ENGL Fireball 100 Operator´s Manual

Tube

Amp

Fireball 100

Full Tube

Guitar Amplifier

Operator´s Manual

Please, first read this manual carefully!

Fireball 100 - more tone, more punch, more Fireball than ever before - burn up the stage and feel the heat! The ENGL Fireball 100 guitar amp head offers all essential sound features in addition to a practical, clear layout for all players who appreciate straightforward structures.

In its cool "black magic" optical appearance the amp delivers a mighty bottom end punch well suited for playing power chords and solos with precise accentuation, courtesy of its powerful 6L6GC-100 watts poweramp. Sparkling clean sounds and every imaginable nuance between Clean and Hi Gain Lead tones belong to the repertoire of the Fireball 100 amp.

Other trademark ENGL features include: * two Master volume controls A and B, * electronic poweramp monitoring * and a variable / switchable FX Loop. Additionally, the sound shaping features Bottom and Mid Boost lets you reinforce ingeniously this particular pressure in low-end and the low-mid frequency range, thus expanding the amps' tonal spectrum. ENGL improved another important audio kink - an adjustable noise gate for the Lead channel.

Old world craftsmanship and highest quality components are part of what makes ENGL amps so special and the Fireball is no exception. On that note, please read and heed the guidelines on handling all-tube amps. You'll find them on the last page of this manual. The ENGL team is convinced that the Fireball amp will delight and inspire you - just plug in your guitar and play!

Front Panel

Input

Clean Gain

Lead Gain

Bass

Middle

Treble

Lead Volume

Master A

Master B

Presence

Power Tube Monitor

Fireball 100

Bright Bottom

Mid Clean

Tube

Power Tube Failure

Boost Lead

Indication System

Amp

Stand By

Power

3 4 5

9 1011

15a-d

1 Input

¼" unbalanced input jack. Plug your guitar in here using a shielded cord.

A tip from the designer:

Depending on the type of cord and its shielding, you may occasionally encounter interference from sources such as radio stations or powerful magnetic fields. When this occurs, try connecting your guitar to the amp using different cords. What's more, to minimize signal degradation due to high-frequency loss, use the shortest cords feasible (as a rule, the shorter the cord, the less susceptible it is to high-frequency attenuation).

2 Clean Gain

This knob determines input sensitivity of the Clean Channel, in other words, the input level of the preamp during Clean mode.

A tip from the designer:

The amount of distortion depends on the type of pickups your guitar is equipped with. Single coil pickups may overdrive the preamp when the knob is set to about the two o'clock position in Clean operating mode, pickups with very high output levels (humbuckers or active pickups) will evoke distortion at even lower settings. If you want squeaky clean tone, simply back off the Gain knob accordingly.

3 Lead Gain

Gain control for the Lead Channel. This Control knob determines input sensitivity when the Lead channel is active. Use it to dial in the desired amount of preamp saturation level.

CAUTION: Extremely high gain and volume levels in Channlel 2 mode can produce powerful feedback. Avoid feedback squeals; they can lead to hearing loss and damage speakers! At higher volumes, back off the Gain and Treble levels in order to prevent unchecked feedback!

4 Bright

This feature boosts the upper end of the high frequency range for the Clean channel. Its intensity decreases as gain settings increase.

A tip from the designer:

For a crisp or glassy tone, activate the Bright boost. It brightens the sound of humbucking or muddy pickups. Use it to tweak the amp's tone to taste, activating it to boost top-end frequencies for the Clean channel or deactivating it to dampen high end response.

5 Bottom

Alters the EQ by boosting the low end range; the Bottom feature affects the Clean Channel & the Lead Channel.

A tip from the designer:

If you want to ladle an extra helping of bottom-end oomph on specific sounds, I recommend that you activate the Bottom button. At very high Volume settings, it can be an advantage to deactivate this function for a more focused, crisper tone with precise definition in the lo end frequency range.

6 Bass

Bottom end voicing control of the preamps´s passive EQ.

7 Middle

Mid-range voicing control of the preamps´s passive EQ.

8 Treble

Upper range voicing control of the preamps´s passive EQ.

TIP´s from the Designer:

To help you get acquainted with the amp's fundamental sounds, I recommend that you set all tone controls to the center or 12 o'clock position.

For high Gain Lead sounds, your best bet is to turn the Treble knob well down to prevent the pickups and speakers from interacting at hi levels and generating feedback (the recommended setting is somewhere in the 10 to 2 o'clock range).

Since the Treble and Presence control knobs sweep through different frequency ranges and influence the signal at different places in the amp's internal signal chain, you can dial in different combinations of treble and presence settings to come up with many interesting sonic variations.

9 Lead Volume

Volume control for the Lead channel (pre-FX loop, influences the Send level). The red LED above the channel switching selector (11) indicates Lead operating mode.

Use this knob to dial in the desired balance of levels between the Lead and Clean channels.

