Engl Fireball Head

Two shared gain channels. 60watts, shiny faceplate.
4x12 with V60 (nothing like the V30 as i will go into later)

I wish it had 2 separate gains but its never an issue. Shared EQ is a bit worrying but still not an issue.

I like the sound of this Amp, Its dark but still very clear and punchy. I was worried about the shared EQ and gain between the 2 channels but its got a great clean where the gain is sweet on the dirt channel.

I mainly play high gain death metal, and thats pretty much what this amp does best. It can get rather noisy if you over zealous with the gain, I run it on about 11 at the most which is plenty.

The cab on the other hand is very muddy and muffled, it honestly sounds like there is a blanket over the speakers. The V60 is not a higher wattage V30, they are nothing alike. They are charging $2000au for this cab so if people knew what they were in for, They would not sell ONE!!!
Happy ending though as i bought a Marshall 1960a cab with the Celestion GT-75s in it and the amp has come to life.

Because of the Speakers they chose for the cab they missed out on a 10 here.

built like a tank, In 3 years it has never broken down. I wouldn't play in my bedroom without a backup! let alone gigging.

Its a great amp but an expensive one. If you play metal from old school thrash to deathcore this amp will cater accordingly. just avoid the standard series cabs, get the pro series with the real V30's in it!

I previously reviewed this head in November of 2006 and I still love it for its lack of features because in a live situation, I don't want to be tweaking 28 knobs. But read on for my opinion of using the Fireball live if there's another guitarist in the band.

This is probably the best sounding amp I own. It's also great for recording. The distortion rules, the clean rules, but if there's another guitarist in the band, forget about anybody hearing its bad*** tone. It just won't cut thru the mix. Period.

I'm in 3 working metal bands that range from thrash, progressive, and death. Almost every night my Fireball is up against either a Peavey 5150II, Mesa Mark VI, Engl preamp/Peavey Tube Power Amp, or an old Traynor Tube Head with a HardWire dist pedal in front. The Fireball can be heard over the Traynor, but not much.

I've owned it for nearly 3 years and have played a ton of shows with it and it has bounced all over the U.S. in a trailer under extreme hot and cold conditions. No problems. The effects loop never really worked right though. I tried to throw an ISP decimator in the loop to kill the preamp noise. It worked fine at bedroom volume, but at band volume it throws off a feedback unlike any I've ever heard. The FX mix knob does not help. While I'm at it, I'm not sure the bright and deep switches do anything to alter the sound.

If you're looking for a killer amp to record with, whether it be clean or distorted, this is the amp.

If you're looking for a killer amp to play shows with, keep looking. The Fireball doesn't play well with Peaveys and Mesas. Sure it sounds more brutal, but if nobody can hear you what's the point? I've recently purchased an original 5150 and a 6505+. I'm still using the Fireball at one of the practice spots, but only until I get another 5150 or 6505, at which point the Fireball will be confined to recording only.

60 Watts
2 Channels with a shared eq
It can cover many styles but its true strong point is metal
Wish it had separate eq for each channel but its not a huge deal
Presence control is a cool feature

Im playing this head for metal and some shimmering cleans when i need them. I usually play my Jackson DKMG dinky with EMGs and also an Epi les paul custom with carvin pickups i had installed.

It sounds pretty full even at a low volume which really pleased me. I was used to playing 100W tube heads that sound like S*** at a bedroom volume but im surprised that this one sounds decent. It has some pretty brutal dark tones for metal. If you want ballsy low end tone for detuned metal than this is your amp.

I havent had it that long but the guy i bought if from has had it for a few years i think and it seem to be built like a tank! This is by far the heaviest head i have ever tried to carry. its got to way like 60lbs or more im not even kidding. Looks and feels very sturdy.

Never dealt with them

Overall, its a badass head if you like rock - metal. If you can find a used one in good condition than buy it because they are kind of hard to come by. Sounds way better than any solid state obviously. If stolen, i would hunt the bastard down and give him what for!

I have played mesa dual rectifiers, single recs, and i have owned a Krank Krankenstein. This kills them. The only thing that bothers me is the shared eq between the drive and clean channels.

This amp is set as simple as it gets. 2 channels; Clean and Ultra Lead. A single EQ set for both channels; Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence, 2 master volumes, plus a bright switch, depth switch, and an ultra gain switch. It's simple, yet it still gives you many tonal options.
This amp is only 60 watts, but boy is it LOUD. It feels alot louder than my previous 100 watt amps, this will handle any live show venue you throw at it!
Not that it needs it, but I would have loved a built-in EQ like on a VHT. However it does have an fx loop, so adding an EQ pedal is an easy option.
Also comes with a great Z-4 footswitch, if you don't have one, I highly advise getting one.

This amp is built for hard rock / metal, it covers many tones with a very simple EQ range. I mainly play progressive death metal, and for this style it couldn't get any better, the tone is crushing! It has been compared to a 5150, but as an ex-5150 owner, this amp out does it in every way. The clean channel is nice, the shared EQ means you have lose a little to get a little between the channels. It could defo use a chorus to make it shine. The Ultra Lead channel needs no help at all, like a 5150 it is brutal, it is very clear and tight, so no room for bad playing! It is a little noisy on the lead channel, so a noise supressor is advised. I use high output passive pickups, but i can image this amp loves actives, guess I'll have to move on to them soon!

all good so far!

Never needed it!

I've owned several amps; Peavey 5150, XXX, Soldano Hot Rod, River Knucklehead, Framus Dragon, Randall RM100. For hard rock / metal tones EnGL amps deliver the goods, it's what they do best! At the price these are sold for, it's a steal!

I'm sure you very well know the features of this amp by now. They amp is more versatile than some people give it credit for, it has nice clean, crunch and high gain tones. I don't mind the shared EQ between the Ultra Gain and the Clean channels, i just wish the clean channel had a separate gain control.

The Depth and Bright switches are both useful in their own ways, it really depends on your guitar and pickups as to how you use them. It has more than enough gain for any (and i mean any) type of music. The EQ is fairly responsive, but not too touchy.
The amp is very loud at 60 watts, plenty for just about any gig paired with my G-Flex 2x12.
The effects loop works great, though, i only use an EQ in the loop.

I'm currently using a cheap basswood Schecter with an X2N in the bridge and a Tone Zone in the neck. I'm running it through a G-Flex 2x12 cabinet with the stock speakers. I just have an ISP Decimator in front and an MXR 10-band Equalizer in the effects loop.

For the type of music i play (Death metal/Grindcore/Black Metal), i really haven't played a better amp in the price range. I'm sure some people may prefer the more gritty and aggressive 5150, but i find the Fireball to be a smoother and thicker. It still retains some of the aggressive qualities of the 5150 though. It stays tighter than the 5150 as well. It is also a lot quieter than most high gain amps in it's price range, even without the Decimator.
The clean is surprisingly pleasant on this amp, can get really warm and bassy jazz tones to chimey, bright, Fender-like tones. My one gripe is that if you are playing with the gain over about 4 (i play with it on 6), the clean channel breaks up fairly easy, but you can just roll back the volume knob on your guitar to fix that.

Overall this amp just has a crushingly thick and aggressive high gain tone, perfect for any metal player. The clean is also a really nice complement, but i really think this amp is best suited for straight up metal playing.

I've had this amp for about 6 months and had no problems at all. The previous owner had it for a year with no problems as well.

That is all i can really say about the reliability at this point.

Never had to deal with Engl so far.

I had a 5150 before this amp. For me, the Fireball just crushes it in my opinion. This is an amp i can see myself using for quite sometime, i never want to sell it. The tone for death metal just slays and i love the clean sounds with the neck pickup on my guitar.
My only gripe is the shared gain control for both channels.

One of the best metal amps in the $1k range.

This is a update on a review I did 7 years ago. I bought this amp at the 2002 NAMM in Anaheim. It is still a great amp for what I like (metal) but can also do rock and cleans very well. I run this head through a ENGL 4x12 slant vintage 30s ( very nice ). I just retubed the amp with JJ Electronics tubes and the gain is back were it should be. 7 year old tubes tend to sound crappy (HA HA) The one thing I have changed in my opinon is I like EMG pickups much better with this amp than passive. I would like to play this amp louder but I live in a condo. I still would not replace this amp. No other amp can touch the high gain and it sounds awesome at bedroom levels. Notice on the price of $997.00 and it came with a footswitch and footswitch cord (25ft). I love the great deals at name.

I use 2 LTD Eclipses with EMGs, Dean Black Gold Z, Fender Strat with Dimarzio HS3s. The only amps I thick could replace this one is other ENGL products, Deizel, and they all cost too much for my budget.

This amp has never had a problem. When I first bought this amp no one I knew had heard of ENGL and I had no idea where to go for service back then. Now everybody has heard of them and I can't image it would be hard to get fixed.

Never needed it.

I have thought of selling this a couple of times since I am not in a band and at the time of purchase alot of amps I owned such as Hughes & Kettner, Mesa, Carvin, Soldano SL60 didn't quite have what I thought I wanted. They were all great amps but kind of hard to play at lower volumes. I do regret selling all the other amps, I do enjoy collecting them. I realized when I put this up for sale all the guys calling wanting it to replace some other good amps and it made me thick twice.

If you're reading this you probably already know what the amps control panel looks like :p One EQ for both channels, 2 master volumes, brightness and depth switches, presence knob, and a power tube monitoring system. It has an FX loop, a footswitch input, and several outputs on the back for a variety of ohms and speaker dimensions.LEDS make the Tubes glow RED!!!

I'm using a Fender American Fat Strat(Tonezone, Blue velvet, Texas Special) and a Mesa Boogie 2x12 closed back recitfier cab with V30's.

I play alternative metal and melodic death metal with alot of complex rhythms and higher chords that need to shine through clearly to sound well. This amp produces everything I need. First off, the Ultra Gain channel sounds pretty much amazing at any EQ setting. When you adjust the EQ properly with your guitar, you can open the pearley gates to DJENT and CHUG Heaven and produce some of the sickest artificial harmonics ever. The amps BASS is an incredible punch in the nads and with an over-sized mesa cab that already produces bass you can keep it leveled down on the amp so that your bass player doesn't feel useless. The MIDS are the best I have ever heard on a hi-gain amp and you would have to be toneTARDED to scoop it unless you're playing Cradle of Filth or something equally irritating(which the amp is also good for). The HIGHS bring alot of clarity to the overall sound, but you need to keep them under control or they can turn your tone into a squealing fuzzy mess. The Presence knob breathes life into the distortion and basically decides if your tone will cut through in a concert setting.
With the ToneZone in the Strat I can get just the right amount of distortion and clarity without going overkill. The reason this is helpful is because I can always switch over to clean tone and the b/t tonezone and blue velvet postiiton on the guitar and get the most gorgeous poppy cleans I have ever heard on such a "Metal" amp. Considering the fact that this amp ony has one EQ for both channels, you may not get the advantage of 2 beautiful tones (on the same EQ settings) if you use insanely high output pickup like EMG's that would sound fantastic for distrotion but would cause unpleasant breakup on the clean channel. This is just for convenience (I'm sure the high output pickup guys also have this amp figured out to a science and can make both channels sound amazing aswell)
Just like alot of the other reviewers, I have also played on 5150's, Rectifiers, Marshalls, and several other Hi-gain amps. They all have amazing tonal qualities but I think that for the price, the Fireball is the coolest sounding and the easiest to use. I'm very proud of my Boogie cab but I've also heard that Orange, Vader, and Marshall 1960A cabs sound amazing with this amp.

I would definitely take this amp to any show (why else would I have gotten it?:O???) I have had absolutley ZERO problems with this amp and it is very sturdy. I would use it at a gig without a backup (because i don't own one), but it is always good to have a backup people!!!

A store in Texas sent me the amp and it was missing the spare tubes that the company promised in the instruction manual. The store contacted Engl who quicly sent me a package with tubes, stickers, postcards, a carribeaner and other cool Engl stuff. I trust this companies service but hope that I don't need it for anything any time soon.

