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Engl Fireball Head

Summary
Price New Engl Fireball Head @ Musician's Friend
Manufacturer URL http://www.engl-amps.com/
Features 8.0 (54 responses)
Sound Quality 9.4 (57 responses)
Reliability 9.4 (36 responses)
Customer Support 8.0 (23 responses)
Overall Rating 9.1 (52 responses)
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Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: US $780 used
Submitted 01/21/2005 at 07:42pm by dave michael

Features : 8
2 channels, simple. Just what I wanted. Gives me alot more time to play, I don't have to search and search, looking for the tone I had the night before...
We play rock, heavy rock, punk, older country, whatever, this will handle it with no problems. You gotta be big time to need more horsepower than this baby, 60 bone crushing tube watts is perfect.
Slight adjustments to the knobs make real changes in the tone, a concept that is rare in an amp, although they all try. It would be perfect if it had TWO gain knobs.

Sound Quality : 10
I'm using a 76 Gibson Les Paul, with an Alnico pro 2 (neck)/ Invader (bridge), and a mex. Strat w/Hot Rails. Totally different animals, but both sound awsome. I'm using a decimator noise pedal for the high gain channel. The low gain channel is a blast, such a broad range, from church clean to AC/DC is all in there, and perfect for all your pedals.

Reliability : 10
Perhaps you are familiar with other products from the Fatherland. Well this is no exception. (Think Porsche, BMW, Tiger Tank...) Quality, without the extra options I didn't want to pay for, or learn about.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Don't know, I bought it on E-Bay, but there really is nothing on here that could go THAT wrong, is there? (Whats that burning smell...)

Overall Rating : 10
I'm an older upstart. Started playing in 2001. I've managed to go through Line 6 Flextone XL, Vetta 2 HD head, Marshall JCM 2000 TSL, Rockman Modules, and some lesser entities. This is perfect for my needs, for now. I get positive feedback almost every time a newbee hears this bad boy. I'd love to catch someone trying to steal this, 'cause thievs get the extra special holiday beatdown special. But if the same thief got away with this, I would replace it with another ENGL, thats for sure.


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 10/19/2004 at 06:05pm by Jason

Features : 9
This is a simple amp design. This is what I wanted. Basic and to the point with controls that really do effect the tone! There is no extra crap to color the tube sound. Alot of tube amps like to flood you with tons of gadgets and extra controls so you think you are getting a better deal. Most of the extras(effects) are diode/digital which kills the real tube tone. Also these all in wonders are actually more prone to break down because they are usually imported and cut corners. I rate this a 9 because it's simple yet has alot of different tones to get out of it AND every guitar sounds different through this amp(thats a good thing).

Sound Quality : 10
This amp killer. First I must mention that the 'clean' or slightly dirty channel is perfect for me. I've never like the clean channel of any amp before this. The Distortion channel is awesome. You can get all kinds of sounds. Van Halen to Pantera. This is the best amp for metal I have ever played. The Gain and Presence in themselves have so many different layers of tone in them. Add this to the Bass/Mid/Treble controls and Bright/bass boost and you're set for life. THE MORE YOU TURN IT UP THE BETTER IT SOUNDS!!!!! Bedroom Levels are great on this amp. Depending on your pickups and settings there is some hiss, but nothing you can notice while playing. I have yet to throw a gate or a noise suppressor on it. I had the gain almost the whole way up and still wasn't much hiss from it!!!!!!!!! I've been playing with the tone for days. This thing is great! You know how those crazy arabs say "Praise Allah? Well I say PRAISE ENGL Fireball!

Reliability : No Opinion
This amp is built to last. I am extremely impressed with the parts and construction. Also, this amp is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't expect it to be this big! Anyway, I happen to like the fact that it's huge! It's bigger than a Soldano and has that mirror control grid on the front and a mesh front panel as well as a vent on the top for air flow. It's bigger meaning if there are repairs needed that there would be no problem for a tech to get in there and easily fix it. I can't rate the reliability other than this since I just got it a week ago.

Customer Support : 9
Official Engl Customer support returned all my emails in a decent amount of time.

