the fireball is such a great sounding amp, and i love the simplicity of only two channels. and from what i hear, A LOT actually, it doesn't need a boost pedal to sound good like a dual rectifier does, if i could just plug straight into my amp and avoid a boost pedal thats awesome.
They're both great amps. I own a savage. I played the fireball 100 and it is amazing. It can do all metal. Trust me. It comes to to taste and features needed. Biggest factor is the right cab for you. I use an Orange with my savage and it's an unreal pairing.
cool! I have a spare Orange 412 cab so that saves me cash for my next amp. Trying to decide between the Fireball, Savage and Powerball. Hard to decide! Diezel is over 1k more in cost than ENGL and not twice as good.
Go inferno. It’s Engls best amp on the market. It’s a fireball with more brightness and an extra eq. I think it sounds better and has a much better clean.
Brent Pearcy to tighten them. And to have that patent mid boost. Certainly NOT to have more gain. Trust me, the FB100 might have stupid amounts of gain, but it’s day and night difference with the right overdrive
In cases like this, they're essentially being used as EQs, not extra gain. Changes the tone, often helps clean up the low end and push the mids forward.
I own a Savage, Powerball II and Fireball and can tell you without any doubt that putting a Tube Screamer in front of any of these Engl amp is not going to give you better results than just plugging straight in. Mesa, Marshall, Peavey, EVH and Blackstar you NEED the tube screamer to get a tight punchy tone. But, Engl does not need it. In my experience it takes away from their tone.
+plagueguitarist Don't know about those models you mentioned, but my Blackmore sounds awesome with a Maxon OD 808 in front of it. Without it is beefier, but not as tight as I'd like to. Lead chanel on low gain mode + maxon = punchy, tight, amazing distortion awesomeness. Kind of similar to the 6505/5150 family really, as I prefer the green channel boosted to it's red channel (boosted or not) on those amps. Fat, punchy with a singing quality to it.
WTF is it with you people and tube screamers? They have NEVER done anything for me and I own more than one Marshall and Peavey tube heads. There are many other types of pedals that can dial into the same thing.. and using far less gain. A good heavy guitar tone isn't necessarily just about driving the input on an amp, it's about getting a clean tone with the least amount of gain possible.
Either you have a dog or were breathing super heavy while changing around amps. Hehe.. Great video... Do you find the Savage as toneful and organic in person? I find the Fireball very Marshall like.
Try a Tungsol Sol or Ruby AC7HG+ in V1 of your Fireball..makes a huge difference...I also have EH's in the other two slots and a Sovtek LPS in the PI slot...I've also found the old GT ECC83 (not the ECC83s) tubes are very nice and warm without too much excess gain that this amp doesn't need...Another good one to try in V1 and V2 is the Svetlana..nice tube with less overall gain but nice and crunchy.
It took me a while to get used to Engel Savage 120 sound after switching from different Mesa Boogie and Marshall amps I have owned. Now I trained my ear to totally love Engl Savage unique sound, I sold Invader, it just sounded weird to my ears. Most of us are used to this "90's" sound which is familiar and right away accepted when listening to popular bands. I listened to Matts Hedberg ,the eccentric musician from Italy who uses two Savages, and is endorsed by Engl (see him on RU-vid),and learned to be different and more creative in the type music and sound I am creating, and I think it is awesome.
I have played the Powerball 1,Blackmore,Savage 60,Fireball 100 and now I found my dream-sound in the Artist Edition E 651 Blackout.The Savage,Blackmore and the Artist Edition have enough gain to get without a booster in front of the amp many very good metal tones,but they have lesser but more responsive gain stage than the Power and the Fireballs wich both have so much more gain that you ask your self“who needs so much gain?“also the balls sounding smoother and darker.At a specific point they both have so much gain that you can hear no difference in the tone when you turn up the gain.The Savage,Blackmore and Artist have lesser gain but enough for extreme metal.They sounding more dynamic,brighter and.The mids,treble,prescence,gain,bass,and master poti’s are very responsive to each changing of the setting.Also the integrated boost/shape-functions works in another way and more responsive to my ears as the Fire-and Powerball.When you boost a engl than keep it more simple and dont boost the drive section with the pedal.The distortion comes from the amp.-A maxon od808,ibanez ts9 or a boss sd1 works fine.But its all a matter of taste.🤘
Looking at both of these amps, played a Fireball 100 and just fell in love with the saturation, hoping you can help me. Is the Savage just as saturated? Like the versatility the Savage has over the Fireball but need the Saturation. Just minor difference in lead tone for these two? lower mids/upper mids? Any help you can give is very much appreciated man!
