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Dual Rectifier Vs Powerball


Alan Badge

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Hi Y'all,

I have an Engl Powerball that ive been thinking of selling/ trading for a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier but having never heard the Boogie and im wondering if its worth it.

Ive You Tubed them of course but never heard one in the flesh.

Does anyone have any constuctive opions on the Boogie?

Ive been told the Powerball is basically a Dual Rec clone but is the Boogie much better.

Thank You Please

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Hi Y'all,

I have an Engl Powerball that ive been thinking of selling/ trading for a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier but having never heard the Boogie and im wondering if its worth it.

Ive You Tubed them of course but never heard one in the flesh.

Does anyone have any constuctive opions on the Boogie?

Ive been told the Powerball is basically a Dual Rec clone but is the Boogie much better.

Thank You Please

Hey Alan,

I used to own a Mesa Single Rectifier before selling it to buy a Powerball v2 (not the new Powerball 2, just the revised first edition with the better noise gate).

The Rectifier series is a lot more open sounding than the ENGL. ENGLs have massive amounts of gain, though are pretty compressed sounding. The ENGL is waaaaaaaay more forgiving than the Mesa, you'll notice playing mistakes a lot more on the Rectifier.

One thing I found with the Mesa was that it was pretty loose sounding as far as the bottom end went (pun not intended). I tried mine with both 6L6s and EL34s (it has an auto bias with the flick of a switch so valve types are interchangeable) and - even with the tighter bass response of the 34s - it never cured that 'flappy' quality.

It all depends what you are trying to achieve of course. I adore my ENGL E670 SE EL34 and hope to never need to sell it, though I still have a hankering for another Mesa (a Mark V, specifically) to give me another sound.

As for the comment that a Powerball is a Dual Rec clone but not as good - total rubbish :) Totally different amps. :up:

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Cheers James.

Thats helped a lot. I recently got the Powerball revealved and it went horribly wrong i bought Harma Diamond cryos on Watords recomendation but i was getting a god awful noise on the lead channel.

Two trips down to Dennis Marshall and the problem was sorted, i was sold the wrong valves.

I loved the Powerball the valve problem put me off a little bit. Id kill for the E670 SE but just cant afford it.

Thanks again.

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Cheers James.

Thats helped a lot. I recently got the Powerball revealved and it went horribly wrong i bought Harma Diamond cryos on Watords recomendation but i was getting a god awful noise on the lead channel.

Two trips down to Dennis Marshall and the problem was sorted, i was sold the wrong valves.

I loved the Powerball the valve problem put me off a little bit. Id kill for the E670 SE but just cant afford it.

Thanks again.

No bother :)

Yeah, the Powerball certainly is a cracking amplifier. Very versatile and easy to use too!

One thing about the Mesas - they are a tweakers amp. Very sensitive to EQ arrangements. The Powerball is plug and play by comparison. I found that I needed a long time to dial in the correct sound on the Rec, if the EQ was adjusted slightly, it was pretty noticeable! The Powerball - again - doesn't require (in my opinion, of course) the same precision to get a decent sound. Whether that is a good thing or not is up to the user I suppose :up:

If you ever wish to try the SE then let me know, it is a mighty nice one. I managed to get mine for a very good price, I'd keep a look out for them! Same with the Savage, it is a great amp too! :)

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I have the Dual rec Roadster, its a cracking amp. To be honest I don't use it a lot though but its basically a dual rec with a better clean channel and a few more bits n bobs. The flubbiness can be fixed with a few things. EQ in loop, tubescreamer in front with max volume and zero gain (really tightens things up) and also using the diode function instead of the rectifier switch.

They are great amps, I switched the tubes for a watford kit but I thought they were crap and went back to the standard mesa preamp tubes. The watfords took a lot of life away. However I switched the standard mesa 6L6's to Winged C's and they are miles better.

The watford valves harma valves or kits can be a hit or a miss. I put them in my lonestar and it sounded pretty crap, I put them in a triaxis as well and they made a hell of a difference. Really smoothed the preamp out.

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The Rectifier series is a lot more open sounding than the ENGL. ENGLs have massive amounts of gain, though are pretty compressed sounding. The ENGL is waaaaaaaay more forgiving than the Mesa, you'll notice playing mistakes a lot more on the Rectifier.

I find the same with Diezels, My herbert is a really compressed sounding amp on the 2 gain channels. Thats the one downside I find on it. Its not a very forgiving amp either.

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Thanks for the advice guys.

The powerball worked great for me until recently and in one of my bands my mate uses a Marshall TSL with a Klon Centaur running through the g system and it cuts much better than my Engl.

The Engl is a great workhorse just wish i could get it sounding like it used to!

Id love to try the SE

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