ENGL Powerball Settings

M

Metalus

Member
Jun 24, 2008
35
0
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Wassup everybody?

So i recently got an ENGL Powerball and i was wondering if anybody on here who has one has any settings they would like to share. I havent messed with it much just yet. Im trying to see if i can get a Killswitch Engage/All Shall Perish/Shadows Fall type tone. Something very chunky but with alot of clarity in terms of lead tones. Thanks in advance to everyone who responds :headbang:
 
Well, here's my settings that work nicely when I take the preamp signal from the FX loop and add a Marshall 4x12" 1960A impulse to it:

"Channel 3" (Lo Lead)
Gain 3
Lo Lead Bottom: off
Bass 4
Middle 10 (Open/Focused pressed down, though I swear the function is reversed on mine. When pressed down (Focused) it sounds more open, and when unpressed (Open) it sounds very scooped :zombie:)
Treble 7
Lo Lead Volume 9
Presence 5
Depth Punch 4
 
how d'u get rid of that signature fizz dude? I 've lost any will to record with this head since i can never get rid of this issue and in second place when i hear it alone it seems kick ass but in the mix loses power and never fit well...i must be too stupid..
 
+1 to what tornio said except i run mine with the pressence at around 3.0 -3.5 and the depth punch at around 5.5 - 6.0

When recording you realy need to back off the presence a lot with this amp to minimise the fizz.

A TS in front of the amp will realy help to liven up the sound a bit as it tends to be a bit sterile i run my od 808 in front with all the dials at 5 (12 oclock).

I also run a eq pedal in the loop to and boost around 400hz, 1.5khz and 3.0khz

This is just a general starting point though il change these settings depending on the guitar + pickup combination the amp is seeing.
 
I recently recorded a Powerball and my guitarist uses one.

It's really tricky to dial a good sound : it can sound thin easily, or muddy. I use a Maxon tubescreamer to tighten it a bit and it works well.

Here is a mix I'm currently working on, we used the Powerball, Royer and SM57 in front of the cab. It's far from finished yet (can hear some mistriggers etc.) but you can hear the guitar tone. I have the settings written somewhere if you're iinterested.
 
Here are the settings I used for our latest album:
P5190004.jpg


Greenbacks gets the fizz out of the sound, i also tried slapping a tubescreamer in front of it but imho it's awful together with pedals.

Here's how we miced the cab:
P5190002.jpg
 
Yeah, Tubescreamer + Powerball = useless. It doesn't do anything (good) to the amp's sound, and you don't need a TS to tighten the amp since it's already so damn tight. You do need all the mids you can get, and a slightly darker cab to remove the fizz. Presence is very important to be kept relatively low.


Oh yeah, and I might add that I use passive pickups (Seymour Duncan JB) with it. I don't think the amp would sound good with active pickups, since the extra boost would only make the amp even more sterile and lifeless, plus the aforementioned lack of need for a tubescreamer.
 
I use a TS7 in front of my Powerball and it definately sounds better with it (Drive 0, Tone 4, Level 5)
Mesa cab is the way to go. I have A/Bd Engl, Mesa, Marshall and Randall cabs (most of them v30, marshall with greenbacks and v30) and every time I seem to come back to the Mesa.
Don't be afraid of the treble knob. I have it sometimes even around 7 - 8.
And one important thing. Don't boost the middle all the way. I normaly don't go past noon.
And keep the gain somewhere around 2 on channel 3
I use both, middle open and middle focused depending on the style of music and the player

Powerball is tricky. Depth punch, presence and bottom switch can totally change the whole basic sound of the head.

Don't lose your hope. It really can sound fantastic when you learn how to dial it in
 
My Goal is to one day make a Powerball clip that Lasse likes..well not just likes but has thoughts somewhere along the line "fucking awesome"...at the moment it's a bitch to record...:erk::cry:
 
won't happen! ;)

I've recorded it several times myself...sometimes even with decent results, but never awesome...an amp that doesn't sound awesome in the room will never sound awesome under the mic ;)
 
Inversely, however, I always liked the sound of my JSX in the room, but could never get a tone I liked out of it when mic'ed up through 3 separate cabs :erk:
 
Sly said:
I recently recorded a Powerball and my guitarist uses one.

It's really tricky to dial a good sound : it can sound thin easily, or muddy. I use a Maxon tubescreamer to tighten it a bit and it works well.

Here is a mix I'm currently working on, we used the Powerball, Royer and SM57 in front of the cab. It's far from finished yet (can hear some mistriggers etc.) but you can hear the guitar tone. I have the settings written somewhere if you're iinterested.
Click to expand...

Sounds very good.

Can you give more details ? (signal chain, mic positioning, post EQ, etc...)

I'd curious to hear what Lasse and all the Powerball haters think of it :)
 
Eh, I wouldn't get your hopes up, I've become extremely disillusioned by it recently (just sold it as a matter of fact), and have never heard a clip that truly impressed me (just stuff that was like, "yeah, it's not bad, but I'll take a 5150 over it any day, thank you"). And yes, I've listened to (endured would be a better word :rolleyes: ) the new Despised Icon.
 
Ahahah this amp is really a bitch to record.
Thanks for the words about the sound, I achieved a better EQ for this yesterday. Anyway the recording chain was :
Vigier Excalibur custom with Seymour passive pckps=> OD-808 => Engl Powerball => Bogner Uberkab (miced the upper right V30 in it)
then
SM57 => Vintech X81 => Rosetta 800
Royer R121 => API => Rosetta 800

At mix time, I then sent the guitar bus through the Vintech X81 EQ, and made some EQ cuts and boosts here and there, to make it smoother and less boxy : cuts @ 400 Hz, 3,7 khz ; boosts @ 100 Hz, 7,6 khz. Also some traditionnal low pass/high cut things : 60 Hz-12500 Hz

I think the sound is quite cool but a bit too compressed (I usually never boost some 100 Hz but more 85-90 Hz). I did a different version which is much better in terms of stereo imaging, the mids are more balanced, I can post it there if you want. Also worked on drums and bass :)
 
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