ENGL (Powerball) Tubing/Mods Thread

[vanhendrix]

when my power tubes are gone, i'll mod the amp to EL34

and if i can't find any amp tech to do it.... SED or Ruby 6l6

IF i can bias the amp for 34s without changing capacitor nonsense, I'll probably try that out when I need new tubes as well. We'll report back to this thread with results!

Gonna have to change the LEDs if i go to 34s though....need blue

 

[Pedrojoca]

i doubt you can bias it to el34... the amp can barely be biased to the recommended range for 6l6 as it is supposed to be cold as sh#t

 

[vanhendrix]

Lame. I'm just gonna buy a different poweramp if I want 34s

 

[Pedrojoca]

meh, won't be the same thing

 

[snigloid]

Well I just got a powerball and got great tone from it it just has a bit of hiss to it, so if I want to bring out the mids and clarity and lose some gain do one of these mods?

 

[vanhendrix]

Well I just got a powerball and got great tone from it it just has a bit of hiss to it, so if I want to bring out the mids and clarity and lose some gain do one of these mods?

Well there are a few things you could do, I'll start with the easiest:

- Roll off the presence (this is my least favourite knob anyways)

- Don't be afraid to run your mids at 11 (mine stay like that)

- Let the amp warm up for a LONG time before using it (like an hour) to get a less fizzy sound. Or, after the 1 minute period mandatory warmup period, turn your amp fully on (off standby) but don't use it for around 10-20 mins.

- Lastly, my mod is just replacing the V6 preamp tube, which is the second from the right, when looking at the amp from the back. I put a Mesa AT7 in to replace the higher gain AX7. This will change the gain structure of channels 3 and 4, but leave the others intact.

A note on this: While it may entirely be in my head, this weekend I A/B-ed my mod with the original AX7 in there, with an attempt to get similar gain levels. So with the at7 and the gain on 11, i get to the same gain area as the ax7 with the gain on 6. The difference is that the at7 is pushed into this gain stage, whereas the ax7 is just the amp attempting to control the copious amount of gain that is being produced. To me, it does sound better to arrive at your ideal gain from underneath, as opposed to above. More clarity, more dynamics, just better everything. Hope that makes sense.

Our other powerballin' friend in this thread has his own mod, but it seems more involved than mine. An AT7 tube will cost you 13 bucks at a guitar shop, why not?

 

[Pedrojoca]

no vanhendrix, i actually came back to your mod again. It does wonders and is really simple. The only difference is that I compared a JJ 12at7 with a TAD 12at7 and the TAD was even better.

If you do decide to do the mod, keep in mind that you'll run your gain at around 3 o' clock to get the "regular" gain amounts, which is a good thing!

 

[vanhendrix]

no vanhendrix, i actually came back to your mod again. It does wonders and is really simple. The only difference is that I compared a JJ 12at7 with a TAD 12at7 and the TAD was even better.

If you do decide to do the mod, keep in mind that you'll run your gain at around 3 o' clock to get the "regular" gain amounts, which is a good thing!

Haha well i'd better give my mod a name then eh? I call it the CTFD mod. Or "calm the fuck down", amp.

I play my gain at anywhere from 11 (oclock) to maxed out now. I prefer to use it around noon-3, and have my GT-OD pedal (with gain and output set really low) engaged for solos (or my crunch channel), just to overdrive the input a bit and get more compression/sustain. Only for solos then, I hate compression on my main sound. Hate.

 

[Pedrojoca]

According to Lordovchaos, retubing the Powerballs power section with 5881's also helps in the mids department, brings some upper mids that make it cut thru better and also rounds off some of the fizzy highs

sorry for only noticing this now but... I know that if you retube the amp with EL34, you need to change a resistor, to allow the bias to get where it needs to go, if I retubed it with 5881, would that be necessary?

 

[snigloid]

Thanks for the info guys its all very helpful. I will definetly be switching out the v6 tube and when I get a chance make some sound clips with my sm57 .

 

[Flesh]

This is great, so what in your opinions are the best types of tubes to put in place of the one in V6 that will still retain the gain?

 

[Pedrojoca]

the best positions we found were

V5 (first preamp tube)- 12ax7 V6- 12at7 V7- 12ax7 V8- Balanced 12ax7

This one was discovered by vanhendrix, and I now use it, because it's really the best one. Keep in mind that the amp comes with 4 12ax7, which means that you can only change the V6 to do this. That's like 7$.... For optimal results, i'd reccomend you to change all 4 off them. (keep in mind that 12ax7 is the EXACT same thing as ECC83S).

