Need an amp tech that can do work fast; I'm pretty sure I'm just having an issue with a bad power tube but don't want to fuck it up since I'm retarded when it comes to this shit. Hoping I can get the situation rectified before Thursday.

some tube amps require that you do a barrel roll.

here's what you need to do to fix this problem:
Strap amp to table.
Hit with hammer.
(repeat)
Rectified.

I did several barrel rolls, to no avail. Also bludgeoned with hammer and deleted its system32 folder. I don't know what other RTTP memes to do about it.

Cuckold it.

Cuckoldry is not an option. My Engl and I are very exclusive.

you're doing it wrong

ask anthony from coffin birth if he can talk to his bud Macguyver to repair your amp. He's good with tube heads

What are your symptoms bro?

blood in the urine

Aside from bloody urine, volume cut out a lot, made farty noises, sounded like someone turned all the EQ settings all over the place, and eventually got really quiet.

Never any 'splosions or anything?

When you power up, do all your power/preamp tubes glow normally? Make sure you're plugged into a speaker/load (just in case).

The quietness makes me suspect power tubes more than anything else.

No splodeys (yet), all tubes glow normally, head was plugged into a speaker cab properly (3 different cabs to troubleshoot) before powering up. I'm hoping a tube is just loose or something, but I won't know for another hour and a half when I get out of work. Is there any way to tell which tube is bad (if that's the case) without having to buy new ones and swap them in and out?

Even though it doesn't seem like the tubes are microphonic, it may be a possibility. Tap each tube with the tip of a pencil and see if you can hear the tap come out through the speaker (with the amp on, clearly). That usually happens with preamp tubes, though, but try it out on all of them.

Honestly, I would just get new power tubes. Worst case scenario, it's not the power tubes and you just have a backup set. It doesn't sound like your tranny blew or anything. What tubes are in there anyway?

SED Winged Cs. Whatever it is that's wrong, I just hope I can have it taken care of before our next show on Thursday. No way in hell am I using just my Blue Voodoo by itself anymore.

Probably the t000bz.

Also Winged C tells me nothing haha.

http://thetubestore.com/svetlana.html

Heh, sorry; 6L6GC,

Brad from the Proselyte or Tom at Aztech.

Use two hammers for dual rectifier.

Do what martins suggested about the pre amp tubes. If one sounds diff than the others when you tap it, there's your problem tube.

A FUCKING RITUAL OBVIOUSLY

is the dick bro?

DO A SCHEMATIC MODIFICATION ABOUT IT, FAGGOT!

JOE CHRISTIANNI RITUAL SCHEMATIC MODIFICATIONS ARE REV BEARD PINK GUITAR RAVIOLIS

OR DAVID THE GNOME IS YOU

IN CHINATOWN

I did a few rituals, and found out the supposed "new" tubes that were put in the Engl when I bought it 3 weeks ago were in another amp for 3 years.

old ass tubes

where did you go?

I had a lot of luck with Aztech, but I've got a guy in Providence. Only reason I stopped going.

I just got new tubes; put them in, played for about an hour with no sound issues, but 2 of the LEDs behind the tubes aren't lit. Not sure what that means exactly. I guess tomorrow I'll be giving Aztech a call.

LEDs behind the tubes?

ENGL's have LEDs that light up behind the faceplate

Glad to hear that it's working.

pretty sure those lights have nothing to do with shit.

yeah they just look cool

Actually, the amp isn't working as intended. I was able to play it for about a half hour yesterday and the same sounds I was having with the last set of tubes were coming out of it. Taking it to someone today.

I'd be very suprised if this is a microphonic tube. I've encountered quite a few over the years, and the symptoms you are describing are not typical of that problem.

It is very possible that you do, in fact, have a microphonic tube in there (if so, it is worth replacing), but I doubt that that is major contributing factor in what's causing your amp to lose volume and cut out.

Could be an indication that power is not reaching a certain point in the circuit though, no?

Maybe a faulty filter cap? Is it easy to open the chassis to look inside? Check for leaky caps, burned up components, etc....

DO NOT prod around inside without rubber souled shoes and one hand behind your back though. even if it is unplugged.

It's not just volume; it also makes farty sounds like there's a blown speaker, and does weird shit with the EQ. So fucking annoying that this has to happen so close to a show.

That's when it always happens. My JMP crapped out during the last riff of our last song when we played with ya'll at O'Briens... resulting in epic tone fail.

