Hello there fuck-o's,

I have acquired an Engl Fireball and I'm having loads of fun with it. I however I'm aware with the nuisances of owning a tube amp so I know I'll eventually have to replace the tubes. It uses two matched 6L6GC Grade 26 tubes, Engl brand. I'm having a tough time finding online stores that sell the tubes. I'd rather buy the exact same type to replace the tubes myself rather than paying the amp repairman to bias the amp for a new pair of tubes.

I've checked Thomann.de(I emailed Engl and they reccomended this site) but only found chinese-made 6L6-GC STR, whatever the hell that means. They look different than my Fireball's stock tubes so I don't think I will be buying those.

Have any of you bought powertubes that you didn't have to rebias your Fireball for online? Where? It can be either in the EU or in the US, doesn't matter. Thanks.

Btw, it doesn't matter what brand or type of preamp tubes I use as long as they're still ECC83's right?

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try ebay

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Y do u want engl tubes? engl uses cheap ass chinese tubes with their name onit... that's what dr-tube told me when i had my engltubes replaced for real tubes.

also preamp tubes can be replaced without trouble, aslogn as its ecc83 or 12ax7, both are the same xept for the nams as far as i know, but u might ask xdx if thats true

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I recently changed out the Engl tubes for Ruby 6L6GCMSTR' s in my fireball. They sound excellent and I didnt rebias. Also tried the JJ's and Groove Tubes but prefered the Ruby's for sheer brutality, it sounded way thicker. You can buy these at Doug's Tubes. You can put any preamp tube you want in there, but for high gain amps you might wanna stick with ECC83\12AX7's. Soon ill be trying tons of different preamp tubes to see what i like best, lots of engl owners seem to like the JJ pre's. I bet you love that fireball, it always sound super fukin heavy and a 2 year old could dial it in.

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check out forum.lordriffenstein.com it's a dedicated engl user forum.

anyways, i think i read something about them being relabeled sovteks. but i wouldnt quote me on that.

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engl, marshall, mesa... groove tubes.. ruby tubes
are all just brands that sell tubes, they relabel tubes no one of them produces tubes.

for the fireball i'd either go with SED 6L6 or JJ 6L6
the JJ's are a little 'warmer' while the SED's would be a little 'tighter'..
i use SED's in my powerball
check tubetown.de
and the tubetown tubemap:
http://www.tube-town.de/info/doc/tt-tubemap.pdf

greetz

somewhat correct...

groove tubes for example... some would have you think that since they are made in the same factory by the same people as sovteks, that you're just buying over priced relabeled sovtek tubes. which is rarely the case, groovetubes actually has alot to do with the design of the tubes, and the most the tubes they sell cannot be sold under the sovtek name. and even the ones that are the "same tube" there are other things that GT does, like alot of tubes come with stamped pins with dipped
cad or zinc plating on the pins. this is a can be bad for vintage sockets. GT pins are a rolled pin that is polished. aswell as the testing/quality control GT has.

ruby does the same thing with the factory jj's are made in, and i don't know which factory is used for EH tubes... but ruby, EH, and GT have direct factory involvement and financial play in this game, aswell as the rights to tube designs that you can only get with their brand.

mesa to my knowledge is just relabeling from different factories, but more importantly, they're all matched to work within the fixed bias range that mesa amps have. that way it's all plug in and play.

i don't think marshall bothers relabeling tubes, never seen a tube that said marshall on it.

im not to hip actually to what engl's got going on, or why an engl tube is anything other than a relabel tube. but then again engl doesnt sell tubes, they're all just to come with the amps stock.

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there you go..
http://www.tube-town.de/info/doc/he...eichnungen.html

edit:
btw
jj's are from the TESLA factory, EH from the Reflektor factory

i don't speak the language... but heres a little dittle i found. in english. http://www.guitaramplifierblueprint...etubestore.html

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but you don't need to speak the language to read the table :>

Yea Im with these guys, dont bother trying to replace the tubes in your ENGL with the same ones it came with. I am personally partial to JJ tubes through eurotubes.com, but thats not for EL34's, not 6L6's. But JJ also makes one of the best 6L6's available along with Svetlana so you may want to check them out. Oh and btw, like what has been mentioned, preamp amp tubes are a breeze to change. No need to worry about biasing or certain brand names. Just remember that ECC83 = 12AX7, ECC82 = 12AU7. Thats probably all you need to know.

Even just looking at the table doesn't do much for you, because even if those tubes really were the "same design", there are going to be other differences, and those aren't the only tubes the sell.

I also read somewhere that groove tubes is making a new 6l6 design, being made in the usa.

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i'd go for SED/Svetlana 6L6 for the fireball..
for the preamp section i'd try a mix between EH and TT(China) 12ax7

NuMustDie, these arent 6L6 GC-MSTR's but 6L6 GC-STR's(notice the lack of a M): http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...WXX&src=3WFRWXX

Do you think I can install these without rebiasing like you did with the MSTR's? Or does that M make a big difference? I'd rather buy it from a big store like that than from some guy that just sells stuff through his site. I'm going to buy like 2 or 3 pairs and a bunch of pre's and have em sent to my bro's house so he can bring em for me in his yearly xmas visit to the canary isles. Tubes are far more expensive here and I'll probably have to pay someone to rebias, so naturally I'd prefer tubes that would not require rebiasing.

Also, how did you remove the tubes from your fireball? I noticed theres a weird metal Jetsons-looking hoop around the base of the tube, is it necesarry to unscrew that or should I just yank the tube upwards carefully with a cloth/shirt? If the tubes are matched does it matter what position I put the tubes in? Ie: is there a "left and right" tube or does the position not matter?

Also could someone describe the most obvious signs of needing to change powertubes? For preamp tubes I know it's a lot of microphonic feedback and hissing, but for power tubes I'm not sure. Is it the Fireball's tube monitoring system that also allows it to install new tubes without rebiasing? Thanks for the info fellas, I'm getting more anxious for tube-changing time comes so I can hear the difference.

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You should really give DougsTubes a chance, i sent him my order by email and put down my phone number, he called me back the same day, and I live in Canada. He would be able to precisely answer your questions, hes a tube guru. The letters after the tube name(6L6) usually mean what type of tube that theyre copying, yes i think the M not being there will make a difference though i woudnt know what it is. To change them just grab the tube and wiggle it out, you may have to bend down the rings a little to free it, a cloth helps to keep them clean. Theres no left or right tube, just put them in wherever.

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Well the "M" is just part of the model name, the only thing you have to worry about is whether or not its a 6L6. A lot of amps these days have a fixed bias meaning you cant adjust it. Mesa does this to sucker you into buying their shitty tubes. So if that is the case, you can get a bias mod done which gives you an adjustable bias but its best to let a pro handle it. If you get new tubes I would definitely take it to a tech to find out what to do.

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Congratulations on your purchase Soeru. You selling it yet?

Haha!

ROFL! No, this is actually the only purchase -besides my 2nd NJ series Ironbird- I've ever made that I haven't felt absolutely any remorse for! The first few days I couldn't get good tone but after about a week of playing and tweaking it I was propelled into the vaginal caverns of tube tone pleasure.

By the way, I'm using a Marshall Mode 4 cab(400W RMS) that I picked up NEW for 400€ at a local store. I never believed amps could sound this good.

I think Ill give this Doug dude a chance, I just hope he doesn't mind making über long distance phone calls! :P

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dougs a good guy, i buy my tubes from him... you could always e-mail him if you're worried about phone stuff. he replies.

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Well im not sure if I should be happy for you or call an OB/GYN stat.

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