Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

Van Noord

Van Noord

New member
What an amp. I've wanted one for a long time, and picked it up today from a motivated seller for a sweet price.

The Clean channel is full, lively and really just plain gorgeous sounding for a twisted metal beast of an amp.

The Lead channel is a dream to play. It has everything. Smooth playability, yet insanely aggressive sounding. Tonnes of midrange, an abundance of cutting highend, and probably the most and thickest sounding lowend I've ever encountered. All never too much or too little. Just a fantastic eq sweep on this amp.

The gain is all usable. Lower it for mid gain crunch, half it for thrash riffing, or even max it for blistering, lava like modern metal from ANY genre. It NEVER gets unruly, messy or bogged down. It just gets warmer, juicer and more evil at every notch increment. It's not sterile like I was afraid it would sound either. It's very warm and natural sounding. Unlike the FB60 I experienced years ago.

Add in the on board adjustable noise gate, and this amp is at the top of the heap. Everything I want in a no nonsense metal machine, with none of the unnecessary stuff I don't want or need. Very tight, very focused and HUGE sounding. So fun to play.

I'm playing it through a mix of V30's and V12 Legends along with some WGS Retro and Veteran 30's. All sounding great.
 
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Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

wow, another whopper! would be surreal to hear all those back to back.
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

Nice amp. I keep gassing for a fireball every few months.

On another note I was coming in here expecting to see a bugera :laugh2:

Nice score.
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

Ha Ha, no Bugeras here.
Hopefully this will be the last one for a while. I'm not actively seeking out anything else in particular. I've been waiting for this particular amp for a while now, so I'm pretty content right now. Plus, I think you guys have had enough of these threads of mine. LoL.

Played the Fireball again at 9:00am today before heading to work. Wish I had the day off. I was just absolutely ripping it up with that thing.
To quote Gojira, it was "Pure Liquid Fire"
:firedevil
 
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Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

glassman said:
Just call in "disinterested" tomorrow...problem solved!
Click to expand...
Ha! I went home for lunch today and spent sometime with it. Got some nice playing time in an empty house. Which is nice since tonight it's me and my 2 yr old daughter at home while the Wifey is out.
So no more Fireballing until tomorrow :biglaugh:
 
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Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

Once I started looking into the build quality of ENGL amps, it became hard for me to get excited about them..

Bet it does sound tremendous though.
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

Congrats!

BTW , How it is in the pick dynamics department?... ENGLs always feel (in my very limited experience) super compressed to me.
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

It is compressed, but that's the nature of the beast. It's a modern ultra high gain amp. I like that though. It's really fun to play.
But the saturated gain and compression dries up when the gain is backed off and more picking dynamics can be had that way if you want it. Although I can lightly pick with a high gain setting and get this really cool soft edgy gain sound that sounds wicked.
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

The Fireball 100 is a no nonsense bada$$ amp. Has more Low Mids in comparison to the Fireball 60. Engl is one of the best High Gain Amp makers bar none. How do you feel it compares to the rest of your collection?
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

JOEBACCA said:
The Fireball 100 is a no nonsense bada$$ amp. Has more Low Mids in comparison to the Fireball 60. Engl is one of the best High Gain Amp makers bar none. How do you feel it compares to the rest of your collection?
Click to expand...
As you turn this amp up is has more mids right across the spectrum. High mids, mid mids & low mids. Paired with a quad of V30's and the mid shift button engaged, look out.

Compared to my other amps, it has more low end for sure, and has very tight gain. The JSX's gain is the only amp that comes close to the level of gain, articulation and tightness.
The FB has a certain growl when you riff power chords and open chug that other amps just don't have. It really does sound evil. It's a real winner for me because it does things my other amps don't do and it can't do things that my other amps can.
Plus, I hate pedals and all I need with this amp is a tuner, Which I've been leaving out of the chain anyways and plugging in seperately when necessary. The built in gate is really nice. Not just a noise/hum reducer like the JSX. It has actual feedback and noise gating capability.
It's just plug in and hold on tight. So much fun.

This is what I've been pairing it with lately. It has V30's on the top and Veteran 30's on the bottom. It sounds great through every cab I have though.
 
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Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

MetalManiac said:
Once I started looking into the build quality of ENGL amps, it became hard for me to get excited about them..

Bet it does sound tremendous though.
Click to expand...


Ok, Ill bite..... whats wrong with the build?? I thought they were upper tier??

Congrats Van Noord!! As far as the kid.. get some of those head phone ear protectors. the kid will think its cool wearing them and you can rawk out!!
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

BloodRose said:
Ok, Ill bite..... whats wrong with the build?? I thought they were upper tier??

Congrats Van Noord!! As far as the kid.. get some of those head phone ear protectors. the kid will think its cool wearing them and you can rawk out!!
Click to expand...

They're solidly built.

The amount of glue in them annoys me. I think its a combination of that and the amount of ribbon cables that most people turn their noses up at.

However. I have never had to fix an Engl they seem bulletproof.
 
Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

I know their circuit boards are mounted upside down, which frustrates some techs. Ribbon cable doesn't bother me. The tubes are ENGL labeled/selected and sound great. Not sure what they are. Two of the four 12AX7's are EH, I can visually read them as such. Decent tubes I think.
The chasis, front panel, lights, dials and jacks all look to be of good-high quality to me. My tech can fix ANYTHING, so unless it is obviously cheap feeling and looking, I don't really worry about that stuff. This amps seems to be on par with others that I have in the quality and build dept. My tech could tell me more if and when he ever needs to go inside it.
 
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I don't know if its like Boogie in the sense that different models are wired differently; I wouldnt touch a RoadkingII with all that congestion on the circuitboard and circuitboard mounted tubes and jacks but with the MKIv ..the one I want, looking absolutely old School and amazing handwired neatly with chassis mounted tubes and controls.
The Engl I saw ( someone offered me a trade of my Super Reverb Reissue for a Blackmore Engl), was just aweful. That Engl Cheap wafer thin circuitbaord, poor layout, thin traces, Tubes and jacks mounted on the board...not unlike a New Fender Reissue, which are godaweful amps in every way, they sound okay but anyone owning one needs intensive psychotherapy ..Same reason I would never touch a Peavey Amp. I am a purist.
Curious to see how Rienholdt Bogners amps are wired. One demo I saw, the Uberschall absolutely smoked the MKIV in every way imaginable, but that mightve just been cause the MKiv was a combo, and the Uber was a half stack.
I'm in no real hurry to get a high gain amp, but I really do need to start looking ahead to a Great Hot Rod Marshall, like an SLO.
 
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Re: Ze Ball of Fire (NAD)

Yeah, that tube mounted circuit board elitism is nonsense. Like my tech says, unless your a complete brute with gorilla hands and swap tubes every week then there is nothing to be concerned about. I've had amps for YEARS that have never had a problem.
He services just as many handwired, PT, non tube socket mounted PCB amps than anything.

Some people get these ideas in their heads and convince themselves of certain things. Sometimes you just need to play the thing and put it through its paces instead of dissecting it.
In the end, all amps will have issues or will fail. Whether $400 or 4K.
 
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