I've been playing for 8 years and have definitely heard and used my fair share of terrible amplifiers, pedals and guitars that could get nowhere near the sound I wanted. This amp is a dream-come-true and I would definitely go with Engl again if I lost it.

The ENGL Fireball is one of the best amps around for metal and death metal. The price is very fair considering the amps that sound this good are much more at retail price new. Why don't people go somewhere else to waste time writing bogus reviews, haters who don't have anything but jealousy and leave bogus names for their bogus review. I have been playing for over 20 years and have now, a Peavey 5150, 6505plus, 1986 Marshall JCM800 50watt and the Engl Fireball. I had a dual rectifier and sold it, my mistake. I don't rag on other brands of amps, the ones I can't afford or are jealous of. I would love to own a Bogner Ecstacy or Diezel but need to sell some of the amps I have and save some more money. The Engl Fireball regardless of prices, is the closest thing you will get to the sound of those botique HIGH GAIN amps. Plug in a hold on. Really. I have had the Engl for about 8 months. I don't use any of the other amps I own anymore and am probably going to sell the two peaveys to freinds that play in bands locally. Where I live there is a huge metal and hardcore scene and people here love to go see live bands. I can gig with the Fireball and cut through even in the worst club acoustics, (the club with metal walls and roof in a industrial building) as far as 60 watts, its just as loud as my JCM800 and its 50watts (and louder than the peaveys). Volume? No problem. You can find the truth in a review in a second when someone says you can find 'tons' of Fireballs on eBay. Oh really? not. Go look, that comment is for those who read on. And do...There are some REAL, really good reviews from REAL Fireball owners on this page, you just have to cut through the B.S. People who know what a Fireball is, or know enought to come here looking for a review know that they are not found in every music store in the city, in fact its often difficult to get them. Even though MF is now stocking them they probably are on backorder. If you want a killer amp for a great price that can rival any metal amp out there, get a ENGL Fireball. Its got hotter gain than the other Engls, if that is what you seek, you will find. This is a amp you won't be tired of in a month. Like I said, 20 years I have been buying equipment, I wont sell my Fireball any time soon. The other amps I own you CAN find on eBay all day long. Does that mean they suck, hell no. They rule, I am glad I have spent my hard earned money on good equipment instead of wasting it. Engl Fireballs hold value. If they were not great amps that are sought after they wouldn't sell for half price as used. And you can save money, you won't need any boost, overdrive or metal pedals in front of this amp, just your guitar, a cord and some talent to go with a party on attitude. Forget being a hater.

The best amp I own of 2 peavey heads, JCM800 and used to have a dual rectifier I owned for 9 years. Now I play guitar through my Fireball every day. The others sit and probably will be sold. Like another reviewer said, its like a dual rectifier but tighter, I find that very true. A good thing, not to knock dual rectifiers, I should have not sold mine, and will get another one. I want to get a new one so its taking time save that much change from the couch. It will be welcome, Fireballs and DRs sound very good together.

I gig local small clubs with it and don't take a backup amp. I do take backup tubes with me. The power in clubs fluctuates considerably and I never know when those tubes will get too much juice. The ENGL is german made, it has tough pots for the knobs and a grill front. The back is ENTIRELY closed up with a sheet metal plate. You won't accidently break tubes having stuff piled up in the back of the truck that carries everyones crap. The engl head is huge and tough enuf.

Warranty for the ENGL is great, but it doesn't really matter. I won't need to use it. The ENGL line of amps are NOT known as lemons or for being in and out of the shop like 2 major manuf amps that cost much much more. My main reason for parting with other brands of amps.

There are better reviews than this skip this and go down a few. Don't bother with haters. They won't own a Engl but its not because they don't want one.

I owned this in 2007 for two weeks. It was not versatile at all, as the gain at 2 was metal and from 2-10 was garbage. The clean is slightly better than plugging directly into a sound board. This amp had a midrange knob but lacked midrange. Also, it may be because it's 60 watts, but it has no punch. It sounds like a solid state amp, where the sound is all blaring noise, and no power.

I used this guitar with 6 and 7 string guitars with humbuckers. It is a good amp for a beginner playing noisy heavy metal. It is not a good amp for people who like good tone. I believe you could get this tone out of a distortion pedal - and that probably sounds better to some than a Triple Rectifier distortion without a boost.
The distortion is brutal like a 5150 but the 5150 sounds much better. These are in great supply used on ebay if you haven't noticed - that's because they are for beginners who get their first amp and then either quit playing or need an upgrade.
In my experience, any pedals (overdrive, wah, etc.) sounded horrible with this amp - like it was a distortion pedal or a solid state amp.

There is no roundness to the lead tone at all. It's razor sharp like an ice pick in your ear.

Worked fine.

No dealings with ENGL.

I've been playing for 18 years. I own lots of guitars and have owned many amps like Triple Rectifier, 5150, JCM 800, Soldano Avenger, VHT Pittbull, Rivera Knucklehead, DSL 2000.

I wanted to balance these reviews out because according to most of the reviewers this is the best amp ever. No chance. It's getting the same ratings as an Engl Invader which is far better to my ears. Check out the sound clips at rocksolidamps for more proof.

Be careful listening to the kids here who say it is the best amp, and has Fender cleans and all that crap. If you go from a processor and this is your first tube amp, then yes, it is great. Once you've been playing awhile and have played different amps this will not cut it. If you have $1200 for an Engl keep saving and get something better.

Some people get upset when you criticize an amp that they own. No offense. But the same thing happens and the GAS cycle continues: one day you'll play a gig where someone in another band has something like an overdriven Marshall, or a Soldano, and you will be ashamed of your fizzy digital sounding tone, and your Fireball will be history.

2007 ENGL Fireball 60watt Head.

Two channels, footswitchable, along with two master volumes also footswitchable.

The only feature I wish this had was a seperate EQ for the clean channel, however I am finding that I rarely use the clean channel anymore and am instead just rolling off the volume of my guitar.

I find the features it has to be more than enough to many useable sounds in the hard rock/heavy guitar realm.

Guitar: Les Paul w/ Seymour Duncan JB & Jazz

Music Style: Hard Rock

NOISE: Can get noisy if you EQ it terribly. The EQ settings are quite different from a marshall, more similar to Mesa. If you apply only small boosts and cuts you will achieve a great tone with minimal noise. That said a noise suppressor never hurts..

SOUNDS: Very unique sounding amp, great midrange which should not be scooped! An EQ pedal brings this amp alive, especially in a live situation. This amp was primarily made for the studio I think, as the bass frequencies are quite thick and detailed. This fact, however, can reduce the amp's ability to 'cut' in a band situation, as alot of power is dedicated to this area. Using an EQ pedal to cut some of the very low bass frequencies and perhaps slightly boosting the mid range solved this problem for me. Not much required, just a bit of careful EQing. Definately loud enough to bring home the bacon at any size gig.

CLEAN: Heaps of headroom, can pull of bluesy tones with an overdrive pedal, but not on its own. One of the better clean channels of the high0gain amps.

DISTORTION: Very unique, very raw, very awesome! This amp loves the studio, it is almost impossible to make it sound bad. Sound good live too, unlike many Mesas I have heard.. I run the gain at 2.5/10, with the master volume at around 8/10. Some of the best tones I have ever heard!

Amp has never broke down, but I feel it is not the most solid amp I have ever picked up.

Doesn't feel like it's going to break at any second, don't get me wrong, I'm probably just being paranoid cuz I would hate to drop it!

Would gig without a backup, has a system that isolates power amp tubes in case one blows up, never experienced this in practice though..

Never dealt with them.

I would highly recommend this amplifier for anyone seeking a unique sounding amp for hard rock or metal appliances.

The kind of music I play would be more likened to Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, kinda stuff. Easily pulls of these dark, bassy, crunchy tones with the right EQing.

Buy one and love it.

2008 ENGL E625 Fireball Guitar Amplifier purchased from
HOUSE OF ENGL a authorized ENGL DEALER in the USA,
Jeff Tasch is the President and owner, a great person to do business
with who went out of his way to assist me in my purchase.

Front Panel Knobs and Controls (dial knobs unless noted) :
Input for instrument (one socket,no low and high, Not a bad thing)
Gain
Bright switch (on/off)
Depth switch (on/off)
Bass
Middle Treble
Presence (for Paul Gilbert fans this is the 'presents' knob)
Ultra Gain switch (on/off)
Master A
Master B
Power Tube Monitor V1 (led on/off)
Power Tube Monitor V2 (led on/off)
Stand by switch
Power ON/OFF switch

This amplifier has a more than adequate design. I find that there are very few guitarists who have the need or can properly perform while using 28 knobs, switches and 4 channels. The amplifers built that way are overthought and it shows in thier output. My theory is to have the least amount of equipment betweeen my guitar and the speaker, to get my desired sound. Not the opposite. For the intermediate to pro metal player, this amp is supreme. It has the ability to give you the Pantera, Master of Puppets, Devil Driver, Lamb of God, EQ'd type sound or down and dirty midrange hardcore punk sound RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, no B.S. This amp does it and that is FACT. With a street price around 1400.00, if you can find one, buy it. If you get rushed and buy something common that costs more, its you that has to live with it. Make your decisions ones that count. Its a inexpensive amp, but 1400 is still a lot of money for most guitar players who are not making millions with a band we play in...yet.
Also when reading reviews...look...think. If the reviewer can't spell the type of pickups they have in thier guitar, and reference music styles that have nothing to do with your tastes, do not give their review any consideration. I grew up listening to hardcore punk in the late 80's and played in bands. In the 90's thru today, 2008, I am only involved and interested in death metal, speed metal, thrash and other hard, technical, tight, shred type of riffs and leads, songs and performances. If this is not your type of guitar sound(s), don't waste your time with this review. With that out of the way, Fireball sounds...

The ENGL Fireball has a very dynamic and tight crunch that is similar to mesa and other similar amplifiers but has much more clarity. Double picking at high gain, shredding, arpeggios, tapping, this amplifier will give you excellent sustain and DEEP THICK THICK HEAVY CRUNCH. Every time I turn this amp on I get a big rush and smile and am so happy I purchased it. As for amps, its the best amp I have ever bought in 17 years other than my ENGL Thunder (more portable, the Fireball is a BIG HEAD). Death Metal, Speed Metal, Tight Technical Guitar work at high gain, this is the amp. As far as the 60 watt rating, don't even pay attention to the specs, this amp is as loud or louder than a 100 watt JCM800 or Mesa Rectifier. No problems at all with sound level. The 50 watt Thunder has the same great level, just not the exact same crunch of the Fireball. The crunch of the fireball is what you hear on albums and have never heard a amp put out live, ever. Its the perfect metal amp.

This amp is in a BIG *** CABINET. Really, its a long head. No problems though. Like another reviewer said, it allows access to the tubes, and would allow access for a technician but you won't ever need it worked on, it won't crap out on you. German made, high quality control, I own 2 ENGL amplifers. The Fireball is made better than any amp under 4000.00 that I have used. And sounds better, that is the most important. But if your amp is in the shop all the time, you have no sound at all.

ENGL Customer Support. Two issues here, purchasing and customer support. I couldn't have had a better company/person to purchase from than Jeff Tasch at House of Engl amps in the USA. The amp was on my doorstep (in the morning) in TWO DAYS guys! Want it now? His prices are more than competitive and he is very pleasant and he was able to put up with me. That is enough of a reason to buy from him. Jeff is the President of the Company. IF you call the '10 thousand amp sales a week' dealer will you get to speak to and buy from the President? Call Jeff Tasch at House of Engl amps. Go*gle 'House of Engl' and you will get everything you need. He answers email the same day, he takes phone calls instead of blocking you with voice mail, and he is honest and fair. Also, I used Jeff Tasch's name and company name with HIS permission.
About customer support through ENGL official website...
I have read that ENGL didn't return emails. Sorry, I find this hard to beleive. ENGL not only responds, they respond quickly. My question was about the two foot pedals available for the amp. Note about those, one is 115.00 and plastic with only A/B switching. The other is metal and about 100 dollars more with lots of functions. Don't buy the plastic one. this amp will be around a LONG TIME. You need the pedal board with it. Save your pennies up and get one. OR quit smoking and buy one much faster, then you'll be around to play longer. If that is a good thing?!