Every time I plug in, there's something new wrong. Hopefully if I can't get it taken care of before Thursday, I'll be able to take a chance at the show. At least I'll be running 2 rigs so I won't be completely out of luck.

mark if worse comes to worse evan will probably let you use his head on thursday.. although we may need use of your cab sir.

I suck at all this stuff, so there's no way I'm even thinking of poking around in there, haha.

That would be awesome man, Evan is more than welcome to use one or both of my cabs. They're both 8 ohms; one Vader, one Mesa.

worrrrd homie

Doesn't sound like tubes at all. Sounds like you fried the output transformer, a-la some retard running it with no speaker load attached.

I could be wrong, I don't know much about tube amps these days, but that is EXACTLY the sounds and effects I was getting on my old JCM800 I fried the output transformer on.

Farty noises, loss of signal, abrupt drop in volume, etc....

Ya i was about to say that it's starting to sound like your output tranny. Leaving your amp on without a load for longer than a few seconds to a few minutes will fry your tranny like it's nobody's business.

I don't know how easy it is to replace it by the time your show happens though. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

I've never left the amp on w/o being plugged into a speaker cab (properly, of course). Hell, I've only had it for a few weeks. I'm guessing the dude who I bought it from did something stupid. Anyway, it's sitting at Aztech right now.

Sounds to me like you're gonna have to cuckold it, buddy.

Previous owner pwned you. That's what happened with my 2 channy dual recto when I got it. Though in my case it wasn't the tranny, thank crap.

I just hope whatever it is doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Even if it costs a couple hundred, still got a decxent deal with the road case and all the midi footswitch/interface bullshit included.

At least double that.

You got boned.

what do those activity lights mean? is there some kind of label near them? my svt has activity led's that tell me when the amp is biased too cold or too hot. you probably blew a fuse or something fairly simple. you matched up all your tubes right? have to ask the stupid question. i've seen worse happen from dumber shit.

I've been trying to figure out what the LEDs mean, and it doesn't seem like I can find a true answer. I emailed Engl and haven't received a response. All the tubes were matched. Hopefully Aztech can figure that out for me.

If it's the transformer, you're gonna be pissed. Unless your tech can get his hands on a used one.

Crankys in Mansfield, MA. Guy does all our mods and is a legitimate tube amp genius. http://www.guitarrepair.com/

Aztech rules. I wish I could match there turnaround times, but I've got one of them fulltime jobs as well as running a repair shop. That being said, Mr. Richards, I'd be amped to take a look at an Engl sometime. What model is it? I got a couple of Engl factory schematics when I was in college. If I can help out in anyway, drop me a line, duder.

I hope it isn't the transformer, but whatever; money's in the bank.

Brad, if Aztech can't figure it out, I'll hit you up. Where do you do your work? Oh, and it's the first Powerball (E645).

Damn right pun intended! Mark, I'll take a look at me schematic collection when I'm back in my shop, which is over in Brighton in Cleveland Circle. I'm guessing Aztech will figure it out just fine, those chaps kick ass. But I'm almost always around (lame) if anything goes wrong in the future. Dig it.

WTF dude, if someone sold me an amp that needed $600 in repairs without telling me, the fucking money wouldn't be coming out of MY bank - it would come out of THEIRS. Or else their mom would be paying me in sex favors. If the mom is dead I'd take a grandma. Or maybe a younger brother.

The point is, you seem to have gotten scammed. I'd go all Elgin James on the seller.

Would it really be a scam if the amp worked perfectly fine for 3 weeks straight, being used an average of 3 to 4 hours 4 days out of the week, then out of the blue it starts acting like a bitch? I don't know shit about the technical stuff so I really have no clue, haha.

start a crew about it

I thought you'd only had it for a week? (when the problem came up initially that is)

Even if the amp is messed up because of the previous owner not knowing he was fucking it up (or selling it with the knowledge that it was fucked up), I'm sure it would be too much frustration trying to prove to him that he's at fault and owes me $600. Getting the $600 or however much it may cost would probably be a completely different battle that would probably not be worth the trouble unless there were some sort of legal actions I could take. I guess we'll see what happens.

I bought it 3 weekends ago, and played it a LOT between then and the time the problem arose, which was this past Thursday. Even after changing tubes it seemed fine for a few hours on 2 days playing it. Then after 20-30 min of playing it at practice on Sunday it started farting out again.

sad panda.

I'll perform a healing ritual on it if you'd like.

Could have something to do with a filament in a tube "overheating." My knowledge of how tubes work is still in its infancy but this could be the case.

BLAST IT WITH PISS

that'll fix it

It'll probably take over 9000 milliliters.

