Engl Fireball 100 is easily their best amp - Change My Mind

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bad.Seed
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I have an old powebsll that’s great for solos and overdubs to sweeten stuff up but ya it’s not good live. I love this lead tone
 
MaxF said:
Oh nice! The 850 is a rare find nowadays. How do the 2 rigs compare and can you compare to the Fireball?
A 850 is tempting for my rack setup but I can't find one.....
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Don't know about the Fireball. The E850/100 has a wide range of tones, and works great with the few preamps I have left; though I usually use it with the E530 pre, it's what I call my modern hi gain amp, the cleans are pristine, but some may find them sterile; the Artist Edition sounds more old school Marshall with extra gain on tap, though I don't use it for high gain, I dial it in to sound closer to a JCM 800 that has more clarity / hi fi, IMO.
 
Having owned most of the Engl line of amps the Fireball 100 was for me the best in a live situation. I had a Powerball disappear and a Blackmore that also struggled. Savage 120 and the SE were ok but not great. The Invader amps had an interesting voicing I had both versions of that amp. At home was ok but they were small sounding amps , not a lot of headroom. Oh the Artist Edition wasnt bad but had a bit of that ratty thing going on Kyle mentioned. Overall they aren’t great that’s my opinion, they are also the only amps I’ve had break down on me. Two of which went up in smoke .
 
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Great video as always. I've had most of the main line (non signature/special) ones and still have a few left. I'd like to swap my Fireball 60 at one point for the 100 just for the extra control of the gains separately, which is one of my (minor) complaints about that version of the amp.

The Fireball - any model - is a great instant gratification amp. I plug in, set everything to noon and it's immediate high gain metal riffing territory, and you can adjust as you see fit. However, I felt if I spent a month with the Fireball and a month with the Savage (and I have) the Savage wins out overall, even if I have to do a bit more tweaking on it.

The small iron comment is true, and one of my other major complaints about any ENGL I have is the well, anti-consumer practice of their PCB design. The boards are inverted in the chassis and all silk screen text is removed, with the intention of making it difficult to copy, repair, or work on outside of a specially authorized ENGL repair center who has the matching documents and component locations. I consider this to be a huge overstepping of someone's ego, and honestly a pretty dick move overall. I understand that you want to protect your intellectual property but there's a certain point where it's a bit ridiculous, and the idea of touring with an ENGL would be completely out of the question for me even if I used one in a studio, at least in the US where a repair center might be hundreds of miles or more away from you if it breaks down. It also gives me concerns over the longevity of ENGL amps in the future, maybe I'm overthinking it but as someone who owns a real 1985 ENGL E101, which is essentially completely un-repairable if something goes wrong, it's sad to think that for all its flaws that unique amp will no longer be able to be played or heard ever again.

Here's in the inside of a Fireball 60 just to illustrate what I mean:
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And the transformers, if size is any indicator:
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I've definitely heard that about Engl amps as well - hard, if not impossible to work on.

I bought my Powerball II for $500 because it had a serious issue. I forget what, exactly, but apparently it was a known issue - I gave the amp to my tech immediately, and luckily I have a good relationship with the people at Engl, so they provided schematics as well as replacement parts that were updated in order to fix the issue. - I understand not everyone gets this treatment.

I feel inclined to start taking my Engls to practice more to see which ones can hang and which ones can't, lol. My current band is more of a punk rock/NYHC band so the Engl thing isn't really what I'm looking for in that band, but oh well. Would give me a change to see how they fair against a dual rec dialed in correctly.
 
TotallyRadGuitars said:
Great video as always. I've had most of the main line (non signature/special) ones and still have a few left. I'd like to swap my Fireball 60 at one point for the 100 just for the extra control of the gains separately, which is one of my (minor) complaints about that version of the amp.

The Fireball - any model - is a great instant gratification amp. I plug in, set everything to noon and it's immediate high gain metal riffing territory, and you can adjust as you see fit. However, I felt if I spent a month with the Fireball and a month with the Savage (and I have) the Savage wins out overall, even if I have to do a bit more tweaking on it.

