Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Dakine on January 03, 2006, 11:59:01 PM
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OK
further to my posts of coming back to Ole Blighty and needing an amp when I get there.
I have just found out my local (nearest city) music store (new one on me but then been outta country for nigh on 6 years with few trips back) stocks ENGL.
Now, have heard mention of these amps on here a fair bit,soooo
Now opinions.
Laney VC or ENGL Thunder 50 Combo, Screamer 50 Combo.
Oh, they also stock Cornford Harlequin, Koch (one in kinda price range Studiotone), Rivera (pubster and clubster) and a Zinky Blue Velvet.
So, MORE OPINIONS PLEASE ;)
Nick
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http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/#man
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www.rocksolidamps.com
lots of ENGL sound clips on there (mostly death metal, but theres some REALLY good clips of the Thunder & Screamer doing Satriani and Vai stuff).
Cant go wrong with any of them, i have a Fireball and theres a couple of Powerball owners here, and Tim has a Screamer..
Never played a Thunder or Screamer, but i believe (from lots of research!) that the Screamer is a bit more vintagey sounding when not in balls out face melting gain territory and really versatile, and the Thunder is a no nonsense plug and play kick ass rock amp.
The Fireball strips wall paper with the gain on 10'o clock :P
Its madness!
Brilliant amps for the money :)
I didnt go for the Koch or the Riveras (i looked at them before buying my Fireball) they are nice but (for me anyway!) they arent the right amp, they arent really metal amps... the Koch does have LOTS of features, including an attenuator and recording outs... which may be what your after... not really a 'this is my only amp for everything' choice though imo.
Depends on what you need really, for the music you play. My money would go on the Screamer or Thunder from the choices, i wouldnt touch the Laney though... didnt like it when i played one!
They are all very good amps, but its down to what you want... as i said the Engls gets my vote, can do classic rock to death metal so you arent limited... are good value, and look really cool 8)
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Chrisola
thanks for the input.
Was what I was expecting actually, that ENGL RAWK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This may sound v.silly but got/still am very excited by finding out I will have engl so close at hand to try/buy when I make it back.
Engl are not common in US, yet. but have a "mojo" feeling about them and keep hearing their praise sung everywhere.
Love to hear Tim chirp in as I believe he actually has a combo.
Cheers,
Nick
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I would go for Engl over Laney on build quality!
Laneys tend to be a bit bright. And the switching allways breaks!
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you can get a 50W Screamer combo for £599 in the Sound Control/Sound Academy sale...
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I'd go for the Screamer. Great versitile little amp. You'll need to cough up some extra money if you want the footswitch.
I haven't tried it yet but I did hear it. Plug it into a cab and will be a monster.
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Yeah, soon as posted this and found out ENGL was kinda in my price range and local to where I will be moving back to I kinda figured it would be unanimous/no-brainer. Still love to hear Tims take on his ENGL combo though :)
Nick
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i haven't tried the thunder, but i've tried the screamer. I also recently bought a savage se.
I'd go for the engl over the laney. I haven't tried the VC, but i preferred the screamer to the Laney VH100r head (it's a lot more versatile than a vc), and i tried them head to head. It was close though. I suspect engls have better build quality, but you can't really tell this in a shop!
I haven't tried the cornford harlequin. I've tried the hellcat, it was nice, but dear for what it was, i thought (then again, it is hand wired...)
I've only tried the multitone from the koch stable, it didn't just have the range of tones of the screamer (didn't do metal as well), but it was a really nice amp.
Out of those, I'd take a screamer, but that's mainly based on the fact that i play lots of different styles (and the fact I haven't tried many of the others). Engls also sound really good at low volumes.
EDIT; as well as tim, MDV has a screamer combo, maybe he'll pitch in with a few comments.
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I have a screamer. Its got a massive variety of sounds in it: from fendery cleans through marshall crunch (but brighter) to extreme gain. Its way loud for 50W 1x12. It tends to sound open and clear with fat, tight bass set to 'metal', where I like it best :twisted: .
Edit, he he, just noticed the edit there dave...it seems you were right...
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^hehe, cheers, mark!
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Thanks guys,
sounds like a screamer is the choice to go for.
Looking forward to ole blighty more by the day :)
Nick
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^wait till you get here and see what the weather's like.
And what they charge for mesa-boogies...
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LOL
yeah well.
Weather is expected.
Actually miss FOUR seasons.
Texas is great but can get DAMN hot (read way over 100deg.!!!!!!!!!!!!).
The drivers here give me MASSIVE blood pressure.
The food is about same ole same ole.
Prices really are not HUGELY different than UK now for most things.
Quality stuff is NOT easiest to get.
VERY confusing. I.E. every State is like it's own country with different rules etc.
Blah Blah, anyway, due to my dad etc. time to come HOME for now.
