Engl Fireball 100 E635

The small Engl Fireball is a blockbuster. Many good reviews and ratings make it a desirable little amp. Kirstein was the only dealer where I still got him without waiting. The delivery came promptly to Austria, everything went perfectly, payment, delivery as well as the wait itself. Thanks for this to the Kirstein - team.

About the amp itself: Every guitarist is probably looking for the holy grail. Be it the guitar itself, the amp, or the corresponding pedal. With the guitars I have found, pedals I have reduced and limited myself to the most necessary (for me), so only the appropriate amp remained.

Since I only play at home at room volume (or slightly above), for me only full tube comes into question, I had several lunchbox amps at home. From Orange, over Peavey to last a few years a Marshall JVM. However, I was never 100% happy with the Marshall, I never had the feeling that the Marshall helps me in my musical development. I came across the small Engl Fireball rather by chance thanks to Youtube algorithms. For a long time I played with the idea of getting rid of the Marshall, advertised it for some time and said to myself, if someone buys it, I'll get an Engl.

And there the Marshall was gone, at the local music store I could fortunately test a Fireball and I was immediately flashed by it. It sounds a bit more compressed than the Marshall, but the string separation is much better, the Engl pushes and pushes from behind, just to my taste. I tend musically to rock and metal, rather the old-school thrash direction from the 80s and 90s. However, I do not play active pickups, but have in my 3 Gibson Flying Vs passive Gibson humbuckers.

First of all the clean channel sounds very homogeneous, distorts with increased volume but satisfies my needs, just added slight effects using a Boss ms3.
Now for the distortion channel: An absolute dream, the individual controls color the sound very carefully, so you can find your sound with a little adjustment work. So the basses at 12, mids at 2 o'clock and treble at 1. With the Presence - controller I am at 9 o'clock, not too much, because in my apartment due to the location the treble sounds very clanging. Gain I have on 15 o'clock. The built-in noisegate does its job very well, but I still use a Boss NS to not cut the tones too much. Super I find the possibility to throttle the amp with the power, so you can tear it at less wattage a little stronger, so that the power amp makes with. As mentioned at the beginning, the Engl sounds less open than the Marshall, but that's what I wanted to achieve. The string separation is simply unbeatable with Engl. What always bothered me with the Marshall were the clanging highs, which I could never bring under control, because my amp is in a long front room (without carpet) and the high notes fly around my ears. With the Engl, this is much less the case, so I immediately fell in love.

In the near future I will play around with some effects and a wah, but I'm sure the Fireball will handle this beautifully.

In summary, I am more than happy with the decision to switch to the Engl Fireball.