It's the same old thing: You need to cut through the rest of the band and be heard, but you still want to sound great. The ENGL Powerball guitar amp head is designed for incredible volume without sacrificing tone.
With four channels devoted to lead mode, the ENGL Powerball 100-watt guitar amp head is clearly meant for guitarists who aren't kidding around when it comes to skull-crushing volume. The folks at ENGL assert that the Powerball will deliver all of that power while maintaining tonal versatility -- crystal-clean to crispy, tight and fat rhythms to punchy lead sounds in conjunction with low bottom end to satisfy the needs of the modern guitarist.
Housed inside a newly designed enclosure is a 100-watt amp boasting 6L6GC tubes. Here's what we have on the front panel: Four channels: Clean, Crunch, Lo Gain Lead and Hi Gain Lead. Four Gain knobs each for CH I (Clean & Crunch) and CH II (Lo Gain and Hi Gain Lead)four Volume knobs: Clean, Crunch, Lo Lead, Hi Lead; Bright and Bottom sound-shaping buttons for CH I; separate Bottom sound-shaping button for CH II Lo Lead and Hi Lead. Four-way voicing section, Bass, Middle, Treble Clean, Treble Crunch for CH I; four-way voicing section, Bass, Mid Open, Mid Focused, Treble for Ch II. CHI/II channel switch, Gain Lo/Hi, Sound style selector Open/Focused (affects all channels). Master A/B, switchable on the device or via two ENGL Z-4s or an ENGL Z-5 Custom Footswitch. A and B power amp master knobs. Power amp Presence and Depth Punch knobs. Electronic monitoring system for the power amp tubes. Standby switch.
On the rear panel we have two stereo 1/4-inch jacks for the Z-4 two-way footswitchD-Sub 9 port for connecting the ENGL Z-5 Custom Footswitch, a Noise Gate Threshold for activating the lead channels' noise gate and setting the desired threshold for the noise gate FX loop, a Loop Send / Return with Balance knob. Power amp outputs: 2 x 4 ohms, 2 x 8 ohms and 1 x 16 ohms.
Basically, we talking heavy duty here. This isn't an amp for a coffee house jazz group -- not that there's anything wrong with that. This amp is for hardcore sonic crushers, guitarists who want to rattle the senses (with both tone and dBs). The ENGL Powerball retails for $2,299.00 US.
For more information, visit the official ENGL website.
