ENGL Fireball 100 Problem

[Artifacts in Motion]

Hey guys,

For approximately a year now, my beloved ENGL Fireball 100 has been making this horrid sound when I shut it off. It did not do that when I first purchased the amp, and I cannot remember when it started exactly. Perhaps you can help me diagnose the problem. I understand the nature of these questions are hard without hearing it, so I took a video so you can see for yourselves.

Things to take note of:

-Though in the video I only press the power switch off after 10 second after the standby, this still happens regardless of the time between shutting off the two. 10 seconds or 10 minutes, no change.

-When the power is shut off, all 4 of the Tube Failure LEDs and the Master A/B volume LED flash once.

-The sound is a double-pop





Thanks!

 

[PrestoDone]

I'm not saying that the pop is normal but it doesnt sound like it is anything serious. It seems to me like it might be tube relates...most likely your preamp tubes. As far as the red LEDS for the tube failure and Master A/B volume it is normal for them to flash once when you turn your amp off. I have a Powerball II and they flash once when i turn it off.

 

[Artifacts in Motion]

I'm not saying that the pop is normal but it doesnt sound like it is anything serious. It seems to me like it might be tube relates...most likely your preamp tubes. As far as the red LEDS for the tube failure and Master A/B volume it is normal for them to flash once when you turn your amp off. I have a Powerball II and they flash once when i turn it off.

Serious or not, it's certainly something I'd like to fix. The LEDs I don't worry about much, it's more so the sound. I'm not sure if this can be attributed to the same problem, but I feel like on the distortion channel, I now have higher ambient noise when not playing anything than before. It is somewhat reminiscent of static.

 

[MBMoreno]

Stupid question - Do you turn the volume of the amp down before turning it off?

 

[Artifacts in Motion]

Stupid question - Do you turn the volume of the amp down before turning it off?

No question is stupid (unless it is a question that I have already answered, which would just be redundant)!

I don't usually, but just to see, I gave that a shot: no luck. Even with the volume down, and on either channel, the amp still transmits a signal to the cab causing the popping sound.

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

Honestly, every ENGL I've ever tried did that. My Powerball did that consistently. I always turned the power straight off whenever I power down the head, though.

 

[Gyver]

None of my ENGLs ever did that, and arent those LEDs for the power tubes and not the preamp tubes? My current SE does not do that. How old are the Pre/Power tubes? If youre due for new power or preamp tubes, now is the time to do it, and see if the issue goes away.

 

[MBMoreno]

No question is stupid (unless it is a question that I have already answered, which would just be redundant)!

I don't usually, but just to see, I gave that a shot: no luck. Even with the volume down, and on either channel, the amp still transmits a signal to the cab causing the popping sound.

If the problem is already there, then it won't come out =P

But I think you could have avoided it by doing that.

One of the first thinks I learned when I first started was to turn down the volume on everything before turning down. I've seen lots of people not doing so and not having any problems though, but it usually avoids problems like this.

 

[Artifacts in Motion]

None of my ENGLs ever did that, and arent those LEDs for the power tubes and not the preamp tubes? My current SE does not do that. How old are the Pre/Power tubes? If youre due for new power or preamp tubes, now is the time to do it, and see if the issue goes away.

Yes, the failure LEDs are for the Powertubes, not preamp tubes. However, if one failed, the LED would be consistently on, not just when switching off the amp. My preamp tubes are just over a year old, and with minimal use (away at university).

Moreno: If the problem can be attributed to that. My bandmates have a Steve Morse sig and Powerball II, and leave the volume where it is when turning on and off. We've had our amps around the same times, and they don't experience this problem. Not to disprove your point, because it could very well be the cause, but I think it might be more internal.

 

[DrGand]

I have a Fireball 100 and every time I turn it off it does the same thing.

In fact, some times when I go to turn it on standby, all the power tube monitors flash... is this a bad sign?!

Taking it off standby and putting it to play works fine. But going to standby I get a pop, not a double pop like yours, but a quick pop while all the monitors flash. It does it going into standby, and powering off.

 

[cereal_guy]

I have a fireball and mines never done this, the LED flash is normal. I'd say its most likely just the tubes.

 

[Artifacts in Motion]

I have a fireball and mines never done this, the LED flash is normal. I'd say its most likely just the tubes.

Preamp or power? Could it be a bias issue?

 

[cereal_guy]

Preamp or power? Could it be a bias issue?

I'd say its just a power tube on the way out. it's hard to say for sure without hearing it.

 

[Artifacts in Motion]

This is something else strange that happens every time...

After turning on the power for about 10 seconds, I get this:



Note- This is still stand-by off.

 

[Artifacts in Motion]

Going to bump this up. I still haven't found a lead on this problem...

 

[Abbath78]

Sounds like preamp tube issue. I had a Mesa that did the same thing and it was the preamp tubes

 

[Floppystrings]

On my Powerball the power amp LED indicators would all flash when it was turned off, I believe that is normal.

It actually would pop just like that sometimes too, I always thought it was some type of static discharge. It seemed to happen every time the amp was on a long time.

The flicker of buzz when you turn it on is a little strange, never experienced that before.

 

[the_heretic_divine]

Yeah,my Powerball has done that,from the time I took it out of the original packaging. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Artifacts in Motion]

Hey guys, I've got an update for y'all...

I took my Fireball to a local tube amp specialist. Turns out, I had TWO failed power tubes and one failed preamp tube. And no notification on the power tube status indicators on the front. No more popping, no more static. Very interesting how that was the source of the problem.