ENGL MOD!!!! (powerball content)

[vanhendrix]

More info from engl:


You could buy a 12au7 and a 12at7 to experiment with voicing/compression/gain.
The greatest effect is always by changing the V5 in the PB (input tube).
The 12au7 would have the fatter sound and less gain.

 

[vanhendrix]

Bumpville population: this thread

I'm doing my mods to my powerball and I will write this post as they come in. Knowing my own biases are probably pretty important for anyone reading this who wants to use my experience: I hate djent, I despise emgs, and I feel that compression is the enemy of accurate guitar playing. I'm trying to make my amp open and responsive, so as to reproduce exactly what I play, and not process it in any way. I want to play light, it should sound light. I want to dig in, it should respond accordingly...not gloss over everything.

For anyone who still cares, here are my results with the preamp tubes:

V5 / V6 / V7 / V8 (for reference)
---------------------

At7 / Au7 / Ax7 / Ax7

DRAMATICALLY reduced the gain. 4th channel all the way up is now a rocking crunch channel, but the metalz are gone. There's also a large drop in volume on the first two channels

At7 / Ax7 / Ax7 / Ax7

Not a terrible difference from the stock sound. Perhaps a hair less gain. The clean channel seems to break up sooner

Ax7 / Au7 / Ax7 / Ax7

The cleans and crunch are back up to their normal volume. The two high gain channels are WAY more open and less processed sounding. Gotta have the gain on 11 on the 4th channel to squeeze the metal out, but it can be done. Ch3 sounds amazingly rock and/or roll. Sounds sexy. Already better than stock.

Ax7 / At7 / Ax7 / Ax7

Pretty much the same as before, but with more useable gain. Opens up the amp considerably from stock. The stock ch 4 is gone entirely, moving the original 3 into the 4th spot. The current ch 3 exists in that wonderful gain stage between lacklustre crunch and uber super brootz. This amp now goes from clean to brutal, and most importantly, does everything in between.


I'm so pleased with this mod that it almost warrants a NAD.

 

[zukobro]

Wow, now I'm thinking about some possible mods for my Savage...How long has your friend had the amp?

 

[vanhendrix]

Wow, now I'm thinking about some possible mods for my Savage...How long has your friend had the amp?

This was all my amp...I've had it for 2 years but grown out of my super duper metal phase. It did exactly what I wanted when I bought it, but tastes change. I would HIGHLY recommend this mod for how cheap and easy it is.

 

[Pedrojoca]

man, i'm so confused now

vanhendrix, you seemed to have the best results with:

V5- Ax7 V6-At7 V7-Ax7 V8-Ax7

and guitarno with:

V5- Ax7 V6-At7 V7-Ax7 V8-At7

Since you both describe the final sound kind of identically, i'm unsure which one to pick. Any help?

 

[vanhendrix]

man, i'm so confused now

vanhendrix, you seemed to have the best results with:

V5- Ax7 V6-At7 V7-Ax7 V8-Ax7

and guitarno with:

V5- Ax7 V6-At7 V7-Ax7 V8-At7

Since you both describe the final sound kind of identically, i'm unsure which one to pick. Any help?

Well V6 ONLY controls the second gain stage of the amp (ch 3 and 4). That was the only issue I was having with the sound, and I quite enjoyed how the amp functioned apart from that. So basically everything apart from those two channels still runs completely stock.

Just buy a couple AT7s (they're like 12 bucks) and try a single one in V6 to see if it's what you're looking for. If not, try one in V5 and V8 to see how they affect the overall tone of the amp. I had a really good idea of what I was looking for before I started modding, and I knew right away when I put the AT7 in the V6 that I had found the right combination.

 

[Pedrojoca]

will do, thanks a lot

 

[vanhendrix]

will do, thanks a lot

No problem. Post back with your results...I'm curious

 

[TimSE]

Bumpville population: this thread

Ax7 / At7 / Ax7 / Ax7

Pretty much the same as before, but with more useable gain. Opens up the amp considerably from stock. The stock ch 4 is gone entirely, moving the original 3 into the 4th spot. The current ch 3 exists in that wonderful gain stage between lacklustre crunch and uber super brootz. This amp now goes from clean to brutal, and most importantly, does everything in between.