10 Mid Boost

This voicing feature operates globally, affecting both channels by boosting specific midrange frequencies when activated. The LED above the button lights up to indicate Mid Boost is activated. It may also be switched using a footswitch connected to jack (20). When a footswitch is plugged in, the front panel Mid Boost button is disabled.

A tip from the designer:

Mid Boost targets and shapes specific midrange bands crucial in voicing a guitar's sound. This tone-shaping option is remotely controllable via footswitch, so you can adapt the amp's fundamental sound on the fly, say to better support rhythm guitar work, singing leads, and slashing power chords. With a handy MIDI switcher such as the ENGL Z-11, you can assign Clean/Lead channel switching, Master A/B, Mid Boost and the FX Loop off/on function to different MIDI presets and control these switching and sound-shaping functions remotely in any configuration using a MIDI footboard.

11 Clean / Lead

Channel selector pushbutton for Clean and Lead modes, red LED indicate Lead mode; This function can also be activated via the respective footswitch connected to jack 21.

Once a footpedal is connected, the channel selector pushbutton is deactivated.

12 Master A

Master volume A for power amp output (located post FX loop). The red LED next to the knob lights up when this knob determines the master volume level. Master A/B switching can be accessed via a footswitch connected to jack 21 (e.g. ENGL Z-4).

13 Master B

Master volume B for power amp output (located post FX loop). The green LED next to the knob lights up when this knob determines the master volume level. Master A/B switching can be accessed via a footswitch connected to jack 21 (e.g. ENGL Z-4).

Tip from the Designer:

You can dial in different levels for Master A and Master B, assign these settings to any channel, and access them directly via the two channel switches on the Z-4 foot controller. This gives you a range of alternatives that you can apply to different playing styles and musical genres to great dramatic effect. What's more, you can use the Clean channel for rhythm or cleaner lead lines and the Lead channel's overdriven preamp stage for power chords and soloing, and go from soft to loud at the touch of a button. Beyond that, you can also broaden the volume and tonal ranges by working your guitars' volume knob. If your arsenal includes MIDI gear - for instance, the Z-11 ENGL MIDI Switcher in combination with a MIDI Footswitch (e.g ENGL Z-9, Z-12, Z-15) - you may use the amp's Master A/B circuit to swiftly and conveniently set the power amp's volume to two different levels, and then access these volume presets in combination with preamp voicing features such as Mid Boost.

14 Presence

This control shapes the hi frequency response in the power amp stage and affects both channels.

15a Power Tube Monitor V1

This LED lights up when the current flowing through the V1 power amp tube is too high and the power tube monitor system has switched that tube off.

See the tube layout chart to locate V1's position on the amp chassis.

15b Power Tube Monitor V2

This LED lights up when the current flowing through the V2 power amp tube is too high and the power tube monitor system has switched that tube off.

See the tube layout chart to locate V2's position on the amp chassis.

15c Power Tube Monitor V3

This LED lights up when the current flowing through the V3 power amp tube is too high and the power tube monitor system has switched that tube off.

See the tube layout chart to locate V3's position on the amp chassis.

15d Power Tube Monitor V4

This LED lights up when the current flowing through the V4 power amp tube is too high and the power tube monitor system has switched that tube off.

See the tube layout chart to locate V4's position on the amp chassis.

An important note on the Power Tube Monitor (P.T.M.) system:

The electronic power amp monitoring system constantly gauges the current flowing through each power amp tube. If it rises to too high a level the system shuts down the given tube.

This can occur when the amp is operated incorrectly (for example, if the impedance is wrong due to an incorrect speaker load; refer to #26, #27 and #28 for permissible loads), at extreme power spikes, or when a tube is defective.

Reset this electronic monitoring system by switching the standby switch off and on again. When you press the standby switch to turn the amp on again, the system again measures the current sent to the tube. If it is still too high, the power amp must be checked by a service technician, and the tube may have to be replaced if it is defective.

IMPORTANT, PLEASE NOTE: do not flip the Stand By switch off and on in short time intervals if a P.T.M. LED indicates a tube failure. Let a few minutes pass by before you engage the poweramp again after you have switched it off.

16 Stand By

Power amp standby switch: Use this switch to silence (0 position) the amp when you take a lengthier break. The amp's tubes stay warm, which means that it is ready to roll immediately when you switch it back to full power. To reset the power tube monitoring circuitry, press the standby switch briefly (see Power Tube Monitor).

A tip from the designer:

I suggest you get into the habit of using standby during short breaks. In this mode, current is not piped through the power tubes, so they don't get as hot (due to the lack of anode dissipation) and are spared considerable wear. The amp is ready to run when you flip the Standby switch because the tubes are already warm and don't require time to heat up. For breaks of 30 minutes and longer, I recommend that you switch the amp off in order to conserve energy.

17 Power

AC power on/off.

Please note: ensure that the Stand By switch (17) is set to Stand By (0 position) before you switch the amp on. Let the tubes heat up for about 30 seconds before you activate the power amp. This procedure spares the tubes.

CAUTION: After an extended period of operation and higher ambient temperatures the amps's chassis can become very hot, therefore avoid touching the rear panel surface !

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