BTW, I bought this from Derek @ www.rocksolidamps.com

I had originally ordered a VHT pittbull from Musicians Friend which arrived like it was from WWII. The box was all mashed up, faded lettering on the box with water marks, also obvious signs of a return with the broken factory seal and old ship labels. Finally when you pick the box up you could hear all the glass from the broken tubes rolling around. To Top it off the delivery guy still delivered it. This isn't the first time MusF send me shit. This is my last purchase with that company. They should call it Musicians FIEND(look "fiend" up if you don't know what it means. It's not a mispelled word on my part).

At first I didn't think ENGL amps had any dealers in the USA. I searched for their products on the web and didn't find any. So I emailed ENGL to see if they had any US dealers. They sent me a list of the only 5 dealers in the USA. I jumped on harmony central and saw that multiple people bought from Derek. So I decided to give it a try. I was TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY with my fireball! Like the others have said it came triple boxed! No, not just boxes in a box. It was a big box, filled with foam peanuts, another box also with foam,and finally the factory box which has foam support. He checks out all his products before he ships! I got it and I couldn't even tell anyone had even laid their hands on the amp. It's a very comforting feeling. In the past I bought amps from these super online stores and got a sick feeling when I got them because they had scratches, old receipts, and just obvious USED or returned items. Amps are like cars. You can use them or abuse them. How am I to tell a returned amp sold as new has not been abused(dropped, wrong speaker loads used, etc).

Overall Rating : 10
Here are the list of amps I bought and tried in the past. The more expensive ones are the ones I bought and tried recently in the past 2 months. Soldano Hotrod and astroverb, THD univalve(LOL a damn mistake on my part)Genz Benz El Diablo 60, Peavey XXX, XXL, Line6 Duoverb, Marshall valve series(forget models) Fender hotrod deluxe(another mistake).


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: US $800.00
Submitted 06/07/2004 at 01:37pm by Chris
Email: cdwigly<at>ius dot edu

Features : 8
This amp was purchased brand new in 2004. This is a 2 channel amp with tons of gain and also plenty of clean head room. I play blues, rock, metal and punk. It has an effects loop (which I never use with any amps) no headphone jack. No reverb,which I never use with any distortion, but I do use a little for clean playing but not much anway. I do wish it had reverb though. 50 watts, which is more than enough power whether mic'd like we almost always do or when we just drive the room with no mics. It's an all tube amp, the european version of 6L6 power tubes (2) and 4 preamp 12ax7's I believe.

Sound Quality : 10
I'm playing this amp using a Godin G-3000 guitar HSS combination. The pickups we rewound by a guy in California. A Godin freeway classic (think I like Godin's?) and a Dean European Icon. We play hard rock, punk and blues mostly, with some classic rock and metal thrown in. It is not really a noisy amp at all. Single coils with a lot of gain will be noisy, of course, but it is not at all noisy like a MB triple-rec. This amp has all of 7 knobs, one input and a variable (knob) effects loop. It is perfect for any style of rock. It sounds quite a bit like a Boogie Trem-o-verb at a fraction of the cost! It took me a while to dial in the sounds I wanted and for the life of me I couln't get a good lead volume and even bought a distortion pedal and an eq (to put in the effects loop) to try and boost my leads. I finally figured out a bit of genius in the design. The clean channel (which is the red channel on this amp) has been set where it must be turned up quite a bit compared to the dirty (green) channel when playing. The gain I use is never set higher than 3 or about 8 o'clock which is more than enough. If you turn it up higher than 5 it just gets too noisy for my taste (too much feedback. This setting works perfectly for the dirty rhythm channel and when you kick in the boost, the amp switches to the red channels volume and compression. So, basically I wasted money on my pedals. When you set up your dirty channel and want to play lead, you switch back to your now distorted red channel which adds both compression and volume. Both channels share the same EQ, but the green channel works better for rhythm because it's the more articulate channel without the compression. You set it up where you play distorted on your green channel with the boost on and switch to the red channel with the distorion on and use the volume set for your clean as your new lead volume. So you hit two buttons for a distorted song and then just one for your lead. You can get that good bluesy overdrive by cranking the gain on your clean channel, but... you can't boost your solos on this channel because if you switch to your green it's just gobs of distortion and noise and you'd blow away your audience and blow up your PA. To get the best blues only sounds, use your clean channel with the gain up and set your tone with your guitar's volume and just turn up your guitar for some good ol' fashioned channel switching! For those of us gigging out and want just killer tone that uses your guitar and fingers this amp is it. It also has its own sound. It has that great german distortion, but is its own beast. The amp has been EQ'd with a lot of the mids scooped which I don't particularly go for, but if you like that sound you've got it. It's pretty bassy as well for that heavy thump, so I set my bass at about 4 mids at 6 and treble at 4, and the presence at about 3. If you use a lot of gain you have to turn the treble and presence down or it's noisy as hell, but it is a very articulate amp and works like magic with pick dynamics. The 50 watts lets you get the thump and compression from the power tubes that you really couldn't get for small clubs if it were 100 watts. Bottom line, it's got tone if you want it and you can crush skulls if needed.

