Engl Powerball Reviews

Fortunately there are some high quality professional and owner reviews of the Engl Powerball out on the web.

We’ve summarized and highlighted the best we could find here.

Professional Powerball Reviews

Guitar World – review/demo by Guitar World spokesman Paul Riario. Paul takes you through the switches and functions on the front of the amp. At the 4:48 mark in the video he starts playing through each of the 4 channels on the amp starting with Clean and moving to Crunch, Lo Gain, and Hi Gain.

Premier Guitar – following is the essential info in a recent review of the Powerball done by Premier Guitar and a link to view the full review.

Versatile & Heavy-Duty

“When I first opened the box containing this amp I could not help but notice the heavy-duty industrial look of the unit, with its chrome-plated front panel and screen grille. It is easy to typecast amps as being one-dimensional simply by their looks, but nothing could be farther from the truth here. It is, in fact, one of the most versatile amps I have seen...”

Clean & Loud

“When I first fired up the unit through a 4x12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30s, the Engl was set on the clean channel. I was very surprised to find a clean, warm, sparkling tone - very reminiscent of an old Voc AC30. This even sent me running for the electric 12 string, to see if it could do the Tom Petty or Jimmy Page thing, and with a couple of tweaks, the Powerball nailed it. Right then I knew I was not dealing with just another heavy rock/metal amp with little consideration for clean tones.....”

“In a word, the lead channel is massive; with the available control of the low end as well as the open/focused controls, you can dial in the biggest, tightest low end around, especially for detuned modern rock/metal. No matter how far down I detuned my guitar, I was still able to retain definition and clarity of the note...”

“In conclusion I would say that this amp is even more than it is advertised to be. I could easily make an entire album with this one amp head rock, metal, blues, jazz, fusion, funk, and even country and produce excellent results. It is a great value and I would recommend it highly.”

- Premier Guitar - (Tone, Craftsmanship, Features, Value, Overall all rated 5/5 - Full Review)

Engl Powerball Owner Reviews

Below is a table summarizing the pros and cons of the Powerball as stated by owners of the amp from a variety of source. Below that you can find some links to read the owner reviews in their entirety.

Pros:
Amazing amp for the price, especially compared with high end amps from Mesa, Diezel, Hughes and Kettner, Framus, and Soldano
Crystal cleans to high gain tones
High reliability rating due to quality German construction
Very good included noise gate to control unwanted sound
Unique tone that doesn't sound like other amps
Very powerful high gain ability for killer heavy metal sounds
Unique tone that doesn't sound like other amps
Excellent cleans which is rare with high gain amps, doesn't distort at high levels
4 channels - clean, crunch, lower gain lead, high gain lead
Great German metal sound, excels at modern metal
Plays well at low volumes
Nice variation knobs like 2 master volumes, depth punch for more bottom end, bright for more highs
No stompboxes needed for extra drive
Like it better than 5150 and Mesa Rectifiers

Cons:
Carefully select speaker cabinet to run it through, sound varies greatly depending on cab
No clear consensus on how versatile the amp is
Need extra footswitch to handle all the channels
Need to use the noise gate on lead channels due to noisiness
Need extra equipment to run midi options
No reverb

Read the full text of the owner reviews at the following locations:

Musicians Friend – over 13 owner reviews detailing their experience with the amp.

Harmony Central – over 38 owner reviews detailing Features, Sound Quality, Reliability, Customer Support, and Overall Rating.

Ultimate Guitar – 1 detailed owner review with comments on each of the Powerball’s 4 channels