Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

the fact that it has a bottom switch is a plus to me i saw that in a big pic of the controls that i was looking at....i was wondering...what does the depth punch knob do to the sound?

thanks again for all the info!

-Mike
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

whoops i see soiled pretty much answered my depth punch knob question...unless there is more to it?

-Mike
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

My Powerball is also pretty loud. I recently had a drummer with a large DW kit tell me to turn down as I was blowing him out LOL. It should be plenty loud for any band situation.
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

XSSIVE said:
whoops i see soiled pretty much answered my depth punch knob question...unless there is more to it?

-Mike
Click to expand...

That's pretty much it as far as I know. Don't get wrong there is enough bass with the head. It's just not "massive" in my perception. It's a high mid focused amp so it's specialty really isn't massive bottom. It does have enough and in the end guitar really shouldn't have sub-bass bottom on it in a mix anyway......not if you want to be heard....
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

XSSIVE said:
Neeradj:
so my list is now (in no specific order)...

-Engl powerball
-Diezel vh4
-Bogner uber.
-Bogner ecstasy
-KRANK revolution

or another option idea that was given to me by a friend...have Trace at voodoo amps mod my current ultra plus and get a custom voodoo 4x12 cab to go with it (i may get the cab anyway)...this will be the cheapest option by far but i'll still only have one amp and i'd kinda like a second one just to be able to get more sound variety.

-Mike
Click to expand...

That's a great list except for maybe the krank and the voodoo mod. I've heard good and bad about the Kranks. But it's up to you and alot of people are endorsing the Kranks so maybe I'm wrong about them. Not sure if that has to do with Dimebag's partial ownership or money or what? A couple of guys privately that had them told me they didn't like their top end....a bit twangy. I myself had Trace Allen mod my Peavey XXX and didn't care for the results. I sold it to a guy and he in turn sold it later to someone else. I also recently played a friend of mine's Voodoo Marshall and once again wasn't impressed. He also has it for sale. However, there are alot of people who do love Trace's work so go figure. Trace is a great guy FWIW.....very cool to talk to. It's up to your own ears ultimately....
 
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Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

Soiledwork said:
Not trying to argue here, but where did I say that the PB didn't have "tight" bottom? Massive and tight are two different things. Massive should be defined as HUGE or possibly less compressed sounding bottom end.
Click to expand...

Uhm yeah that was what I was trying to illustrate by using the example of the sample I heard from the trash player and the "kneeshaking" story. The bottom end is massive, and actually you're pretty much the first person of all the Powerball owners I know that has not found the bottom end massive. I don't know your Randall but it should either have insane bottom end (to a point where not even being usable) or you're doing something wrong when setting the controls of the PB
 
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Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

Soiledwork said:
My Powerball is also pretty loud. I recently had a drummer with a large DW kit tell me to turn down as I was blowing him out LOL. It should be plenty loud for any band situation.
Click to expand...
When compared to a 1987X 50W Plexi or a Mesa DC-5 it sure didn't have as much volume as most 100W or even 50W amps have. I'm not saying it isn't loud, I'm saying it might not be loud enough for some large venues, this is one of the main complaints people have about this amp.
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

Neeradj said:
Uhm yeah that was what I was trying to illustrate by using the example of the sample I heard from the trash player and the "kneeshaking" story. The bottom end is massive, and actually you're pretty much the first person of all the Powerball owners I know that has not found the bottom end massive. I don't know your Randall but it should either have insane bottom end (to a point where not even being usable) or you're doing something wrong when setting the controls of the PB
Click to expand...

I'm doing something wrong with the controls of the Powerball? Don't make me laugh. Yes the Randall has more bottom end than is usable. How many amps have you owned/played in your "vast" years of experience? :rolleyes:

Believe me..........I tune baritones in Bb..........if the Powerball had too much bottom my sound would turn to a mud storm pretty quickly. I'm the first person of "all the Powerball users" that you know. How many is that? What cabinets/speakers/pickups/types of guitar wood/tubes are they using? Have they taken the Powerball for a spin outside of their bedrooms? I have. There are many components to sound. I don't even care really. I really don't need someone to tell me how much bass my rig(s) needs or doesn't need. I've been doing this stuff for a long long time....
 