Thanks for the help man, going to have to find a Savage/Blackmore to play in person. Tried the Fireball, love the meanness and tone but want to make sure the Savage isn't a better fit for me. Not easy to find these to test out.
The Savage sounds much more clear and ballsy. The Fireball, a little too muddy in comparison. Wish they made a smaller version of the Savage. 120W is way more than most people need.
DevCom666 there once was a savage 60. it's super rare these days, if you ever find one buy it! but i really want to see all the engl series in 20 watts package. we've already got the ball series covered, now i want an invader mini and a savage jr.
+givemeajackson Yeah i really want a Savage 60, i can't afford the 120 version and wasn't satisfied with the EL84 tone on my ENGL ironball; so i ended up getting a Framus Cobra. Even though the Cobra is a great amp i still do slightly feel like I "settled" as i couldn't find a Savage 60 or a Blackmore or something used in my price range. Apparently in europe there are alot more Savage 60's, sucks to be in america. I've even tried to offer my Cobra for trade for a Savage 60 or another decent ENGL since i prefer the ENGL voicing for some strange reason even though i fricking love the cobra; but haven't gotten any offers.
xXDarkxIdealsXx here in switzerland, you find tons of blackmores and savage 120s, but the sixty is still a rare beast. i only ever saw one get sold, and i check on all online used amp deals. the cobra is a very different amp, and i want one BAD.
savage. Bam. easy, more balls to the wall. but the newer fireball sounds better then the old version. fireball 100 new version black plate is like 3 times as good as the old one.
I just got a fireball 60 a few months ago and I like it better than any metal amp I've ever played and mines the old one but I plan on getting a newer engl soon,a Powerball 2 or a savage but this thing smokes the fender 5153s I've had and I love the mid growl it has that other amps don't.
@@darknature79 it's less confusing and more straight forward. The evh has like one marshall kinda mid channel and one scooped out lead channel. hard to balance them. You kinda don't want to be on channel 3 live. it's just very very scooped, gotta hate that and very compressed very quick. had the evh too, didn't like it.the other guitarists Powerball 2 ate it live. I just didn't cut through. wanted to go boostles also and keeping it simple with the evh. didn't do it. Don't know about fireball. But i do know a powerball is mid galore and cut's through very fine.
@@aryinc since that message I've had the fb60,the fb100,2 special editions,pb 1 and 2,3 evh 5153s and a mi audio gamma,a xxx 2 5150s and a few others lol. I got into a bad car wreck right after I got that fb60 and over that time I've lost Intrest because the pain is too bad with carpal tunnel in both wrist and tennis elbow and rotator cuff tendonitis with a shattered kneecap and bad back and I ended up selling them all.
Was the grounding problem with the Savage repaired? Planning to get the Savage and through research have come across a couple of Savage amps that needed to have the grounding scheme redone and Tube Heater Rectifiers replaced. Seems to be common with the Savage design.
I own both a fireball 100 and a savage 120 and I find that with the savage i really need to crank up the gain to get a good metal tone on both the lead channels. but with the fireball i dont need it at more then at 10 o'clock and still get that really mean growl out of it. do you experience the same thing? should be noted that i dont use a overdrive pedal in front of the amps, maybe if i put a OD in front of the savage i dont need to crank it up so much?
Gorbaswe Actually you are 100% right. I get the same thing. The FB100 just seems to get meaner quicker where the savage is alot smoother. Both are great
I've got both a engl SE and a engl artist edition. on Se it is the same, 10 o clock and you're there with the gain, artist same i believe, yeah the savage needs over the half indeed, strange but they're all really good amps.