Do'nt get me wrong. Love America esp. TX and all, but miss HOME!
Oh for a Cornish Pasty right now, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Nick
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Hey Mark,
so it sounds real good at low (non police called out on you) volumes too?
That would be a big plus also!
I have no idea if/when I will be good enough/willing/ready/able to gig but a practice amp that can sound good at home practice volumes but can gig well is a true find and what I really want.
SOunds like the screamer fits the bill.
Nick
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Of course it sounds its best when you get the preamp, poweramp and speaker working in the sound, as always. But its certainly not one of these amps that has to be cranked. It sounds very good at low volumes, it sounds amazing at higher volumes.
Its much better in this regard than my TSL, where I cant get a satifactory tone without making the floor shake :lol:
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^yeah, i haven't really cranked my engl savage se yet (my parents like their windows!), but even when i turn it up slightly more, it sounds better (as mark says). It just sounds better than most other valve amps i've tried at low volumes. IMO it sounds better than any ss amp i've tried at a low volume too.
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get a weber mass attenuator... then crank it! 8)
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^haha
if i get round to it, i might get a hotplate at some stage, but at th moment i can live with just turning down the volume...
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trust me, when you get a hotplate you will be glad you did. personally i think it was my best purchase over any of the pedals I've bought (and I've bought a few).
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I played through a Screamer Combo today. All i can say is, i'm selling all my other amps and getting the ENGL. It's amazing.
But i was thinking, would the Screamer Combo be good for playing live? or would it be best to buy the screamer head and put it through my Marshall 4 x 12?
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Well I dont gig with mine, but I'm certain it can without breaking s sweat. Its suprisingly loud, and sounds huge for a 1x12.
You could always get the combo for protability/practice etc, and run that through a 4x12 for larger gigs. But, really, it is big and loud enough on its own.
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yeah, the screamer has speaker-outs, afaik, so you could buy the combo, and if it doesn't do it for you, connect it to your 4x12...
advantage would be if the combo IS loud enough, you'll save lots of lifting troubles.
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Thanks guys. It really would save a hell of a lot of pissing about because i only have one 4 x 12 and i can't get it back and forth for gigs, practices and home use. I'll know that i can get the tone at every gig i play without having to borrow a cab from some one.
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I would also go for Engl over Laney on RELIABILITY!
I used to have a deal with Laney and they would break down all the time.
I used to gig heavily 3-4 times a week all over the country and in Europe and they just couldn't handle the gigging.
I had a Laney GH50L which was modded to Paul Gilbert's specs at their factory and then a VH100R.
Both of them keep breeaking down and I had to keep sending them back.
I then used a 20 year old Marshall 100 watt MV (pre JCM800) and never had a problem once.
The ENGL can't be any worse than a Laney.
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I gigged my Screamer yesterday on a bigger venue, and I was very excited with the sound throughout, defined, punchy, endless sustain, controllable feedback, singing mids.
And now the best: After the gig the sound engineer came all the way from his mixer to the stage waving about my wonderful guitar sound and how easy it was to mix it to great transparency and fullness without taking the whole space of the frequencies (the guy spoke french, so I didn't understand 100% but at least he was excited) and then he ran up to my amp and looked at the front, at the back and said "Engl, is this new? I don't care, it's great!"
Haha. But he also said that it was the perfect combination to offer him a DI signal (through my Palmer The Junction box) and the mic'ed speaker tone (mic with a little more distance than usual). The DI delivers the crunch, the mic delivers the punch.
There is one bad thing though. My girlfriend heard the sound engineer raving and now she won't accept me buying a Soldano Decatone anymore because she says it's not necessary ... :roll:
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I love my Powerball as it's the best amp I've owned in over twenty years of playing but I played a Bogner Ecxtasy last week and it was AMAZING !!!!
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NOT my 'once in a lifetime ever' amp, but DEF. an AMAZING amp.
I Love my Screamer Half Stack!
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Hm, I think the Blue Channel Plexi Mode on the Extasy rocks.
But recently I'm getting more and more interested in a Shiva. i think it's more like the "Marshall on Streoids".
Listen to this guy who has Shiva, XTC and Ueberschall
http://www.bobsavage.net/
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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7424581720&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1
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NOT my 'once in a lifetime ever' amp, but DEF. an AMAZING amp.
I Love my Screamer Half Stack!
haha, yeah, I'm not going to lie and say it's the only amp for me ever, lol, I mean I was gassing for more amps the minute I opened my engl box, but I still really like it.
:drink:
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Does anyone know if a screamer can be run on EL34s?
Any experience with adjusting BIAS for this?
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I have just acquired a Powerball. It's a bit of a monster, but surprisingly more versatile than Engl would have you believe.
A Bogner Ecstasy s on the must acquire list, hopefully sometime next year.