Reliability : 9
Amp is built like a tank and engl is great. Metal grill with cool red lights behind the power tubes that glow like a...fireball! Stainless steel Engl logo and face plate black chicken heads standby and power swich like a Marshall. Gigged heavily with it from 20x20 rooms to clubs that seat 700. I never gig without a backup and mine's a solid state Laney TFX-700 which I had to use at one notorious bar in town with notoriously shitty electricity. Bad power makes this and all tube amps noisy. Oh yeah, it has a wonderful feature that will shut down one or both power tubes if overloaded BEFORE damaging speakers or the amp! You can't really blow the damn thing if you tried. It will cut db volume if the amp starts to overload, but I have never had this happen and have run the thing up to about 8 on the volume before. I am knocking off a point because this amp seems to be pretty sensitive to the power it's using, i.e. sub-par power, noisy amp. I hated not being able to use the amp at the above mentioned bar!

Customer Support : 8
Standard 1-year warranty on everything but the tubes. I did email with a question about setting up my solo volume with my rhythm volume and never received a follow up email and that ticked me off so I'm taking 2 points away for the unanswered email, but from what I've read; this is probably just a fluke

Overall Rating : 10
Been playing almost every weekend with the amp since January 2004 and out in general since 1998. I would absolutely replace it if lost and wouldn't even think about another amp. It's simple, reliable and sounds amazing and doesn't have all the knobs and crap like so many amps these days have which add little to your sound and usually take away from your tone. I compared this to an Orange, Hughes and Kettner Tri-amp, Boogie Triple and Dual rec and Marshall JCM-800, and various Bogner heads. At 800.00 I found NOTHING that sounded anywhere near this good and the only other head I was serious about was the Tri-amp at a friend price new of 2,100.00. You can spend 800 bucks all day long on "tube fusion, valve state, and cyber-crap" and still not get an amp that sounds, or acts like a good tube amp. I still wish it had reverb for the clean channel and came with the Engl footswitch, but the music store threw in an off-brand that works just fine.


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: 730 (Euro) used
Submitted 06/03/2004 at 09:28am by Florian Kochems

Features : 9
This is a dual channel full tube amp with 60 watts. You can control Gain & Presence, it also has a bright, an ultra gain and a depth switch. The two channels share on eq (Bass, Mid, Treble). It has two master volume controls (for each channel).
There's also a tube control system which is a good feature I think. It switches the damaged tube off, so you can finish playing a gig or a rehearsal if your tubes get damaged during that.
This are enough features for me. I mainly play Hard Rock/Heavy Metal like Van Halen and Instrumental Rock like Steve Vai & Joe Satriani.
It could have reverb and a second eq.

