My love-hate relationship with my powerball - new amp stuff, maybe

[dave_mc]

i didn't know you'd got an MJW... :lol:

have you tried any soldanos and cornfords? i think they're maybe a bit less sterile than engls (but then you might lose what you like about the engls too).

[chrisola]

What about moving up in the ENGL range, to a Savage or Invader?

Also, the Powerabll MkII has a 'middle boosted sound option' for all 4 channels as a new feature, might make it a bit more tweakable to your tastes.

[BigK]

I Have a Powerball as you know.. And the JJ's in the power amp warm it up a little further so do try it.

I've also had a JVM (which stevepage now owns) I really liked it but there didnt seem to be enough low end for me when it was tight then it seemed to go a little flubby after a point from memory. But the fact i like alot of low end and i have greenbacks in my framus cobra cab might have something to do with it. but I really did like that amp to the point that when i get my car insurance sorted out I might get another one, or take a look at the powerball 2, or steve morse sig.

[MDV]

Why is me getting an MJW funny?

Is it cos it isnt teh br00talz?

It does haz teh toanz though. Just not my sort.

I thought about the PB 2, then I thought that its basically a PB 1 with a mid boost, and I dont need a mid boost I need a mid change in voicing. Or do I? I'm not utterly certain. I'm seeing what my options are.

A dude round here has an invader - I've been jedi-ing him in the ways of guitar geekery and guiding his quest for toanez and helping him learn to maintain and mod his guitars. Hes like a 16 year old padawan that can shred like a mother$%&#er. Scary good technique for one so young, the force is strong with him. Anyway, he said he'd bring it round so I can try that out. For some reason I've never been taken with any savage sound I've heard - they're all a bit high-mid crunchy for me.

I'll put the JJs in tomorrow if the planets say 'toanez with a chance of electrocution'. Its a perfect saturday afternoon.

Thanks for the comparison with the JVM kieran - I couldnt find anyone doing anything but generic rock in clips, and they werent promising; it just sounded like a TSL.

[Antag]

On the subject of the Savage, I liked it a lot when I first got it.

Then I got the right speakers/cab & loved it (well, not necessarily the absolute best speakers as I've not tried many, but my hunch that the CL80 & K100 combination would be streets ahead of V30s proved to be correct).

Then I swapped the preamp valves & my jaw hits the floor every time I play through it (I did the opposite of what you did & put the JAN 5751 in V1)


OK, I won't pretend to be impartial on this :), but I do think that in terms of tone, gain, intensity & power that it's much better than the PB.

I know what you mean about the Savage's high-mid crunch.  It's certainly not "scooped", but for me that's why I like it so much - the sound has so much "body", you just need to match up the correct speakers so it doesn't get offensively nasal.  Also, the BBE into the FX loop is a big part of my sound, just makes everything clearer.

Interestingly, I've not got around to trying the E570 into the Savage's power section & brutal cab, but the E570s high gain is kinda half way between the Savage & how I remember the powerball.  As I commented on my NAD thread, the mids seem "spongier" & less "stiff" than the Savage.  The SE through the MJW pwer amp certainly isn't as shrill into V30s as the Savage was.

[BigK]

The JVM isnt as in your face as the powerball but can be very aggressive.

When I first got it I wasnt bowled over as I tried it through a vintage modern cab in the shop and really liked it but I ended up getting a 410h off ebay, and through greenbacks it wasnt as great. Then I shoved the mxr 10-band in the loop andwith some subtle tweeks it was great. Then I whacked some JJ's in the preamp and all was right in the world, they added quite a bit of chunk and smoothed out the overly glassy and sometimes sharp top end a bit.

The only problem I had with the jvm is that its very sensitive to pickups and speakers it loved my miracle man loaded ibanez and esp, beautifully thick and tight but the painkiller loaded custom 22 and my tremonti's it got quite brittle.

I also missed the built in noise gate on the powerball but thats nit-picking.

hope that helps mark

[MDV]

It is kieran, thanks.

Is that the monster MM? Hows it working out for you? (If you still have it?)

Antag, doooooooood, you have an E570!?!?

Tell

Me

EVERYTHING!!

Its pretty much top of my list at the moment. The 570/SE sounds to me like all the things I like about the PB and non that I dont, and the E570 at least isnt horrifically priced: PB power section for now, rack power later.

[Stevepage]

Steve, I was thinking overdriving a laney VH/GH - mainly GH, as they're reputedly a bit heavier and more aggressive out of the box, but do you think they lack tightness? I need tightness. Lots of tightness.