The small iron comment is true, and one of my other major complaints about any ENGL I have is the well, anti-consumer practice of their PCB design. The boards are inverted in the chassis and all silk screen text is removed, with the intention of making it difficult to copy, repair, or work on outside of a specially authorized ENGL repair center who has the matching documents and component locations. I consider this to be a huge overstepping of someone's ego, and honestly a pretty dick move overall. I understand that you want to protect your intellectual property but there's a certain point where it's a bit ridiculous, and the idea of touring with an ENGL would be completely out of the question for me even if I used one in a studio, at least in the US where a repair center might be hundreds of miles or more away from you if it breaks down. It also gives me concerns over the longevity of ENGL amps in the future, maybe I'm overthinking it but as someone who owns a real 1985 ENGL E101, which is essentially completely un-repairable if something goes wrong, it's sad to think that for all its flaws that unique amp will no longer be able to be played or heard ever again.

Here's in the inside of a Fireball 60 just to illustrate what I mean:
View attachment 243830


And the transformers, if size is any indicator:
View attachment 243833
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The irony is nobody wants to copy an Engl amp in the first place 😂
 
napalmdeath said:
Try an Artist Edition. That might change your mind.
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I like the artist/se/blackmore, Morse, fireball 60 and 100, and e530 preamp alot.

The savage, various Powerball iterations, and iron ball/metalmaster etc didnt do much for me.

I don't think it's the iron, but simply how the mids are voiced
 
Bad.Seed said:
Dropped a demo video for the Engl Fireball 100 today as part of my Engl Month content. The Fireball 100 was the amp that turned me on to Engl in the first place, and honestly, I think I started with the best.

After trying some of the other amps in the Engl lineup, I've found they all have a really interesting saturation to them, almost "ratty" in nature, as well as a lot of compression. They're wet sounding amps, generally modern in voicing, and most are loaded with features

I think this one appeals to me so much because it's very stripped back in features, and seems to be the least compressed and most raw, especially in the mids where it matters from a mix standpoint. This amp also has A LOT more low end than most of the other Engls I've tried, save for the SE E670, but the lows on that amp aren't really usable as they're switchable as opposed to on a dial on the power amp and when the switches are on, the low end is just super boomy.

Anyways, curious of other's opinions on both the Fireball 100 and the other Engl amps they may have tried.

Video is below:
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Great video as always :yes:

I need to also get my hands on one of these. I also agree mostly with what @TotallyRadGuitars was saying. Kyle - when you say opposite from Splawn you mean the saturation vs raw category? It does seem over saturated for my tastes and maybe that's why I never pursued Engl. You said this is the most raw of the ones you've played? I did like the tones you were getting around the 10 min mark and how you messed with the treble. Did you try the 'treble on '0' trick? Lastly, that part about the transformers being small seems like a load of BS to me, but I'm not an EE or amp tech and know very little about transformers TBH. I did a quick search on HiFidelity, Mercury and EL34world sites to verify my thoughts though.

My thoughts on the Transformer thing is that smaller transformers saturate faster. Larger transformers with bigger cores have more open and raw feel and broader frequencies. Big iron = big core = more $$. A larger transformer is going to give you more high and low frequencies, as well as more headroom. That's always been my understanding. So them saying that larger transformers have less quality seems bunk to me. Again - could be wrong on that, but maybe good for you to know as you review more and more amps. The transformers in 5150s and Rectifiers for example are not that big. Verses transformers in Splawn and old Marshalls....etc.
 
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311splawndude said:
So them saying that larger transformers have less quality seems bunk to me.
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It struck me as off too. It seems that they were implying that all larger transformers are compensating for poor material. Alternate explanation is that (some) of the bigger transformers use the same high-quality material, just more of it.
 
Bad.Seed said:
Thanks dude! Fireball 100 is easily my favorite of their lineup.

That actually isn't the first time I've heard this about Engl.

I have personally witnessed a Blackmore get swallowed in a mix against my Deliverance 60. I also brought my Powerball II to practice and it got disappeared by my other guitarists Rev E dual rectifier. That thing has a little more mid bark than a typical Rev G, but I've got plenty of amps that don't struggle against it.

With that being said, I did take the Engl Fireball 25 to that same practice room, and it stood up to the Dual Rec no problem. I was honestly shocked by this, certainly wasn't expecting it to be able to hang, but it did. Keep in mind though, small-ish room. we play relatively loud at practice but not to asinine levels. I've brought other amps that struggled in that room for one reason or another, but the little FB hung, no problem.

I actually went out to Sweetwater this week to meet with Engl's CEO and one of their amp designers, Marty. Both incredibly nice guys. It came up in conversation how people complain about their transformers being small. Now of course, they're going to defend their product, so obviously we can all take this statement with a grain of salt, but according to them, when sourcing materials for transformers, there are lower and higher quality materials. The lower quality materials essentially are less pure/dense and actually result in an overall larger transformer. The materials they buy are supposedly a higher quality/higher purity and therefore result in smaller transformers.