Sound Quality : 10
I play an Ibanez S 470 (H-S-H) and I get a really good sound with it in combination with the amp.
The amp has A LOT OF GAIN, so I use it at 1 o'clock. I used all my previous amps with full gain, so I think you can imagine how much gain this thing has. I turned the Bass at 7, the Mid at 5, the Treble at 7 and I have a real cool distorted sound, which sounds pretty much like Van Halen.
The clean channel is also awesome. It's not a dirty clean channel like marshall amps have, it's really clean. You can play bluesy with it and it sounds very beautiful if you switch on the bright and the depth switch.
This amp isn't noisy, so you can play very loud without turning the treble down. The sound is also very clear, so it doesn't sound like total crap if you play with a lot of gain.
This amp is for those who want to play rock music (especially Hard Rock). The distortion is very agressive but also clear but too brutal for people who play Jazz, Blues or music of that kind.

Reliability : 10
You can use this without backup becouse of the tube control system. I never had any problems with it.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
I would buy this amp again if it were stolen or lost because of its awesome sound. When I played it in the store I had an Triple Rectifier which I tried to get an idea of how good the Fireball is and I liked the Fireball better than the Triple Rectifier. I think that shows how great this amp is.


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: US $1039
Submitted 04/06/2004 at 04:20pm by Anonymous

Features : 8
- This is a brand new, fresh out of the box, ENGL Fireball. After years of chasing the "perfect tone" I have been through amp after amp, only to end up disappointed that I wasn't getting the sound I was looking for. I decided to give ENGL a listen.

APPEARANCE:
- Look-wise, this amp reminds me alot of the LANEY Tony Iommi head (which I used to own). You have your standard black covering, but then the control panel and nameplate are mirrored. The front grill is metal and looks like a tightly woven fence or something. Very cool. When the amp is turned on, a bright, red light glows inside and it really adds a nice touch.

FEATURES:
- I won't get too into details because I'm sure most people have covered the essentials. I know it doesn't have alot of "bells and whistles", but it is simple, and that makes it easy to dial in a great tone everytime. Right out of the box you can move a few knobs and you are set. I would have liked to see a "reverb" knob, but that is just me. An amp cover would have also been nice to keep the dirt off, but I'm just being picky.

Sound Quality : 10
- I play a Peavey Wolfgang guitar through the Fireball and into a Genz-Benz G-Flex cab, which goes great with the Fireball.

TONE:
- Let me just start off with this. I have owned Mesa, Marshall, LINE 6, Peavey and several others and I have personally never heard an amp as brutal as this one. The amp just has this amazing "chug" with the gain set as low as the 9:00 position and even at bedroom levels. This is definitely a metalhead's amp, which I am. I was really amazed when I plugged it in and hit a powerchord. The crunch was fantastic!

- I think the clean channel sounds great also. It's not a Fender clean, but it is clean enough.

- Like others have said, this amp is only two channels, so you have to share the gain knob. In a stage situation this could be an issue depending on how "clean" your clean channel needs to be but to be honest, even with the gain knob almost cranked on the clean channel, it doesn't sound bad.

- Any high gain amp will have noise. I use a BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor and it takes all of the noise away without affecting the tone or sustain.

- I am very pleased with the tones in this amp!

Reliability : No Opinion
- As with anything mechanical in this world, amps have problems. I have not heard of many problems with ENGL amps, but I'm sure it happens. Bottom line is that this amp seems really solid and durable. Didn't hear anything shaking or moving around and it seems to be roadworthy.

- With ENGL being all the way over in Germany, it would really be a nightmare to have to deal with customer service, but I'm hoping I never need them for repairs, etc.

Customer Support : 10
- I haven't had any dealings with ENGL, but people have been really helpful on Harmony Central with questions, tips, etc. I am not sure how long the warranty is for but I hope it lasts forever!

- If you are interested in buying an ENGL amplifier I HIGHLY recommend calling Derek at Rock Solid Amps. He ships amps within the lower 48 states for free and sends them FedEx, triple-packaged and guaranteed. While I was waiting for my amp to come in he called me nearly everyday over a two-week period, constantly updating me on the amp's status. I even bought my Genz-Benz cab from him and it also got here in fantastic condition! He has a very informative website at www.rocksolidamps.com with soundclips, downloadable manuals, etc. Give it a look!

