ENGL E645 PowerBall Head

Bought from Machinehead Music in Hitchin for £965 for the head, £419 for the cab and £115 for the Z5 footswitch.
Total price paid: £1499


Apart from the construction (faultless) and ease of use, the cool LED's at the back make the amp look damn cool on stage, and the price is seriously competitive... but thats nothing compared to the sound.
Overall the tone is far better than anything I have played before (Mesa's, Marshall's etc) and the amount of low end you can get out of it is shocking, the closed cab adds to this (I have also played it through a Marshall 4x12 (Vintage 30's) and the ENGL 4x12 does respond to the neuonces in the Powerball much better, the whole amp really moves air and scares people, it really is loud... 100 watts is enough but If I had my choice I would go for 150 watts, just for the headroom.
It's a modern amp and it doesn't pretend to be anything else, it's punchy and clear and with my Jackson RR1 it shatter windows and cracks walls.
There are no less that 8 (I counted) channel switching options and they make it very easy to use in as it gives you scope you would need to create a diverse palate of tones.
The Clean channel is perfect for clean and punchy arps and perfect for chords and if you wish to play it... funk, it really has the best funk sound, really punchy and percusive (If you use a HSH guitar with the selector in the neck/singlecoil position it smokes) With the contour depressed (Bright on the clean channel) it brings it into a more f*ndery territory, all in all a great start, 10/10
The crunch channel adds a bit more gain and brings you into a middle ground between marshall and, er marshall... and their is nothing wrong with the marshall crunch (I had a DSL before this) it's great for rock rhythms (I don't play them very often, but when I do, OMPH! very AC/DC if you set the treble right, and the amp has two trebles so you can keep the clean bright and the crunch nice and bassy) and with the contour depressed, well it's just the balls! 10/10
Now for the real deal
The difference between hi and lo lead's charchter isn't really noticable until you get the volume above halfway, which isn't a bad thing, but there is a subtle difference.
(The Lo gain is alot smoother, and perfect for those riffs where theres alot going on, and the hi gain is really darker and deeper and f*ckin' great!)
Lo Gain, really isn't it's got more than enough to cut your balls off when you strike a chord, great and 10/10 again
But... Hi Gain, boy is this deep and dark, it shakes the biggest of clubs and practice rooms, when it's pumped you have to watch women in a 20 mile radius just incase they get a little over excited by the tremours it causes.
Both channels are great for lead work, the lower gain is better for legato and picking and sweeping and the hi gain does all that but with more balls, perfect for bends and Zakk Wylde style pentatonics. There are two mids for the lead channels, Open and focused, I have the open (Much more Mesa or Soldano depending on the bass and treble settings) scraping the 0 (it's about 0.5) because it sounds great but when I play in my band I pump it up to about 0.5 (it does make a difference, the sound travels further but still retains that... dare I say it M*tallica black album sound) Focused is more about the Marshall JCM800 thrash sound but with more bass so you really get a great tone for fast thrashy riffs and speedy solos cut through perfectly, I don't scoop the Mid Focused because I like the option of having the mid pumped up for solos.
11/10 again
The presence and depth controls give you that edge over the oposition with that extra tone shaping capabity. And the two volume controls are a stroke of genius, perfect for cutting through or as a mute so at high volumes, when you take a pause during a song, it's perfectly silent... as long as your tight as a band though!


The Footswitch cable is abit flimsy... and erm it's erm, well it's got a... it's chea... no wait thats a good thing... so yeah nothing really. Maybe it could do with more power? It doesn't really need it unless your playing Wembly but it would be nice to use as a weapon.

Perfect, I did break a valve but that was my fault for leaving it in a practice room where the amp got knocked over buy some ass but I told ENGL (synergy distribution) and they are sending me a new valve... free!

This is without doubt the best deal on the market, and im not joking, before going straight for the normal brands check out this you will fall in love with it, originally I was gonna buy a Randall, but I checked this out and bought this instead, it never goes wrong (unless you leave it in a room with a bunch of nu metalers with more of their parents money than brain cells)
The ENGL powerball, check it out.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Engl is a German company that has a distinct German metal tone in their amps. These amps are build pretty much for metal players and hard rock guitar guys. These amps say they are versatile but the voicing within these amps are without a doubt metal. They are very good at what they do though and the construction of them in phenomenal.

This amp has four channle of metal power. They have a good clean tone but nothing Fender would ever make. There crunch channels are excellent and can get a decent mild rock tone. However, this amp lives in the high gain modes.

UTILIZATION

Technical specifications:

Preamp:
4 channels: Clean, Crunch, Low Gain Lead, High Gain Lead, 2 Bright/Bottom switches, Extra Crunch Treble
control, 2 EQs, each 4 band, one for channel 1/2, one for channel. Volume controls for each channel. 4 x ECC83 preamp tubes

Master Section:
100 watts (1 x ECC 83, 4 x 6L6GC power amp tubes), Master A/B, Presence, Depth Punch controls.

