Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

[KLINKDETROIT]

I just checked out a KRANK 100 watt combo and was blown away. The amp part was great But I have a head I am happy with. The cabinet is mainly what I am interested in as I have a Voodoo modded rectifier I am happy with. Does anyone have any experience with these cabs? They have emminence speakers in them. Are these speakers as goos as celestion 75 watts?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

Personally, I like cabs that are loaded with 2 Vintage 30's on top and G-75's on the bottom, like the Bogner Uberschall, or all Vin 30's. I'm pretty familiar with the Kranks, since I did a pretty extensive review on them, months ago. I plugged my LP with c-5/59 and my friend's LP with expensive Holmes humbuckers, and also a strat.
I must admit, it's probably the dream 'metal amp.' It has two channels that will give you either a big, glassy 6L6 clean tone, similar to a Peavey Classic 100 or Fender clean. The other channel is everything from a JCM 800 to Rectifier, to Hotrodded Marshall tone. Really a great channel, that covers all hard rock and metal tones. The only reason I still believe amps like Bogner, Diezel, or VHT have the edge over it is in the sustain department. The Krank has crushing metal tones, but is slightly cold sounding, compared to other boutique highgain amps, which have more dynamic range and compression. If I owned a DSL or Rectifier, I'd be tempted to jump over to Krank, simply because it's a great and simple 6L6 amp that is perfectly dialed into the requirements of a hard rock/metal player. The cabinet, I'd assume, is no better or worse than all of it's competitor's cabs.....probably closest to a Mesa with Black Widow speakers.

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

I will probably keep my rectifier as it has more routing/ channel switching and other features but am contemplating the cab. I have a oversizes mesa with vintage 30s. It sounds a little brittle and was told that 75 watt celestions are the way to go along with a birch/ply cabinet as it resonates better and doesnt break up so early. I was told that mesa cabs have too many standing waves in it due to its design?? I was contemplating a Voodoo cab or the KRANK cab. What kind of wood is the KRANK made of? Where can I read your reveiw?? Thanks.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

Unfortunately, the Krank reviews got yanked off Harmonycentral, including mine, due to some supposed scandal of review tampering by employees. You might find my forum review by searching the word Krank. As far as cabs, the Bogner canefront vin 30 or the Ubershall black grillcloth w/vin 30/G-75's would be my top two choices.
The Krank cabinetry looks very well built, and I'd assume it's fingerjointed birchply.
Just a tip for you.....I'd consider keeping your Mesa cab, just upgrade it.
Standing waves can be killed by lining the inside of the back panel with Corning insulation. That's why the Bogners don't buckle, even with low tuned heavy tones.
If your cab has Black widows, just change out the top two for Vin 30's. Then, you'll have good highs and lows from the stock speakers, and sweet midrangey breakup from the Celestions. The H-30's are very interesting to me, as well. I need to try those.

 

[some_dude]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

Unfortunately, the Krank reviews got yanked off Harmonycentral, including mine, due to some supposed scandal of review tampering by employees.

I wouldn't call a whole bunch of perfect 10 reviews posted everytime a bad review was posted "supposed".....

....sure, yanking the reviews caused some good and legit reviews to be lost, but who's fault was that?

------

I'd go with Gearjoneser's recommendation of simply swapping two speakers for G-75's. Cheaper in the long run.

I'd like to point out that the reason for using birch is because it's cheap, not because it has special properties.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

Screamingdaisy, do you know if the Mesa cabs have insulation in them, or not?
I don't think I've ever opened one up. Changing speakers is probably the best thing to do, rather than buying another mismatched cab.

 

[presa_tito]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

I have never heard one live, but I have checked the clips on the site and I really like one of them. I think it was near the top or the first one on the clips page.

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

The are mad of solid wood, not ply The company just emailed me back. They didnt say what kind of solid wood though? Mesas dont have insulation in them. My amp has allvintage 30s. I am going to take my head to the store and try it thru the 2x12 combo they have, if they let me? The Krank cabinet was similar to the Voodoo cab I A/Bd side by side about 2 months ago. It had a real clear and rubbery thump to it and the Krank has that too. I wondered if the solid wood 4x12 would be better than the same cab in Birch ply?? The Voodoo is front loaded/ sealed back and the Krank is back losded or at least it is not a closed back as you can see screws.

What makes the ubershall cab good? What benefits to relaceing 2 of my vintage 30s with 75 watters???

 

[some_dude]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

I wondered if the solid wood 4x12 would be better than the same cab in Birch ply??

In my experience solid cabs can have a punchy bass due to less flex, but they can also have problems from resonation. Plywood lets the vibrations die out quickly, while a solid cab will resonate more, which is good in a guitar body, but I didn't like it in cabs.

I mean, part of the reason of adding insulation is to reduce resonance. Why buy a cab made of something that you'd buy special material to get rid of?

 

[some_dude]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

Screamingdaisy, do you know if the Mesa cabs have insulation in them, or not?
I don't think I've ever opened one up. Changing speakers is probably the best thing to do, rather than buying another mismatched cab.

Donno. I'll check tonight as I have to leave in a few minutes.

