Hello once again friends! After much research, I’ve come across a simple trick that will improve your tone with this amp and make the gain much more usable! I’ve always like the tone of the amp, but it always had this fizziness to the sound that you couldn’t dial out. So, I replaced the 12ax7 tube in the second position with a 12at7 and this totally changed the sound! A 12at7 has about 70% of the gain of a 12ax7, so the lead channels become much clearer. The fizz in the sound is gone, and you can turn the gain up to 10 without getting any muddiness.
So, if you have an Engl Powerball (or any other Engl for that matter) and you want to refine the gain and make it more usable, I highly recommend installing this tube! I’ve included the diagram from the manual below, as you want make the tube change in the V6 position. Other Engl amplifiers may have a similar gain structure, so this may work in multiple amps. Thanks for stopping by and I hope this helps anyone considering selling this amp or trading it. I will post a video with a demo of how it sounds after the tube change.
