I had an ENGL Powerball for about 4 years, it has lots of gain never needed any pedal in front of it, i play mainly death metal, the gain was not even at half played on chanel 3, although i don't like too much saturated gain, its a very nice amp and it has an awesome lead sound has well, and it souds very tight, the only weekness of this amp are the midds they cut in the mix too well