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MGR/Sam Holmes « ENGL Powerball and Standard Angled 4x12 Cab »
Published on 06/14/03 at 15:00Bought 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
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