If it's anything like most modern tube amps, there's a lot of protection circuitry in there to prevent the transformer from smoking. Not saying it can't happen, but I'd stay hopeful that it's some little component in there (I'm thinking it could be a coupling cap leaking DC current and misbiasing the output tubes) that fried. Keep ya chin up.

that's a good point. Even in my old JMP, there's a fuse before the tranny that will blow and shut the amp down before any damaging current or the like can reach it.

"tranny that will blow" huh huh h-huh huh.

Was this ever rectumfied?

Aztech just called and I guess one of the 12ax7 tubes, as well as the socket it was in, was bad. They don't really know about the LED lights behind the tubes and they'd rather not have to dismantle the whole amp to find out...so I guess we'll see what happens tonight at practice and the show tomorrow.

Bradsauce, if there's anything still wrong with it I'll see if you can take a look at it since you have some Engl schematics. I'll be moving to your general area in a couple weeks anyway.

That's fucking rad that it wasn't your tranny! Yeah dude, let me know if anything craps out (I work on pedals, guitars, and solid state amps, too) or if you just wanna talk shop. I'm always glad to teach folks how to do the basic maintenance stuff with their gear. Sorry I didn't get back to you about the schematic, got drunk, made spring rolls. I'll track it down tonight.

Definitely psyched it's not the tranny. I played it for a few minutes and it sounds a lot better than it did before the issues even started.

Brad, if you rehouse pedals I may have some work for you. I'm also somewhat down to learn some stuff.

Ohhhh Mark. You're always blowing trannies.

You know me all too well.

Got through an entire hour or so of playing the amp tonight at ludicrous volume with no issues whatsoever. Sounds a hell of a lot tighter that it used to.

I just heard about this today mark.....so all is well????the only problem with the engl stuff is when shit breaks it's a bitch for techs to work on...engl like to put there pcb's upside down so to repair the simpleist thing it's a PITA and time consuming.charging by the hour it can put a real dent in your pocket...this is the reason i got away from the engl thing.fortunately neither of my powerballs faild on me and fishcakes(was mine) is still 100%...don't get me wrong I DO like the engl stuff but simple is always better with tube amps...

Yeah everything is fine with it now; I popped its show cherry tonight and it sounded killer, no issues whatsoever. The guys at Aztech mentioned how weird the design is, and didn't want to have to charge me an arm and a leg just to look at those 2 LEDs that went out. Luckily all I had to pay for was a set of 4 new 12ax7s and an hour or two of work to get the socket back in its proper position.

the other thing that ENGL does that's a bitch is that they have fake schematics floating around everywhere on the internet so that independent amp makers don't try to steal their shit

When I brought my Powerball to B Sharp to reverse the phase on the gain channel(*), Dave looked at the schematic I gave him and just said..."uhhhh, that's not at all what this is. I'll find another." And then he found 3 more shitty ones before he found the right thing. It was an easy fix, incidentally.





*you may never notice it, but the clean and gain channels are out of phase with each other. Not a big deal if you're running one amp or running two amps with always the same sound. But I had two amps and changed channels a lot...a bitch to deal with when recording.

Are you kidding?

That is just unbelievably fucking stupid.

it annoyed the fuck out of me while we were trying to do pre-production. Because every time I switched from the second stage of the clean channel to gain channel I was perceiving a mammoth volume drop. Because the other amps constant was there, the phase shift made the ENGL virtually disappear. Completely fucked.

making the change actually removed a lot of the death metal-ish gain from it and basically turned it into a completely different amp, which was perfect for me. But I wouldn't recommend it to most Powerball owners.

When I talked to my amp guy he said that it's shockingly not all that uncommon

That actually makes perfect sense (the channels being out of phase with each other)...it all comes down to how many gain stages are in the amp, really...and if the clean channel has, for example, 2 gain stages, every odd-numbered stage will be out of phase from that clean channel...so if you have 5 gain stages for the distortion channel, it's gonna be out of phase from the clean channel.

what he said

I never really change channels during songs, so I don't really have to worry about the channels being out of phase.

I get that, and it makes sense, but it's still stupid. Has to be a way to deal with that at the design stage.

You wouldn't have to worry about it in a live setting if you're not mic'd. It becomes problematic when you put a mic in front of the speaker. The engineer would have to invert the phase at the console to compensate.

There is, just throw a unity gain inverting stage in there and you're set. But that would increase the cost. Not by much, but you'd be amazed at some of the crap manufacturers do to save money. In most modern amps, all the components are being run at there absolute maximum rating. It kills the longevity of the amp. Is bogus.