Mesa Mark IV vs. Engl Powerball

sandman · #1 04-16-2004, 11:09 PM

I posted a topic before on which amp to get between the Dual Recto and Powerball. And afterall i decided that i should get the Powerball, i was ready to order one so i was doing some final researches on some competetors and i realized that i'd never tried a Mesa Mark IV... So off i went to guitar center where i had seen a used Mark.. turned out it was a Mark III but i still was able to get some idea. It was very versetile and had a great sound (it took me forever to figure out how to get the lead channel)... very nice cleans and lead... only problem was the bottom end, i had the bass on around 5/6 and i noticed that on the lead channel the bottom end lost some definition.. but that might be fixed by some tweaking.. well anyway, now i cant decide on to which amp i should get, the Engl Powerball or the Mark IV. I'm sure i'll be happy with either one of them but which one would you guys recommend more.... they both have great cleans so i'm focused more on the lead channels... i want a sweet sounding "lead" channel that is great for leads and some heavy playing, i don't necessarily need a "death metal" distortion.. but something that can be similar to some older metallica tones.. so please, post your thoughts and explain why. thank you

vai n maiden · #2 04-17-2004, 10:00 AM

The ENGL can do everything you want.... I own a thunder 50 combo which lacks all the bells and whistles, and still sounds killer. That's the sign of a good amp, if each gain stage sounds good with 1 EQ and has a simple good "base tone" to it. Engl's mids are voiced very nicely so the amp can sound violent without being fizzy, then you can tweak the mids so they smooth the sound out. Give the ENGL a go, they're really really lovely amps

ukwan · #3 04-17-2004, 03:40 PM

I'll second the ENGL sound.. I own a ENGL Screamer 50 Combo..

bloody fantastic sounding I chose it over Mesa..

sandman · #4 04-17-2004, 06:03 PM

thanks for the replies guys... yeah.. i haven't played the Powerball, but i've played the Screamer 50 and i thought that thing was amazing.. i had gone to a shop to try an Uberschall and see if it's worth savin up for. Right when i was done playin it, a guy that works there walked in and suggested i try an Engl, and they only had the Screamer.. so he connected the same cab that was connected to the Uberschall (an old Marshall 412 cab, all i know is that it didn't have V30's).. so anyway he turned it on and i started playing... after about 15 seconds i stopped and thought... this thing costs about $1500 less than the Uberschall and it sounds just as good if not better (IMO).. it had a sweeter tone to it.. afterwards he told me about the Powerball and it just grabbed my interest.
But having said all that.. i also liked the Mesa Mark... probably not as good for rhythm, but very nice leads... so please keep the suggestions coming, they're very helpful..

p.s. what kind of cabinets are you guys using with your Engl's?

THANKS!!

The_Grindfiend · #5 04-18-2004, 12:14 AM

I vote Mark IV, easily. It's the best amp I've ever heard, hands down. You mentioned that the low-end on the Mark III got a bit muddy. This is probably because the Mark series amplifiers use pre distortion EQ, so running the bass up can cause flabbiness. Just use the graphic (if applicable) to boost the bass back up after distortion.

sandman · #6 04-18-2004, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Grindfiend

I vote Mark IV, easily. It's the best amp I've ever heard, hands down. You mentioned that the low-end on the Mark III got a bit muddy. This is probably because the Mark series amplifiers use pre distortion EQ, so running the bass up can cause flabbiness. Just use the graphic (if applicable) to boost the bass back up after distortion.

oh.. I didn't know that.. so in other words the bass knob should be turned down quite a bit and the graphic bass pushed up?..
also, does any1 know if the Mark IV heads come with a free footswitch?
thanks.

The_Grindfiend · #7 04-19-2004, 05:43 PM

yes, the knob EQ is pre-dist. and the graphic is post-dist., so you''' want to run the bass knob at aaround 4 or 5, then if you want a bassier tone, just use the graphic EQ to adjust it back up afterwards. This really allows you a great deal of control over your tone.

