ENGL Fireball, any comments on it?

[Thor Von Clemson]

I am wondering what ya'll think of the ENGL fireball head? Guess the only thing I have heard about it is lots of gain, sometimes more than people need. Other than that, how does this thing sound? Metal monster with decent cleans? Well rounded amp?

Seems like a good price at around $1200.

Anyone have anything good, bad, or ugly to say about it?

[P I K A]

Best metal head below 2000. Sounds like a Marshall on steriods and has a ton of low end. Sold my mesa and uber and just kept this head. Sold the powerballl too.

[Mordor]

It's very tight too. Personally I love it.

[axeman81]

I've tried all ENGL heads except the Savage, and the Fireball is by far the best/coolest sounding to my ears. I also like the Blackmore very much but if I were buying, I'd go Fireball.

[Fragle]

"Best metal head below 2000. Sounds like a Marshall on steriods "

BS.....ok, everybody's ears are different. however, my ears are telling me the complete OPPOSITE of what you just wrote.

to me, the 5150 is the best metal hand below 2000 (or 1000 for that matter) hands down. morever, the 5150 indeed has that midrange rich marshall on steroids tone, whereas the fireball is scooped to hell and back. geez, the blackmore i used to own was scooped to hell, and it is supposed to be about as midrangey as it gets as far as engl is concerned.
i guess it's good for grindcore or stuff like necrophagist/hate eternal....super saturated tech death metal tone.

[shadowcat]

I love mine. Since I got it one year ago I have neither played, nor even thought about playing/trying out any other amp.

It's easy to dial in (everything at noon, then adjust to taste...), sounds great and if you leave the gain knob at 12 o'clock or below it is very tight and clear.
I use it in both my bands (one is melodic death metal and the other is pretty technical death metal).

And no, it doesn't sound like a Marshall to me.

[Mordor]

And yes,this beast has plenty of gain on tap.I use mine with gain at 10 o'clock and it's saturated enough.

[Fragle]

i still think that a 5150 or a good marshall craps all over engl amps....let alone the framus cobra. the engl blackmore is supposed to be a VERY clear sounding amp - and it is indeed pretty clear, i gotta give it that - but with the framus it's just another league really, kinda like 5150 vs bogner uberschall difference...the framus is thick and clear at the same time, whereas the engl gets a lot of it's clarity by thinning out the sound imho.

[Bob From Accounting]

It sounds like Iced Earth, but that's all it does. It's a one trick pony, but very good at that one trick though!

[James D.]

A guy at my work just bought one for $1200... I'll ask him how it is, once he gets a chance to get to know it. Never played one myself

[Axegrinder]

Never played the Fireball but I have played the Powerball and Savage 120. For me I have NEVER played a better amp for the music that I play. I love the ENGL tone but the ENGL tone is not for everyone. I've heard nothing but great reviews on the Fireball though.

[gerrekat]

The FIREBALL is a simpler version of the POWERBALL, both are killer amps. I loved the FIREBALL when it came out but nedded two highgain chan\nels so I was through the roff when the POWERBALL came 1,5 years later!

the FIREBALL has channel 1 and 4 of the POWERBALL and a 60 watt poweramp instead of 100 watt.

[Fragle]

"It sounds like Iced Earth, but that's all it does. It's a one trick pony, but very good at that one trick though!"
as far as the fireball goes i don't know for sure, but the blackmore i used to own NAILED the alive in athens tone to a T. it was dead on really.
unfortunately, it only did so at low volumes. at my usual gigging volumes, the sound just got really thin and bright no matter how i dialed it in. it's a shame, really, i sure wanted to like this amp, as it was *the* perfect bedroom tone.

[Mordor]

I find this very very strange,my fireball won't get thin with high volume, actully I used to play it with my old band with master volume at 2 o'clock and it was perfectly tight and clear,no thin at all.
Dumb question: have you tried to change tubes in your blackmore?

[Fragle]

preamp, yeah. without a lot of success, though....and the thing is, except for one band (the forsaken) who were using engl savage 120 stacks, all engl using bands i've ever seen had the same type of glassy high end sound which was exactly the thing that turned me off. even with the presence zero'ed and the treble almost off, there still was a certain "glassy" high end which was part of the reason why it sounded so clear, but gave me the impression that the sound was really thin. having the mids high added to this problem - i found that by scooping some of the mids, the highs sounded a lot better. unfortunately, the amp's voicing already is scooped to hell, and scooping even more of the mids using the EQ sure doesn't help with that. in fact, at times i had the mids dimed and the contour (=mid boost) on and the sound still wasn't anywhere near as full as my marshall or my 5150. i can't even imagine how a cranked fireball sounds, as it is supposed to be even MORE scooped than the blackmore, or well, the blackmore is supposed to be the most midrangey engl amp...go figure