OWNER’S MANUAL
Thank you for the purchase of your new Diamond Amplification Phantom 100watt guitar amplifier. This amplifier is of the highest quality and will give you years of enjoyment if it is well maintained. Before you begin, remember, learn your amp and you’ll be in the best position to achieve the tones and performance you want. So please take the time to read this manual. Afterwards, enjoy the finest in tone and American craftsmanship – Diamond Amplification.
OWNER’S MANUAL FEATURES............................................................................................................................ 1 FRONT PANEL...................................................................................................................... 2 REAR PANEL ....................................................................................................................... 2 MAKING CONNECTIONS ..............................................................................
Welcome to a new world in guitar amplification. Combine the functionality you want with the tried and true technology of tube tone, wrap that in a completely new approach to the structure of a high gain sound, and unleash the dynamic range of Diamond Amplification’s Phantom. This manual will walk you through the features, controls and tonal possibilities available to you.
FRONT PANEL REAR PANEL MAKING CONNECTIONS Power. As always, plug your power cable in first. Your amp can be wired for any voltage. This allows you to take your amp all over the world and ensure you’re ready for the voltage you need. Rewiring for an alternate voltage should only be done by a qualified technician. Speakers. Your DA product comes equipped with two speaker jacks. Always ensure, when connecting speakers, that you use a high quality speaker cable.
If you are using two speaker cabinets, you should reduce the impedance to half that of the impedance of the cabinets. For example, if you are using two 16ohm cabinets, your impedance selector should be set to 8ohms, not 16 (if you were using only one 16ohm cab, you’d set the impedance selector to 16). So, for example: Load Amp Setting 1 cab @ 16ohms 1 cab @ 8ohms 2 cabs @ 16ohms 2 cabs @ 8ohms 16ohms 8ohms 8ohms 4ohms Never use your amp without a load! Doing so is likely to damage your amp! Instrument.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN Ensure your guitar is plugged into the front panel “Input” jack. Make sure your amplifier is connected to a speaker (or speakers) and ensure your impedance is set correctly (more on this in the previous section). Flip the “Power” switch up with the amp on standby and let it warm up. A minute or two of warm up is usually recommended before using the amp. As most of you know, a solid 15 minutes is optimal to ensure the tubes are nice and warm.
2. Dial Channel 2 like this: a. Gain A 6 b. Volume A 6 c. Treble 5 d. Middle 4.5 e. Bass 5 f. Presence 6 g. Gain B 3 h. Volume B 6 3. Set your Low Focus knob on the rear panel to Low 4. Take the amp off standby and try out Channel 1. Play with the “Low Focus” knob. Go first from Low to High (wait ‘til you hear this!), then back down to Mid. This will give you the flavor of what that knob does. The higher the volume, the more dramatic the effect. 5.
DIALING IN LOW FOCUS The Low Focus knob on the rear panel is one of the best features on all DA products. This knob lets you focus your low frequencies and adjust the amount of lows relative to mids and highs. It is NOT a bass boost. DA’s products are tuned to the optimal frequency ranges beneficial to your place in the mix. Bass boosts are wonderful, but usually end up boosting frequencies found in your bass player’s rig, which will assuredly overpower your new low end-heavy tone.
People sometimes inquire about the lack of an effects send. There is one. When the loop is engaged, each Volume control becomes that Volume/Gain’s effects send. So, when on the clean channel with the loop engaged, the Volume control on the clean channel becomes the effects send. When on Channel 2, Volume/Gain A, that Volume control becomes 2A’s effects send, and so on. So if you’re clipping your effects, that is the control to reach for. What about that E.
THE TONE/VOLUME CONTROLS The interplay between the volume and gain dictates your tone more than any other controls. So let’s start there. Volume/Gain. As with any amp, the gain control dictates the amount of saturation, break up or distortion of the channel. The higher the gain, the more the channel distorts. Like any good tube amp, this amp is very sensitive to the signal it is being fed.
start with your gain at 5 and work from there. On your clean, start with your gain at around 2 and work up. Bass. This is the most incorrectly used control on an amp. Do we all want fat low end? You bet. Do we get that by diming the bass control? Not on this amp. The simple truth of a good tube amp is that the amp will do its job and produce low end. The higher the volume, the more low end the amp will produce.
Dialing in Channel 1 (Clean) Your clean channel is capable of a huge array of tones ranging from full, round crystal cleans to vintage classic rock crunch including blues/Texas blues tones and everything in between. Our suggestions? Start for true clean tones first. Set the gain around 2, dial your tone controls to 5, bring your volume up to the desired level, then work your tone knobs. For blues tones or more break up, try a few things. Try bringing the gain up first leaving the volume in place.
Dialing in Channel 2 (Crunch) You’ll note the Dual Volume/Gain design of Channel 2. For the moment, let’s forget about Volume/Gain B. Set them to 0 and forget them. You’re crunch channel is also capable of producing a range of tones as well. The most important feature is that as you bring the gain below 5, the amp will brighten. So, if you’re looking for punchier, cleaner and brighter tones, keep the gain down. If you want to make it heavier, bring the gain up above 5.
Start with whichever of these settings is closer to your tone, then tweak the controls one at a time. Until you really get used to the amp, after altering one control, return it to where you started before tweaking the next. NOTE: In both examples, none of the controls vary far from 5. similarly when you work the amps to get your sound. You should dial OK – so what about that Volume/Gain B? Are the different from Volume/Gain A? No. Switching between them is like turning the knob.
Button 1 (labeled CH 1/2) will control switching between the two channels (i.e. clean to dirty). Once on Channel 2, button 2 (labeled CH2 A/B) will toggle between the two volume/gain controls on Channel 2. The intended use for the two settings is rhythm/lead so button 1 will take you to crunch and button 2 then takes you to a lead channel. Clearly they can be used for two different rhythm sounds as well if you use outboard rack or pedal effects to obtain your lead tones.
TUBES TUBE LAYOUT V1 – Common V2 – Channel 1 (Clean) V3 – Channel 2 (Gain 1) V4 – Channel 2 (Gain 2) V5 – Loop V6 – Phase Inverter CHANGING/REPLACING TUBES Preamp tubes have a much longer life than power tubes. You are not likely to have to replace them unless one or more tubes fail. Preamp tubes can have a life span of at least two to three years and usually much longer.
between the two outside tubes. You will need a Bias King or similar bias probe to check this. The bias trim pot, in the event you need to adjust bias, is located on the PCB. DIAGNOSING TUBE PROBLEMS Most tube amp problems relate to the tubes themselves. After all, tubes are not the cutting edge of technological advancement. DA tube choices are based both on tone and reliability. Nevertheless, tube problems are not infrequent occurrences.
or microphonic tube in this position will affect the entire amp. Microphonic or noisy tubes in several other positions may not be audible at all. You can try tapping the tubes like you did the power tubes and see if the problem worsens. It is normal to hear a slight ring when you tap on preamp tubes. This test is only to see if the identified problem changes when tapping. This test is NOT outcome determinative. If the problem is only on one channel or the other, you’ll know which tube is the problem.
DIAMOND AMPLIFICATION, INC. 5261 LANGFIELD RD. HOUSTON, TEXAS 77040 713.934.0100 (TEL) 713.934.0155 (FAX) www.diamondamplification.
