EQ in the FX loop really brings out the aggression in the Powerball. I wouldn't use a Powerball without one.
I did that for years.
Setup is powerball, valved as described, ubercab, sitting on a gramma. Something strange happened today: I, as some of you know, recently got an orange 2x12. As the pic implies my little home studio is REALLY struggling for space, so while trying to find somewhere in the room for it thats sensible and sounds good one of the places I tried was on top of the ubercab. To do this, for stability of the tower on the gramma, I took the wheels off the ubercab. Its always had them on, just makes things less of a pain.
A/Bing ensued. I cant find anywhere in the room thats a permanent location that sounds as good for the 2x12 thats as good as where it was just plonked in the original tests, but when I was testing the ubercab....jesus H bar-stewarding christ. I've had the gramma for about 4 years and appreciated the slight difference, but never been massively impressed with it, but I was absolutely blown away by the difference after resting the cab more fully on it. The low end is denser, tighter, thicker, absolutely incredibly clear, and the amp, recently assisted rather a lot in this regard by the revalve and a hell of a lot by the bias, now has ZERO fizz. None. the amp just grinds away now, plently of top end clarity with no fizz. All the difference being in a trivial change in acoustics/coupling to the environment. How it affected the high end I have no idea I dont want to attempt to get into the theory of it at this instant, but it did change it, a lot.
Whatever cab you have, get a gramma, sit the cab on the gramma so that its fully resting on it, not perched on it with feet or wheels, place it very carefully in the room (cab location is a really big deal for any tones). Get an EQ as well, but the gramma is cheaper.
Currently kicking myself for not properly exploiting the gramma sooner.
Cab location, room, acoustics in general are a massively overlooked part of tones imo. If youre using this amp in one particular location for the majority of the time, you need to get this sorted out/optimised before anything else. Aside from anything, getting the best cab location you can is free, and makes a massive difference. Then optimise it more with the gramma, then get an EQ.
I dont recommend ODs with powerballs, btw; I dont find that ODs tend to do what they normally do with most engls, because their voicing is already sharp, saturated and tight they can just sound thin, and do very odd and unpleasant things to the pick attack. YMMV, but this is my experience.
