ENGL powerball VS peavey 5150II

[turmoil]

i currently own a peavey 5150II in addition to my mesa boogie TR but i have the chance to buy an ENGL powerball for a great price and i may do so but i will have to sell my 5150II to fund the purchase of this powerball.

i'm wondering what you guys think/know about the powerball? i have done some research both on ENGL's website and on harmonycentral to find reviews of it with many positive results. i'm just wondering if this amp is going to significantly sound better than my 5150II? i'm almost positive it will but from sound clips i've heard from rocksolidamps.com i wasn't too blown away by it but i know ENGL's sound amazing.

i know one of you guys posted clips of your savage 120 which sound incredible and i'm wondering if this powerball can keep up with that same style of sound?

thanks guys!

 

[guitarslingerans]

6505/5150 rules, Powerball......not so much


I say that because of experiences with the Powerball and 5150. I owned both at the same time and the 5150 shat all over the Powerball in terms of pure, raw tone.

I was running the Powerball through 2 Bogner UberKabs, which are supposedly the cabs everyone says the PB sounds best with, and the 5150 via 2 Mesa Traditional Straight-Front 4x12s and the 5150 ate the powerball for dinner. The 5150 buried it in the band mix, where the Powerball was noisey, very prone to lots of feedback, (the onboard noisegate did NOTHING) and didn't cut thru in the band mix at all. I hated that amp. It got sold quite promptly. The 5150 however, has still remained at my crib, and funny enough, it is the amp I have owned the longest now, out of every amp I've ever owned. Granted, the PB's clean channel was better and obviously it was more verastile than the 5150, but the PB struck me almost as "Jack of all Trades, yet master of none", type amp, where the 5150 was simply, "The Master of Metal Distortion". It's hard to explain without being able to demo the 2 side by side, but even my band went from using the ENGL SE I just got, and a Savage 120, back to using the 5150 instead of the Savage because the 5150 simply sounds better. That amp is just simply a beast. The 5150II is awesome as well, it's a little more clear sounding, a bit more refined and a tad more smooth than a 5150. Less noisey as well, but, it doesn't sound as pissed off as the 5150 does. Obviously the 5150II/6505+ has the better clean channel because of the EQ section dedicated to it, and the 5150II/6505+ doesn't have the crunch switch for the lead channel, which sucks, but it's something you can deal with if you decide to get a 5150II/6505+ instead of the 5150/6505.


-Ans-