The Steel Guitar Forum

For those of you who have tried the Paul Franklin 350 speaker, can you share your experience with break-in time? How did it sound out of the box? And how does is sound after x hours of play time (or however long you've had it)?

Interesting question, I am just looking at one now.

I'm trying one right now. I made an adapter and put one in a Nashville 400 for a couple of weeks and then changed it to a speaker cab last week to try with one of my racks. I thought the speaker sounded very good right out of the box but probably at around 40 hours, the speaker loosened up and sounds even better.
There is a demo video floating around with Paul playing and talking about the speaker, describes what I hear as well. I really like the speaker but if weight is a concern, the PF-350 is in the 23lbs neighborhood.

I have an Eminence EPS-15C currently in shipment to me. Weighs 8 lbs. I play through a Carvin stereo power amp with two identical speaker cabinets. Currently using two 1501's. So, I can easily A/B the Eminence. If it works as I hope it will, I can order a second one and lighten my load.

Mine just arrived today, so far I've played it through a Carvin BX500 and a vintage Mesa Boogie 60 watt Son of Boogie (SOB) all tube amp and it sounded great! As already mentioned it is a little heavy, but I personally like the sound of these ferite magnet speakers rather than the neos. The bass is very tight and clean without being boomey and the highs are not brittle at all. Also I did very little tone adjustment, the speaker sounded great right out of the box. I'll post back in a couple of weeks after I break it in.

Marty

I just got two of these SOB’s for a 2x12 Bassman style closed back cab. I run a Bassman 100 through it. Been playing through a BW for the longest time. The PFs sound rad. But, when I push em, they break up. Don’t know if that’s a normal part of the breaking in. Hell, I never had a new speaker, and I’ve only played about 4 shows with em. Hope they clean up..

Hey Dennis, when you get your EPS-15C, give us a post and tell us what you think. I'm looking at one of those for my NV 400.

took the brittle out of the Peavey front end (Peavey 1000 preamp ) and smoothed the mids a bit. HEAVY!
powered by a 220 watt digital amp. Sounds good!

Zachary Moulton wrote:I just got two of these SOB’s for a 2x12 Bassman style closed back cab. I run a Bassman 100 through it. Been playing through a BW for the longest time. The PFs sound rad. But, when I push em, they break up. Don’t know if that’s a normal part of the breaking in. Hell, I never had a new speaker, and I’ve only played about 4 shows with em. Hope they clean up..

Zach, let’s meet up and a/b your 2. 12 cab with mine. I’ve got old JBLs. It would be cool to try them side by side. We could mak3 a viral video !

Bob Hoffnar wrote:
Zach, let’s meet up and a/b your 2. 12 cab with mine. I’ve got old JBLs. It would be cool to try them side by side. We could mak3 a viral video !

Hell yeah, Bob! Gonna be out of town for the next couple weeks. But, I’ll hit you up when I settle back in. My Bassman 100 crapped out, last night, in front of a thousand or so people. That was a fun situation... Gonna take a look at it tomorrow.

Also... Since I’ve had the PF350s, I’ve been using the Bass channel, on my Bassman. I decided a couple nights ago, to try out the Normal channel again. It sounded wayyy better. I had one of the best shows of my life, in front of about 20 people. Like I said before, my amp broke down the following night. Seems like every time my tone comes together, it all falls apart...

Hook Moore wrote:I'm trying one right now. I made an adapter and put one in a Nashville 400 for a couple of weeks and then changed it to a speaker cab last week to try with one of my racks. I thought the speaker sounded very good right out of the box but probably at around 40 hours, the speaker loosened up and sounds even better.
There is a demo video floating around with Paul playing and talking about the speaker, describes what I hear as well. I really like the speaker but if weight is a concern, the PF-350 is in the 23lbs neighborhood.

Thanks for that 40-hour target, I'm still working on break-in. My PF350 is loaded in a solid pine extension cab which keeps the weight manageable. It sounds very fine with a Sarno preamp and Jay Ganz power amp. Now if I could only play like Paul!