Overall Rating : 10
- I am more than pleased with this amp and glad I gave ENGL a listen. If you like playing with alot of high gain without the harshness of some high gain amps, you'll love the Fireball.


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: US $1039
Submitted 03/22/2004 at 11:16am by benjamin801

Features : 7
This is a 2004 ENGL Fireball head. The controls are really, really simple, which is what I was going for. Over the past five or six years, my amps had been getting more and more complex: first a two-channel Mesa Recto, then a Mesa Mark IV, then a rack rig based around a Digitech 2120 MIDI preamp. I needed to get back to simple in the worst way. This amp has a total of seven knobs on the front: Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence, and two Master Volumes, and ?Bright? and ?Depth? switches. I was initially concerned by the single gain control: with no way to individually tweak the gain levels of the two channels, would one sound suffer, a la the R2 channel of the Mesa Mark III? Would I be forced to compromise, accepting either too dirty a clean sound or too clean a dirty sound? The answer: nope. The gain levels of the two channels are very intelligently set: with the gain at about 3 (more on that later), the clean sounds were nice and sparkly with little or no grit, and the distortion level was perfect for me. One very cool thing about the controls, in comparison to the Mark IV in particular, is that they provide useful tones across their entire range. If you know that Mark IV, you know that the bass control is essentially useless past 3. In contrast, the Fireball provides a wide variety of cool sounds from 1-10. The other tone controls are similarly well voiced. This is really the first amp I?ve owned that allows such full use of its tone controls. The gain control is another matter entirely. This thing has so much gain that I never turn the thing past 4 ?. I?m actually considering putting a 5751 in V1 just to tame it down a little and allow me use of more of the dial, but I?m worried that it might affect the sound, which would be a bad thing because?

Sound Quality : 9
As I stated before, my two main amps over the past five or six years have been two of Mesa/Boogie?s flagships (both of which are substantially more expensive than the Fireball, BTW). The Fireball?s distorted tones fall nicely in between those of the Dual Rectifier and the Mark IV. It has the huge high-end sizzle of the Recto, but with much tighter bass, more like the low-end response of the Mark IV. I?ve heard ENGL?s tones referred to as ?Marshall on steroids,? but to me they were much more in the ballpark of Mesa high gain than they were to any Marshall I?ve heard. I run my main guitar, a Duncan-loaded Les Paul Custom, into the Fireball head. The Fireball then feeds a Mesa/Boogie 4x12? cab with two Celestion Custom 90s (top, open back) and two EVM-12Ls (bottom, closed back). Great cab. Anyway, with the controls set thus: [ GAIN 3 | BASS 4.5 | MID 6 | TREBLE 4 | PRESENCE 4.5 ], I can get a furious crunch suitable for 80?s thrash (Megadeth, Anthrax, Metallica), 90?s punk (NOFX, Pennywise), or just about any heavy style I would want to play. (Notice: I play in standard tuning and don?t really do death metal. I?m probably the only one.) Those settings may look mid-heavy, but they really aren?t. The Fireball is a naturally scoopy amp, and I finally just dialed with my eyes closed until it sounded perfect. It is unbelievably fat sounding. Gross jazz chords have great clarity and note separation at this gain level, and palm mutes just THUMP. The best thing about this setting is that the clean sounds great, too. With the bright switch engaged, the clean is crisp, full, and cuts very nicely in a band setting. The bright switch is a great thing for this amp because it?s dependent on the level of preamp gain: it noticeably livens up the clean channel, yet has basically no effect on the distorted tone. My favorite lead tones with this amp are between 4 and 4.5 on the gain knob. At this level of gain, it gives up pinch harmonics all over the neck easier than either of my Mesas ever did, and legato playing with the neck pickup just FLOWS. It makes me a faster guitarist than I really am, that?s for sure. However, leads sound just fine with the gain at 3, my ?rhythm? setting. I was worried that I?d miss a third channel, but I don?t. With two footswtichable master volumes (even if I don?t have the footswitch yet, ahem Derek), I can get a little extra oomph and that?s really all I need. In summary, this amp has the best distorted rhythm tone of any amp I?ve owned. It?s clean tones are equal to, if different from, those of my Mark IV (and destroy those of the Dual Recto). The lead tones are a CLOSE second to the Red channel of the Mark IV for my all-time favorite lead tone. Considering that I didn?t buy this to be a ?do-everything? amp ? I bought it to be my metal amp ? I?ve been pleasantly surprised at how versatile it is. I would have kept it at this price just for metal rhythm, but instead I have an amp with enough variety and switching options to easily take care of me in my current bands.