Outputs:
Integrated Noise Gate for high gain channels, threshold control, fx loop control (parallel to serial), 2 x Z-4 or Custom Z-5 footswitch ports, Speaker Outs (2 x 4, 2 x 8,
1 x 16 Ohms).

Dimensions & Weight:
71 x 27 x 27cm, 20 kg

SOUNDS

The tone of this amp is pretty good for metal guys tastes. They excel at drop tunings and lower tuned guitars. They have a great bottom and chunk that makes it easy to get a warm thick tone. These amps by nature are very thick and fat sounding. You can get a heavy chugga chugga type rhythm with ease with this amp.

This amp excels with guitars with humbucker pickups installed. Sure a Fender Stratocaster will work too but this thing was meant to be set ablaze and a single coil guitar simply will not go low and angry.

OVERALL OPINION

At new these amps come in at around $2100, which isn't a bad price for a high quality four channel amplifier. You can cover a good amount of tonal ground with this amp but it really leans towards the metal side of music.

I would recommend this amp to a metal and not a blues player. This is fitting for the player that has dropped tuned guitar and angry playing style.

The ENGL Powerball is an extreme metal quasi-four channel amp that's meant to deliver overall brutality with no holding back. It features multiple mini switches to adjust the tone, an effects loop and a noise gate. The features are a bit slim compared to other ENGLs, but the amp was meant to be more of a "go out and play" amp versus a super versatile "do anything" amp that the other series are.

UTILIZATION

The way the ENGL laid everything out isn't bad, but I wish they made a few more features footswitchable. I also wish that every channel was fully independent. Earlier, I said the amp is a "quasi-four channel amp." It's a four channel amp in the sense that it has different volumes per channel. However, the channel EQs are shared, for the most part. There are some that have independent controls like the treble for the clean/crunch and mid open/mid focus, but it's still really a two channel amp more than a four channel.

SOUNDS

The sound of this amp is a bit lacking compared to the other ENGL amps out there. I find it to sound huge, but it's kinda woofy sounding at times. The noise gate definitely needs to be on all the time as this thing has TONS of gain. It doesn't take pedals too well, the clean is average, midgain tones are alright, and lead tones aren't too bad. Rhythm tones are pretty good, but recording them always seemed a bit of a challenge for whatever reason.

OVERALL OPINION

Since the ENGL Powerball II came out, I can't really recommend this amplifier anymore. That said, if you have one, it's still a pretty good metal amp. Don't expect to take it out to your next jazz gig, but it should be able to deliver the goods when it comes to brutal metal.

Amp 100W lamps
4 channels:
- Clean / crunch with gain equal and common (middle separated)
- Lead half with equal gain and common
Several modes: bright / boost bottom ...

Full connectivity to connect all types of baffle.

FX loop adjustable parallel

Integrated Noise Gate

Footswitch:
Control via footswitch Z-5 footswitch or two standard stereo
The two stereo jacks allow you to control the head with modules MIDI or G-Lab example

UTILIZATION

Config really complete but requires a lot of time to take in hand.
Common settings are simple but preamp settings the power section has a huge impact on the final result, 2 buttons and deep bass presence that are sensitive enough!

We easily obtain a big sound, no need to turn the knob bcp gain.
In terms of its clean, crunch, it becomes more cotton, but I did not choose this head for that!

SOUNDS

It is therefore really Metal / Hard rock and setting options in a versatile background in this area (any type of metal).

I've heard that you could do anything with ... Well, I choose not to do it blues or funk anyway!

The clean is really beautiful, but attacked with humbuckers in my Les Paul or my Jackson is still very large.

The crunch for me falls very quickly in the area of ​​distortion, and I find the sound quite cold. I use it instead to send a little less than the lead channel mix in general (for some style arpeggios). Again not bother to look or even sound fender marshall ...

Leads: Big sound with a particular grain "ENGL". Palm Mute, thick, and his own sword. Different coloration between channel 1 and 2. I use one for riffs rather Heavy / Hard Rock and 2 for more modern riffs and wicked style Indus, Djent ...

I personally love the sound of this amp, I play prog metal, but the use for the big rock is really excellent! It's one here or stops the versatility of the machine, to funk and blues, frankly I choose not!

At the time, I made the choice to have an amp Hard Rock / Metal quality without putting the price of a Mesa Dual Rectifier. I've never tried the second so I can not say much against it by a really great price / quality ratio

OVERALL OPINION

I use it again and live since 2006 and I've never had to replace anything and it really sounds in all situations!

In the studio or on big stages, I had whenever proposals from the engineers to redeem myself ... I would say it is unanimous in big sound!

Clarification, I use it with a Marshall 1960A cabinet, I've tested with V30 and it sounds a little bigger yet, but a good speaker is still in V30 1000-1500 € to add ... I'm zikos, not a millionaire!