The ENGL Fireball 100W Head (E 635)  **NEW FOR 2010**

 
This is the new two-channel ENGL Fireball 100W head. This amp is the result of several years of ENGL "R&D" as well as customer feedback regarding the original Fireball. It's clear ENGL listened because the Fireball 100 is an absolutely incredible metal and hard rock amplifier. It's supremely tight, aggressive, and meaty. It has a darker and more ballsy tone than the original with exceptonal note definition (even with extreme gain settings). It's great for both rhythm and lead, and even has a nice clean channel with tons of headroom.

The Fireball 100 is a really fun amp to play. The responsiveness is second-to-none and it's nearly impossible to dial in a bad tone on it. This amp has a darker, more 'brutal' low-midrange growl than the original. Perhaps the coolest part about the Fireball 100 is that it sounds great with pretty much anything you throw at it, yet at the same time it captures each individual guitar's unique tone perfectly. Massive tone, epic sustain and crunch, and smooth lead voicings make the this amp a metal player's dream.

Detailed Information

Okay let's get in depth about what the Fireball 100 can do or perhaps can't do. The Fireball 100 is a two-channel all-tube amp head that features a quad of 6L6 power tubes and the usual assortment of 12AX7s in the preamp section. The amp has a lot of cool features and modern conveniences which I will break down for you now:

Power Tube Monitoring System: Four LEDs on the front panel notify you if there are any tube failures. In the event of such a failure, lthe amp will automatically adjust the bias so you can keep on safely playing thrugh your set without the audience ever catching on. Not only will it keep your amp going, but it will still sound great.

Mid-Boost: New to the Fireball 100, this feature is really nifty for a few reasons. For one, it gives you more flexibility when dialing in your sound. The FB100 sports a slightly darker and meaner sound than the FB60. While the amp has plenty of midrange on its own, the mid-boost gives you a nice boost in upper-mids. This features is tremendous as a 'lead-boost', as it thickens up higher notes and gives you a perceived volume boost as well. In a two guitar band setup this is great. Best of all, the mid-boost function is accessible via a footswitch (such as the ENGL Z-4 or similar unit).

Improved FX-Loop: The loop on the FB100 is awesome. It is completely transparent and easy to get it dialed in for any pedals or rack fx units. The Fireball 100 allows you to footswitch the fx loop off/on as well, which is great. So if you have a killer delay pedal in your loop such as an MXR Carbon Copy, you can leave the pedal in a permanent state of 'on' and simply footswitch the loop off/on to access it. This in junction with the mid-boost features gives you all the tools that most metal guitarists could use. If you want to be able to control your rig with a MIDI unit such as the Z-9 or Z-12, you might want to look into the ENGL Z-11 Midi Module which can convert the 1/4 TRS triggers inherent to the FB100 to MIDI. This would be useful if you wanted to be able to access both the mid/boost and fxloop by just pressing a single button.

Built In Noise-Gate: Another bonus to the FB100 is its new-and-improved Noise Gate. Unlike some of the earlier ENGLs, this thing is actually usable! While for some applications you still may want to use a good noisegate in front of the amp (such as an ISP Decimator or MXR SmartGate), the built-in gate can take care of most of the hum/noise for you. The Threshold control in the back of the amp will control the sensitivity of the gate. If you just want it to silence some pre-amp hum, you can use lower settings. If you want it to completely clamp down on all hum and feedback, you might want to use higher settings - especially if you're using noisy pickups and/or a boost pedal in front of the amp.

Dedicated Clean Channel: While this will be an after-thought to most player's considering the Fireball 100, the amp's clean channel is actually quite good. While not as lush as the cleans found on other ENGLs such as the Invader 100, the FB100's clean channel sounds very good and can do more than meets the eye. The channel has an immense amount of headroom, so you can get a very loud clean channel to match up to your high-gain channel. This is important because many high-gain amps have very weak clean channels (5150 anyone?). Not only is the headroom there, but it sounds nice as well. You can dial in a chimey, full-bodied, pristine clean sound or a warm, mellow, bluesy tone with ease. The amp's Bright switch lets you get a piezo-like sound or add sparkle to darker pickups, and the Bass Boost function lets you add a thick punchy bottom end to brighter pickups.