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Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

Neeradj said:
When compared to a 1987X 50W Plexi or a Mesa DC-5 it sure didn't have as much volume as most 100W or even 50W amps have. I'm not saying it isn't loud, I'm saying it might not be loud enough for some large venues, this is one of the main complaints people have about this amp.
Click to expand...

If people are having trouble getting a 100 watt tube amp to be loud enough for any venue........then "they" are doing something wrong with the controls of the amp. That's almost laughable....
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

This is a good thread as I've also been wondering about the powerball and the uberschall. Lets face it though the uberschall is way too expensive. I know a lot of powermetal bands use the powerball as well as some melodic death guys. Both of those genres always had some of the tightest guitars to my ears so I definately need to check this amp out sometime. The only thing that has sorta kept me away from them is how everyone says they are really noisy on high gain, I guess you could noise gate it though.
 
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Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

There is a spike in the upper midrange to the Engl's preamp stage (I'm going to guess it's about 3.4k - 5kHz) that can make it really "peaky", and it definately changes depending on the resonant peak of the guitar you are dealing with. This makes it really pop out when playing live, which is great, but I have found that on recordings, I use it in measured doses ... :)
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

TwilightOdyssey said:
There is a spike in the upper midrange to the Engl's preamp stage (I'm going to guess it's about 3.4k - 5kHz) that can make it really "peaky", and it definately changes depending on the resonant peak of the guitar you are dealing with. This makes it really pop out when playing live, which is great, but I have found that on recordings, I use it in measured doses ... :)
Click to expand...

It's a high mid voiced amp so yup. The Uber and Framus Cobra are two examples of low mid voiced amps.....
 
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Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

You wont be dissapointed with an ENGL...i personally own a Savage and think its just fantastic! But you sound like you want the powerball. Go a powerball dude!

Plus they look awesome :cool2:
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

wow...thanks for all the great info guys!

soiled also got me looking into a randall RM100 and if you don't know about this amp...go check it out. i'm going to try and find one of these to test out since it's beyond a modeling amp being that it's all tube but with the drop in modules it can sound like many amps!

-Mike
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

XSSIVE said:
wow...thanks for all the great info guys!

soiled also got me looking into a randall RM100 and if you don't know about this amp...go check it out. i'm going to try and find one of these to test out since it's beyond a modeling amp being that it's all tube but with the drop in modules it can sound like many amps!

-Mike
Click to expand...

Just don't forget the cap mod and to '86 the stock power tubes if you want to push the amp to it's potential! I just jammed with a very loud drummer the other day. I will say that the Randall dominated the mix and the Powerball did indeed struggle to be keep up as well. Had to crank the PB up a tad and boost the mids to cut. It did fine but the Randall........holy cow!! What a monster amp once you tweak it out.......plus you can bias it yourself in minutes!! :)
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

Young Angus said:
You wont be dissapointed with an ENGL...i personally own a Savage and think its just fantastic! But you sound like you want the powerball. Go a powerball dude!

Plus they look awesome :cool2:
Click to expand...

The Savage is a killer amp!! :fing2:
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

Look at the ENGL Ritchie Blackmore. It has 6L6s. It is also based on the Savage 120. Blackmore had heard Rudolph Schenkar playing the Savage 120 and liked it, but actually got to play it in Japan, where he played the ENGL Savage 120 amp of a guitarist gigging in a bar. He liked the tone so much, due to being able to get the great tone w/o having to run it at full volume. I have been thinking about upgrading from my Marshall to an ENGL as well. I have also being looking at the Carvin Legacy & Legacy II, used by Steve Vai. They are less expensive than ENGLs.
 
Re: Engl...Powerball vs Savage? and other amps...i can't decide what to do...

You necro'd a 6 year old thread to write that? Im with twilight on this one... uh what?
 
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