Overall rating of this amplifier is 9.5 I don't have anything to deduct, I am just reserving the 10 for something that hasn't been made yet. Ten ratings are given out too much, too quickly and unfortunately you can't edit these reviews later when the 'new' wears off.

If you want to know about the features just go to :http://www.engl-amps.com/index2.html

I just want to say this about amplifiers. If you want your amp to have a million guitar sounds, how do you expect to find YOUR sound? I have found MY sound with this amp. I come from an era where guitar players could be instantly recognised by their guitar sound and that is what I wanted to achieve. So yes, this amp is a one trick poney but it is versatile enough that two guitar players using the same exact gear won't have the same tone dialed in.

Moving on, the clean is amazing. I am using a Les Paul Custom and a G&L ASAT special semi-hollow body and both sound great. The distortion chanel is killer. Don't expect to get a light crunch sound like you would get with an Orange amp though. With the distortion set to about 2 or 3 you can peal the paint off of any walls (which could be handy sometimes). The one thing that has impressed me the most is that if you dial in a sound with the volume set a 2 and you cranck up the volume, your sound does not change. Most amps begin changing your sound when you go past 12 o clock, but this amp remains true to the sound you dial in no matter what volume you punch in. This is the first time I experience this with ANY amplifier.

If you want to hear this amp in action go to:

http://www.engl-amps.com/index2.html

watch the powerball video ( the powerball and fireball have the same distortion sound)

or go to my myspace to hear my album and the guitar sound I have dialed in for the recording using a Fireball.

www.myspace.com/daedaleancomplex

I have had this amp for a few months now, but it does the job very well. We are having a gig this coming month and I will be using the Fireball with no backup.

I have not used it yet.

I have been playing for over 20 years now and I have used a ton of amps and effects in the past to try and dial in my sound. I have found my sound with this amp. It is very responsive and dynamic and responds well to player who down-tune their guitars to drop C (like me) or lower.

If anything happened to this amp I would sell my nuts to get another Fireball (nuts, balls..).

What I love the most about this amp is the tone. I get a weird frizzled sound when I do black metal type picking on the high strings and it is absolutely killer. The one thing I dislike about the amp is the noise. Pluging a noisegate or a Rocktron Hush in the effect loop pretty much kills noise and humm and bugs too.

I compared this amp to a 5150, a Bogner Uberschall, Mesa Triple rectum fire and a few more amps. This one in my opinion was by far the most supperior product. And the price was very competitive.

made in germany Engl Fireball Head, 65 watts, 2 channels, only 1 gainknob but i dont need more if u just want to play metal. it has an effectsloop and a footswitchjack.
its all tube and looks killer.

i'll give it a 7 because its "only" a metal amp, u cant play anything else with it.

i played it with an esp ltd mh-250 with SD invader pickups.
this amp has the most brutal distortion i've ever heard so far.
although engl amps have its own character. is doesn't sound sterile and cold like a mesaboogie.

the ultragainchannel cuts through very well. no problem during bandrehearsals, u always gonna hear this amp. the eq has a wide range of different sounds, u really dont need more knobs, if u just want to play metal. the engl fireball has a very fast and direct response. and u can hear every mistake when u play, this amp amplifies how u play ;)

the cleanchannel also sounds great, u can hear every single string.

every part seems to be high quality, so i guess its ok to gig with it without backup

very helpful, one tube was broken and engl replaced it very fast for free. i had 90 days warranty on the tubes and 3 years on the amp.

i play for 8 years, tried many amps. i wanted a brutal distortion amp for deathmetal with its own character and thats what the fireball delivers. if it were stolen i would buy it again or save money for the engl powerball. i just found my dreamamp.

It has what it needs. It's a killer head for hard rock/metal.

I have yet to find an amp that does all things for all people (and modeling amps are garbage...if, of course, you value your ears or the ears of anyone around you).

If you want a fast car, buy a fast car. If you want a luxury car, buy a luxury car. If you want to tow something, buy a truck. Any rational person understands that you can't buy a pick-up that rides like a Lincoln and drives like a Corvette.

The same applies to guitar amps. If you want to play Jazz, buy a Roland or a Twin. If you want to play classic rock, buy a Superlead or an AC-30. If you want to play hard rock, buy a JCM 800. If you want to play metal, buy a Mesa, Bogner, (enter any number of amps here, including this amp)....

Unbelievable, really. I bought a new Dual Rec about 3 months ago, and I love that head. But, I bought this head used about a week ago for half the price, and still can't believe the tone. Sounds very much like the Mesa, but "tighter" (for lack of a better word), and produces harmonics with ease (more so than the Mesa). Every note articulates clearer, and that's with heavy distortion.

If you're considering a Rectifier, you should try this head first. I have it connected to a Mesa cab with vintage 30's. I've tried it with number of guitars, but prefer (hands down) a telecaster with a Hotrail in the bridge (playing through just the neck pick-up (for solo's) is tone heaven too).

If you play hard rock/metal, you can't lose with this head. I also have a JCM 800 and a 5150. Each head has it's strength. But, the Engl is a must have in my opinion. Overall, it's just excellent.

Don't know. Just got it.

Don't know, just got it.

Excellent. A must have (I would say) if you play hard rock/metal.

Brand new Engl bought from rocksolidamps. Made in Germany, der land of incredible brutality.

Features are easy: Two channels and an effects loop. That's it and I'm happy with it. If a lack of "features" like effects or tons of channels (like the higher priced Engls) is unappealing, steer clear of this baby. It's got your basic EQ set up of course, shared between the two channels but separate volume knobs for each. There's a bright and depth switch as well. It's 60 watts, you probably won't need the volume past 5 for anything, really. And like others said, you DON'T have to crank it up to get a good tone, which is a plus! All tube (6L6).

The features are fine for my music, which employs tones ranging from clean to heavy distortion. Although this amp may seem the wrong choice for versatility, I use and eq and an overdrive to basically add extra channels. Call me crazy, but I like using pedals.

I give an 8 because it's not lacking anything I feel it essential, but reverb wouldn't hurt, and the footswitch is not included and is too expensive for 2 buttons.

I use guitars with SD and EMG pickups (prefer the SD). It shines with both. I really feel that Engls have a unique distortion sound, which I love. It's not Mesa, and it's not Marshall. Now, let me talk about how I use it and work with the flaws.

First, yes it is possible to get both a great clean and great distortion setting with the shared EQ. And it's a true clean, very beautiful. The distortion is of course well known to be as intense as you want it to be. My gain setting? Three! Yes, three. With no effects on, it is already a pretty heavy tone, unless you are one of the "gain=heaviness" crowd and wear corpse-paint. It sounds similar to Alice in Chains tone ala Man in the Box (in terms of the gain anyway). I like the gain low like this, it is already a HIGH GAIN amp and with less preamp distortion it is incredibly organic. Now, for the true metal territory, I employ a Maxon OD9 set to the classic "boost" EQ (volume:10 drive:0 tone:0-3). Boom, now I've got an extra channel that can destroy small villages. I can also roll down the guitar volume w/ the OD on for are more crunch sound or take the OD off for a cleaner tone.

My only real problem with the tone is the highs, which I've never been able to tame with the onboard EQ. They sound ok for rhythm, but on leads it's like a wailing she-demon shrieking in your ear, and not in a cool metal way, more like an Ann Coulter way. Enter the MXR 10-band EQ (I use the Kerry King version for the extra output). It is set VERY MODERATELY. The only thing that is changed are some bass frequencies (boosted for extra thunder) and, more importantly, the highest frequencies (cut for less Ann Coulter). Perfection! I can leave it off for during rhythms, but I usually leave the pedal on all the time because it is set so moderately it sounds great.

The clean channel stays clean at usable volumes, and there is very little noise (again, gain set on 3), but I do use an ISP Decimator (everyone should have one) to keep things clean since I have a few pedals and such. Especially my wah which adds a ton of noise.

And again, the tone is unique you just really have to hear it.

Haven't had any problems, but I don't gig very much. I would use a backup if I could afford it (who wouldn't?) but I can't so I don't.

Haven't dealt with them, just Derek B., who is the ****.

Been playing for about 8 years, this is the best amp I've owned so far. If it were stolen, after a long cry I would probably try other amps but most likely end up with the FB or another Engl. Their amps are unstoppable. I love the uniqueness of it, they are not too common in the States. Oh yeah, and the tone kicks ass! I wish it had a spring-loaded boxing glove that would launch at the nuts of any would be thief.

I give it a nine because nothing is perfect.

Effects loop, 2 channels with 1 shared EQ.

I wouldn't mind a seperate gain knob, and also some reverb on tap so I'll be giving it a 6 for features.

Using an RG1570 with Dimarzio Breeds.

This amp is chug heaven. Pinch harmonics come easily.

I do tighten it up with a TS9 though, as it gives the ultra gain channel a bit more bite. Leave the TS9 on and switch to the clean channel and you get a nice bluesy crunch.

Can be a bit noisy (even with guitar volume on 0), so I've also had to invest in an ISP Decimator.

I agree it can be a bit of a 1 trick pony, but that is why you buy this amp, for it's metal heavenliness. I'll probably get a Marshall DSL down the line for classic rock.

I haven't had a chance to crank this amp with a band, but I've cranked it on my own (well volume on 3!) and it nearly blew my face off. Very loud!

If you like metal just get this.

I bought it used and the other guy had it a year and it still sounds/works fine.

N/A

Been playing 5 years, and gone through a few amps to find the one.

Had a DSL401, an Orange Rocker 30 and a Laney LC30 then decided I'd go and get an amp that doesn't need to be boosted to Pluto and back to sound good and heavy.

If it got stolen I'd probably get it again, although I'd try out a DSL50 just to check that isn't the one!

2007 Model ENGL Fireball.

I use this amp entirely for one sound. That absolutely crushing, brutal metal sound that ENGL does so well. The amp has two channels that share gain and EQ settings, but even when it is set to a crushing metal sound on the Ultra Gain channel, it cleans up nicely on the clean channel.

I use it in combination with a Mesa Stiletto for all of my cleans and low gain sounds, and between them its an extremely versatile rig.

Some people might say this amp is a bit of a one trick pony, but it is one hell of a trick.

Using an Ernie Ball John Petrucci 7 String.
Suits metal perfectly :)
The amp is very quiet, even on extreme settings, can't hear the hiss over the sound of the fan in the stiletto.

Don't know yet, haven't had it long enough to judge, but it seems like its built well.

Never dealt with them.

If this was stolen or lost I would definately buy another. I compared this with just about every Mesa, Marshall, and other ENGL, and to my ears this sounded best. Would have liked to compare to a Diezel, but couldn't get one.

I payed 1500$ for my new ENGL Fireball.
Ordered from Germany.
It's a two channel amp with 3 eq knobs, depth and bright switches.
This amp has tro separate Master controls, but share one and same Gain knob for both channels.
Some people may think it's damn stupid. I think it too, but it's not a that huge problem. I can still get some clean tones after switching from Ultra Gain to Clean.
It has also a f.x-loop and 4 cabinet jacks.
But no headphone jack!
Cool design with shiny metal and red glow inside. Looks like the 6L6 tubes glow red neon, but it's not the tubes.
Looks really brutal.
I give it a rating 8 only because both channels share same Gain control.

