so tight. good to know i'm not alone. if it's good enough for JB, it's good enough for me. also how in the world could you EVER sell this thing? i can't find a plugin to replicate it.

Man that 2.0 looks so dang good without the solid paint

thanks 4 the great demo Heavvvvvyyyyyyyyy man

My friend runs a Cobra through his PPC412. Even with microphonic powertubes and a slew of reversed modifications, it still crushes just as hard, if not harder than my modded Triple X. Now if only i could convince him to stop with the mod scoop button 😅

Cobra and dragon .. those the amps that I only see on guitar magazine when I was a kid.

Notch switch is useful for quad tracking - you can get a really cool Swedish death metal sound going when layering things up. Definitely not to be used by itself though :')

Shit gets real at 11:19

She just sounds lush & lovely. Not a ‘clanky’ metal tone. Me likesum!

Please share that tuning Brother!

I owned one of these bad boys from 2005-2008 and loved it. Always told myself id but one again when I can afford it.

Shame on you for selling it :P An old fave of mine. Heard a friend pair it with a Mesa Mark IV and it was a beastly combo. This is especially nice with its Greenback loaded cab,

Subscribed, love my Cobra and V1 Pandemonium, funny coincidence I run a similar chain.

Nice Amp! Sounds good

would like their dragon amp

The Framus Cobra, Mesa Triple Rec F and the Engl Invader sound like slight variant versions of them. I certainly want one, but one that is functional and not damaged bc there are hardly maintenance places for it at least not in the SF Bay Area

I love the Framus Ruby Riot. It's amazing. They are a bit unreliable. Tube sockets mounted directly to the PCB. If Framus stopped building them that way, they would be super road worthy. I have played 150 shows w/ the Ruby Riot. It does everything from metal to jazz.

I watched two of these perish before my eyes. I was then asked if they could borrow my 50 watt JCM800. This was the other guitarist in my band. After he got a refund he ended up with a 5150 which he still uses. The extra money went into a new guitar I think.

I dont even need to watch your vids to know youre gonna make everything you demo sound really good. But i still watch em anyway

Holy fuck, it sounds immense.

Omg what a coincidence....my guitar whatsapp grup member are selling this cobra and the vht pitbull. And i did try the cobra and the result far from my expectation. I dunno maybe it broken when in the shipment before, it was in another part of the world before forgot where. And im in indonesia

It’s a very tight open sounding amp. Like what the 5150 could have been. The notch switches are useless, and the faceplate becomes permanently discolored too easily...but it is a sweet amp. I will second the reliability issues...I have owned 2 and both had issues. Definitely not as reliable as any other amps I have had.

John, Your neck situation is bringing back memories, and not good ones! I had my c6-c7 replaced in January, 2019. Not fun. I hope things get better for you. I don't miss the mobility problems, nerve pain and muscle atrophy.

This Amp is a Beast, way underrated

One killer riff after another...such a juicy and tasty playing here. This amp sounds really great in your hands, cheers!

It sounds kinda half way between a Recto and a Hughes and Kettner

Impressed by you're picking technique

Hey sir, just wanna say thank you for testing this amp! Still one of the best sounding high gain amps out there imo. Could you explain more about those "technical issues" you mentioned. Cause i'm concerning to get me a cobra head. How can i determine wether it has this technical issue or not?

I had a Framus Dragon and only got around it's quirks a couple of days before letting it go. I remember that Crunch and Lead channel were fizzy if the channel volume was under 70-75% (or 2-3 o'clock if you'd like), and only on or over 75% they sounded great. Also, the effects loop mix affected the sound of the whole amp too much. When it was on 50% (or noon) the amp sounded great, punchy and clear, and any other setting sounded like it choked the whole basic sound of the amp. Mix that with the fact that the effects loop was intended for use with line level signal, not instrument level, and you're in trouble :D Still, I miss that amp, once I plugged it to the Dragon 4x12 I realized it's full potential, but that was already too late 'cause everything was arranged for it to go to the next owner.