Engl Powerball

What we say about the Engl Powerball 100W Guitar Amp

The Engl Powerball is one of the most complete guitar amplifiers I've ever played. I love the range of tones I can achieve from this amp. I used it as my main amp for over 4 years and it still provides some tones that I find difficult to find elsewhere.

Depending on what you need out of an amp, the Engl Powerball may be a cheaper option for you instead of the top-of-the-range Engl amplifiers. For the moment, this amp is going in the top 10 amps, not because of pure tone, but because of the price:tone ratio. I can't think of any other amp that provides this much live versatility and variety in clean, crunch and heavy tones for at this price [update: looks like Engl have recently updated their prices in the UK, so this amp may fall out of the top 10]

Buy the Engl Powerball 100W Guitar Amp Head now.

It's a 2x2 amp

The Powerball is a 4 channel 100W valve amp, but when you look more closely, you see that it's really 2 pairs of channels. Channels 1 and 2 operate with the top row of knobs and switches, Channels 3 and 4 operate with the lower set. So the eq and gain for Channels 1 and 2 is shared, similarly for Channels 3 and 4. The shared gain can make setting it a bit awkward, but after a while you get the hang of it. A novel approach is the additional knob per channel so to alter what the designer believes to be the most useful frequency for that channel.

This amp ranges from clean, through Rolling Stones type crunch to downright deep and dirty hi gain sounds. Add a chorus pedal in front of the amp and you'll end up with a nice shimmer on the clean and a tremonti-esque beef to the gutsier tones. I played with a Carl Martin Chorus x 2 switched in at all times. It was on low and subtle, but it made a nice difference.

Z5 Footswitch

This amp should be viewed in conjunction with its additional pedal board which gives access to a very useful function that isn't available on the amp itself; Contour. I really liked how the contour pedal button lifted a guitar tone above the mix. With the pedal board, I could go from one tone to another tone very quickly without touching the amp.

The footswitch provides for direct selection of the 4 channels + contour + volume a/b switching

Here are some examples:

• Clean Channel 1, but need a boost for the solo. Then either press the contour to give it an eq lift or press volume A/B to switch to the higher volume B. Better still press both!
• Hi-gain channel 3 for verse, need a boost for solo, then press channel 4 for a creamy lead tone.
• Clean Channel 1, need a lead tone, then press channel 3. It won't be as drastic as moving to channel 4.
• Got a nice Rolling Stone's type riff going on channel 2, then press contour or volume A for an increased volume lift or press channel 4 for a hi-gain tone.
• And of course, you can go the other way, e.g. from a hi-gain chugg on channel 3 or 4, back to clean using channel 1.

Reverb

There's no reverb, but I don't believe you need reverb with a hi-gain amp. It just adds mush. You can add a delay pedal into the fx loop for the times when you need a delay on your solo or as an effect on a clean sound, but I never felt like I needed a reverb. Never missed it.

Volume

As with all valve amplifiers, the Engl Powerball amplifier has a volume at which it works best. However I hardly ever used that volume. Instead I used to play at a lower volume for on-stage use and mic up the amplifier through the PA. This amplifier sounds good at low levels. I'll admit it's not the same as a winding it up, but it's definitely a tone I was happy to play with in a live setting.

The two master volumes are great for controlling the volume; it's good to use the Volume A as your normal setting, then Volume B as a boost. Alternatively, if you only ever use the one volume, then you could turn Volume B all the way down and use it as a mute.

The hi-gain channels have a noise-gate built in. This is controllable via a knob on the back of the amp. Very useful for keeping the noise down in the gaps between playing.

In Use

This amp needs a good speaker cabinet. I used a 2x12 fitted with Celestion Vintage 30s just for the portability, but in reality, a 4x12 with the same drivers sounds a lot better.

As for use in the world at large, last time I saw Steve Morse's rig, this was in although it wasn't the main amp. Instead it was for the wet-side. Considering that the main amps in that post are 2 x Engl Invader 150W Guitar Amp Head and Engl now produce a Engl Steve Morse Signature 100 E 656 100W Tube Guitar Amp Head Black, the information on his live rig could be out of date.

Where Can I Buy Engl?

I originally had a hard time of finding somewhere to buy Engl amps. If you're now at the stage of looking to buy Engl Powerball, then try Engl Powerball at Musician's Friend for US. In the UK, PMT is the only near-national chain I know stocking them.

Buy the Engl Powerball 100W Guitar Amp Head now.

What Engl Say

POWERBALL E 645
EVOLUTION: No compromise, ultra low end, versatile ROCK/METAL amp. 4 channels lead to where no ENGL amp has gone before. The Sonic Evolution of ENGL sounds, from crystal clean to crispy crunch ñ tight fat rhythm to punchy lead sounds in conjunction with low bottom end to satisfy the needs of the modern guitarist. Rich harmonics and fast attack delivered by special built transformers to cut through on any stage or recording situation.