What Engl amp falls in between these two? One that includes the lower mid bark & fuzzier gain of the FB100, and the upper mid bite and clarity of the Savage 120?
Well it depends on what cab you're using. I swear by Orange cabs for Engl amps. Try the savage through one. Or if you need a little more, go with the Engl special edition. Very unique
@@duck2587 I have engl ironball and through orange ppc212 it sounds really bad, no matter what speakers are inside. Bought evh 2x12 and it sounds amazing through it with stock and other speakers. Orange cabs are very dark.
You can rebias 6550's to run KT88's, easily. They're incredibly similar and don't run much of a different current. They have some different tonal characteristics and I prefer KT88's, but just be sure the amp is biased correctly for a matched pair, etc, for them.
can this amp get a good modern metalcore/deathcore-ish tone and some older sounding stuff (evh, ac/DC, metallica...surprise i like bith styles) at bedroom volumes, not necessarily whisper volumes but low enough to keep from blowing up the house. I've also considered the EVH 5150 III but I'm concerned about its reliability. Also, I will be playing through a Mesa 2x12 compact cabinet. Bedroom volumes is a must.
To which one are you referring? The Fireball 60/100 can be turned easily to low volume and still keeps it sound. Also the EVH5150III can be turned very low. As for the savage, didn't try it uptil now. Depends also on the speakers, haven't tried your speakers with it.
+Christian S. (Silenz) I recently had the chance to jam through the EVH 100w and it absolutely crushed at any volume, even at volumes I could easily talk over so I was wondering if the engl fireball could keep up. I've considered the Savage also but I had to downsize my budget in favor of putting the extra cash towards savings to buy a house.
You can set the fireball 100 to a very low volume, but you should know it is very focused on the bass. When I played it with a 7 string, the palm muted low A moved a lot of air. I think you know that feeling, which I'm talking about. Problem is maybe your neighbours don't like to be stomped by the bass. It is possible to reduce the bass, I had it only at 4 /10, but it's still very strong. Bottom boost is also very evil and suited for your style of music. For the EVH III, I had the feeling it is more mid/high centered than bass compared to the fireball 100, which could help with the "volume problem". Still really depends again on speakers, closed back speakers. Your box is closed back, if I'm right? I can really recommend to test the fireball vs the EVH on a A/B switch at your box. See if it fits. Downside to the fireball is only 2 channels and 1 EQ, the EVH is more versatile in this aspect. If you do much technical stuff, I can really recommend engl. It's a very tight sound :)
versatility really isn't an issue as most of what I will be playing will be the new modern metal and Deathcore type stuff period every now and then I might venture back just some of the older stuff like I mentioned before but my main focus is the heavier modern stuff
Realy? Comparing two distortion monsters by plugging in a distortion pedal? I dont get this at all????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
An overdrive is a distortion pedal. Those amps should be tight all by all by themselves. You dont know if what you are hearing is the amps distortion or the pedal distortion.
A distortion pedal begins where an overdrive ends. An overdrive pushes the preamp section and gives crunch to a clean channel but it's transparantly pushing the distortion channel. The sound of the amp doesnt change. I use an overdrive pedal with no gain added and level + tone in the middle. It's just for thightning up the distortion channel of an amp without adding more distortion to it.
***** you are hearing the amps distortion. the OD is usually set gain 0, volume 10 and tone 7-ish. it's used to cut some low end from the guitar and boost the mids as well as overall volume. it's absolutely common practice with metal amps, though i don't think the savage needs one, cause it's capable of the tightest palm mute sound i know. for demoing an amp it's actually a good idea to boost the thing because there are probably more metal players who always have a tubescreamer in front of their amp anyways than there are those who don't. each amp still sounds distinctly different to others, TS or not.
Lol why are you using an overdrive pedal? Entirely unnecessary. At any rate, the Fireball sounds significantly meaner with that midrange growl. The Savage's tone is too "modern" and stale sounding.