V5- 12ax7 - This one works best with a Tung Sol 12ax7
V6- 12at7 - Fizz/Gain reduction, a TAD Premium 12ax7 works great here, but you can put a JJ 12at7 aswell.
V7- 12ax7 - Many people really like the Shuguang 9th Gen Chinese 12ax7 here, i'm using JJ but if you put those 9th gen in it, you'll really like it.
V8- BALANCED 12ax7 - This one works well with a 9th gen 12ax7 or a JJ, but remember, it must be balanced!

about the retain the gain part: Powerball gain stage 101

With the standard powerball gain, you would put the gain knob around 9 o' clock, 10 o' clock. The gain knob sets the input level of your guitar in the amp, kinda like a boost would do. After the gain knob, the signal goes to the distortion stages of the amp. The reason why you can't go any further that 12 o' clock with the gain knob and still get good clarity is because this sections adds a bit too much distortion to the signal. When you put this tube combo in the amp, this section adds a less distortion, which lets you push the gain knob further! In the end, you get the same amount of distortion, but it's much more organic, naturally tight and really dynamic. Oh, and say goodbye to the damn fizz...
Plus, remember the 4 channels your powerball has? You'll now be able to use them properly... the cleans are still good, the crunch improved by quite a bit, channel 3 is now a marshall type channel, which recieves a boost really well and channel 4 holds all your brootz and tightness... it's the damn BALLS channel!

Conclusion: people tell me all the time that my powerball sound amazing, when they check out my settings, they're like WTF?! because my gain knob is almost 3/4 of the way up. Plus, people buy them and then complain because their PB doesn't sound that good

aaaaand one more thing I forgot... SETTINGS! (for the lead channels, of course)

Gain- with the mod, I normally run it at about 7/10, play around with it... (keep in mind, I have active pickups...)

Bottom/Lo Punch buttons- a lot of people despise them as they say that the amp has enough low end... and I say F*** that, lower the bass knob and see if you like it On or Off.

Bass- 5/10 with the bottom button ON and around 7/10 with the bottom button OFF.

Middle- I'm a middle guy, plus I have V60 in the cab (mid scooped) so I basically crank it up... around 8/10 ...or 4/5 for scoopers...

Treble and Presence- Never say never, just say DAMN never! These aresome of the knobs that can make the difference between playing a toothbrush with red lights and a 1500$ amp... you have to find the perfect combination between the treble and the presence knob. I usually have Treble at 7,5/10 & Presence at 3,5/10 or Treble at 6,5 and Presence at 6/10.

Lead Volume- This can be really different from person to person. If you like a raw(ish) sound, go for 3/10, even though buying a powerball when you want a raw sound is stupid or you can go all the way to 6/10 if you like a saturated sound. play with it (that's what she said)

Middle Boost- I use it to stand out in leads and stuff, some people like it with rhythm parts...

Depth Punch- This is the power amp low end control. Discover the perfect spot, mine is around 4,5/10 when I use a lot of bass in the preamp section or 7/10 when I don't.

Ok, this was supposed to be a short post... yea turned out pretty short have fun


any questions? feel free to ask them

 

[Flesh]

sweet, that helps alot man thanks again.

Time to source some tubes

 

[vanhendrix]

Ah the CTFD mod. My favorite!

 

[Pedrojoca]

Ah the CTFD mod. My favorite!

care to explain? i didn't get it

EDIT: oh wait, just got it, that must be the name of the mod

 

[vanhendrix]

care to explain? i didn't get it

EDIT: oh wait, just got it, that must be the name of the mod

Haha read one page back my friend

 

[vanhendrix]

With your big post up there, do your settings mean "5 out of 10" when you say 5/10, or "between 5 and 10 oclock"? They seem strange to me...especially because it actually does go to 11 on every knob

 

[Pedrojoca]

it's 5 out of 10... sorry, I always thought of it as if the first line on the knob was 0

 

[jin]

hello if i buy a fireball what are the best tubes to use? If there is any thread regarding fireball mod please give me the link i cant find it thanks. Anyways even if you dont replace the tubes engl amps still sound good for its price am i right??

 

[Pedrojoca]

Dude, thanks for posting here

All the info here applies to the Fireball aswell. It will still sound good without the mod, but if you DO get the amp do the mod, it costs something like 10 bucks and it's really easy