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James... « The sequel to the prequel »
Published on 12/20/11 at 09:15I still remember when the original Powerball came out. It was like a Dual Rectifier on steroids. Still, it had its fair share of flaws and eventually I sold mine for something with less shortcomings. II leaves where the last Powerball left off. It offers 4 channels, 6L6 tubes, bottom controls, mid boost, depth, a full range of EQ, and a lot of other goodies. The only feature missing is midi control which I really really wanted. Some of the other ENGL amps have this and I find it very useful.
UTILIZATION
This is a hard amp to get the hang of and it clearly not for the less is more crowd. This is a real member of the channel switching knob turning family. Personally I like both schools of thought, and I'm always open to finding a multi channel amp that can sound good. The ENGL manual is great and the way they do things reminds me of Mesa and their manuals. Very useful. There are a lot of trial and error things on this amp like the depth control and the bottom controls. You can get a lot of different uses out of it.
SOUNDS
The clean channel is much improved. I usually use a les paul or super strat of some sort and I must say the cleans are not as sterile as they were on the older Powerball. Yeah they still have that glassy feel to them and they are really fendery too. Just not as bland. The crunch channel is possibly the weakest channel, trying to do the mid gain thing but honestly not sounding like it wants to. The 2 lead channels are where the good stuff is. Just set them to taste and use them in conjunction with channel 1 and you will be good. Obviously this is an amp for heavy heavy metal and the like.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like this version better than the last, although in my opinion there are still better ENGL amps. I think it comes down to taste. There's a steep learning curve with the Powerball as well as most other amps like it, and you should be prepared to spend at least 2 weeks learning what effects all the knobs have on sculpting the tone.
UTILIZATION
This is a hard amp to get the hang of and it clearly not for the less is more crowd. This is a real member of the channel switching knob turning family. Personally I like both schools of thought, and I'm always open to finding a multi channel amp that can sound good. The ENGL manual is great and the way they do things reminds me of Mesa and their manuals. Very useful. There are a lot of trial and error things on this amp like the depth control and the bottom controls. You can get a lot of different uses out of it.
SOUNDS
The clean channel is much improved. I usually use a les paul or super strat of some sort and I must say the cleans are not as sterile as they were on the older Powerball. Yeah they still have that glassy feel to them and they are really fendery too. Just not as bland. The crunch channel is possibly the weakest channel, trying to do the mid gain thing but honestly not sounding like it wants to. The 2 lead channels are where the good stuff is. Just set them to taste and use them in conjunction with channel 1 and you will be good. Obviously this is an amp for heavy heavy metal and the like.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like this version better than the last, although in my opinion there are still better ENGL amps. I think it comes down to taste. There's a steep learning curve with the Powerball as well as most other amps like it, and you should be prepared to spend at least 2 weeks learning what effects all the knobs have on sculpting the tone.