[Lozek]

So, this weekend I'm playing in Germany and we've managed to rent a Diezel Herbert and an Engl Powerball. We're probably going to have about 20 minutes to set them up, so any chance of stealing some practical experience/settings off you guys?

We each need:

• Warm but clear clean sound
• Heavy rhythm sound (this stuff is metal, but not totally Djenty, think 'Black Album' tones maybe?)
• Fluid lead sound (With effects loop assigned to kick in Delay)

Also, if anyone can give me some quick pointers on storing sounds on the Herbert, that would be really useful. Just a quick 'Set your sound then press these buttons to store'. It doesn't come with a footswitch so I'm taking my own midi-board.

[zimbloth]

I owned a Powerball, so I can help you there. The main thing to remember, keep the presence knob as low as humanly possible. I found the presence knob anywhere close to 12 o'clock even was a reciple for harsh brittleness. I'd put the presence around 9 o'clock or less, and turn up the treble if need be to compensate. I'd also recommend using a healthy amount of midrange as the amp is fairly scooped and processed sounding as is, but more so if the mids are set moderately.

Honestly, based on the 3 things you said you're looking for, the Powerball does not come close to giving you that. I'd stick to the Diezel man, that is exactly what you're looking for. The Powerball is a djent machine, very bright and scooped, not really fluid or warm at all. More in-your-face, crisp attack and punchy. Not organic at all or warm.

Congrats on touring in Germany BTW, kickass.

[LordOVchaoS]

The single most useful piece of advice I can give you is bring an MXR 10-band EQ for the effects loop of the Powerball

Cut 500Hz a tad, boost 1KHz 2KHz and 4KHz a little to bring the mids to life, and cut 8KHZ and 16KHZ quite a bit. Now you can use the presence on the amp without sounding harsh and the mids will cut through like a chainsaw. IIRC I had 16KHz almost all the way down and all harshness was gone! Turning the presence up after cutting these frequencies really brought the amp to life.

[Lozek]

Cheers guys, I'll bear the presence in mind. Just for clarity, I'm using the Herbert, the other guitarist is using the Powerball.

We're really restricted with outboard gear to what we can carry on a plane, taking into account that we're carrying two guitars and basics like clothes (although, this is a festival so I don't have to carry a months worth of clothes like last time). The other restriction is also what we're getting paid vs spending money on gear that we're not going to use outside of this paying gig.

I carry the basics, Noise gate, Tuner, sometimes a tubescreamer and a delay for the lead channel. Because the honus really is on fitting in and delivering what is being paid for within the short timeframe that we're given to set up, I've found it's best just to keep things simple and dependable.

[turmoil]

i know this might not be what you're looking for but it was posted by the man, Peter Diezel, before and i thought i'd share it. It might give you a nice starting point when you try it out.

[Lozek]

That's excellent thank you, that's exactly the kind of thing I need to get to a good starting point, as I'm going to be very limited on tweak time.

I'll print that off and take it with me.

[Brord]

Do not forget to engage the FOCUSED MID on the powerball, DO NOT use the open mid, also u will probably like lo lead better then hi lead (lo lead still has an insane amount of gain). Keep the gain and precense pretty low, do not use the bottom switches, be gentle with te depth punch and really boost those mids.

[turmoil]

sweet Lozek! enjoy the herbert, that's my favorite amp to play through

also, +1 about focused mid switch on the powerball.

[Nightcrawler]

I got a PBall

+1 for engaging focused midrange, keep both open and focused mids around 2-3, cuts through nicely. Treble around 11, Bass around 1. I keep the gain around 9-10 for both channels, and presence is pretty much off. Depth punch around 11 works alright, and yeah, no bottom switching. The bright switch on the clean channel livens things up nicely. HTH.

[loktide]

i agree on all things said on the powerball


what cities will you be playing btw?