The amp is a Metal beast! I ise it with my Epiphone Les Paul Custom.
It can deliver some really brutal Gain even at the gain settings at 12 o'Clock.
Some might say that the amp has too much gain at full settings - Even the most brutal metalists.
At the gain at 11 or 12 o'clock you can get some really heavy sound and also a clean tone when switching to chanel 1.
It deliver good lead tones with much sustains. Add some reverb or delay, and you have a good solo sound! btw, the amp deliver more modern metal sound. If you want a vintage sound, get another amp.
I play Metallica, Pantera, Children Of Bodom, Opeth ++ And the amp cover all my needs.

The amp has very good cleans, even thoght it's a Metal amp.
I use it with my 4x12 Hughes&Kettner cab with Celestion v30 speapes.
The amp likes v30 speakers! Really tight metal tone and warm clean tone.

People says the amp also like Celestion GT12-75 speakers if you want something cheaper. But I haven't tried them.
In my ears, the Fireball sounds really great.
It can deliver good sounds in bedroom levels and band practices.
Very spesial ENGL'sh sound. It has its own characters. And that is good.

I haven't had any problems with this amp. And I hope I won't.
I love this amp, and I think my next amp will be another ENGL. (Maybe)

No experience.

I've been playing for 5-6 years.
I play Metal and this amp delivers all the Metal sound I need.
I with the amp had separate EQ, or at least separate Gain controls for each channel. And maybe a reverb channel?

If it had two saperate Gain controls, i would give this amp rating 10 of 10.
But I can't. I'll give it a 9/10 because I love this amps sound! (and it's designs)

I bought it from a guy who ordered it from Germany.
Payed 8990NOK = 1650 bux.
Usually they cost 2000$ here.

This amp cover all my needs. It has a brutal distortion, and good cleans.
I miss two things with this amp:
- Separate Gain controller for each channel!
- Reverb!

I can add reverb with a pedal, no problem. But it would be cool with a little reverb controller in the amp. Many amps got it.
I only use the gain at 12 o'clock. SO I can get a good clean sounds and distortion without turning the Gain knob all the time.
But I would still prefer two separated Gain controllers.

(If you want this amp to be perfect, buy a ENGL Powerball. But the Fireball cover my needs. So I'm happy! And it's easier to use at 60w in a bedroom and you can still use it for gigs and bandpractice)
Good thing: It has two Master controls.
But this is the best Metal amp you can get for that price. I even think the price is low, considering the amp is that great.
All-tube 60 powerful watts!

For that I'm giving the rating:

The amp can deliver a pretty good clean sound - Even thought it's a metal amp!
But the amp is best at channel two. The Ultra Gain channel.
I play the Epiphone Les Paul Custom. I've tried the amp with LTD Deluxe, but the Epi sounds much better with this amp!
Is has more bass, sustain and warmth.

The Distortion sound is brutal! Even at 12 O'Clock. The amp has plenty of gain. If anyone says it has too little gain, you'll have to polish your ears. Or take a hearing test.

I play it with my Hughes&Kettner 4x12 Celestion v30 cab. And it deliver a very tight tone with the bridge pickup and lots of sustain with the neck pickup.
I have a Metal Zone, MT-2 Distortion pedal from Boss. I'vealways been satisfied with it. But now I don't need it anymore. The ENGL deliver all I need of gain.
I have the volum knob on 1/2 of 10.
This deliver a low volumes and the amp doesnt loose it's amazing sound!
But when you turn the knob at 1, it sounds too loud for my bedroom! And the amp likes the high volumes best.

At last: This amp can deliver all kind of distortion from Opeth, koRn, Metallica's Justice For All album, Black metal and death meatl sounds.
Not that good for oldschool rock. But if you drive it with higher volumes and low gain settings, I bet the amp will deliver a good classic rock tone too.
But Metal, is what this amp is best for.

ENGL + Hughes&Kettner 4x12 with Celestion v30
= TRUE_

This is the best Metal amp you can get for that price!
Tube sound is amazing. I've palyed many transistor amps. No of them can compare agains this amp!
'
You who haven't tried this amp, go and visit your local gitar store and try any Engl! You will love it.

I've only had the amp for 2 days.
So I hope I can depend on it.. I know I can depend on it.

Only had it 2 days.

Fantastic amp.

I use it ith my
Epiphone Les Paul Custom
Hughes&Kettner amazing cab with 4x12 Celestion v30
No pedals. Even though I have distortion, overdrive, POD pedals.
I dont need them anymore! The amp deliver all the Gain I need.
It sounds like Metallica's And Justice For All sounds when you use much gain.

Try it!! And have fun ;p


Cheers, from ExcaliBur (Youtube search for Black Hole - ExcalibuR)
I'll upload some soundclips and video later!

2007 ENGL Fireball head, E625. 2 channel amp with footswitchable master volumes. Shared gain and EQ for two channels. Single global presence control, which is absolutely necessary to tame the harshness of the high gain sound. Adjustable effects series effects loop.
This amp is supposed to be boiled down, stripped of excess features. In this goal it seems most comparable to the VHT Deliverance heads. The Deliverances are cool amps as well, but they DO NOT HAVE AN EFFECTS LOOP. This makes them worthless in my opinion, and VHT makes some of the best effects loops in the biz! WTF Steve. Worthless.
ENGL Fireball is meant for players like me who hate fiddling with dials. I like to dial in one tone for high gain, one tone for clean, and work from there with the guitar.
Although having few features is in essence the main feature of this amp, independent EQ and gain are a must. The dual master volumes is great, because you can use them as two different channel volumes via the footswitch, or as a solo boost for your leads.
I think the VHT Deliverance would get a 3 for features, and the Fireball gets a 5. This isn't the amp's strong suit. If you want adjstability, get a Powerball. If you want versatility, look into the Blackmore.

I play almost every sort of guitar music conceivable. That being said, I'm not good at any of them, except for mild skill at rock/metal/shred. I bought this amp for death metal. For that I use my RG7 dropped to A, and my Jackson Rhoads which is in drop C, with EMG HZ H4 pickups. I also tried my JEM7VWH through it, with suprising results. More on that later.
This amp was made for super tight, responsive, defined attack. The transformers and power section were specifically designed for that. The response is incredible. If you play straight into the amp and don't like solid state distortion, you will love this amp. I hated my modded 5150 because it was not defined enough at all to play tight death metal. Flabby, muddy, woofy low end. That's why I don't like Mesa Boogie amps either. No definition. The ENGL Fireball is GREAT for metal rhythms. It leaves nothing to be desired as far as rhythm goes for me. With the gain at 12 o'clock, it sounds great. Tight attack, fat distortion, lots of low-end crunch. Palm mutes leap out. This amp SLICES through the mix. This is the most aggressive amp I have ever heard.
The lead tones are harsh. I roll back on the mids and presence to remove some bite from the sound. The higher you go on the fretboard, the sharper the sound gets. This amp wasn't made for lead, so if you are an exclusive lead player, I would try to find an amp that is less harsh. I understand, however, that this is a by-product of this amp's focus on fierce attack. That being said, rolling back on the mids and presence makes the sound softer. With ultra-defined metal amps, it's often hard to play lead because the sound is so dry. I hear the G-100-UL has this problem. The ENGL shreds like a bat out of hell. Alternate picking sounds great, as does sweep. You get a real deep pick sound, which adds a percussive element to shredding. Easy amp to play shred on!
The cleans were a total shock. Never had I expect cleans this glassy from a high gain amplifier. The cleans are pristine, do NOT break up at any volume, and offer great warmth and clarity. Fantastic for a 6L6 amp. I generally prefer the twang of an EL34 amp, but the cleans here were a total shock. 9.8/10 for the cleans simply because it's not perfect. Best cleans I've heard from a high-gain amp.
Trying my JEM with this amp yielded a strange surprise. On the lead channel with gain at 12 o'clock, rolling back on the volume almost entirely on the guitar and using the single coil and neck pickup together gave a SWEET twang sound. Totally unexpected! Sounds like Richie Kotzen's Cornford! Country heaven! Total SRV twang, responsive to pick dynamics. Strange to get this out of such a high gain amp! I will certainly use this sound live.
5150 had s****y cleans and was muddy throughout the lead channel, even with lots of modding. The ENGL is everything the 5150 should have been. I'm happy with this for my 6L6 metal amp.

I've been playing for 7 years, intensively. I play every genre of guitar, and own tons of guitars and equipment. This is the best death metal amp I've tried. You would really be hard pushed to find an amplifier more appropriate for tight death metal. This amp is simply made for that type of music. If you want an amp like this that could also do sweet rock sounds and other tones, you'd have to get one of those ultra-versatile boutique amps like the VHT Pittbull Ultralead, Mako Amplification Custom MAK4, something along those lines. I think a cheaper solution is to have multiple amps that are specialized. For death metal, this amp SLAYS. The sweet twang tones and glassy cleans are a huge bonus.
This amplifier is not for tweakers, who are often floored by versatility. It's my impression that those types (who I do not see eye-to-eye with at all) would be happier with the Blackmore, which has more channels and more sounds, but is less focused on the tightness and aggression.
Great amp for death metal. A rating of 8 is great. 5150 would be a 4. If this were ultra-versatile, I would give it a 9, and less harsh lead sounds would please me as well.

Well, as it is not modified, my Fireball has the same features as listed in theother reviews. Very basic, actually all you need. The rest comes from you and how you play.
But I wished it has some more, like a second gain knob, for the clean channel. The shared Eq is not a Problem for me, since it is the Distortion I bought this Amp for. But it would be good to have a gain control on the clean channel to get it totally clean even if you use higher gain settings on the distortion channel.
reverb would also be nice for clean settings and leads, but i don??t really miss it.

I play in a Death/Doom Metal Band and therfore need a brutal Distortion.
And the Fireball just delivers what i want, it simply destroys!
It is not as raw sounding as a 5150 and has more compression but i just love the growling midrange. This is actually one of the best features of the Amp, the Midrange. it is very thick and chunky. Since i can??t stand scooped tones it is really important to me. Palm Mutes seem to kick you out of your practice room, it has so much power. Although the Amp compresses quite a lot, it does not hide mistakes or sloppy playing, it is still very responsive and honest. Good playing will sound good, bad playing....guess what.
The Distortion is not always brutal, tweak the few knobs properly and you have a good hardrock sound. Good, not great, it is definately Metal what this Amp was built for.
Sonic Evaluation: Schecter C-1 Blackjack Baritone (B Standard)>>>Fireball>>>some old 4x12 cab with Celestions (soon to be replaced.
The other guitarist in my band plays a Crate Blue Voodoo which works great together. The Fireball delivers Punch and Depth while the Voodoo bites.
But be careful with the bass, the Fireball has a lot of it and high settings on the bass may lead to serious fights with your bass player.

The Clean Channel could be a bit brighter without havin to use the Bright Switch, which sounds to harsh when switching to the Distortion Channel. But i can split my Humbuckers to Single Coils, so it compensates this a bit.
Only 9 because nothing is perfect.

I don??t have it that long. Everything works fine so far and i don??t see any reason why this should change in the near future.

Never dealt with Engl. I only heard their Customer Support is bad. But i don??t care for such rumours since i like to base my opinion on own experience.

I have been playing for 6 years now but did not have had many Heads. I mostly played Racks and owned a lot of different Preamps. But since i don??t need that much flexibility, a puristic Amp is enough.

If you want to have a great Metal Distortion for a reasonably price, here it is. The sound can challenge much more expensive Amps.
I wouldn??t recommend this Amp for other musical styles than Metal since there are better Amps for it. But for Metal, be it Death, Black, Thrash,...the Fireball suits perfect.
I would definately buy one again if stolen, because other Amps i??d like to have are out of my price range (Rivera Knucklehead, Engl SE, Framus Cobra).

