recently the other guitarist in my band has invested in a powerball and although it doesnt have the balls my rack setup (Engl 620 + 50w PA) it is alot less muddy> I have tweaked about with it a little but I still cant get the definition he has so my question is, how would a savage 120 compare to his powerball?

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Get a real poweramp for your pre and you should be alright.

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the 620 is about the most basic engl preamp you can get. I had one with a peavey 50/50 poweramp and it was loud and brutal, good for deathmetal but not very tight with stock tubes. sovtek ax7lps's changed that but it's still pretty fuzzy.

My Engl SE would rip it to shreds. even my powerball would, a savage 120 is in the same range as the powerball but with more tweaking options. IMO it sounds a bit tighter on the leads.

Keep in mind it's not only the amp, maybe you have a shitty guitar/pickups or just can't play for shit, this all plays a vital role.

Ha no its defo not my playing or guitar, looks like i'll haveto get saving for a savage

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Get a new power amp and get a E570.

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But that would cost me like £900 atleast might aswell save £300 more and get a savage. although upgrading my pre-amp could be the cheap way around the situation.

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apart from that i use 2 eqs for my setup i get the pretty much best sound i've got so far from my engl savage. the powerball has an absolutely different feeling. i'd say check one out but dont miss eqs cuz for my taste the savage has not enough highs and high mids ... but thats prolly cuz of my pus etc etc

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Actually. I think you should stick with the rack and upgrade your pre and power amp. I'll be building a new rack soon, and its going to awesome.

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Ah...there already is a thread about this...

So, if you could choose between a Powerball and a Savage 120, which one would you choose?

I mean, normally, the Savage is way more expensive than the powerball.
Is the the savage more versatile than the powerball?

I also heard, that the powerball compresses very hard if you got high gain...so, you wont hera the mistakes you make that good.
Is it the same with the savage there?

I mean, I dont really want this, because if I don´t hear all my mistakes, then I probably will be surprised as soon as I play an amp like a vht pitbull, with which you hear like every single note and mistake.

I could get a Savage 120 with a custom made 4x12 cab for about 1100 dollars...thats pretty damn cheap...the guy who is selling it must really have serious problems.

Anyway, I have never played a Savage 120 and I don´t have the possibility to...so, what would you guys say...is it better than the powerball?
I need it for technical death metal but also jazz stuff.
And maybe someone can else tell me about this "compress" thing...I heard that almost every high gain tube amp compresses at some point...but the powerball seems to do it more than others - and the savage?

Well, thanks already.

I ended up getting a savage special edition, it slays the powerball, so I say savage yeah.

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It really does? I mean, from what I heard, the PB is better for High Gain stuff...so, can you get a brutal death sound out of the savage?

A few people say, that the Savage is rather for Rock and not extreme Metal stuff.

well the other guitarist in my band has a powerball and my savage makes it sound kinda flat and muddy. The savage easily has enough gain to do any kind of extreme metal whilst still being able to nail blues tones like hendrix stuff.

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So you would say the Savage is more versatile than a Powerball?

What are the Ritchie Blackmore and SE Engl's like? Or the new Invader? I love my Fireball but I'm curious as fuck to know what the other higher end models sound like.

Your cab makes a HUGE difference on your tone, that could be what's making it muddy.

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Yeah the savage can do anything I could ever need but saying that so could the powerball I reckon. The savage just has that little extra something and both of us use Engl V30 cabs so the muddy thing is nothing to do with that although he has engl tubes in his powerball where as I have TAD tubes.

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TAD tubes, interesting, they're more expensive than your average JJ/ElectroHarmonix/Ruby tubes.

I got new tubes for my Fireball and went with JJ's cuz the "TAD" name turned me off.

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I'd never heard of them before but they were in the amp when I got it, I think i'll be sticking with them from now on though, they sound amazing.

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