The ESP Guitar Company

At the start of 2019, ESP became the USA/Canada distributor for one of the world's most highly regarded instrument amplifier brands: ENGL Amps. We want to give you the extra details on some of ENGL's best-selling and most acclaimed amplifiers, starting with today's spotlight on the Powerball II.

This amp offers an incredible degree of tonal versatility and control, along with all the power you need for just about any application from making records to playing stadiums. It's a 100W head driven by four 6L6GC power tubes and four ECC83 (12AX7) preamp tubes, but what sets the Powerball II apart from other amps is its four discrete channels. Channel 1 is for clean tones, while Channel 2 has all the crunch you could ever want. Channels 3 and 4 are both designed for punchy, powerful leads. Each of the four channels offers independent volume and gain controls, along with Bright and Bottom sound switches for the clean and crunch channels. The Powerball II also offers a midrange boost that affects all four channels, accessed with a front panel button or footswitch control.

Sculpting your tone on the Powerball II is made easy with powerful, flexible EQ controls. The Clean and Crunch channels offer shared bass and middle frequency control along with independent treble controls for each channel. The two lead channels provide bass, mid, and treble EQ knobs, plus an independent control to set the midrange boost. But there's more: presence and depth punch controls allow you to dial in the perfect tone for every style of music you want to take on. An amp like the Powerball II is designed for professional performance, and includes some special features you won't find on typical tube amplifiers. These include a front panel Power Tube Monitoring System with LED indicators, and footswitchable noise gate and FX loop.

From crystal clean tones to massive bottom end sounds for the modern guitarist, few amps offer the rich harmonics and fast attack that ENGL delivers in the Powerball II using special built transformers. It's an amp that stands out and cuts through on any stage or recording situation.

The Powerball II rear panel. Left to right: Power input, Serial Amp Control port for use with ENGL Z-9 footswitch, FX Loop and Noise Gate input, Master A/B and Mid Boost input, Channel Selection input, Noise Gate threshold control, FX Loop send/return and wet/dry balance, and multiple power amp output jacks for various speaker cabinet configurations.

The ENGL Powerball II is a great match for ENGL's outstanding cabinets, like this 4 x 12″ PRO Slanted model.

Click here for more information and to find the right place to buy your next ENGL Amp!