Reliability : 9
Everything seems well fitted and securely screwed down. There are no weird rattles or boings or anything. Compared to the Dual Recto in particular, there?s a little more plastic going on versus metal, but it appears at least as heavily built as the new Marshalls or Peavey 5150s I?ve seen. All in all, I?m shocked that ENGL can import this amp and I can get it for well under $1100. Everything about the tones and build quality tell me this amp should cost $400 more.

Customer Support : 9
I have not dealt with ENGL. Derek Bernier at Rock Solid Amps, however, is amazing. OK, this thing arrived TRIPLE boxed. I shit you not. A box the size of a small refrigerator arrived at my door. I opened it to find the expected piles of packing peanuts. After digging through the peanuts, I found a smaller box with ?ENGL? screened on the side. I extracted this box and opened it, only to find ANOTHER box inside, this one separated from the outer box by styrofoam corners. At this point, I felt like I was playing with those Russian teacup dolls that nest inside of each other. I half expected to keep peeling away box after box until I reached my Fireball, which would be the size of a Sony Walkman. At any rate, the amp was very much safe and sound inside the third box. The bottom line is that Derek is great. Sure, if FedEx had jacked up the amp, it would have been taken care of. But how much better is it to just get it right the first time? It?s indicative of his approach to business: he was prompt, honest, friendly, and informative. Two thumbs up, Derek.

Overall Rating : 9
Sounds great! I'd buy another for sure.


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: 1100 (?)
Submitted 11/19/2003 at 01:46pm by Anonymous
Email: supertoaster at gmx<dot>de

Features : 7
the fireball is a 60 watts all-tube amplifier with 2 channels,clean and (high) gain...both sharing one gain knob (sounds strange but it's okay) and an 3-band eq...it has a bright and a depth knob(bright is okay for dark humbuckers) and 2 separate master volume potis
and of course a nice effectloop

Sound Quality : 10
i'm mostly playin metal like metallica,sepultura und newer stuff like deftones and system of a down....
i'm using this amp with a jackson dinky /w 2 emg 81s into a cheap volume-pedal into the amp.
i've tested my fireball with a marshall 4x12 (1961b) and a peavey 212j (2x12),the marshall was from my local dealer and the peavey was bought in the internet.

clean:
for a tube amp the cleans aren't the best,but this amp wasn't built for this channel!!the cleans are okay...not more not less (but it's very easy to get a mostly not so nice overdrive...especially with active emgs)

distorted:
wow!never thought my transistordistortion was so bad!!really phat,tight high gain...with the marshall it had to much mids i think,i like the peavey's sound more,although it's ONLY a 2x12 cab.
bass response is so hard and tight,playin' palm muted E5s helps your stomach workin' with your food ;-))
with the peavey i love the sound...mids and highs are like they should be!!and the bottom stands like a wall....awesome!

Reliability : 10
it will never broke,it's a german quality product!

Customer Support : 9
for germans like me engl has the best possible support as far as i know!

Overall Rating : 10
i'm playing a little axe since ~ 4 years and i'm happy i saved my money for this amp!!i'm 18...probably you know how hard it is to save money in this age ;-))
if you want absolutely brutal,asskicking,motherfuckin great sound for a good price get this baby...if you need more options and channels etc...get the engl powerball and you won't be dissapointed!!!!!