The Mark IV head should also comes with a free footswitch.

sandman · #8 04-19-2004, 09:24 PM

I finally tried the Mark IV today at the Mesa store... but there was one problem, there was just too much noise, which i highly doubt was from the amp because when i turned the volume down from the guitar it was very quiet... but i tried 2 different guitars and same thing happened with both.. i'm thinking it was from their location or the power outlets... anyway though.. I tried listening past the noise (which was very hard to do!) and it sounded pretty damn good... i messed around with it for about an hour, it was the combo version but later i had it connected to a standard recto cab which sounded even better with less noise. I tried what Grindfiend suggested to do with the EQ's and it worked very well. I messed around with the knobs quite a bit and i should say, that thing is very versatile! even with an ESP guitar equipped with EMG81's the clean channel sounded very clean. I wanted to turn it up a little for the lead channel but thanks to the damn noise, i couldn't

... the worker there said that on higher volumes Mark IV's get quite noisy (in normal situations). I hadn't heard that before about them, does this become a problem?..
Well i'm still debating on what to get. This is harder than i thought it would be

. thanks.

sandman · #9 05-11-2004, 04:34 PM

I'm a little late on posting this but.. I ended up getting the Powerball and i'm very pleased with it. I really like the clean channel (specially for a high gain amp). It sounds very nicely balanced. The crunch channel (ch. 2) is also great, with the gain and presence turned up a bit, it sounds very Marshall like... The low lead channel (ch. 3) is just amazing, before buying this amp my main concern was that the Powerball might not be so good for leads, but now i have no doubts, i love this channel for both lead and rhythm playing, it gives great feedback. The high lead channel (chn. 4) is pretty similar to the lo lead, except it sounds more compressed and has a little more gain. I don't really use this channel as much as chn. 3 because chn. 3 already has more than enough gain for me, i have the gain set at around 12:00 and thats pretty much all the gain i need for what i usually play. But if you ever want that chunky, compressed, over the top distortion then channel 4 will take good care of you. so it's definitely useful.... This amp is very loud! but it still sounds very good at bedroom levels, which is a huge plus for me because i live in a condo. It's also very versetile with it's presence and depth punch knobs and also the first 2 channels have bright and bottom switches (shared) and the 3rd and 4th channels each have a seperate bottom boost switch. There's also a mid open/focused switch that works for all channels but specially well for the 3rd and 4th, this switch works great for soloing because it adds mids and raises the volume a little even though there already are 2 master volumes.
The Powerball is my favorite amp that i've played through or remember hearing by far, I really like many other amps too, but i think i made a good choice buying this one in the end. Thanks.

bammbamm · #10 05-11-2004, 05:18 PM

Post some clips, I'd love to hear it.
I don't know of any dealers in this area.
I tend to champion Mesa product since I own a few, but I'm always open to hearing something new.

Bamm

ukwan · #11 05-12-2004, 08:07 AM

Yea ENGL make some killer amps..
I'll never buy another amp again, you asked which cab's i use.. I use the 50watt Screamer combo amp.. which comes with a Celestion Vintage 30.

the sound is fantastic.. I've owned half stacks before they're a bit too big for me.. I've recently just sold a JCM800 2203 half stack great amp but far too loud and big.. never got to open her up even at gigs.

sandman · #12 05-12-2004, 06:11 PM

at the moment i have no way of recording it because i have no tools to record with and my computer is in another room which is connected to the kitchen, so even if i bring the amp here and try to record it with my $3 computer mic, there will probably be some noise in there from the t.v. and other people, and i wouldn't be able to turn it up 1/8ths of the way. So obviously you wouldn't be able to hear what the amp really sounds like..... but if i ever get the chance to record it in the future, i'll post some clips... you can find some clips on the HC website, but pretty much all of them are death metal clips. one would think that that's the only thing the Powrball can do, but thats not true at all, it can do much more than that and does them very well..

DerekB · #13 05-28-2004, 11:02 AM

I have some new Powerball clip's that I recently recorded of a good friend of mine playing some Blues and progressive type of Metal song's and you can find them at www.rocksolidamps.com in the soundbyte section they are located at the bottom of the page I believe the last 8 or nine clip's are the ones I'm talking about.

Derek