 

[lastwinj]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

remember, solid wood, legally, can be considered particle board. look at furniture. i have seen it labeled as solid wood, and it has a bunch of veneered particla board. yuck!!!

germ

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

The y are made of soilid Popplar and weigh 89 lbs. Front loaded/sealed back and acoustically engineered. If the 4x12 sounds as good as the combo I am sold.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

Are you going to get the chrome grill version or grillcloth? I really like the modern look of the Krank amps, I just don't really dig their logo and all the K's....Kleen Ch, Krank Ch.

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

Well my bands name is KLINK so the Ks dont bother me but I am definately getting one as I have emailed back and forth with the company I like the metal grill. The other great cab that is in consideration is the Voodoo amps cab. They sound alot alike but the Voodoo is maple ply and the Krank is soilid polar?? Dont know so conmfused??????????

 

[some_dude]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

I can not warn you enough...STAY AWAY.

I owned the Krank Revolution (their flagship amp) and as you can imagine I was far from impressed when I finally got it.

Horrible piercing mid rangey tone, by far not enough gain on tap, and woofy, and by far not enough saturation.. Its actually common knowledge that there is a fault in their pre amp design...the more you boost the volume the thinner and more compressed the amp sounds... At any volume level it will make humbuckers sound like single coil pickups..

Here is more food for thought...if you go on Harmony-central.com to their amp review board, you will see that Krank is not there...this is because 6 months ago they were posting fake "perfect 10" reviews on their own amps ! they got caught by HC and were banned and removed from the review section...

Overall their customer service is a disgrace, I was given the run around over a re-fund...at the begining, they had a 30 day money back garantee on their amps, but afterwards they couldent keep up with all the returns so they scraped that idea

Overall VERY poor amps, VERY shady business ethics and an EXTREME waste of cash .

http://www.hugeracksinc.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=8280&sid=0e9e085a656619b955d734857a611348

I've known this guy for awhile now. Last I saw, he had a Triple Recto, Bogner Ubershall, and an Orange of some sort. He bought the Krank and Krank cab this spring figuring it would replace his Triple Recto......you can see for yourself what he thinks of it, and them....

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

What about the crushing tone on Duality from slipknot? Sounds good to me and I am a very picky tonemonger. I played one and loved it along with my very picky friend. I think it sounds better than a stock rectifier. I appreciate the reveiw though and listen with open ears to anyones input. Are there any other reveiws out there on krank? I cant find many other than the one on their site. Are they based off of Sovtek amps or something? Someone told me that.

 

[some_dude]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

What about the crushing tone on Duality from slipknot? Sounds good to me and I am a very picky tonemonger. I played one and loved it along with my very picky friend. I think it sounds better than a stock rectifier. I appreciate the reveiw though and listen with open ears to anyones input. Are there any other reveiws out there on krank? I cant find many other than the one on their site. Are they based off of Sovtek amps or something? Someone told me that.

To the best of my knowledge Duality was done with a Rivera Knucklehead.

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

To the best of my knowledge Duality was done with a Rivera Knucklehead.

On the krank website they say in an article from a guitar magazine that the song duality is with a krank amp. They could have just layered it with the Rivera though? The amp did sound like that in when we played it though.

 

[some_dude]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

On the krank website they say in an article from a guitar magazine that the song duality is with a krank amp. They could have just layered it with the Rivera though? The amp did sound like that in when we played it though.

I've done some asking and reading, so far what I have is that in the studio Mick Thompson used a VHT Pitbull that was occasionally blended with a JMP-1 and JCM800.

Jim Root used a Bogner Ubershall, Bogner Caveman, and a JCM800 for dirt, and a Rivera Knucklehead for cleans.

Both used Orange, Rivera, and Marshall 4x12 cabs.

According to the Krank employee we had posting spam on GG a few weeks ago they used a Krank Chadwick on Duality. He says you can see it in the video, but to me it looks like a Knucklehead. I'd post a link to the thread, but the mods deleted it after it turned into a giant flame war between the Krank guy and some of the more vocal anti-Krank members.

That artical in Guitar World...GW didn't say Slipknot used them, Jody Dankberg did (the owner of Krank). Considering their questionable business practices (some of which cause Harmony Central to remove and ban them from the list of amp manufacturers) I don't trust that guy very far.

And about Finch using them....

When i saw finch a few weeks ago they wernt using krank amps. Randy the lead guitarist, used to play a krank, but unfortunately it blew up on him at a show. Hes since converted back to marshall jcm 2000 dsl heads and mesa cabs and now uses a roland drum machine out of a roland cab? im not sure about the brand of the drum machine, but they put on a really great show with it. There was another band that did use a krank before them, honestly the krank cut through the mix really really well. But it sounded really really harsh, everytime he had a part of a song where he was just playing i had to plug my ears because that thing can make your ears bleed, and not in a good way.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Krank Amps Or Cabinets Oppinions?

This controversy must be a disaster for Krank, as they're trying to get their name out there. When I tried the amp, I ran it through it's paces pretty good at high volumes, and was impressed to the point that I thought it was a good $1100 amp head.
I knew in my head that the Bogner or Diezel would blow it away, but both of those are $3000 + amps. Overall, I'd say a rock/metal player would be as well suited with the Krank as a Rec, DSL, 5150, Rivera, or Soldano. All have different plusses and negatives, but they're all able to give you fat cleans and balls to the wall gain.

I still haven't heard the Chadwick, but that one interests me more than the Revolution.