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: 1200 (? (Euros))
Submitted 11/10/2003 at 08:48am by Anonymous

Features : 7
Brand new 2003 Engl Fireball all-tube head. Features as listed below. Very simple features, but that's what turned me on to the Fireball in the first place. Only thing I miss is a dedicated clean channel gain knob. Bright and Depth switches don't make a lot of difference to my ears.
These 60 Engl-watt's are LOUD. I have no idea why everybody is raving about Marshall's (especially the JCM-800), Engl's go from a MUCH better clean sound to a extreme tight, high gain metal sound, and everything inbetween. If you need more features, buy yourself a Powerball, if your on a budget (or don't need more than 2 channels, like me) go for the Fireball. Since it IS a one trick pony, a 7/10.

Sound Quality : 10
Bright and Depth switches don't make a lot of difference to my ears.
These 60 Engl-watt's are LOUD. I have no idea why everybody is raving about Marshall's (especially the JCM-800), Engl's go from a MUCH better clean sound to a extreme tight, high gain metal sound, and everything inbetween. If you need more features, buy yourself a Powerball, if your on a budget (or don't need more than 2 channels, like me) go for the Fireball. I use a flying V, and play classic rock/metal, and it does the job. This things SHINES when used for metal.

Reliability : 10
I have never heard of a Engl breaking down, and when someone whould claim it, i probably wouldn't believe it. These things are tough.

Customer Support : No Opinion
No experience.

Overall Rating : 9
Bottom line: Engl amps are dependable and affordable, and sound GREAT. I would definately buy another when it was to be stolen. It is a one trick pony (jazz is a big no-no, so is poprock), but when your into heavy bottom ends, and screaming highs, this is my all-time favourite.


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: 1000 (?)
Submitted 09/18/2003 at 01:42am by jvb

Features : 7
This 2 channel full tube amp does what it has to do, amplify your guitar. A per chanel equalizer and gain would have been nice though.
it has both mono and stereo out, a controlable fx-loop.

Sound Quality : 10
Cort viva I (with dimazio super distortions) -piece of wire - engl fireball - engl standard cabinet.

I play metal and this amp does it. sound range goes from very clean to very metal. the attack on this amp rocks and the gain is awesome. in higher gain settings it also has a very nice feedback and flagiolets realy scream. palm muting souds like it should (shump) and overall sound definition stays superb no mater what you are playing.

Reliability : 10
solid.

moved it around alot and it never failed me.

Customer Support : No Opinion
never had to deal with them.

Overall Rating : 9
I love the sound on this amp. awesome gain, very nice attack , the sound difinition and the cute little red lights :)

I hate the standard switchbox, it's made of plastic and has a 2 meter cord. But this piece of crap is optional, so dont buy it.

Since I dont use fx I realy miss a per channel gain and equalizer.

I tried a koch powertone II, which sacrifices definition for even more attack (could be because of the very high output of my pickups), and a peavey 5150 combo which sounds to "plain" in comparison to both engl and koch.


Product: Engl Fireball Head
Price Paid: 900 (?)
Submitted 09/13/2003 at 12:52am by Anonymous

Features : 8
Simple but it works very good!
Only to Channels but the Clean Channel goes from Fendrish-Clean to the AC/DC Crunch-Sound

I don't use the Bright-,but I use the Deep-Function which gives the Amp a bit more ASS-KICKING BASS!

Sound Quality : 10
ASS KICKING DISTORTION!


NICE,SOFT CLEAN!!!


I play an Ibanez S Model at the Moment (loaded with 2 Humbuckers)---soung great!
But I've although tested a Fender Strat (3 Coils) throough the Engl-different but nice!

Reliability : 10
Built like a rock!

Never broke down and never will!!


ENGL is solid work from germany!

Customer Support : 6
People at Engl are very,very helpful!

The first Cabinet I got with the head was damaged!I took 3 Months to send my a new one!

But I got a MArshall-Cabinet from the Dealer for this time!

Overall Rating : 10
All in all--fantastic Amp!

Not too expensive but it works and its better than all the Boogies or Peaveys!

I play punk rock like it's done by NoFX,Lagwagon and so on!

But-of course you can get an amazing Metal,nice Blues or ass-kicking Classic Rock out of the Amp!

It's as unflexible as it is said!

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