The ENGL Powerball II Head (E 645/2)  **NEW FOR 2010**

 
The Powerball II is another new offering from our friends at ENGL Germany. This flexible 100W four-channel amp has all the elements that made the original Powerball a classic but with a number of  improvements and added features which will appeal to those who may not have loved the original. The famous Powerball tight bass, note clarity, and high-gain prowess remains in tact,. ENGL always strives to make their amps even better however, and they delivered with the Powerball II. The amp now has a darker, meaner sound than the original with an improved midrange voicing that really helps you cut-through the mix with ease.  All of this without sacrifing any of the Powerball's renowned definition, tightness, ferocity, or flexibility. 

The Powerball II's clean channel is also improved. Simply gorgeous, crystal clear, and with massive headroom. With four independent channels, dual master volumes, customizable mid-boost, built-in noisegate, fx loop, and numerous tone shaping features the Powerball II can cover all your bases. The ENGL Z-9 footswitch is an ideal companion to the amp and can control all of its features without the need for a MIDI interface.
 

Detailed Information

Okay let's get in depth about what the Powerball II can do (or perhaps can't do). The Fireball 100 is a four-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 Powerball II, this feature is really cool since it gives you more flexibility when shaping your sound. When engaged it really thickens things up, especially with higher notes. This can come in handy with lead playing when you want a more fluid, juicy tone rather than bright and sharp. However, since you don't lose any note definition when engaged, you can just as easily use it for beefier rhythm sounds as well. The mid-boost has its own independent level control which essentially gives you access to two separate midrange knobs. The mid-boost function is accessible via a footswitch (such as the ENGL Z-9), so you can turn it off/on at will.

Improved FX-Loop: The loop on the PB2 is awesome. It is completely transparent and easy to get it dialed in for any pedals or rack fx units. The Powerball II 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  and dual master volumes features gives you all the tools that most metal guitarists could ever use.

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. You can also program the ENGL Z-9 footswitch to turn the Gate off/on remotely, another nice touch!

Plentiful Tone Shaping Options: The Powerball II has many convenient tone shaping options to play with, all very usable! All four channels have its own gain, volume, and eq controls but that's just the beginning. Channel 1 and 2's Bright switch lets you get a piezo-like sound or add sparkle to darker pickups, whereas the Bass Boost function lets you add a thick punchy bottom end to brighter pickups. The bass boost can be assigned to all four channels. So for example if you want it engaged on channel 3 but want it disengaged automatically when you switch to channel 4, no problem. And to top it off, the aforementioned foot-switchable Mid Boost affects all the channels differently, giving you a wide array of voicings you can access with the 

Massive Headroom: The Powerball is aptly named, as it has a ton of power at your disposal. This amp uses every one of its 100W of power to your advantage, giving you massive amounts of headroom. What this translates to for you is a loud clean channel that doesn't break up (unless you want to) and can balance with distortion channels in a live setting. This also means you can crank the amp up and dial in tons of gain/lows without it ever 'farting out' or losing definition. The low-end will hold together, remaining focused and punchy and the mids/highs will stay crisp and clear without succumbing to a mess of fizz and mush. This especially comes in handy for guitarists who tune down or use thick strings, as lower frequencies take up much more bandwidth (and thus eat up more of your available headroom). This is why many down-tuned 6, 7, and 8-string players covet ENGLs and the Powerball II is a prime example of that. Naturally the amp sounds wonderful in standard tuning as well.

The Powerball II is a wonderful addition to the ENGL lineup. in a short-time it has already become one of the most popular amps among Axe Palace customers due to its awesome feature set, killer tone, fun playability, and fair price. While obviously a devastating rock and metal amp, the Powerball II shines in any situation and can deliver the goods for any demanding guitarist.

 

Is This Amp For Me?

If you are a heavy metal or hard rock guitarist who wants a modern yet extremely musical high-gain tone, I believe this amp could before you.

If you're frustrated with mushy, fizzy tone of your current amp and want a high-gain that sounds huge but also articulate and impossibly tight, this amp could be for you.

If you want the flexibility that a versatile four-channel tube amp can bring you so you can cover a wide array of tones, this amp could be for you.

If you want world-class clean and crunch tones, but also want the optional of going ultra-heavy from time to time, this amp could be for you.

If you like a more sludgy, loose distortion sound, this amp may not be for you. 

If you only need 2 channels, I'd recommend the Fireball 100.

If you're after an amp that is extremely organic and vintage in nature, there may be better options out there for you. I'd recommend looking into the Blackmore or Special Edition, which can handle the classic and the modern.

If you're after an amp that has many of the same great features of the PB2 but with even more flexibility, MIDI implementation, and awesome variety of modern tones, we love the Invader 100.

 

Specifications

POWERBALL E 645 II

Front panel new features:

• 4 Gain control knobs: Clean Gain-1, Crunch Gain-2, Lead Gain-3 and Lead Gain-4

• 2 Bottom sound switches, one for Lead-Channel 3 and another one for Lead-Channel 4

• Middle-boosted switching (affects all 4 channels) via front panel button or via footswitch 

•Electronic Power tube monitoring system (P.T.M.) with LED indication (new version)

Front panel common features:

• 4 channels: Clean-Channel 1, Crunch-Channel 2, Lead-Channel 3 and Lead-Channel 4

• 4 Volume control knobs: Clean Vol.-1, Crunch Vol.-2, Lead Vol.-3 and Lead Vol.-4 

• Bright and Bottom sound switches for Clean and Crunch

• EQ system Clean and Crunch: Bass, Middle, Treble-Clean, Treble-Crunch

• EQ system Lead-Channel 3 and Lead-Channel 4: Bass, Middle or Middle-boosted, Treble

• Channel switching via two front panel buttons or via footswitch

• Master A and B controls for different output volume settings

• Presence and Depth Punch controls in the poweramp stage

• Stand By switch

 

Rear panel new features:

• ENGL S.A.C. Port to accept the Custom Footpedal Z-9 (more options) 

• Noise Gate (including threshold control) can now be activated via footswitch (On/Off)

• F.X. Loop Send & Return with Balance control now switchable via footswitch (On/Off)

 

Rear panel common features:

• 3 x 1/4" Stereo jacks for connecting three Z-4 footpedals or a MIDI switching system 

such as the ENGL Z-11

• Poweramp Output 2 x 4 ohms, 2 x 8 ohms and 1 x 16 ohms for many speaker options

• 100 Watts output power, 4 x 6L6GC power tubes

•Four ECC83 (12AX7) preamp tubes

ENGL Powerball II User Manual (PDF)

 

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