All Things ENGL!

Mongillo19 said:
Someone talk me out of selling my FB100. It just doesn't get the love it deserves between the 6505 and Recto.

I also find it to have a very scooped sound and gets lost in the mix very easily.
Click to expand...
I can see the overlap between those two amps. How do you usually run treble and presence? With my 25 I mix it up a bit with either one or the other lower/higher if you get what I mean. Then dial in the mids as needed.

Give the amp another chance I would say!
 
Mongillo19 said:
Yeah I knew it was going to sound silly when I typed it out 😂

Idk what it is about the FB but yeah idk it just sounds thin to me. I should probably look up some settings.
Click to expand...

I didn't jive with the Fireball either. For what it's worth.

I could not get one sound out of it I liked. :idk
 
The Fireball isn‘t my favourite amp either - not because of lacking mids but because I find the low mids somehow bloated and the low end a little bit too woofy and compressed. That‘s why I prefer the Artist Edition. It is less compressed, punchier and doesn‘t have that low mid bloat. In fact it‘s a quite scooped (but in a good way) little Thrash machine. :D
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
The Fireball isn‘t my favourite amp either - not because of lacking mids but because I find the low mids somehow bloated and the low end a little bit too woofy and compressed. That‘s why I prefer the Artist Edition. It is less compressed, punchier and doesn‘t have that low mid bloat. In fact it‘s a quite scooped (but in a good way) little Thrash machine. :D
Click to expand...
Ah yeah, I’ve gotten so used to my always-on EQ in the loop but I can see what you mean. When I turn off the EQ and the freqs I cut out comes back it’s definitely low mids woofy. Probably one of the best gear purchases I’ve made, an Ibanez Pentatone EQ which is fair priced and has five adjustable bands with Q-dials. I found the worst sounding frequency spaces and just toned them down a bit. Made a huge difference.
 
Mongillo19 said:
Yeah I knew it was going to sound silly when I typed it out 😂

Idk what it is about the FB but yeah idk it just sounds thin to me. I should probably look up some settings.
Click to expand...
In my experience the trick with the Fireball is to dial back the bass to clear up the low mids and turn up the mids and treble. When I had a Fireball these settings worked best for me: Bass 2-3, Middle 6,5-7, Treble 6,5-7, turn the Mid Boost off (you don‘t want that boxy 400 Hz boost) and be careful with the Presence. Try these settings before selling the amp.
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
This video provides an excellent comparison between the Fireball and the Artist Edition.

Click to expand...

From the video it’s really easy to like the Artist more than the Fireball. Gotta make those low mids work for you or cut them out!

Would be nice if Engl made a 50W amp with clean, crunch and then two lead channels like the Founders Edition. Seems like a missed opportunity that the Savage MK2’s have crunch 1 and 2 instead of double lead channels, thinking of the main clientele.
 
Fireball has a lot of bass and gain, I use it with v30 loaded 2x12 engl cab for less boomy, more focused sound. I barely touch things except the volume:

1000022398.jpg

(Bottom, mid boost: off)
Boosting it with maxon od808.

I find tb5 (custom)(6 strings, standard tuning) is very suitable with these settings, medium output gives the dynamic feeling you need, less compressed. When I play with JB pup or with 4x12 I get help from 10 band eq pedal otherwise I hear what @TheTrueZoltan! complains. Some people love that though. 2x12 engl cab handles the bass very well, od808 tightens more, many say you dont need to boost fireball but I dont boost for the gain but low cut.

Artist edition is old school while fireball is much more modern (low tuning, death metal stuff). Different beasts for different purposes, best would be having both lol.
 
So, here are my first impressions after one day. The sound of the amp is exactly as I remembered it - extremely clear and tidy, with a very punchy bass. Much leaner in the low mids and also a little drier than other ENGL models, with a slightly British edge in the upper mids. In combination with the usual Tube Screamer, there is no better amp for Thrash in my opinion.

When I switched it on for the first time, I was unpleasantly surprised to hear a clearly audible transformer hum, which I had never heard from ENGL amps before. Quite annoying because I sit right next to the amp in my home studio. I was worried that it would annoy me so much that I would have to send it back. Today I opened it up, tightened the screws on the output transformer a little, then measured the idle current - and lo and behold - it was set far too high at the factory, at more than 80%. I then set the bias to the usual 70% and after reassembling the amp I noticed that the humming of the transformer had been reduced to a barely audible level. Phew!
 
Last edited:
Progressive_disclosure said:
From the video it’s really easy to like the Artist more than the Fireball. Gotta make those low mids work for you or cut them out!

Would be nice if Engl made a 50W amp with clean, crunch and then two lead channels like the Founders Edition. Seems like a missed opportunity that the Savage MK2’s have crunch 1 and 2 instead of double lead channels, thinking of the main clientele.
Click to expand...
Crunch 2 has plenty of gain on my Savage and could be used for a lead without issue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
So, here are my first impressions after one day. The sound of the amp is exactly as I remembered it - extremely clear and tidy, with a very punchy bass. Much leaner in the low mids and also a little drier than other ENGL models, with a slightly British edge in the upper mids. In combination with the usual Tube Screamer, there is no better amp for Thrash in my opinion.

When I switched it on for the first time, I was unpleasantly surprised to hear a clearly audible transformer hum, which I had never heard from ENGL amps before. Quite annoying because I sit right next to the amp in my home studio. I was worried that it would annoy me so much that I would have to send it back. Today I opened it up, tightened the screws on the output transformer a little, then measured the idle current - and lo and behold - it was set far too high at the factory, at more than 80%. I then set the bias to the usual 70% and after reassembling the amp I noticed that the humming of the transformer had been reduced to a barely audible level. Phew!
Click to expand...

80% holy crap! My hunch those tubes would not have lasted that long had
you not caught that. I am guessing it is brand new? :idk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top