Guess who got an amp today!

Headache

Headache

Ambassador of all that is Heavy
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United-States
I've been hunting for one of these 60w Fireballs for a long time.... Hard to find in the USA, there are a couple overseas, but shipping is a nightmare.

I've been hunting and going back and forth, I don't NEED to buy another amp, I've got 6.... What else could I need to justify another $1k right?

So.... I ended up just checking craigslist 2 nights ago and found one! In Vegas.
I messaged the guy, asked if he'd meet me in Kingman. 1.5hr drive for him 3hr drive for me. He said yes.
I left the house at 6 and picked it up. In great shape.
Flew home and plugged it in.

Just threw a really quick stupid and sloppy video together to give y'all the flavor of it.

My first impressions are:
It's got a clean sparkly/chimney channel that's like wow! different.
it's got actually enough gain to not even need an OD at all.... That's so weird to me.
It's got low end balls much like my JSX, or 6505, but tighter and a lot more of them.
it's got an upper mid grind that reminds me of a pissed off Marshall, but without the fizzy on top.
The EQ is simple and works pretty well.
Gain boost, presence knob are things I really love!
It didn't come with a foot switch, but I may not even want one.

Very simplistic, especially for an Engl. It's a lot lighter than my other full sized amps.

I'm walking pretty tall right now!
is my quest for amp flavors over now? It may be.



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It reeked of smoke, I just took the back off and wiped it all down with a Lysol cleaner sprayed onto a rag. I pulled each tube and checked it and reseated it.

Gave it a few shots of some kinda girly cupcake spray I found in my wife's hutch. Should be loads better now..the inside was immaculate. Still has original pre amp tubes, and the 6l6s have been replaced with GT premiums.

Just from being inside a few dozen amps over the years, I would guess by the screw heads and lack of scratches on the back or inside anywhere that it's only been opened up once or twice in it's life.
 
Kerry Brown said:
Had to do a bit of reading. Didn’t know much about Engl. I’ve never seen on in the flesh. Very cool amp. Congrats.
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I've never played one before either.
But I've been just in awe of it's tone on the YouTube videos I've watched for years.

I got this stupid little JOYO Firebrand amp as a copy of it's tone and I really liked it.
I've also used the AMT preamp legendary boxes for an Engl tone....

So from what I've learned, the fireball is a stripped down 2 ch version of the powerball. But! Most people prefer the fireball tone to the powerball, and the ironball.

Im truly stoked to find it!

I've heard these engls to be described as the over-engineered BMWs of the amp world. German built and lots of cool things in their circuitry.

Their upper models are $3k which keeps me from owning one , all I know is that this thing sounds mean and I love it so far.
 
I grabbed a std tuned guitar for a couple more flavors.
I kept the gain about 10 o'clock!
Sorry for the feedback, I'm standing in front of the amp playing at my ankles right in front of the speaker lol.

Things got a mirror on it's face so....

 
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Headache said:
I just found a brand new matched quad of JJ 12ax7s in my stash! They may be going in tonight..
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Well I lied... I pulled the engl apart, pulled the tubes out, and went to replace them and the tubes in that set of boxes were used JJs out of one of my old DSLs.... I have lots of working but used tubes...

I got on eBay and found a matched quad of NOS ENGL branded ecc83s so I'll be replacing them when those come in.
 
I looked it up today, the Sodom guitarist used ENGL amps! (Since they're both German I figured that makes sense) I knew that I knew this tone!

This is unboosted, straight into the amp zero effects. Knobs pretty much noon bright switch on, deep switch off.

 
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Headache said:
It reeked of smoke, I just took the back off and wiped it all down with a Lysol cleaner sprayed onto a rag. I pulled each tube and checked it and reseated it.

Gave it a few shots of some kinda girly cupcake spray I found in my wife's hutch. Should be loads better now..the inside was immaculate. Still has original pre amp tubes, and the 6l6s have been replaced with GT premiums.

Just from being inside a few dozen amps over the years, I would guess by the screw heads and lack of scratches on the back or inside anywhere that it's only been opened up once or twice in it's life.
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The smoke seasoning is what makes the tone vintage.
After cleaning it will sound more modern.
But the true vintage sound always includes beer soaked speaker cones, aged and dried to perfection. (try not to get beer inside the voice coil).
 
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