new(ish) rig completed!

[yabba]

Found (separately) good deals on an ENGL fireball and a g-flex cab so went for it on both. I just did some preamp tube swapping this morning and replaced V4 and V5 with some GE JAN 5751's (lower gain 12AX7 replacements) and now this thing is incredible! Was awesome before as well, but rather over the top as far as gain went, with the 5751's it still has insane amounts of gain on tap for the death metal stuff, but will now also do the in-between crunch much better than before (before I never used the gain above ~11 o'clock). With an EQ in the loop it's rediculously versatile, yet so straightforward and simple. I'm in love! [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[Death]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

FUCK YEAH,hail to the ENGL gods! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Final Sacrifice]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

That's one of the rigs I'm contemplating. How much did it run ya?

[micha]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

congrats!! I like engls a lot!!
but what's up with this cab? never seen one before, looks great with this bass holes...
got a few lines left for that? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Mordor]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

Welcome in the Fireball family!Maybe I'll try to change some preamp tubes,I agree that this little beast has too much gain! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Crusher]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

Awesome!! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[slash]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

How do you like the G-flex? I've been looking for one.

[aldog1330]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

Awesome rig, congrats on the scores. I've been real happy with my G-flex 2x12, and it seems to push out more volume than my 4x12 with the master volume on my head at the same setting. Plus the midrange is very smooth, and the bass is huge! (but not in a muddy way). If you have the chance to try one out, definitely do so...I got one only because it fits in my car, where my 4x12 wouldn't have a prayer.

[yabba]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

amp and cab were ~$1200 total.

micha, the cab is a genz benz g-flex, and I totally agree with aldog1330, it's a great 2x12, seems as loud (or louder) than plenty of 4x12s, with LOTS of very tight bass. Supposedly the porting helps with pushing out more bass, and there's some flexible baffle (where the 'flex' in the name comes from, I guess) inside that keeps it from getting boomy or muddy.

Mordor, I highly recommend trying some GE JAN 5751's (I think Phillip's also made them, and there are Tung Sol 5751's as well, if you're looking to spend more [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ) in the middle 2 preamp slots for lowering the gain very effectively (it still has more than enough, but now a larger sweep of the gain knob is in a usable range). I'm still playing around with some tube swapping for the input tube, so far I like the stock engl tube the best there.

[micha]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

thx. it looks very impressive for a 2x12, and sounds real interessting...
maybe I'll give it a try if I get to see one... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[sworn_enemy]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

That's pretty much my dream rig. I would probably prefer a Powerball but for that price you can't go wrong. Awesome...just awesome.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

Killer deal!

[sworn_enemy]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

Hey Yabba, could you post a close up pic of the control panel?

[yabba]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

Here's a kinda crappy blowup; I'll take a better pic of the front panel this weekend if you want.


(the front panel is so shiny the shoes and desk chair there make it kind of hard to read things, heh..)

From left to right, it's: input / Gain / depth and bright switches / Bass / Mid / Treble / Presence / 'ultra gain' (channel switch) / Master Vol A / Master Vol B / power tube monitor leds


Yeah, that wasn't a typo, it has 2 master volumes and one shared gain. Kinda wacky, but I actually like it, when the gain is set to a reasonable place for the 'ultra gain' channel (like I mentioned before, this thing has more gain than anyone would need, IMO), you can back off the volume on the guitar and the gain cleans up nicely for lower gain stuff, or switch to the clean channel for clean-cleans. Very 'plug-and-play.

I don't have a footswitch (need to get one and I'm finding it hard to justify the $100 the ENGL one costs..; I'm 99% certain I can just use a standard marshall/peavey 2-button switch), but evidently when it's plugged in, one button switches channels and the other can toggle between the 2 master volume settings, regardless of channel (basically the master volume setting becomes independent of channel when a footswitch is plugged in), so you can set it up to use it as a volume boost for either/both channels.

[sworn_enemy]

Re: new(ish) rig completed!

Thanks bro that's a big help. Very cool. If you get the chance please do take a better pic but it's not a big deal.

So even though both channels share a gain control you can still get cleans with the gain turned up? This is the thing that confuses me about this amp.