Framus Dragon Info Please!

[Jari6666]

Can anyone tell me what version I have?

I’ve scoured the Internet for the past 2 hours trying to figure it out to no avail.

The serial on the chassis is F01866
The serial on the sticker inside the amp interior is F00000905 which dates it as a 2005 I think? It has external bias points

Anyways any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[narad]

IIRC, if you have the external bias points, you have version 3, right?

 

[Jari6666]

IIRC, if you have the external bias points, you have version 3, right?

I’m not sure since I’m assuming versions 4 and 5 would have this as well?

 

[narad]

I’m not sure since I’m assuming versions 4 and 5 would have this as well?

Oh sorry, I guess there's more versions than I was aware of!

 

[Necky379]

Question for you, what do you think, how do you like it?

 

[Jari6666]

Question for you, what do you think, how do you like it?

Honestly I’m a little disappointed, I’m coming from a Friedman BE-100 Deluxe and the Dragon is waaaayyy different. A bit on the dry side not a lot of saturation, and kind of saggy like a recto but with less gain on tap... reminds me of an engl Thunder that I used to have (and hated) The clean channel is pretty great, somewhere between a fender and a Vox. I managed to get a decent metal tone from the crunch channel by cranking it and running a boost in front which to be fair seems to be the recommended method. Very punchy and satisfying when I do that but my ears are bleeding lol. I’m going to try to some diff tubes since JJs seem to not be the way to go according to many forums. Also I’m running it through an Orange 4x12 with V30s.

Long story short I was expecting a thick and lush organic distortion but am getting a dark flubby dare I say flaccid (ugh ) tone

I’m going to spend more time tweaking because I KNOW that these can sound great.

 

[Necky379]

@Jari6666 Do you have the channel volume up and the effects knob at 12 o’clock? Very important. Also I found it tempting to run the deep knob up too high, don’t over do it. My Cobra loves EH 12Ax7’s, I didn’t care for them at all in my 5150 but they’re worth a try in your Framus. The clean channel is amazing IMO, the crunch magic is hard to find but it’s there, the controls are sensitive. Based off my Cobra experience, never played a Dragon but they’re closely related Recto derivatives from what I understand.

 

[Jari6666]

@Jari6666 Do you have the channel volume up and the effects knob at 12 o’clock? Very important. Also I found it tempting to run the deep knob up too high, don’t over do it. My Cobra loves EH 12Ax7’s, I didn’t care for them at all in my 5150 but they’re worth a try in your Framus. The clean channel is amazing IMO, the crunch magic is hard to find but it’s there, the controls are sensitive. Based off my Cobra experience, never played a Dragon but they’re closely related Recto derivatives from what I understand.

I have the channel vol at 3 o’clock and the fx at noon, should I max the channel volume? Joel Stroetzel himself seemed to like EH 12ax7s in the Dragon and KSE’s tone on end of heartache is badass as hell even if the other half was 5150s. I’ll probably end up getting some. From what I’ve read Cobras and Dragon’s are practically the same amp aside from some minor technical electronic stuff that I didn’t understand and can be modded to sound like one or the other.

 

[Necky379]

This is where I have mine set, I’ve got to redo my settings since I just switched cabs but that’s where I had it with a 1960A. I doubt I’ll be making any kind of big changes, probably just max it out and go from there.

 

[Jari6666]

Ok cool thank you for the advice!

 

[Emperoff]

JJ ECC83 tubes manage to sound both dark and harsh at the same time. Removing them will help with those dry highs.

 

[DielonKilo]

I honestly always wanted a framus cobra or dragon (yeah the mid 2000s metalcore scene gave me a lot of Framus and Krank gas)

But with the research I've done these amps don't always sound as incredible as I originally thought BUT I've never played one, and still is on my list to try out

 

[Ataraxia2320]

The dragon I played sounded like a million bucks. Not very tight without a boost but still tight enough in a pinch to play a show and it definitely had enough gain.

Cab was also great and won out in an a/b against mesas, engls and marshalls. Only cab I preferred to it was a bogner.

 

[sonoftheoldnorth]

I have one. Way too much unusable low end, only sounds decent with channel volume dimed, boosted and master cranked way up. On its own, a 6505+ eats the Dragon alive. I can barely hear a difference between the crunch and lead channels. The EQ is strange in that if you lower the bass anything below like 9 o clock it takes all the other frequencies with it. Odd.

Mine has this weird thing going on where you can hear the other channel or something in the background of ringing chords and it kinda fades out into some strange phase battle between the two signals thing. I don't know if that's how they all sound or there's just something wrong with mine.

If I'd paid $2400 or what these heads went for originally, I would have been mega disappointed.

 

[Necky379]

I just went back to using a greenback cab with it, if anyone is having trouble dialing in their Framus match it up with the speaker it was designed for. The weird eq, the ungodly amount of low end, it all makes more sense when paired up with the correct cab. I got caught up in experimenting with new sounds after I had to dismantle my rig to move. I should never have taken the Cobra off my greenback cab. I was pulling my hair out trying to get it dialed in again and as soon as I plugged into the other cab the sound was back. 5 minutes of turning knobs and it’s perfect again. Very picky amp.

 

[Jari6666]

JJ ECC83 tubes manage to sound both dark and harsh at the same time. Removing them will help with those dry highs.

There is indeed a harsh high frequency that I’m having trouble dialing out, driving me nuts.

Does anyone have any tube replacement recommendations? I saw a matched Mullard set on Reverb that seemed interesting.

 

[Jari6666]

Update!

So apparently there are only 3 versions (sorry narad you were right)

However Framus named them V1, V2, and V5... wtf Framus. The only one with external bias points is the V5 so I have the 3rd model

 

[Necky379]

There is indeed a harsh high frequency that I’m having trouble dialing out, driving me nuts.

Does anyone have any tube replacement recommendations? I saw a matched Mullard set on Reverb that seemed interesting.

Framuses like EHX preamp tubes. Get some low noise EHX 12AX7’s and I think you’ll hear an improvement. If remember correctly I’ve got EHX in V1 and V2 then Ruby 12AX7AC5HG’s and a Sovtek LPS in the phase inverter.

 

[narad]

Update!

So apparently there are only 3 versions (sorry narad you were right)

However Framus named them V1, V2, and V5... wtf Framus. The only one with external bias points is the V5 so I have the 3rd model

Ah I guess that explains it. It's been a few years but I was chasing them pretty seriously. I had the chance to play one in a store and thought the clean was great, and I love the gain clips when people dial them in just right.

 

[USMarine75]

I had a Dragon and Cobra 412 cab. The cab is my fav I've ever. The Dragon sounded way better through it than through any of my other cans.

I also had a Cobra for awhile. The Cobra I hated because way too much unusable bass... I didn't have that problem at all with the Dragon.

And ditto the Dragon likes EHX... I did not like it as much with JJ.