ENGL (Powerball) Tubing/Mods Thread

[Mikeyprs]

what speakers does that Randall cab have?

Randall's own Custom Eminence Jaguar speakers is the answer to the question good sir!

 

[Pedrojoca]

Powertubes. No biasing. We went over this already dude

ah right, same kind of tubes. Sorry for my uber retarded memory

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

Powertubes. No biasing. We went over this already dude

Waaaaait you swapped in el34's without modifying anything? (Circuitry?)

 

[vanhendrix]

Waaaaait you swapped in el34's without modifying anything?

No. Come on guys, read the thread. I've posted everything before

Edit: Hey pedrojoca, I think we need to update the first post again to put whatever new info we have in there

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

No. Come on guys, read the thread. I've posted everything before

Edit: Hey pedrojoca, I think we need to update the first post again to put whatever new info we have in there

Hmm what's the stock bias like, as pedrojoca said it's pretty cold. How do the el34's handle it? I did read the thread I just like to confirm things

 

[Pedrojoca]

Hmm what's the stock bias like, as pedrojoca said it's pretty cold. How do the el34's handle it? I did read the thread I just like to confirm things

no dude, you can use the standard bias with the SAME KIND of tubes, el34 won't handle it almost for sure, not worth the risk.

No. Come on guys, read the thread. I've posted everything before

Edit: Hey pedrojoca, I think we need to update the first post again to put whatever new info we have in there

That's the problem man, i'd have updated it a long time ago, but ss.org doesn't let you edit posts after some time.

 

[vanhendrix]

Hmm what's the stock bias like, as pedrojoca said it's pretty cold. How do the el34's handle it? I did read the thread I just like to confirm things

It absolutely does not have el34s. The higher current draw of the tubes would blow up the amp in no time.

Are you guys just messing with me? Read the posts in the thread.

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

It absolutely does not have el34s. The higher current draw of the tubes would blow up the amp in no time.

Are you guys just messing with me? Read the posts in the thread.

WOW I totally read this the entire time as yes you did.

Don't mind me

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

Wait, what's the difference between the ENGL Powerball and ENGL Powerball v2 (Not Powerball II)?

 

[Pedrojoca]

Wait, what's the difference between the ENGL Powerball and ENGL Powerball v2 (Not Powerball II)?

good question i think vanhendrix might be able to help, as far as i'm concerned, here's what i know:

There are 3 versions

Powerball
Powerball v2
Powerball II

I think the first one was the one which had sound issues to fix, it wouldn't cut very well (think FB 60) and the tonal structure was slightly changed.

The v2 sounds similar to the II but has a bit more uncontrolled gain, while most v2 users got away with the gain knob at 9 o'clock unmodded i had to go 12 o'clock on my II (not a bad thing)

The II is awesome IMO, it has an amazing noise gate, the sound is a bit better but the real reason i love it is because of the CTFD mod we talked about in this mod, it's just so good

 

[vanhendrix]

good question i think vanhendrix might be able to help, as far as i'm concerned, here's what i know:

There are 3 versions

Powerball
Powerball v2
Powerball II

I think the first one was the one which had sound issues to fix, it wouldn't cut very well (think FB 60) and the tonal structure was slightly changed.

The v2 sounds similar to the II but has a bit more uncontrolled gain, while most v2 users got away with the gain knob at 9 o'clock unmodded i had to go 12 o'clock on my II (not a bad thing)

The II is awesome IMO, it has an amazing noise gate, the sound is a bit better but the real reason i love it is because of the CTFD mod we talked about in this mod, it's just so good

My 2 cents:

The difference between the 1st version and the "v2" powerball is just a redesign of the noise gate. As for the PB II, it has more gain knobs and different controlling options (z-9 instead of z-5), which makes the fx loop and the gate now switchable. The tone stacks have not been changed for the II though, the amp is the same at heart.

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

These are my settings that I dialed in based on what I think sounds good (unmodded) It sounds pretty damn good (though keeping it mind is low volume so the tubes can't really give too much life to the sound) though I can hear what you guys are saying by being quite fizzy. So looks like I'm going to be doing the CTFD mod soon.

What I sort of find funny is I don't hear much of a difference when changing the mids level but when I change the bass or treble the amp sounds like a Line 6

 

[Pedrojoca]

These are my settings that I dialed in based on what I think sounds good (unmodded) It sounds pretty damn good (though keeping it mind is low volume so the tubes can't really give too much life to the sound) though I can hear what you guys are saying by being quite fizzy. So looks like I'm going to be doing the CTFD mod soon.

What I sort of find funny is I don't hear much of a difference when changing the mids level but when I change the bass or treble the amp sounds like a Line 6

nice! could you explain your settings? There are some things i'd like you to explain like the cranked bass on the preamp but quite low on the power section

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

The top EQ knobs are for the clean channel and the bottom EQ knobs are for the rhythm and gain channels. I fiddled with the settings some more.... for the rhythm and leads I've got the gain around 10:30, Bass at just over 9, Mids at max, Treble at around 11, with the open mids (I don't hear much a difference between open and focused...? ) Presence at 10 and depth punch off.