More Clean Channel Surprises: An underrated function of the clean channel is the ability to get a great British crunch tone when the gain knob and master volume are cranked up. Given how modern and brutal the distortion channel is on the Fireball, you will be shocked that such a classic tone is even possible from this amp, but it is! Turn the gain to around 8 and the master up, and you can get some very authentic British rock/metal tones. Toss a good boost pedal in front such as a Maxon OD808 or MXR GT-OD and you can have yourself a whole other amp practically.

Epic High-Gain Performance: Quite frankly, the Fireball 100's distortion channel is easily one of the best on the market. In fact, if you're a metal player who covets a relatively simple setup, it's hard to do better than this amp. The amp sports nearly infinite amounts of gain, but unlike other inferior amps, you are not bombarded with fizz, fuzz, mush, or other crap. Instead what you are rewarded with is impossibly tight, complex, beefy, ferocious tone - at any volume. Muddy or loose bass response is utterly impossible with the Fireball 100, and the amp will capture every nuance of your guitar/pickups with perfection. While there is some compression, the FB does not have a sterile or overly processed sound. It's certainly polished and professional sounding, but it's also in-your-face, brutal, and cuts through a mix. Best of all it's responsive, focused, and fun to play without ever sounding stiff. No 'cardboard' distortion here.

The Fireball 100 is a dream come true for extreme metal guitarists. If you tune down or use extended range guitars and have struggled to find an amp that will stay tight and defined without losing its balls, this amp may be for you. The amp simply sounds great, for any style/genre of metal/hard rock. This is not merely for down-tuned death metal either, it's equally stellar for shred, progressive, power metal, thrash, and things like that too.

Is This Amp For Me?

If you are a heavy metal guitarist who wants a modern yet extremely musical high-gain tone, and only requires a 2-channel amp, I believe this amp is for you. If you're frustrated with mushy, fizzy tone of your current amp and want an high-gain that sounds huge but also articulate and impossibly tight, this amp could be for you.

If you require 3 or more channels and more advanced features such as integrated MIDI or reverb, you may want to look into something else. If you need an amazing (not merely good) clean channel, there may be better options for you. If you want a more organic, vintage, dry distortion tone, there are probably better amps out there. If you play sludgier styles like doom metal, stoner rock, etc you would probably be better off with something else.

If thie amp sounds like it might be for you, give it a shot! At $1699 it's really hard to beat. I personally would take this amp over certain other German amps that cost 3X as much. It's really that good, but of course tone is subjective and the FB100 won't be everyone's cup of tea. Of course here at The Axe Palace have a return policy 'just in case' and I'm always happy to chat with you to help you lock in on the amp that's best for you. There are certainly other ENGLs and other amps that could do the job for you if this amp doesn't sound ideal. Email or call me at 508-921-9973 if you'd like some advice!

Specifications

FIREBALL 100 E 635

Front panel:
• Clean and Lead Channel featuring separate Gain controls
• Bright switch for the Clean Channel
• Bottom switch (Clean & Lead) that adds low end punch
• Passive EQ: Bass, Middle, Treble
• Lead Volume control for precise level tuning
• Mid Boost switch (Clean & Lead), remote controllable via footswitch
• Master A and Master B for two different power amp level settings, remote controllable via footswitch
• P.T.M. (Power Tube Monitor) system: failure indication via LED for each power tube
• Stand By sitch

Rear Panel:
• 2 x 1/4" Stereo jacks for connecting a ENGL Z-4 footpedal: Clean / Lead (channel switching) & Master A / B, Mid Boost & FX Loop off / on
• Noise Gate Threshold controls the Gate’s attack
• FX Loop equipped with a Balance control, FX Loop off / on, remote controllable via footswitch
• Power amp Output 4 Ohms, 8 Ohms (2 jacks) and 16 Ohms
• 100 Watts tube guitar amp head equipped with a matched set of four 6L6GC power tubes
• Four ECC83 (12AX7) preamp tubes

ENGL Fireball 100 Manual (PDF)

 Media