Framus Dragon

[PaulSOCW]

Recently got hold of a Framus Dragon.

Does anyone have any experience or use one of these amps?

To me I dont seem to be getting anywhere near as much gain as clips ive heard of this amp, seem to recall reading somewhere bout swapping out the stock electro harmonix tubes for different ones.

Also this amp seems to put out seem serious heat compared to any other valve amp ive had, is this normal?

 

[Wolfeman]

Boost it.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Either your playing technique is absolute shit or you're not boosting it/not boosting it correctly.
There is no way in hell that amp is at all lacking in gain man, it has SHIT LOADS of gain.

 

[PaulSOCW]

thats why ive questioned it on here.
When i get time i will borrow some valves out of one of my other amps to see if that makes a difference.

Didnt have my TS9 with me when i was playing around with the amp last nite so havent even tried boosting yet.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Valves are not really gonna make a huge difference to gain levels. They do make some difference, but tubes are generally changed for tonality reasons so it's not really worth the effort changing tubes just for extra gain.
Just plug the TS9 into the front end and that should do the trick just nice. Every time I shove my Boss SD-1 in front of my Bugera, which does have plenty of gain, that alone just really helps to compress everything a bit and hit the front end harder and then after that legato licks come out more smoothly and sexily

 

[AHChris]

Valves are not really gonna make a huge difference to gain levels.

Unless there is something wrong with them! Maybe there´s a preamp tube which isn´t working properly...

 

[soundsunderground]

My dragon has ton of gain. For rock/punk I never go past 12 o'clock on the crunch channel and the lead channel has all the gain you could ask for for metal applications. No shortage of low end on this head either.

If you're finding you don't have enough gain, it could be your pickups in your guitar, bad cables, or a faulty preamp tube.

 

[PaulSOCW]

My dragon has ton of gain. For rock/punk I never go past 12 o'clock on the crunch channel and the lead channel has all the gain you could ask for for metal applications. No shortage of low end on this head either.

If you're finding you don't have enough gain, it could be your pickups in your guitar, bad cables, or a faulty preamp tube.

Im suspecting its a preamp tube.
Didnt want to start looking for a fault that wasnt there.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Valves are not really gonna make a huge difference to gain levels.

Different types of preamp tubes can have a rather significant effect on gain levels.

Different brands of the same tubes won't make that much of a difference, yeah.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

I've played a few supposedly high-gain amps that sounded laughably undergained, and as I was 99% sure something was wrong with them, so too do I think there's something amiss with yours (probably a preamp tube or multiple)

 

[PaulSOCW]

After borrowing a few 12ax7s from a marshall i suddenly have tons of gain now.

Loving the sound of this head now.

Anyone revalved one of these before and have recommendations of what valves (make etc.) to use?

 

[soundsunderground]

I haven't revalved mine yet. it's a couple years old and I play it loud maybe once a week. So I probably should.