It's *******' amazing!!! I had 4 Peavey Triple XXX before (i was satisfied) but Fireball is juz an killer amp!! I play thrash/death metal. Distrotion is very clean and brutal. I love this kind of distro. Clean is also very nice. Not as nice as te Triple xxx has but is sweet :)

Polish distributor is a very cool guy. Few phones and Fireball has landed in my room. No complaining!!

To early for this.. :)

Good for everyone that look for a good amp to play metal. It's not univeral amp - one eq for 2 channels - pitty but I use clean only for tunning:P

I bought ENGL Fireball brand new in 2007, so it have leds insted of red coloured lights. It's 60W all tube amp.
This is mostly for clean or metal playing style, hard rock or easy crunch is hard to get. But for any tipe of metal (heavy to brutal death metal) this amp realy delivers.
It's two channel (clean/high gain) amp, with shared controls. You can switch channels by button of front side or by footswitch (not included).
In back there is effects loop.
No headphone jack.
I use this amp for home playing and recording. It is great from whisper volume to 75% volume.....it's always super tight and have great sound (which is not something that usual tube amp have----this was meant for whisper volumes).
Since it's 60W of pure tube power, it will be enough for any purpose.

I use it with 2*12 box with celestion vintage 30 speaker, guitar have EMG 85 in the bridge (yes 85, because guitar is made of alder and is super bright, so i needed something bassier to get fuller sound). Sound is great! Super tight and punchy. Cuts thru like a knif. Every one having problem cutting thru must have presence, mids and treble at 0 while other guitarist have 5150 with presence, mids and treble at max :)

Clean channel is very clean (no problem with shared knobs, since they work very well together), you can get a little worm sound or very punchy twang sound.

High gain channel is tight, punchy and cler....every note is heard....and every mistake too :) I play from heavy to thrash to black and death metal...this amp delivers all of that! And is not noisy as long as you don't do anything stupid! At whipser volume it still sound great, nice saturation and no hiss or anything.

ENGL's are known for being very reliable and lots of band's use them for tour (Dimmu Borgir, Blind guardian, zyklon, emperor, etc). But i don't tour so i don't know from first hand.

It's THE amp for me, because i play metal only! So i don't need very versatile amp. I would buy it again for sure!

2 Channel all tube guitar amp with a shared EQ and gain control. Bright switch, depth switch, two footswitchable master volumes, serial effects loop. I wish this amp had a second gain control as this would open up alot more tonal options but the one gain control does actually work on this amp if you use it properly.

This is a 60 watt amp, meaning it has slightly less headroom than a 100 watt amp but this does not mean it isn't loud enough like some fools may lead you to believe. Infact a 60 watt amp is virtually as loud as a 100 watt amp!

This amp has all the features I need in an amp right now and none that I wouldn't use, however If I had the choice I would have liked a gain control for each channel.

Like I said the Fireball can cover alot of ground, more than others may lead you to believe. It has one basic sound but is very adaptable to all sorts of modern metal and rock sounds. The EQ is very versatile and can be set to get nu metal sounds, modern rock, power metal etc . This amp isn't as aggressive sounding as my old 5150 II, but it definately has more character and is heavy enough for any extreme metal styles. Overall this is amp has a 'modern' character to the voicing, which is exactly what i've been looking for.

It's a high gain amp so it will be noisy, use a noise gate! It is actually noticeably quieter than my old 5150 II at the same volume though. I play metal of all kinds, but at the moment I am focusing on my black metal band and I don't have any problem getting suitable sounds from this amp.

I haven't toured with this yet so I can't comment on how reliable the head is. When I recieved it though the Z4 footswitch was faulty, so i'm now getting a replacement sent to me from the distributors. So i'm not that impressed at the moment! I'm giving this a 5 because of that.

Have tried contacting them by email in the past but they never replied. They may have changed now, but I doubt it. Hopefully I will just enjoy the product and not have to contact them.

I've been playing just over 3 years and own a modified gibson flying v, esp ltd baritone and a gibson les paul standard limited edition 2004. If my Fireball was lost or stolen I'm not sure if I would buy it again or not, I don't think it comes very close to the "sound heard in the head/holy grail of tone" but overall its well priced and a very decent piece of gear. Before I bought this I did alot of research into most high gain amps on the market and nearly went with a rivera k-tre, but i went with the fireball as it was cheaper and i dont feel the need to have an ultra expensive amp right now, in the future at some point i'd like to try a bogner uberschall and a dual rectifer, but i could have 2.5 fireballs for that price!

I bought this amp because of its lack of features. I just wanted an amp with more sound and less features. This is the one trick metal pony that I've been looking for. The layout is great if it's dark. Gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, master 1, master 2. I'm not scanning thru 25 knobs with a lighter to see what's up. There is no reverb unit clanging around when I move it. I'm using Boss FS5U's to control it instead of the expensive Engl footswitch. It looks killer too. Chrome face and logo, steel grill, and the power tubes are backlit with red LED's to simulate a Fireball I suppose.

This is the sickest distortion I've heard so far. Everything was set to 12 o'clock when it arrived and it sounded killer right off the bat. I use it with Marshall Lead 1960 cabs (Celestion G12-T75's) and it sounds great, even though the head is voiced for Vintage 30's. I also have a 4x10 cab with Celestion G10-L35's and it sounds enormously better than the G12-T75 cabs. Either way, I am in awe. It's pretty noisy when the gain is turned up so I got an ISP Decimator and that's the end of that. It's chunkier with Duncans, but smoother with EMG's.

I haven't owned it long enough to know if it's going to break down or not, but I'm definitely buying a 2nd Fireball as soon as my Marshall sells. At that price I can't afford not to buy a backup.

Talked to Jeff on the phone several times and he's always been cool.

I bought mine to replace my Marshall TSL100 and our other guitarist bought his to replace his Peavey JSX and XXX. We had our decision narrowed down to the Engl's or the Peavey 6505's. The Engl was more appealing for 2 reasons. 1-It's easier to push a 60 watt tube amp than a 120 watts. 2-Everybody's playing 6505's and we don't want to sound like everybody.

We live 2000 miles apart so we haven't heard both amps together yet, but I'm convinced that they will destroy. I love everything about it.

parallel effects loop, tube failure protection, visually appealing, built like a rock, most gain I've ever come across. well worth the price.

This is the best metal sounding amp I've had. I had to laugh at the one guy who said he only likes the clean channel who went on to complain about it. WTF?! This amp was designed for metal. It's known for the brutal sounds. What a moron. I love the clean too, but it's no fender... fenders break down too easy. I guess I'm buying a fender to play death metal on. LOL.

quote: "They use very cheap materials and shoddy techniques to put the cabinet together (MDF cabinet, plastic stand-offs on the PCB, not enough bracing in areas). Fit and finish is poor. The grill was completely puched in when I got mine delivered. I had to "re-engineer" the grill onto the cab again."

comments:
I have this amp and this these comments were sickening so I had to respond. The fit and finish is not poor. Mine was shipped triple boxed. I've had so many bad experience with UPS smashing crap. I've gotten a VHT before that was delivered all smashed up. Does that make VHT crap? The fireball is the sexiest looking amp I've seen in a while. I've had it apart too! Only a moron would accept a smashed in front due to shipping especially ON A TUBE AMP! That means it took a big blow! Mine is built like a tank. Who cares if it's on a PCB with standoffs? $1000 computers are too. You're not going to open it up and sit a 30lb weight on it for good luck. I can never understand people who post junk like this. I'm so sick of retarded bias. I've had this amp for 3 years and never once had a problem.

I agree that customer support is crap. You have better luck extracting info from your dealer than Engl directly. There's only a handful of ENGL US dealers. We're not their targeted customers, but that doesn't make it right!

This is a 2006 Engl Fireball Head. I play anything from classical, neoclassical, jazz and metal through my head, and let me tell you...THIS HEAD CAN DO IT ALL! It has a brightness nooster and a bass boster, i never really use either becuase the sound is so great. one gain for the 2 channels it has, lead and clean

The sound is extreamly versatil, btu dont be fooled with all those mesas and marshalls. this is a real amp. Its completly hand made in german. to be completly honest , when i was doing my won comparison, i played this head through a mesa 4x12 with v30's through a 5150 and a rectifier, theres no comparison, for about the same price, youll be getting a sound that could have cost you 3x the price. as fr the tones that this head can produce, the clean is extramly bright and bouncy, and the lead is so tight and crisp its not even funny. another plus at really high volumes, the transfomer holds together, so it sounds the same at low volume as it does when your plaing a large venue

N/A

N/A

this head is awsome, Im an engl user for life, after playing this, im never going back to any of the stock commercial amps ever again. this ones really something different

I would give a rating of 10 if it had separate gain/bass/mid/treble kontrol for each channel. This is in my opinion a 1 channel amp since there's no way of controlling the sound of the 2 channels seperately. If gain control is set to a normal level in high gain channel then the clean channel is totally clean. Since this is a metal amp it would have been very nice to have crunch/high-gain instead of clean/high-gain. That being said it's a killer high gain channel!!!

I use two Gibson Explorers. One with Gibson Dirty Fingers mic's and the other with EMG 81 and 85. This is without any doubt a metal amp, and the high gain channel is worth the cost alone. Earlier I had a Mesa Triple Rectifier, but I sold it because I didn't want all that power. I only use it in a recording studio. The distortion in Fireball is very different from the Rectifier distortion. I would call the Rectifier modern distortion more brutal than Fireball, but Fireball has a different rawnes in the midrange that sounds awsome. Also the bottom feels tighter in the Fireball than in the Rectifier. Actually I mostly used the EMG Explorer on my Rectifier because is was much tighter than the Dirty Fingers. On the Fireball I use mostly the Dirty Fingers Explorer because it's every bit as tight as EMG's on the Rectifier, and in my opinion they sound a lot warmer and more raw in the midrange. This sounds like only Engl sounds. If you like it it's a 10. If not you must look for a different brand. It's a bit noisy in high gain mode, but not any worse than the Rectifier.

Clean channel sounds good to me, but I never use clean sound, and you have to turn gain all the way up to get a proper crunch sound. At this gain setting it's total overkill in the high-gain channel, so it's of no use to me. Like I mentioned earlier this is really a 1 channel high gain amp to me, but what a high-gain sound!!! This is the ONLY amp I've never had to adjust the gain over 12 o'clock to get a killer metal sound! Mostly I adjust the gain between 9 and 11 o'clock, so it will be possible to get fat high gain raw distortion with a pick-up with lower output than the ones I use.

I've never experienced any problems with this amp.

I've never tried to contact Engl.

My opinion is that an amp should have two useful channels independent from each other. Fireball does NOT have that. Both gain/bass/mid/treble are the same for both channels. It would have been a 9 with seperate gain kontrols. A 10 with separate bass/mid/treble also. If it were stolen I think I would replace it with a Ritchie Blackmore signature amp or perhaps the new Invader, but I would certainly buy another Engl. If you only need 1 high gain channel, or if you actually use clean channel totally clean, then the Fireball is a killer metal amp at a very good price.

I hesitate to give this amp a low score, b/c it does what it is supposed to do in a no b.s. way... the rating is "not versatile" to "very versatile", and this amp isn't versatile. It's got two channels, but truth is they only serve to change volume levels when you get down it.

It does have an overload shunt mechanism in case a tube dies so you don't blow a tranny, which is why I give a 3 over a 1. Otherwise, it's sheer simplicity.

Even within the distortion range, which is great, imo, there's not a lot of variety, so it's likely a situation where you either like it or not (I happen to like it).

I play through several Jackson USA model guitars with EMG-81's and such. I run through 2 Marshall mode four cabs. I play metal, and this little thing does metal very well.

This thing sounds good enough that I'm strongly considering selling my rack setup (Which consists of several preamps and a VHT 2-90-2 power amp... a killer power amp, btw). But I admit it took me a little while to get used to it, 'cause I'm used to a "glassier" sound.

The distortion character is really good. I've owned a TON of different gear, tube and solid state, all very expensive, and this comes closest to "the" sound of anything I've been through. It's very sensitive and is "fleshed out" enough that you don't have to max the gain out to get a ripping shred, and you can still maintain great definition. Speaking of definition, no matter what gain setting I have yet to hear it become farty, muddy, thin, or otherwise, which is so NICE! (I tune to C and C#).

It is lacking low-end thump when set to non-stage volumes. I put an active EQ in the effects chain (little boss pedal) and it fixes that up quite nicely. The eq is at good intervals though, because all I do with the external eq is boot 100-300Hz, and drop 400Hz a bit. Everything else I let the built in EQ do and it works great.

These 6L6's sound pretty good, though I've always been more of a fan of El34's, this definitely sounds better than most 6L6 amps I've heard. Though, I think I'll experiement with some glassier-sounding 6L6's (if they exist...).

I guess the only problem is that the character/tone/eq are not especially versatile, so if you like it, you like it. But even an active EQ in the effects loop doesn't significantly change the sound except to add low end. Messing with anything above the 400Hz range on the eq got me nowhere (but that's fine, b/c I like the sound).

Well, I haven't had an problems yet, but I had a Thunder 50 which had poor build quality, and this one is no better. They use very cheap materials and shoddy techniques to put the cabinet together (MDF cabinet, plastic stand-offs on the PCB, not enough bracing in areas). Fit and finish is poor. The grill was completely puched in when I got mine delivered. I had to "re-engineer" the grill onto the cab again. Fortunately, I am a wood worker and I could make it better.

I do not believe this thing could stand up to abuse.

For an amp of this supposed "premium" level, they need to realize that electronics are only one aspect to the package.

don't know... but I've heard terrible things :).

I've been playing for 15-20 years, with really good gear, and have been thruogh a lot of amps. This is one of my favorites, and I'm thinking about ditching my rack setup for this. I'm building am amp, and am modeling some of it after this.

It's a good amp with good sound, but it's not a good "value". For what it is, what's inside it (I'm an electrical engineer, I've studied tube amp design and seen the schematics for this model), and how it's built, it's truly over-priced.

Their construction techniques stink. They should have paid more attention to the overall design. This thing will fold under abuse. Hell, it barely made it to my doorstep intact.

I've reinforced mine where necessary, but for this price tag, I should not have had to.

Features copy-pasted from engl-site : 2 channel ''NO THRILLS JUST TONE'' -amp, designed for modern heavy Rock, sparkeling
clean- and soring lead sounds combined with supersonic punch and tight response in an easy to handle power package. Hearing is believing.

Preamp:
2 channels, Clean, Lead, 3 band EQ, Bright switch, Depth switch, Presence control, 3x ECC83 preamp tubes.

Master Section:
Master A/B, 60 watts (1 x ECC83, 2 x 6L6GC power amp tubes).

Outputs:
Speaker Outs (2 x 8, 2 x 16 Ohms), fx loop, (parallel to serial adjustable), dual footswitch jacks (Z-3 or Z-4).

Dimensions & Weight:
71 x 27 x 27 cm, 18 kg

A very good tube amp for rock and metal, no doubt. It definitely has enough power for bedroom-guitarists like me, and it is quite a powerhouse for a 60-watt amp. I'll give it a 9 for it's features, because it is missing a reverb.

My main guitar is LTD M-302 and it has stock HZ4 pickups, gotta to say the amp is brutal. Perfect for rock and metal. I play it through a Behringer cab and the amp still sounds amazing. (I wonder how it would sound a better cab... ) Beats the crap out of Peavey 5150/6505s (tonewise). The amp is very versatile, you just have to figure it out yourself. Take your time with the EQ and find your own asskicking sound.
By backing off the volume on your guitar the clean sound is great. (Peaveys are no match for it.) It is not a perfect sound, but better than a Peavey-clean or a Marshall-clean.

It sure as hell looks heavy and durable, but I would never gig without a backup, because you're not the only person on stage, and someone else might accidentally make it fall etc. (you get the point, do you ? )

Never dealt with them

I have been playing for five years , and I own a couple of marshalls.
This thing has managed to blow my mind everytime I have played it.
I love the killer distortion and the clean. I compared this one with peavey 6505, and chose to buy this one, due to following reasons : 1.Better sound (Both channels)
2.Every freaking metal band has a 6505 (or a 5150) nowadays

The Engl Fireball 60 Watt tube head has a very simple layout. It's because of this simplicity that I'm scoring it a 10 for features. There are two channels for clean and gain respectively, and the controls are shared between them. A single EQ, Gain, Prescnence aswell as two master volumes (Footswitchable for a solo boost). There's also the familiar FX Loop, which I don't use.

Being a former Mesa Boogie user, there's a degree of freedom in the simplistic design of the Fireball, and I would say it's a very user-friendly "Plug & Play" style amp compared to Mesa amps that take a degree of knowledge and tweaking in order to dial in the right tone. So, while that's not exactly a criticism of Mesa Boogie, if you'd prefer a more user-friendly amp, then the Engl really delivers.

This is where the amp really shines. There's no doubt that it has been designed as a purely Heavy Metal beast, and it succeeds not only because of a phenominal distorted channel, but a sparkling clean channel aswell. Infact, I'd say that the Cleans beat that of Mesa Boogie's Rectifiers and other hard-rock geared amp hands down, and this is a huge plus because in the world of Metal today there are bands who use a lot of cleans.

Personally, I play music akin to that of Opeth, Death, Nevermore, Megadeth, Dream Theater, aswell as song by the aforementioned bands. The Fireball has the style nailed, and has more than enough distortion and gain on tap to satisfy any needs, even the severely brutal Morbid Angel sound.

I also find that turning the volume down on the guitar, and using single coils, I can get some very nice low-gain bluesy style sounds. Good if you're a fan of Stevie Ray or the likes aswell as some of the more extreme acts around, but I doubt I could recommend the Fireball for the blues player.

Overall though, I believe the amp to be nothing short of perfection for me needs. It can be extremely loud indeed, so plenty of juice for live playing.

Overall, a stunning amp that I simply cannot fault.

This amp has a clean and a dist mode!
I mostly play metal and that's what it's build for! Treb Mid Prec Bass Depth and Bright mode. Thats it

I'm using a ESP Horizon with EMG 81/85 and Jackson DK Solo with same PU's and they fit perfectly to this amp (espacially tuned to B!!)! The clean chanel is really nice and sounds like no other. It's just differnt to other amps. The dist channel is what i bought it for! Metal!!!!!! There are no limits with EMG 81 Cutting through and sounding like a beast! No compare to powerball! Powerball is ok and has a noisegate but the tightness on powerball is less than on FIREBALL because the Mids are not as variable than on FIREBALL. So this amp gives you more for less!!!!

I use this amp for 8 weeks now and played 4 gigs with it! I don't need a backup anymore (Had JMP1 and 9100 and a lot of Eq stuff) just a boss noisgate and it sounds like hell!!!!!

I can't tell becuae I just had no pobs until now

This amp is worth while every Cent!! It's realy a working horse! If you play Metal espacially Symphonic stuff this thing is the best choice! I'ts versatile and perfectly tunded to such stuff

60W Tube amp with clean and distortion channel.
No unnecessary features, just what you need.

I'm using it with a Ibanez rg7 (tuned in D) with DiMarzio evolution pickups, and a self-built 2x12 cabinet (celestion speakers). Reverb pedal in the fx loop sometimes.

I play mostly death metal-style distortion and this amp has a great sound for it. Warm and crunchy. The clean channel is clear and warm-sounding. With the gain at around 12:00 it's good for both channels.

Very versatile, anything from clean to brutal distortion. Clean channel with full gain is pretty much like the dist channel with low gain, so it's all there. A 9 because I have a sore throat.

I've had it for about 5 years and it has worked fine for me. Never gigged but (ab)used alot in practice.

No idea, haven't needed it.

I've been playing for about 8 years or something. It's my only amp and perfect for me. I think there's no better amp for the price.

It's also a nice piece of furniture if I find myself wondering why the hell I think I can play an instrument.

Real simple but does me just fine

I actually dont use the gain channel the overdrive level is ridiculous,i go for an ac/dc type sound,why oh why engl didnt you include a seperate gain knob for the overdrive channel!! how ridiculous! set up a perfect rhythm sound with the gain up full,only to have it blow your head off when you switch to the gain channel!

interanlly this amp is a joke,it must cost very little to make,eveything is on a pcb and all the trannies are about as a big as a marshall choke! so why is it #800 quid? i dunno..it does sound good though

ABsolutely $%^&! i emailed them about the gain knob and they ignored me,like they do eveybody else,so engl you can suffer for this,answer your emails and you will sell more amps! its called customer serivce!!! get it engl??

Despite my despair with engl customer serivce it is the best amp ive had so far sound wise,but i dig the clean channel only..the gain channel is to much for me,i dont do reviews, this is my first,and im only really posting this to make engl suffer for there lack of email contact,and that is a fucking insult,prehaps they should change there name to ignorant

Hi everyone. I'll run over the essentials fast, since features asf are more than adequately covered in the above reviews.

Yeah, the 'ball is pretty basic, but for some of us, thats just the thing.

I play this thing through the ENGL 4x12 Vintage 30 cab. It's expensive compared to std. cabs, but the sound is infinitely better.

This is point no. 1. Have a good cab for your head. Speakers aren't just speakers, and wood isn't just wood.

It's a hardrock/metal amp, and it nails the genre to a tee. But it doesnt end there. You wanna go vintage, it's there. You wanna tune down two steps and go death it's there. Anything in between, from scarcely overdriven early AC/DC tones, through Blackmore-like glassy brilliance/hollow depth to your average metal sound (Boogie/Marshall/Soldano) - this thing has it all. Yup, you'll have to dial 'em in one at a time, but most of it depends on your playing style, to which this amp is as responsive as anything I've ever come across.

My main use for this amp, is in my Sabbath Tribute band, and it shines.

I play a costum Morch and a SG. The Morch has a Duncan Invader 'bucker and 2 homespun Singles from Morch, which are nice and smooth, and has great chunk when cranked in the neck pos.

This opens up the land of crunchy SRV-style blues, which this amp will handle - a little too tightly perhaps - but veeeery convincingly.

I rarely play the clean channel, much preferring to dial back on my guitar for a clean setting. For this to work, I need to freeze the gain, not much higher than halfway, or it'll go muddy when I de-crank. I find the clean sound to be better this way, and whatever hiss the gainstages might generate, disappeares when I turn down the guitar. The clean I get this way is warm and bell-like, lots of highs, and all I need for it to sneer a bit is pick a little harder, or maybe raise the knob a notch.

The gain in this amp should cover everything. If you feel you need more, you should probably seek help. It's a demon if you so wish,
and the sheer number of Death/Black/Powermetal-players who plays it, is testament to this fact.

BUT! I'd bring it along for a Party-gig anytime - it is that flexible.

Hmm. On the whole ENGL is pretty reliable gear. The Fireball is build like a tank on the outside, and that a good thing, cause the internals are somewhat fragile.

Beware, that repairshops will probably hate doing service on any ENGL-amp, since they're all designed in the same extremely service-unfriendly way: In order to replace a single knob on this baby, one would have to do a pretty complete disassemble. You want one pot out, you gotta remove them all, cause they're all stuck on the same piece of board.

Despite what boutique-amp-manufacturers might have you believe, though, board constructions are not nescersarily worse-sounding or shorter-lifed than their point-to-point-soldered counterparts. But, they're a hell of a lot easier to service, because everything is separate.

On a board, everything is stuck together, and you pay the price, when one of those cheapo potentiometres break at the stem, and your chickyhead-knob goes flop on the floor.. The shop will fix it in a heartbeat, but you get to pay for 2 hours, while they take the fucking thing apart and put it back together again, and I do speak from personal experience!!

ENGL cuts corners just like everyone else, and you'll find cheapo INTERNAL construction on any given ENGL product. - Just like on Marshall, Fenders, Peaveys a.s.f.

Another example:

Anyone got a Z4 switch? Try taking it apart, and check out the mounting of the LEDs - A glob of silicone is all thats holding them in place! Now, call radio-shack, and ask 'em how much a set of screw-in diodes would have cost, and remember that factories buy leds by the thousands..

Such lousy design should not find it's way into supposedly 'pro' gear, and that's where the boutique-stuff comes in, for those who's got the cash...

Having said all this, I should say that neither of my ENGL amps have ever broken down on me. The other one is a Screamer Pro Blues Combo, which has taken 10 years of abuse and played hundreds of gigs, with minimal maintenance.

The solution for me is Flightcases for the combo and the head. They're a pain to carry, but my Fireball still looks brand-new everytime I open the box..

If you DO take care of your ENGL amp, it WILL last and last. The few weak points are all internal, and in general the amps take abuse really well, since outwardly they're built very sturdy. Just don't knock off those knobs, or you'll be sorry.

...But not as sorry as you'll be after 14 consecutive futile efforts to contact ENGL's costumer service... These guys do not answer their e-mail, and the spare parts they delivered via their dealer were wrong!

I actually payed for parts that don't fit in my amp, and they just totally ignore the e-mails I send them!

Their dealer in Denmark is a good guy, who will do all he can to help you out.

I guess you could say I'm a fan of ENGL - The amplifiers, not the company!!!

I've been playing forever, professionaly for the last 10 years. I Don't have that much guitar-gear. A stack, a combo, a small set of pedals, a couple of guitars.

ENGL amps sound sensational. I love them, and need them. Will probably play them forever.

Fantastic value is exactly right!

The Fireball is the entry level into the BIG HEAD range of its line up. It is a 60 watt one channel, dual mode or two channel amp if you wish to accept it as. It has 4 12AX7 pre-amp valves and only 2 6l6GC power amp valves.

Internally it lights up in red giving it a truly sinister 'Fireball' glow....absolutely classy.

I remember reading the old paper based brochure for this amp and ENGL start off saying "This amp is for all you head bangers out there..." So this amp for you know who, yes us GLORIOUS HEAD BANGERS.

It is a simplistic design and the front panel consists of a gain dial that works both channels, a bright and depth switch that boost the treble and bass range (respectively) when pushed in.

Then you have your pre-amp EQ dials (bass/middle/treble) and then you have the presence dial which works the treble range in the power amp.

There is a third and final push-in switch that activates the ultra gain mode. Then there are two separate master volumes each working the respective channel. However with the ENGL Z4 footswitch you can work the volumes together in each channel which is great in Ultra Gain mode to give you a volume boost when performing lead.

Finally there are 2 LED lights that when turned on, advise the user which power amp valve is playing up. Usually by turning off the stand-by switch and turning it on fixes the problem.

Then Stand-by and power switch.

At the rear of the amp it's very uncluttered, input AC socket, footswitch socket, FX loop with a balance dial allowing you to mix accurately the amount of FX and finally 4 inputs for various cabinet combinations.

Well may I firstly say, exorcise me and send me to the heights of Heavenly Head Banging divinity. Firstly in clean, it projects crystal clear tones for those Metallica like interludes before the crushing sound comes in again.

Set it on Ultra Gain mode and this EVILIZED venomous creature sounds like a Beast from the most darkest and most vile forests of Budapest disembowelling a wolf, strangling it with its own bowels and then feasting off the bile in its spleen...Get the picture folks.

I just cannot fathom how an amp with only a master volume and no channel volumes can still sound vicious at conversational volumes let alone bedroom volumes.

Sweep picking and legato just flows, alt picking and this thing fires like an automated electric cannon, pinched harmonics, this thing howls like a pack of wolves about to extract revenge on a warring pack.

Even though it has only one gain dial, fear not, because it's very sensitive when you ease off the volume on your axe and you'd be surprised how clean it can still sound. Setting the Master volume at 2 (15.5 on the Richter scale) and then set the gain at about 1 o'clock and that's way too much. Click the foot switch to clean channel or dial back the volume on Ultra Gain and this thing cleans up well.

I have the standard ENGL angled 412 cab with Celestion V60s and they sound awesome....

NEVER HAVE I HEARD A MORE BEAUTIFUL TONE FROM SUCH A SIMPLISTIC AMP. MY 4 YEAR OLD SON AND 2 YEAR DAUGHTER HAVE EXPRESSED KEEN INTEREST IN SETTING THIS AMP UP FOR ME....

OK FOLKS, I'VE SAID THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, IT'S GERMAN....

When NATO were testing nuclear missiles in the Pacific Region, they used ENGL amps as the benchmark to ensure that surroundings would be obliterated...The only difficulty was, NATO could not destroy this thing.

It just kept being blown up and still made it to live performances on time and in perfect working order.

The good thing is that it is lighter than the Powerball and much lighter than the Savage 120 (which I own and this thing weighs 16 mega tonnes). That way, you?ll only slip a disc or two per year, which is treatable with physiotherapy?

Chris at ENGL is a gentleman, always helpful, emails me brochures and has emailed me technical specs and pics of amps, cabs etc...

Try info@engldistribution.com

Or Peter from Synergy Distribution, very responsive and willing to give advice and point you in the right direction.

peter@synergydistribution.co.uk

Bought it at Wembley Guitar Centre (Thanks Alvin...do me a good deal on the footswitch, AHEM!).

I've actually paid a deposit and will be paying it off sooner rather than later. Though I have played it enough to know its potential and tonal dynamics.

My poor wife, I have more ENGL equipment at home than she has shoes... I LOVE YOU MARIA, you're the best, thanks for your patience.

If it were stolen, I would hunt the culprit down, stick the power valves up their sphincter, wire them back to the head and flick the power/stand by switch on and watch their ass and bowels burn....

Amps like this will last you a life time and can be handed down to the younger generations.

Go try it folks, for those who want an amp with the capacity to blow you off stage for that ultimate metal sound without having that Steve Lukather approach (676 pedals, 546 boards, 231 midis...) it'll more than do the job.

It has 2 power tubes(6L6GC) and four preamp tubes.1 gain for both channels,bass,mid,treble,presence,brigth and depth switch and 2 master volumes.Not alot of knobs on this amp but thats how I like it... keep it simple.

With this amp I'm using a Jackson RR5 loaded with emg-81.First off I'm a metal head...think Dying fetus,six feeth under and Napalm death.For real death metal or black metal this amp will be your tool to raise the dead.Its fucking brutal as shit,it seems that Satan himself build this amp from the fires of hell.The palm mute is a real deep ?TSHUG?.But this amp is not just made for metal,hell no,yesterday I nailed the old AC/DC sound,just turn down the gain,get those mids up and you got that warm vintage sound.And the claen is simply the best clean sound I have personnaly had.

Seems to be fuckin reliable...fist it came from Germany to the u.s.a then from the u.s.a to Qu?bec canada and then after its been used by alot of people and shipped and reshipped,its still works like a new one.

I wrote to Engl u.s.a and they answered me the next day

I've been playing for 5 years and its of course the best amp I have ever owned.Once you go with an Engl all tube amp you'l never come back to those expensive amps that don't even come close to the character that Engl amps give to your sound.The only kind of down this amp has....god is it huge!(not at all a problem for me)

All features I need. I use a GT-8 in the eff.chain, so I don't mind the lack of reverb and different Chains for Clean/Dist. Two master vols (switchable), one gain control, pres/treb/mid/bass, depth and bright switch.

I use the amp with a Gibson style guitar (Pearl GC) with EMG 81.

Clean: from clean to heavy crunch. I have to set it to 5 to get a great sounding clean. Although I bought this Amp for its dist.-channel, the clean sound is the best I've had so far. Enriched with some chorus you feel like flying. :-D

Dist: thick, harmonic distortion. You can do artificial harmonics without any probs. The riffs just flow. It`s really a great feeling.

I mostly play melodicdeathmetal and it's the best amp to buy for all styles of metal and rock. Much better than Mesa and Marshalls. Had a Laney VH100R before with much more shit (4 ch/5 eff. ch etc), but it didn't rock.

Has a Tube Monitor system and looks really(!!!) dependable. I had some gigs with it and would definetly gig it w/o backup. You can trust in German quality engineering!

I had some phone calls with a technician, because I heard radio from my amp. He told me to modify my guitar and now everything's fine.

They offered to check my amp free of charge.

Really nice.

I would definetely buy it again. If you need a metal amp, try this one!

This is just a kick ass amp! The Fireball has 2 channels. Very nice clean to bluesy tone on the 1st channel, to a nice classice rock to a heavy ass metal tone on the 2nd channel. It has a Depth and Bright button. At first you don't really notice a change in tone when these buttons are engaged. But after playing with them engaged for a while, and you disengage then, you are like holy shit, that did do a lot to the tone. The only thing that discouraged me at first was the shared gain knob between the 2 channels. I still wish it had 2 gain knobs, but the shared knob is NOT a problem. I run the gain around halfway, and I get sparkling cleans, and balls to the wall distortion. It has plenty of power and is loud as hell when cranked.

First of all, let me say extremely tight and articlulat. I am using a crappy Ibanez guitar with my Fireball, and it still sounds great. I have used guitars with Seymour Duncans and EMG's through this amp, and let me just say, the higher quality guitar really shines through this amp. I have played everything from Metallica, Lamb of God, Chimaira, Arch Enemy, to Coldplay, Dashboard Confessional, Sixpence None the Richer, to AC/DC, Ozzy,... The amp can do it all. I would suggest getting a noise gate (ISP Decimator kicks ass) with the amp if you play out much. It isn't very noisy, but it really helps to have a noise gate.

I have had the amp for about 6 months now and nothing has gone wrong with it yet. These things are built like motherfucking tanks. I have played a couple of gigs with it, and it has done great.

I have never had to go through customer support for any reason, so I guess that's a good thing.

I have been playing for a couple of years now, and I am a gear/tone whore. I have played many, many amps and stuff, so I know what I am talking about. I have compared this to Mesa, Marshall, and others, and for what I do, it owns. If you want 5150 (6505) tones, but also want a clean channel, get this amp. I can nail those tones, and I have a great clean channel. If you have enough $ to get a Powerball, then get that because it has all of the versatility at your feet, but if you don't, get the Fireball. I can get almost all of the Powerball's tones, just not at once. Once again, KICK ASS AMP!

This is a 2005 Fireball. Im very impressed with the amp for my needs. It goes from crystal clean to just crushing distortion. I use this amp mainly for mostly Death/Thrash/Black/Grind metal. Amp has two channels. You can switch btw clean/distortion, and switch btw two masters with the footswitch (not included) Effects loop is really nice, very transparent. Also has deep/bright switchs, fairly subtle, can notice more on clean channel, but I use deep switch for high gain stuff, it makes the sound a bit thicker to my ears. I am real satisfied with the layout of the amp. No problem with the power it has plenty of volume. I use this amp in my studio, and it works great in that enviornment.

I use USA humbucking guitars, usually made from mahogany with neckthru designs. Dean,BC Rich,Gibson,Wazoo etc. This has been
my favorite amp I've played so far, and I have played a bunch of high end stuff. I play very aggressive metal, and for that this amp really is just untouched, except maybe for another Engl. The clean is super quiet, the high gain has a bit of noise, but nothing that bothers me, I am putting a decimator noisegate in front and that takes care of any noise if I want, but it is fine either way. The clean is beautiful very clear with good headroom. The distortion is where this amp shines, as mentioned in other reviews, this is a 'metalhead's amp"
I could not be happier with the distortion it is deadly. Palm muted stuff is awsome and very articulate. This amp has more then enough distortion and it still remains very articulate - just incredible!!

This is a fairly new amp, so I am not going to give a review on this right now. So far the amp has been working real well and from other owners I have spoken with, the Fireball seems to hold up real well.