JVMs an interesting option. Havent really considered marshal since I started hating my old TSL602 - how to they compare? Much improvement? I found the 602, and every other TSL I tried, which was most if not all, turned to mush when you tried to get it past mid-80s hard rock.

Yeah I use a Ibanez TS9 DX modded by R Keeley and a Bloody Murder. Both did the job very well, it was very tight and if a boost isn't enough an EQ pedal would do the trick.

I hated the TSL's so I'm gonna say that the JVM's are in a different league. It's one of those amps that just does everything very very well. I don't need a boost or an EQ pedal with the JVM, I found it sounds best as is which is great if you don't want pedals flung about the floor.

[Alex]

Most modern high-gain amps sound like that IMO.

The other day I listened to a very big amp comparison someone had posted on the net and the majority of amps all sounded quite generic, very compressed, brutal with lots of low end thump but also somehow "soulless" to me on the recording. Differences seem to get even smaller on recordings often.
A few amps sounded different and when I looked up the one I liked the most it was an older Marshall with a boost. Much cleaner, much more transparent, lots of classic midrange crunch. Kind of ironic, if you ask me.

[Twinfan]

What about trying the Powerball II?  It's in Guitarist mag this month...

[Matt77]

So, GAS is looming, for amps.

I got a roadstar 18 recently that I need to test in 4-tracking with the PB (clips will follow...I very much doubt you've heard an MJW do what I'm going to do with it, or would ever want to :lol:), and that certainly has the woody mid range bark the PB lacks, so I have qutie high hopes for layering it up in recording, but it lacks pretty much anything else that I look for in a tone, inc low and high end (I found it really dulled: maybe its my drop-B 13-56 strung guitars, maybe its my cab (ubercab, often called dark, and I can sort of agree, but its not that dark) or the V30/Swamp thang combo in it, I dunno).

To be fair I didnt expect it to: I know its not a metal amp, but with an OD infront of it and the same two EQs in the loop but with one of them with the gain dimed and treble bands  and with my highest output pickups (c-bomb) it was just about nearly in the right sort of territory, but its a really tame voicing for what I go for - I mention it to give an idea to those familiar with that sound, or sort of sound, what I mean by 'woody midrange bark'. The roadstars got loads. The powerball has everything else but not much of that. I want it from one amp. Help!

I know, tl:dr.

Have you swapped the pre-amp tubes about for something with more gain and bite? They may still be the lower gain ones I had in to give me a bit more headroom. I had picked them so I'd get a really round and smooth single note tone when everything was at full wack with a bit of boost from a pedal. The higher gain pre-amp tubes gave a very different sound.

[dave_mc]

Why is me getting an MJW funny?

Is it cos it isnt teh br00talz?

It does haz teh toanz though. Just not my sort.

haha, yeah. but mainly i was just laughing because i didn't know you'd gone for one. :)

EDIT: yeah the jvm is a lot nicer than a tsl, but I preferred its lower gain tones to its higher gain tones.

[JDC]

when you get to try the invader, pretty please with sugar on top can you do an A/Bing clip with the powerball :D

[DimeZakk]

I don't know how much cash you want to shell out but the ENGL Special Edition amps (6l6 and el34) are extremely awesome amps with a great tone! Or you can go the other way and try the cheaper Fireball 100 and see if it fits...

[MDV]

Most modern high-gain amps sound like that IMO.

The other day I listened to a very big amp comparison someone had posted on the net and the majority of amps all sounded quite generic, very compressed, brutal with lots of low end thump but also somehow "soulless" to me on the recording. Differences seem to get even smaller on recordings often.
A few amps sounded different and when I looked up the one I liked the most it was an older Marshall with a boost. Much cleaner, much more transparent, lots of classic midrange crunch. Kind of ironic, if you ask me.

You dont have a link to that do you? Would be much appreciated.

Matt, I didnt know you'd changed the valves from standard. I thought it odd that what I was hearing was much less hot and much duller sounding than what was in the clips - I mean, my setup isnt that dark...in fact, its not even dark, save the low tuning and maybe the tendency of DR tites toward darkness.

I'll have a chat with martin about what to use.

Dime, I'm looking very seriously (and with no small quantity of drool :lol:) at the E570. I can likely get a really good power section off HTH or MJW for less than the difference between the E570 and full blown SE. Failing that a second hand VHT power amp would probably run much less than the ~£1500 difference between the E570 and the SE. Probably be better too.

JDC: I'll consider it :P

The GH50L is still looking good, even if only because its so cheap - you can get one for about 500 new. But if I do that, I cant really justify the E570, and I have much higher hopes of that being suited to me than the GH50L. If I can sell some stuff, I might, just maybe, buy both :lol: