Tried an ENGL Powerball II

[Mad-Max]

...And man the tone was killer! First time I have ever played an ENGL, and I've been really wanting to, but now that I've had the opportunity, it has exceeded my expectations.

The EQ was simple, 4 channels to choose from, TONS of bottom end, plenty of high end clarity, and it just packed a punch with a lot of balls (Pun Intended).

On top of all that, it was incredibly versatile, but I was mainly trying it our for the gain channels. The Clean was pretty good, but I think that the guitar I was using to try it out needed new strings desperately, so I feel like a guitar with better strings probably would have done it some better justice.

Other than that, it was an absolute monster of an amp, and so easy to play on it. Super tight, and quiet as well. I heard absolutely NO noise, even without a noise gate.

Has anyone else tried this amp? I believe it debuted at NAMM this year, but I'm not for certain on that.

 

[crguti]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

I have heard of people having problems cutting in the mix with the Powerball I. I hope that problem is fixed with the Powerball II.
Is it running 6L6 or EL34?

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

I have heard of people having problems cutting in the mix with the Powerball I. I hope that problem is fixed with the Powerball II.
Is it running 6L6 or EL34?

Mine had EL34s. I had NO issues cutting in the mix. It was an awesome amp and if I still played in a hard rock/metal band, I'd still have that amp. The other player kept getting told to turn-up because mine cut thru so well. And he was rocking an Engl Steve Morse head! But I blame his lack of knowledge of how to dial in proper tone on that. He didn't understand that mids is where it's at for guitar, even on high gain amps.

Anyways... I will say that if you want really tight/dry... try a different Engl, a VHT, Mesa, Deizel, etc. The Powerball has some (pleasing) sag and sponginess to it.

 

[SuproDave]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

Hello !

I´ve been working with ENGL for more than ten years here in Spain, I know them quite well.

ENGL Powerball comes with 6L6s out of the factory so I suppose that you tried a modified one.

ENGL only uses EL34s on Invader, Steve Morse, Retro Tube and one of the Special Edition heads.

I agree completely with Red_Label , guitar sound IS mainly MIDS, and with ENGL amps is really easy to dial in a really thick sound.

I gigged a lot with the old Savage heads ( 120 one year and 4-5 with Special Edition ) plus 412VS and it was a lot of fun to cover from Santana to Rammstein every night.

Great amps for sure !

 

[Letus]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

One of my dream amplifiers. I wonder how the boosted clean channel will be for leads, or the crunch channel with low gain, since that is what I'm about. I wish you could colour the EQ curves as well, like with the Randall Satan. Two questions; is the Powerball II somewhat lacking in midrange character compared to the lows and highs? That has been a nagging doubt, and, is the Powerball likely to get mushy, or to put it another way, can one get it to sound very crisp and clean?

Apart from that... Colossal tone:

 

[Letus]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

Also;

 

[Letus]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

Mine had EL34s. I had NO issues cutting in the mix. It was an awesome amp and if I still played in a hard rock/metal band, I'd still have that amp. The other player kept getting told to turn-up because mine cut thru so well. And he was rocking an Engl Steve Morse head! But I blame his lack of knowledge of how to dial in proper tone on that. He didn't understand that mids is where it's at for guitar, even on high gain amps.

Anyways... I will say that if you want really tight/dry... try a different Engl, a VHT, Mesa, Deizel, etc. The Powerball has some (pleasing) sag and sponginess to it.

What ENGL would you recommend for that low-gain crisp lead tone I seek?

 

[SuproDave]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

What ENGL would you recommend for that low-gain crisp lead tone I seek?

ENGL Retro Tube, plenty of gain but not so "overthetop".

Less compressed and good mids with EL34, they have a showroom in L.A. and tons of videos on Youtube, check them out.

 

[Diego]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

Marty Friedman used a Powerball for Inferno.
Sounds pretty brutal.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

I was mistaken guys, my PB2 had 6L6s. I had several nice EL34 amps at the time and thought that was one of them.

Unless you're looking for a more organic hot-rodded Marshall tone that cleans up well rolling the volume back on the guitar, I don't see how you can go wrong with the PB2 for hard rock. Even on the crunch channel (or clean channel with gain maxed), it just doesn't do a Marshall classic rock crunch well. I only got the PB because I was in a metal band at the time. Traded a custom purple Aiken head and cab for it. Wish I had that rig back!!! But again, I'm not doing hard rock now. I see that it's up for sale on TGP. Too bad I just paid off my LP and am back to being tighter on funds.

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

This amp honestly, was pretty much on par with my Mesa Mark V as far as quality and tone shaping were concerned. I had NO issues getting a tone that I as used to dialing in, and also a tone that would cut insanely well in a band mix. The Powerball II is an extremely versatile amp. You seriously can't go wrong with it. Even the matching cab sounded phenomenal. Usually I have to ask to put it on a different cab in order to hear the amp's full potential, but I was getting plenty of awesome tone.

Must have been V30's because it sounded pretty similar to my Mesa Traditional Cab.

 

[Letus]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

ENGL Retro Tube, plenty of gain but not so "overthetop".

Less compressed and good mids with EL34, they have a showroom in L.A. and tons of videos on Youtube, check them out.

Thank you very much.

 

[CTN]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

Madmax... if yiu dig the engl siund qnd you want badass high gain. Try the Savage 120. It hits like a razor sharp battleaxe. Seriously one of the most impressive metal amps i've ever tried.

 

[Letus]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

They don't have the Retro Tube listed on their website, though. Maybe it's out of production?

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

I really want to try the Savage 120, but I haven't seen one yet to try. As soon as I do, I'm gonna definitely check it out.

 

[SuproDave]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

They don't have the Retro Tube listed on their website, though. Maybe it's out of production?

http://www.guitarplayer.com/amplifiers/1017/engl-retro-tube-50/23482


Ask Michael Berger :



http://www.englamps.de/index.php?id=210

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

Marty Friedman used a Powerball for Inferno.
Sounds pretty brutal.

I remember reading somewhere that Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth used an Engl on The Glorious Burden. I want to say it was a Powerball as well, but can't remember. Never the less, he had a really brutal tone on that record.

 

[CTN]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

They don't have the Retro Tube listed on their website, though. Maybe it's out of production?

nah. it's still there. products menu, first two items under the "heads" category.

 

[Letus]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

nah. it's still there. products menu, first two items under the "heads" category.

http://www.engl-amps.com/cms/index.php?id=36&tx_ddfproducts_pi1[uid]=22

They don't have it on the drop-down menu here, though. That was where I looked.

 

[CTN]

Re: Tried an ENGL Powerball II

it's on the englamps.de site.