Let's hear it for Engl amplifiers.

[Ratrod]

What's your story? Brag about your Engl right here.


I've had mine for about a year now. Here's my story.

I was looking for an amp to replace my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I was looking for something with a tweed, blonde or blackface tone that also had good overdrive.

At a local shop I stumbled across a slightly used Engl Classic Tube 50 Head. I did some research on the web but that didn't make me any wiser so I went back to the shop and asked the shop keeper abot the amp. He told me it was based on the Bassman design with some extra features. I asked if I could try it at home on my own speaker cab, FX and guitars. It was no problem.

I got home and hooked it up. The Gretsch Power Jet and the Engl Classic immediately 'clicked'. The amp is a bit picky when it comes to FX but once they're dialed right, it sounds fantastic.

The amp has two modes. Lo gain and hi gain. Both have a gain and master volume. On low gain you can dial in that little bit of dirt to make you clean sound lively. The hi gain mode has a bit more gain and gets you in the realm of a Marshall JTM. The sound is still more Fender than Marshall, though but you can hear some JTM influences.

This amp gets me close to that cranked blonde bassman sound without actualy having to crank it. With a Gretsch and a Roland RE-20 Space Echo, I can cover everything from traditional rockabilly to psycho- punkabilly or whatever you want to call it. But it's not limited to that. As long as you don't need tons of gain, it's a versitile rock and blues amp too. Sounds best with open sounding pickups with low to medium output.

It's a bit of an odd one in the Engl line up wich mostly consists of high gain amps and Jacks of all trades. Because of that it's under the radar of anyone who is looking for a hot rodded Bassman tone. If this amp was made by Fender it would have been a hit.

I've been using it for about a year now and I'm still happy with it.

[Jonny]

Of all the ENGLs I've tried, the Fireball, Thunder and Powerball.

All of them are absolutely stunning. If I had the money (and time) I would've gotten a Powerball.

But why not both worlds! (VHT and ENGL!)

[hunter]

Nice review. Didn't know you had one of those. Do you happen to have some clips/pics you could share?

[FELINEGUITARS]

First amp I truly lusted after was an Engl Straight



I heard it 20 years ago at Frankfurt Musicmesse and it was incredible

It made me realise that there was an ENGL sound.
They had a great session player playig it on the stand - sounded unholy!

[hunter]

First amp I truly lusted after was an Engl Straight



I heard it 20 years ago at Frankfurt Musicmesse and it was incredible

It made me realise that there was an ENGL sound.
They had a great session player playig it on the stand - sounded unholy!

Ah remember that time, the Jive was the small version of it.

I think Dave Stewart played a Straight combo ... was it on LiveAid? Not sure where, but since I saw it there, I wanted one. One of the reasons I bought a Screamer later.

[MDV]

Powerball and used to have a screamer.

They rule.

Theres something about the tightness, top end clarity and snarl they have that I love.

[noodleplugerine]

I've got a Screamer, really bloody good amp, you don't need to crank it much, and when you do it really really sings.

[MDV]

I've got a Screamer, really bloody good amp, you don't need to crank it much, and when you do it really really sings.

Fraking blisteringly loud for a 50W combo, too.

Lacked the tightness and chunk in the low end for me though.

But it probably gave the best lead sound I've ever had.

[noodleplugerine]

I've got a Screamer, really bloody good amp, you don't need to crank it much, and when you do it really really sings.

Fraking blisteringly loud for a 50W combo, too.

Lacked the tightness and chunk in the low end for me though.

But it probably gave the best lead sound I've ever had.

It sounds alot better with a Sonic Maximiser in front, you get a rounder low end, and I hear it gets alot tighter with a closed cab.

But yeah, it really doesn't have the same kind of chunk as the more expensive Engls.

[MDV]

It sounded tighter, but rather abrasive and brittle through my ubercab. That could be the G12Ts though.

[Ratrod]

Nice review. Didn't know you had one of those. Do you happen to have some clips/pics you could share?

I might be able to put a little soundclip together. I'm getting a Blackguard 50 for my Esquire.

I'll have to see if my portable MP3 player can make some decent recordings.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

[Adam.M]

I did have a ENGL Screamer Combo, it was my first valve amp.

I'm going to have to re-visit a screamer at some point, try to figure out what it was i didn't like about it. It was probably my own inexperience.

I think if i ever got the chance to try an ENGL Classic Head it'd probably be perfect for me.

[dave_mc]

savage se here, still really liking it. i'd be lying if i said i didn't have GAS for other amps for a different tone, but I can't imagine ever selling the engl either, as apart from anything else it just covers so much ground.

[Zaned]

I have an ENGL Blackmore. I love it!  I didn't want many bells and whistles, it's a pretty simple amp in the end. But it does many things really well, sounds killer. It sounds very natural and organic, and cuts through very well. Tight and very articulate.

I do have GAS for other amps (for different flavours), but I'm not letting this one go. The ENGL classic is very tempting for example. A nice fender combo..old Marshall, another ENGL high gain head, Cornford..damn there are so many.

-Zaned

[Antag]

I've had an E610 Savage 120 head since 2007 & I love it, even more so since I got my 4x12 cab last year.

It has every sound I really need, is capable of immense volume yet still sounds great at low levels - the 6550 power section is so clean & can reproduce great tones right down to almost conversational volume. The more I play with this rig, the happier I get:



Before that I had a Mesa Single Recto.  It was a nice amp with a warm lush clean channel & thick sludgy metal gain, but as my playing evolved I started to need an "in between" third channel - something just breaking up into light drive.  So I started to look at 3+ channel amps.

If money was no object, I'd have bought a VHT Ultralead (I still cling to the belief that one day I'll own one of these...) & for a very long time the Hughes & Kettner Triamp MKII made my credit card very itchy (how could I not want to own the amp of my hero, Alex Lifeson?).  I had also tried an Engl Powerball & liked it a lot.

Then with the Exchange rate, getting an Engl from Thomann started to seem like a good bet.  I couldn't find anywhere to try out all the models so I was wavering on whether to just buy something I knew or take chance on something I didn't.  Then a work colleague from Munich (who owns or has owned just about everything ever made by Engl, H&K, Diezel etc) convinced me that if I liked the Powerball, I'd love the Savage (the two FX loops really appealled to me) & he was dead right.

I'd be lying if I said I don't ever look at other amps - I'd still like an Ultralead, a Triamp, perhaps a rack with an Egnater or an Engl SE preamp.  But they would only be for variety - the Savage would remain firmly my #1 rig :)