ENGL Ironball 20/5/1W Tube Guitar Head Black

I love the power soak feature!!!!! So easy to use and portable, at night when everyone is asleep with my Sennheiser HD 660 headphones (in the speaker off position), for my office with a small 1x8 Randall cabinet (1 watt is all it takes to wake up the house). I can just grab it and go, jam in the garage with my StageRight 1x12 loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30 (and wake up the neighbors), or take it to the band room and plug it to my 4x12 Randall cab loaded with Celestion Vintage 30's, and crank it up, it keeps up with every one in the room. Is so portable and versatile when it comes to volume levels using the powersoak feature it's just genius!! And then is the tone….. I love the tone, I yet to try different speakers to get other tones out of it, and so excited what it does and can do!! When in the past I had to riff, practice, jam, and perform with several different size amps, now I just need one, and this allows me to craft "my tone" a lot easier (since I don't have to dial it in several amps). A friend of mine told me "get a Kemper", but honestly I've seen him spent hours upon hours downloading and profiling and trying out all the tones out there (and honestly I don't think he is happy with any one tone, he keeps chasing it), I can't do that because I found a great sounding tone in this amp, and instead of spending hours "finding the right tone" now I spend those hours playing guitar. I wish I could say "I need more than one" but only one is all I need, and the ENGL Ironball is it!

Ok I must have the worst luck associated with tube heads. I have owned about 4 tube heads that either blue out within the 45 day return policy, or had issues associated with the effects loop. This is one of them. It sounded so good and was so convenient (only 20 pounds) and I was really hoping this would be my amp for a long time. Unfortunately after owning the amp for about a month it began to lose volume unexpectedly and then raise back to normal levels. This happened several times and I couldn't risk this happening live for a gig. Soooo I returned it for a Randall solid state head simply for reliability. In actuality I should probably rate this a 1 out of 5 stars because it basically failed on me, but it sounded SOOOO GOOOOD.

If you're searching for the best amp for the price, this is it. The gain is incredible! I spent over 24 hours worth of time reading and watching reviews; the ironball 20 was the clear winner. Picked it up from my local Guitar Center a few days ago and haven't regretted my decision for one second. It's a little on the pricey side, but the sound you get from it takes away all your concern for dishing that kind of money out for an amp head. If there were ten stars I would rate it that!

I would have given this 5 stars except two things I think can be improved upon. The reverb gets cut off if you run a noise gate in the loop. I purchased this head and the Peavey 6505 MH head at the same time. The Peavey does not cut the built in reverb off when using the same noise gate in the loop. Also, the power soak only being available in the 8 ohm output is disappointing. Again, the Peavey can run it's power soak in 16 or 8 ohm. While these two are not deal breakers, they are a bit disappointing considering the price of the ironball is 2 times the 6505. With that being said, the ENGL IronBall is noticeably louder than the 6505 MH. I think it has more bottom end as well. All in all, this head is very awesome and still worth the money. I have run this though a Mesa Recto 112, Randall RV212, and a Randall RV412 cab. I think a 112 is not that great of a match with this head. However, if you put this guy on a 412, look out. It is brutal and loud! I did feel you could get away without a front end boost pedal and still get a somewhat not flubby sound. Factory out of the box this head is better sounding that the 6505 MH. Once a boost is put on the front end and BBE Sonic Maximizer is put in the loop, they become sort of equal. In my opinion. I downgraded from the Powerball 2 to this Ironball and do not regret it in any way. Plenty loud for home use. Put it through a 412 and you are gigging small venues.

This is a competitive high gain amp but it is also very versatile. I've decided to do my review having played it for less than a day. I don't think the stock ENGL tubes are worn in yet and expect better saturation with broken in tubes or new Tung-Sols. The gain is crisp and strong. Demos don't do it justice. The cleans are very bright and almost chimey like a Fender. It crunches better than any amp I have ever played. For playing Jimmi Hendrix it is perfect. For playing high gain metal it is very strong. It does not compete with the 6505 for chugging insanity but soloing is nice and smooth, no shrill or screech, plenty of sustain and saturation. I only give it 4 stars because of price but at 17 lbs I would say lb for lb it is the best fighter on the block. Demolishes other lunchbox amps. I'm still on the fence about price but I wanted a 20 watt and the power soak knob is a great feature. At 1 watt it is still deafening. I'm playing through an EVH 2X12 5150 iii cab with stock Celestion Heritage G12 Chinese made speakers. If you expect better gain or tone pushing with an overdrive pedal I don't know what to tell you. My TS-9 barely makes a difference with the boost engaged on lead channel. The only flaw I have found so far is that with gain turned up on lead with boost engaged there is a prominent white hiss when guitar is muted, volume off or what have you like putting your ear to a conch shell. It isn't annoying but should be noted. The amp is very easy to dial in. I have not turned it up all the way to gig volume so if it has another stage in mayhem I don't know but in fairness it sounds great at low volume. If you need a 20 watt amp look no further. If you want a 5150 i/ii or 6505 go Peavey but good luck playing a 120 watt amp. I also own a 60 watt 6505+ combo.

THIS TUBE AMP IS THE BEST THING IVE EVER PLAYED ON!!!! TOTALLY WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!!!