Krank Cabinets

[Meisterjäger]

The back on my Orange PPC412 should be removable, but it's stuck

It took out all the screws, doublechecked, but no! I didn't want to ruin the tolex so I removed the handles and tried punching the plate from inside, but no, no movement.

I was going to put two G12T75's in the cab, but I ended up selling the speakers because I didn't want to harm the cab.

I took the back off my Framus Dragon 412 last weekend, and that was one helluva battle! I managed to pry it off in the end, but I'm actually glad it's such a tight fit, I bet that helps it out hugely, sound-wise

 

[Metaltastic]

How'd the construction on your Dragon cab seem, Meister?

 

[TomiR]

I took the back off my Framus Dragon 412 last weekend, and that was one helluva battle! I managed to pry it off in the end, but I'm actually glad it's such a tight fit, I bet that helps it out hugely, sound-wise

Yep, and not that there was anything wrong with just V30's

I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to change the speakers to begin with, so when the back turned out to be stuck, I gave up.

Glad you managed to open yours though

 

[Meisterjäger]

How'd the construction on your Dragon cab seem, Meister?

Eh.. so so. I took some pictures of the inside of it cos I thought the wood looked quite spurious, so I'll upload them soon to see what you guys think.

As a whole, it doesn't feel nearly as solid as a Mesa or equivalent cab. I did get a seriously nice deal on it, half price I think, so the construction quality (or lack thereof) isn't a major concern to me. There's a nice amount of dampening fluff on the back of the cab which was quite a nice touch, cos I'm used to seeing bare Marshalls inside. No wonder they sound so hollow. The wiring looks a bit suspect, too, so I'll be swapping that out soon. The casters are shocking, both in quality and design. They slot in and have a lot of play, so the cab can wobble a lot. Looking into replacements for them.

The other guitarist in my band just bought a Blackstar Artisan 4x12. Absolutely phenomenal quality cabinet, cannot be faulted at all. Massive in size, sound and weight. That's Birch plywood construction like so many other things, same size as a Recto cab and has Celestion V30's. If the Framus doesn't measure up, I'll buy a Blackstar for sure.

I mainly opened the cab to check the speakers seen as the spec says it's a 200w cab with V30's. There are genuine V30's loaded in it, and it's definitely 240w but I double checked with Warwick, who own Framus, and they said all the cabs were labelled wrong. Read into that QC what you will...

While we're on Krank cabs, what is the grill attached with? Velcro?

 

[Radd]

While we're on Krank cabs, what is the grill attached with? Velcro?

I can vouch for the steins with this.

 

[Meisterjäger]

Velcro is cool, I'm thinking of getting a custom 2x12 made with a removable grill.

Here are the guts of the Dragon

So to me the wood doesn't look like great quality, but I don't really have an idea. It seems to sound good, so I go with it!

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, damn, that looks like the kind of wood one would use for studs in a house or something. How solid does it feel? And it's interesting to hear such positive things about the Blackstar cabs; I only recently discovered them, but they're only $700 on Musicians Friend!

 

[Meisterjäger]

The Dragon is definitely heavy. I'm quite a big guy, and can man-handle 1960's and make them my bitch quite easily! This thing is different though. For about a week when I had to keep replacing one of the casters back into it's hole, I could barely get the cab back off it's side, let alone lift it with one hand. To me it feels fairly solid, but I haven't transported it or used it out of the house much yet, so we'll see how it holds up. The tolex on it seems dead thin, so it might get ugly quite easily.

When it came to my dude buyin the Blackstar, we tried the Blackstar Artisan, Engl Pro, Marshall 1960V's and Mesa Recto using an Invader 100. The Engl and Marshall cabs sounded crap, both way too middy, and the Blackstar and Mesa sounded almost identicle, felt as sturdy as eachother and were the same exact size. As you say, the Blackstar is cheaper, so it was a no-brainer.

I'm personally waiting for Blackstar to release the Series One cabinets, hoping they're made to the same specs. Only visible difference is they have black tolex.