I actually went to www.rocksolidamps.com in person and purchased from
Derek directly. Derek is a great guy and let me try out the Fireball, Powerball, Blackmore, and SE. They all sound great, the Fireball works for me perfectly. I should mention I had the amp shipped and it was packed totally pro and double boxed. If your interested in one of these deadly amps check Derek's website out, there is bunch of soundclips - He is the man if you want an Engl!

I have been playing metal for over 20 years now. I have a Hot Rodded Marshall, Univalve, and Soldano Avenger. All great amps in their own way, but if it came down to one keep it would be the Fireball, I just love the distorton of this amp - it flat out kills! The only amp that I liked as much as the Fireball was the Engl SE, but it cost quite a bit more. The Fireball Smokes!!!!

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.

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.

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.

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...)

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.

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).

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!

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.

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).

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).

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

- 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.

- 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!

- 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.

- 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!

- 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Sounds great! I'd buy another for sure.

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

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!

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

for germans like me engl has the best possible support as far as i know!

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!!!!!

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.

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.

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.

No experience.

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.

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.

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.

solid.

moved it around alot and it never failed me.

never had to deal with them.

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.

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!

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!

Built like a rock!

Never broke down and never will!!


ENGL is solid work from germany!

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!

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!

The Amp has got a killer distortion and a moderate clean channel, two buttons for low-volume bass/treble. Unfortunately it doesn't have separate EQs fpr the two channels. Effects loop and a footswitch (that has to be paid extra). The effects loop is quite useless if you don't turn the button until the end. A simple switch instead of a poti would have the same effect. Though, the amp simply looks great; you can see the valves in its interior that are iluminated by two red lights. All in all, the amp has what it needs, if you are looking for a kick-ass distortion.

I use the amp with an Ibanez. The distortion is killer, I think it the probably best real METAL distortion, because the amp is not as noisy as the Peavey 5150. You can also play Malmsteen like solos due to its endless sustain. Just turn up the gain to 5 (of 12) and you'll see, at gain 12 maybe it's got too much distortion, powerchords never seem to fade out. The clean sound ist not very clean, I don't like it. Sounds too much bluesy. Anyway, I bought that amp to play heavy sounds, who needs a clean channel??

If you look at a Marshall amp, the ENGL seems to be much more reliable. It's got screws and metal everwhere the Marshall's got hard plastic. I don't think that I'll ever need the warranty. In the end, it's made in Germany. I hope it means the same as if it was a car....

Never tried.

I play since 10 years and have owned Marshall JCM & 6100, Laney, Fender and finally this ENGL. If it was lost, maybe I'd try a Powerball; but for sure I won't buy a Fender again, nor a Marshall...well, maybe that new ModeFour....anyway, I really like that ENGL. It's a good amp. A pity if it was stolen.

2 channel all tube amp head poweramp equipped with 6L6 GC poweramp tubes, 60 watts.
Electronic power tube monitor system. In case of a tube failure this system switches off the bad tube. The system can be reseted via the Stand By switch. new design, big housing with the front grille, internal illumination.
The amps is pretty basic it has one eq and one gain for the two channels. It has two separate master volumes. For each channel you can choose od on/off.
I play metal like korn and mudvayne and this amp does the job.
60 watts is HARD so dont worry about that.

I use a gibson les paul gothic with stock pickups and a ibanez rg7321.
The amp is pretty noisy in ultra gain mode compared to a transitor amp but hey this i a tube amp so deal with it. I wanted a amp that had a nice clean and a very good distortion and thats what i got.
This engl is really a rock/metal amp. Having only 1 gain knob you need to set the gain not to high and not to low. So in the clean mode the amp is clean and in the ultra gain mode the amp has a brutal disto. I set the gain on 4 and thats just perfect. The clean mode tends to go crunch sometimes but that is only when playing hard chords. When the amp is in ultra gain mode you have a very good distortion. I use my engl in combination with a 2x12 marshall combo and that is very good home setup. Overall a killer disto and a nice clean.

No problems.

Nope

I have been playing for 8 years and this i my first tube amp. I think this is an amp with good value. You get a basic amp with a killer disto and a nice clean. So far the best amp i have heard! I tested olso the peavey 5150 and Marshalls but this amp looks an sounds better. If you want to play metal this is the amp to have maybe a mesa sounds better but hey thats out of my pocket range.

Not much Features in this amp ...
but i think this isn't necessary !!

This Amp is made for metal only, that's for sure but it fills my needs completly !

At first i thought it would be really bad too have only one gain knob but it's only there too choose the right amount of gain for your pickup type for my ESP M-III it is in the 12 o'clock position, and its just fine !

All the other features can be read in the manual or seen if you try this thing out ...

And if you need a rock Distortion just turn down your volume knob on your guitar and you have an ac/dc rocktone ... but i don't use this very often !!

I use the following setup :

ESP M-III

Engl Fireball
Engl Vintage Cab

and in the Effekts row
Rocktron Replifex and
Rocktron Intellipitch !

With this setup i get every sound i ever might need ...

This amp isn't too noisy, even with full gain and without any noise reduction !

You must like the Engl Tone, then you have a great amp ...
you need some Effects to get another sound for your lead playing !
But for rythm guitar work it's just the unprocessed sound, only an eq sometimes !

It was , what i was looking for, you don't need any extra distortion pedal for this amp, like you need it with marshall amps and it sound good even at lower volumes !!

And it doesn't sound so harsh , it's just nice !

I think it's very dependable - i bought it used , and gigged once with it and had many rehearsals, no problems at all !

Maybe time will tell ....

Don't know !!

I finally found my amp !!!
And i don't think i need anything else in the future !

Two Channel Amp, the best for Rockers ! With adjustable Effektloop from dry to effekt. Power Tube Monitor System (controle the Power Tubes for correct working. If one damage you can play your gig to the end.) Very good quality (pot's, no plastic on the edges s.o) Passive, but very effective controls for bass, middle and treble. Presence control for power amp. Not forget the two switches depth and bright.. more later.
Illuminating Power Tubes with two red LED's: A nice effekt thru the front ;)

A very silent Amp, when you switch in channel 2 (ultra distortion) This amp is designed for hard rockmusic. Channel one has a very dynamic overdrive in the higer gain settings. Here you can have all the sounds like vintage amps, controlled with your guitar and volume pot. When you select channel two the hell is open. :-) A really good distortion where you can hear the character of your guitar, but ultimative drive. I think this amp ist a real alternative to the Mesa Rectifier head. I use the Fireball with different heavy strats all Humbucker PU's: ESP M1 Custom (OBL), IBANEZ RGR320 and Charvel Predator

I'm from Germany. I've bought two complete Fireball Stacks for my two bands. I don`t need any back up system. I've played Engl amps all the time. I began with the Straight Tops. No problems all the years.

The German support ist very friendly. You should order your tubes direct from Engl. Engl has an own tube selection for the amps. No modification is needed if you`ll change your tubes in the future. All Engl Tubes has a number to identify the BIAS settings and selections for the power amp tubes. You should also use selected pre amp tubes for high gain amps like the Fireball. The price for the tubes is a lttle bit smaller than groove tubes. You can ask Mr. Koch here in Germany every time. (Orders s.o.)For other countries you have your own support-man. Please contact the engl site. Warranty is 2 years here in Germany.

I use my two Fireballs with the ENGL Standard Cabinets. I think the Vinage 30 Cabs are too expensive and have not more sound for the price !(Thats my personal opinion.)But any ENGL Cabinet with an Engl Head ist the best what I've ever heart.
I play for 18 years now. A long time with engl. And I don't want any other amp as an Engl.

Great amp seriusly.

The one thing I dislike (or need) is that the Clean/crunsh channel cheer the same GAIN-setting. I would love a Natural "Fenderish" - clean channel.

(POWERBALL!!!!!!!)

For more information read below!
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I'll break it down=

0) Ibanez-Prestige-RG2120XTB

1) Di Marzio's - "Air Norton" + "Steves Special" (Yes, I'm one of those Petrucciwannabe's=)

2) ENGL-Fireball

3) FX-loop= "Rocktron-Multivalve"

4) ENGL-MIDISWISHER-Z-11 (so that I can controll the volym master A-B + the channels midi.)

5) ROLAND-FC-200 "Midi footcontroller"

I run the Piezo throu a FEDNER- "Hot Rod-DELUX" + Spring reverb.

What can I say?

I love it!!!!

No problem yet!

Had it for 2 years (I bought it used so let's think 3-4 years).

Look's like a killermachine: hard to kill=)?

Just love it!

But as I was saying, the clean and the ULTRADISTORTED channel should have separat GAINKNOBS.

Just roll the volymknob and you have all the crunsh in the world.

The amp is made Germany and I have recently played it at the 2002 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA. Two channel high gain head. You can get clean to ultra high gain, not distortion. It has all the features that I need. One clean channel ans a good lead channel. I use this amp in my house and it being 60 watts make it easy to practice without anyone complaining.

I am using a Ernie Ball Axis and I play mostly metal type music. Sounds great with the style of music I like. Sounds great with the ENGL cabs and speakers but if you use VinTage 30's it will get alittle buzzy but not bad. The gain is great. I have never owned an amp that does hard music this good. I have owned Soldano, Hughes & Kettner, Mesa Boogie, Carvin. H&K holds up goos though. I also use a H&K Tubeman and it is very nice.

Don't know yet, just purchased it today but the people that sell them are very informative.

Great service. The authorized service is only 45min. away in L.A.

The happiest I have ever been with a head. Before this I was looking at custom heads for twice the amount and this has more features.

Well, it's made 2001 and it's versatile enough for me.it's 60W full tube amp and has two 6l6CG outbut tubes and four ecc83's. it has two channels: Crunch (clean) and Ultra Gain. I play power/heavy metal and I need both channels. it doesn't have a reverb unit in it, but it has an effect loop.It has two master volumes. Both channels outbut can be adjusted by both master knobs. Switching can be done with footswitch.

I use mainly Jackson RR-3 with Duncan Desing pickups. I'm considering purchasing EMG 81's for it. The amp sound great. I can get many decent sounds out of it. I use it with ENGL std 4x12 cab and it isn't noisy at all. Very low hum. Clean sounds are good enough for me... With jackson clean channel tends to go crunch although the gain is about on 4. But with my fender mex std i can get very good clean and crispy sound out of it. Ultra Gain channel is the best! I can get very heavy and thick distortion when gain pot only on 4. It's So brutal and modern distortion with low end punch. I can easily get the sound like Hammerfall, Gamma Ray, Helloween, and why not Metallica in old days. I get even Marshall kind of twang just by turning the gain pot down to 3 and adding some highs and mids.

It's robust... and I am using it on gigs whitout a backup.

Never dealt with the company...

I've been playing for 6 years now. this is the best amp i've eved had. I tried Marshall DSL And I didn't like it. It was too noisy and loud for my taste. When I turned volume up, it just gave me some earache... ENGL has a nice warm distortion, and you just want to turn it louder and louder until the drummer comes to you and starts complaining that he can't hear what he is playing...

This amp was made in 2001, i got from my insurance company after my jcm600 was lost in a fire. It is a 60 watt head, has two channels with two volume settings each, all footswitchable (footswitch not included). The part that sux is that there is only one gain-knob, and then there's the "ultra gain" switch. So if you set your gain for the ultra-gain channel, and you switch to the clean, the gain setting is still the same, just minus the ultra gain. Did that make any sense? No, didn't think so.

I'm using a Les Paul Studio and a Lone Star Stratocaster (SD HB). The amp has really brutal distortion, but not a lot of variety. Suitable for moshy heavy metal I guess. Unfortunately the distortion isn't as tight as you might wish for.

Only had it a short while.

I'm trying to sell this amp right now, to get a Dual Rectifier. If it was stolen I'd get another type of amp from the insurance company. I suggest you get a Mesa Boogie instead, or maybe 5150, or even a DSL100 before this amp.