Anyways this is at bedroom volume so if I ever crank it I'll probably dial back the gain and adjust the EQ accordingly, I'm thinking of getting an EQ pedal to go along with it though I'll probably get the tubes serviced first; I'm thinking to just take it to the shop to swap all of the tubes out for EL34s and the JJ preamp tubes as suggested before. Two things though, would the EL34's still remain pretty silky or what tones would most closely resemble signature "EL34 tones" relative to what the Powerball would sound? I'm hearing the tone I'm after in the amp it's just being covered by some imperfections that I feel can be addressed.

Also I'm using my 7 string with Bareknuckle Nailbombs, I'm going to give my 6 string with EMG's a try to hear how that's going to effect the sound.

 

[Pedrojoca]

The top EQ knobs are for the clean channel and the bottom EQ knobs are for the rhythm and gain channels. I fiddled with the settings some more.... for the rhythm and leads I've got the gain around 10:30, Bass at just over 9, Mids at max, Treble at around 11, with the open mids (I don't hear much a difference between open and focused...? ) Presence at 10 and depth punch off.

Anyways this is at bedroom volume so if I ever crank it I'll probably dial back the gain and adjust the EQ accordingly, I'm thinking of getting an EQ pedal to go along with it though I'll probably get the tubes serviced first; I'm thinking to just take it to the shop to swap all of the tubes out for EL34s and the JJ preamp tubes as suggested before. Two things though, would the EL34's still remain pretty silky or what tones would most closely resemble signature "EL34 tones" relative to what the Powerball would sound? I'm hearing the tone I'm after in the amp it's just being covered by some imperfections that I feel can be addressed.

Also I'm using my 7 string with Bareknuckle Nailbombs, I'm going to give my 6 string with EMG's a try to hear how that's going to effect the sound.

settings in o' clock?

no, i didn't want you to tell me the settings i wanted to know WHY you chose those settings. Let's say, per example, why you put bass at 9.

EDIT: Any chance you'd come to the chat?

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

Yes and oh whoops I'm headed off to work in about 5 minutes so if you come on within that time sure x)

I'll do my best to explain my choice on the settings when I get a chance to at work during my break, in the meantime any suggestions about the tubes?

 

[vanhendrix]

Yeah you've dialed the bass right out of that amp, kinda odd. To reiterate, swapping the tubes to EL34s is a major mod for this amp. It was never built to run them, so a professional will need to do some serious surgery on it.

As for the fizz, my advice would be to let the tubes warm up for a long time to get good and toasty, or just swap them straight up for some new 6L6GCs. It's a fixed bias amp -if you keep the same tube type, it does not have to be rebiased. I did this exact thing (with mesa branded tubes) and killed the fizz altogether.

Although I'm starting to think there's something amiss with my powerball. I'm noticing that I'm playing the master volumes pretty high (about noon) with the channel volumes at 10:30, and it's just below the threshold where I'd put in ear plugs. If I did the same with my new JVM, I'd blow my fucking face off. I remember noticing this before I did my tube swap, but I'm just wondering if my amp is getting quieter...how odd.

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

The transformer is undersized for 100w so that may be something to do with it.

 

[Pedrojoca]

true story, but why would you need that much volume anyway?

 

[spaghettipomodoro]

I found that the bass really dulled down the sound (again keep in mind this is at bedroom levels so I haven't had an opportunity to crank 'er yet) so by throwing out the bass it made the overall sound a lot tighter and more definite. The band I play with (Trollband) plays sort of black/folk metal, so we have a lot of chordy stuff and when playing said sections, when the amp was dialed with a lot of bass I couldn't hear the note definition very well. The mids are all the way up for obvious reasons. I put the gain slightly higher than what everyone suggested because of our style of music, which tends to be slightly more gainy than say djent or modern metal. That said we're not terribly fond of a lot of black metal tones and try to be more open minded with our tone, so we keep the gain and treble in control. With this combo of EQ the tone I got was just slightly more gainy then that of what I'd use for typical metal, just slightly more chaotic which suits me well. At the same time, when I play single note lines, the tone is pretty tight and doesn't sound like a complete mess. (I play a D standard 7 string with a low A)

Again I don't have much experience in the land of gig level volumes, so I'd imagine that I'd dial the amp differently based on the situation and other players.

Anyways I can't think really straight right now so if what I'm saying doesn't make sense let me know

That aside, you said a straight swap for Mesa 6l6's eliminated most of the problems with fizz? If that's the case I may be more lenient toward sticking with the 6l6's, because worst case scenario I'd just get the el34 mod afterwards (opposed to doing it first and not liking it and modding it back to 6l6's.) I've also heard amazing things about KT88 power tubes, though I've never heard any samples or had experience with them, thoughts?

Lastly the preamp tubes, I know we seem to be going over this over and over again....... but JJ's or another brand would be ideal? I'm just trying to make sure I don't make any mistakes as I don't have the cash to undo them at the moment You should have seen me while I was soldering the wires to the speakers over the speaker cone..... I was fucking terrified of dropping some sauter onto the paper

Thanks again guys!