Again, grain of salt, and I'm sure this will spark a whole conversation, lol. I don't know jack shit about the science and internals about transformers so I can't comment.

Regardless of all that, Engl has some cool stuff coming up this yea and next, so if you're a fan of the brand, you'll probably be happy.
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This is interesting , I’ve never heard this. You’re right they are going to protect/b biased about their products, but I have no other explanation of why this phenomenon happens when playing with other amps. It’s not the voicing of engls, because they DO have a shit ton of midrange, and the savage specifically is rather thin sounding on its own, it should slice like an absolute knife. But it doesn’t. Volume? That isn’t the problem either, they are plenty loud, albeit not 5150 or recto loud, but still a non issue. There is just something about the way the amp pushes air, or lack their of compared to a bigger iron amp. A 5150 just sounds like a bulldozer next to an Engl and just swallows it, especially in the lows and lower midrange. It’s just laughable to me at times. It’s interesting that they know this is a thing though, if it’s made it that high up in the chain to their CEO, there’s gotta be something to it. Maybe it’s not tranny’s, but I honestly have no other explanation of why they get buried. The proof is in the pudding though, ive been saying this myself and hearing it about for Atleast 16-17 years at this point. The only amp prior to the fireball 100 I felt that didn’t have this issue was the SE 670 model, and low and behold: much bigger iron in those amps.

But damn this amp sounds killer. I “think” I can tell it 100 percent doesn’t suffer from the problems of other engls at all, but still has that killer Engl voicing, really great to here, you did a killer job showcasing this amp no doubt.
 
Bad.Seed said:
I've definitely heard that about Engl amps as well - hard, if not impossible to work on.

I bought my Powerball II for $500 because it had a serious issue. I forget what, exactly, but apparently it was a known issue - I gave the amp to my tech immediately, and luckily I have a good relationship with the people at Engl, so they provided schematics as well as replacement parts that were updated in order to fix the issue. - I understand not everyone gets this treatment.

I feel inclined to start taking my Engls to practice more to see which ones can hang and which ones can't, lol. My current band is more of a punk rock/NYHC band so the Engl thing isn't really what I'm looking for in that band, but oh well. Would give me a change to see how they fair against a dual rec dialed in correctly.
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I think this is a killer idea as well, about bringing them to practice to see what amps you think hang and don’t. Maybe make a video about it? Although, I’m guessing your relationship with Engl may not be too great after that if I was a betting man haha! But it’s definitely one of those topics that has been around for a LONG time now, but no one really demonstrating exactly what we are hearing, if you’ve never experienced it. Definitely would be a great topic, and maybe get Engl to change a few things and go in a different direction possibly to fix this issue.
 
TotallyRadGuitars said:
The small iron comment is true, and one of my other major complaints about any ENGL I have is the well, anti-consumer practice of their PCB design. The boards are inverted in the chassis and all silk screen text is removed, with the intention of making it difficult to copy, repair, or work on outside of a specially authorized ENGL repair center who has the matching documents and component locations. I consider this to be a huge overstepping of someone's ego, and honestly a pretty dick move overall. I understand that you want to protect your intellectual property but there's a certain point where it's a bit ridiculous, and the idea of touring with an ENGL would be completely out of the question for me even if I used one in a studio, at least in the US where a repair center might be hundreds of miles or more away from you if it breaks down. It also gives me concerns over the longevity of ENGL amps in the future, maybe I'm overthinking it but as someone who owns a real 1985 ENGL E101, which is essentially completely un-repairable if something goes wrong, it's sad to think that for all its flaws that unique amp will no longer be able to be played or heard ever again.
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This sort of behavior from manufacturers irritates me. Do we have a reference list of what manufacturers are supportive of, or hostile to, repairability?. So far it seems to just be scattered around forums. It'd be useful, I think, to have some place that collected together people's experiences with trying to (have someone) repair their amps, whether the manufacturer provides schematics, if there are dirty tricks being pulled like in the picture above, etc.
 
I have tried several ENGL amps and have yet to really like any of them. With the exception of the Blackmore which was a bit more organic sounding, there is something processed and "cheap" sounding about the distortion characteristics. In terms of cutting through, I gave the Powerball a shot in the room in the context of a two guitar band and it literally disappeared from the mix. I have never heard an amp evaporate like that. ENGLs have fans for sure...But I'm not one of them.
 
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