Making an ENGL Fireball 100 tone

S

Sepultorture

Member
this might have been covered already but i thought i'd ask.

i'm still relatively new to the AXE FX and really don't even own one yet (still saving). i love me some 5150 and recto action and from what got from this axe fx sound wise has been amazing, but i'm pretty hung up on the ENGL FIREBALL 100 (blackface) tone. i played an ENGL FB100 a year ago and let's say soon as i heard it through their cabs, pro and XXL, i was sold, the dark lower mid range character and the definition of the bottom end and tightness, just made it a sick go to death metal sound, this was quite literally THE tone i was searching for, tight clear, excellent note definition and heavy as hell.

obviously from the thread title, i would like to mimic this tone and character as much as possible and wondering how i would go setting the axe fx up to accomplish this, and again i don't OWN this unit and can't get at it every second of every day so some ideas to work around would be excellent

thanx in advance for your help
 
The Axe-Fx has an ENGL Powerball model called the Energyball, which is extremely accurate to an actual Powerball with some tweaking (I used to own a Powerball so I should know... sold it after getting the Axe-Fx though). I've also A/B'ed the Powerball and the Fireball, and they really do have extremely similar tones. Actually now that I think about it, I remember hearing that the Fireball is basically just a less complicated Powerball and any differences in tone are pretty much happenstance because of the different circuitry configurations. Now, they do sound slightly different from each other, and neither one sounds "better" than the other, but there you go.

As for me, I was able to exactly, and I mean exactly, replicate my old Powerball's tone with the Axe-Fx. My advice to you is pretty simple. Start with a Filter block and raise the level by 5-8 db, so your guitar will hit the amp's input harder. From there, use the Energyball sim in the Amp block. Adjust it to taste and don't be afraid to read up on and then mess around with the advanced parameters. After that, fine tune with a Parametric EQ. Pretty soon you should have exactly the tone you're after.
 
Sorry for taking so long to reply back abey... but actually for both my real Powerball and the Energyball sim, I usually kept the master volume pretty low when I wanted to record with it. The dial usually stays under 10 o'clock. The Powerball is such a preamp-centric amplifier that you really don't need much master volume to get the good stuff out of it. And from my experience, ENGL amps have pretty phenomenal master volume controls anyway, so the tone doesn't even really change all that much over the course of the control's sweep.
 
GreatGreen said:
Sorry for taking so long to reply back abey... but actually for both my real Powerball and the Energyball sim, I usually kept the master volume pretty low when I wanted to record with it. The dial usually stays under 10 o'clock. The Powerball is such a preamp-centric amplifier that you really don't need much master volume to get the good stuff out of it. And from my experience, ENGL amps have pretty phenomenal master volume controls anyway, so the tone doesn't even really change all that much over the course of the control's sweep.
Click to expand...

Hi GreatGreat, would you be willing to share the patch? :D
 
Axe FX - Chris Broderick’s settings. Thanks to Biggness from sevenstring.org forum!??
Amp - Energyball
?Drive - 6.26 - boost on?
Bass - 9.41?
Mid - 3.76?
Treb - 5.43 bright on
?Pres - neg 2.91
?Mstr - 3.07?
Depth - 9.37?
Damp - 4.25
?Sag - 2.01?
Warmth - 5.83?
Thump - 4.25
?Spkr Res Freq - 66hz
?XFormer Low Freq - 144hs
?XFormer High Freq - 5776hz?
B+ Cap - 2.72?
Tone Location - End??Cab - 4x12 Green?Mic - 67 Cond ?Drive - 5-7ish?
Air - 7.1%? Air Freq - 5254hz
 
One of the best posts EVER, that setting of Chris Brodrick is absolutely brilliant, I finally got the "Engl" Sound that I was looking for with it, Cheers to the OP. :D
 
I'm on my other system and just so I'll remember to upload these settings to my Axe-fx I created a patch with the suggested settings... awesome catch!

P.S. Hope I didn't miss any settings...
 

Attachments

  • Chris Broderick.syx
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I've never actually played an ENGL, but I do know those Chris Broderick settings are fantastic - thanks for posting :cool:
 
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