B - 1091 Framus Panthera. 9.8 lbs.
This Guitar has Bare Knuckle Pickups and is a Custom Shop one of a kind Guitar with Kahler Tremelo.For the lover of Framus and Warwick products, the Framus Panthera needs no introduction. If you are new to this high end line, feast your eyes here...and then your ears when you bring this guitar home! This is a true custom shop guitar. The only one that was made that year with a Kahler tremolo. Bare Knuckle engraved pickups to boot.
Music Radar says:
The Framus guitar has come an awful long way since its sixties heyday. The brand, now of course made by Warwick, is completely different, centring on modern designs that are impeccably made - in small numbers - with some of the highest technology machines and fixtures used by any top maker.
The Panthera range typifies both that quality and style. Our standard all-mahogany model is joined by maple-topped versions and even a seven-string, and in its very well applied satin antique tobacco oil finish here it looks extremely workmanlike, reflecting loosely its 'blue-collar' Telecaster-inspired outline...
Sounds
This Panthera's rich acoustic ring underpins its clean sounds, which are perfect for chiming chord thrangs and picked arpeggios. The balanced tone - nice bass but not Les Paul huge, with punchy, very Gibson growling mids and bright but slightly rounded highs - also works very well with more effected, modulated sounds.
There's plenty of woody chop to the cleaner tones; pull the volume down, engage both pickups and pull up the coil-split switch (which voices the screw coils only) and you're in Fender land.
The split bridge pickup is country sharp, but with a little gain gets quite punky; the neck single-coil is sweet but articulate. There are some very good sounds here.
With a dirtier amp, the Panthera turns into a taut, punchy riff machine on the JB bridge pickup, while the neck pickup is, by comparison, a little underpowered. This does create more vocal depth for bluesier outings, however. Lightweight, comfortable, responsive and a great player - this one covers a lot of ground.
This is a very fine guitar, no question. Ballsy, excellent for no-nonsense classic to modern rock but also cleaner, ringier voices, older blues and jazz tones too. It's well balanced, lightweight, resonant and, we'll say it again, absolutely beautifully made.