From what i can tell, this is the best option. The others seemed to only offer less gain variations and if you wanted less gain, an Engl prob isnt what you want. Il be check this mod out at some point me thinks for sure.

 

[vanhendrix]

From what i can tell, this is the best option. The others seemed to only offer less gain variations and if you wanted less gain, an Engl prob isnt what you want. Il be check this mod out at some point me thinks for sure.

While I did want less gain overall on the 4th channel, I was mainly after making the amp more versatile. I was very pleased with my clean (ch1) and metal (ch3) sounds, but I wasn't happy with it otherwise. The 3rd channel with the gain on 7-8 was about as much gain as I would ever need, so I had an entire extra, useless channel.

Now I feel that it is a proper 4 channel amp because I can use that step up in gain to go from a rock sound (new ch3) to a metal sound (new ch4).

Edit:

And yeah, that's the best combination by a long shot, I found

 

[Pedrojoca]

From what i can tell, this is the best option. The others seemed to only offer less gain variations and if you wanted less gain, an Engl prob isnt what you want. Il be check this mod out at some point me thinks for sure.

hmmm, I don't think the others give you less gain because you think there is too much. The objective was to make you push the gain knob further, it gives you the same amount of gain, with less fizz.
Anyway, i'm going to order 3x12ax7 (JJ ECC83S) and 2x12at7 (JJ and 1 TAD balanced for V8 [phase driver])

 

[vanhendrix]

hmmm, I don't think the others give you less gain because you think there is too much. The objective was to make you push the gain knob further, it gives you the same amount of gain, with less fizz.
Anyway, i'm going to order 3x12ax7 (JJ ECC83S) and 2x12at7 (JJ and 1 TAD balanced for V8 [phase driver])

Guys! They ALL end up with less overall gain. The only way I could see this being a problem is if you already run ch4 with the gain on 11. Which is pure nonsense.

 

[Pedrojoca]

hey there ppl!

I ordered 3x JJ ECC83S (1 balanced), 1xTAD 12at7 (balanced) and 1xJJ 12at7

I am about to test several combinations:

V1- Tad 12at7 V2 and V3- JJ ECC803S V4- JJ ECC83S
V1- JJ 12at7 V2 and V3- JJ ECC803S V4- TAD 12at7
V1- JJ 12at7 V2- TAD 12at7 V3- JJ ECC803S V4- JJ ECC83S
V1- Tad 12at7 V2- JJ 12at7 V3- JJ ECC803S V4- JJ ECC83S

i'll give some feedback later... clips might appear in some days.

 

[BabUShka]

no, you have to change the screen resistors from 470k to 1k.

That is biasing..
The bias is there to regulate the tubes operating mode using a resistor.
Many amps has the possibility to adjust the bias by putting a potensiometer instead.. A potensiometer is a resistor which you can regulate.

 

[Pedrojoca]

hey ppl, i created a post with a lot of useful info about this, be sure to check it:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/154355-engl-powerball-tubing-mods-thread.html

 

[elkulon]

Violent bump...

After seeking for info, for soooooooo much time, I decided to make a radical request...:
Can anybody share some photoshots of both sides of PCB????

The thing is, I live in Argentina, which is by far a third world country. It's virtually impossible to get an Engl PBall (and any Engl, Mesa, Soldano, or any of those brands, the only "gettable" are Fender, Marshall, and Orange, in part, and most of it are SS), and more sadly, for me is reaaaaaaally impossible to aford one of those, because of importation issues to the country (the most expensive buy allowed by goverment is $28, not enough...); so, my plan B is to build one of them.
From there there are other technical issues; as you may know, Engl released wrong schemes by purpose, to avoid mass cloning. Only 2nd channel (Hi and Lo) is been traced by some guy, Mzaar (from Russia, I'd believe), but that's it. No 1st channel, no PI, no PA, no FX loop, no switching system, not even PSU. So, I'm f@cking lost.

That's why I have the request; to make a decent aproach to the correct scheme and to be capable of cloning the full thing (or most of it), by tracing from real images of an actual amp.

Could it be possible???