Engl Steve Morse Signature sill rules!!!

As some of your guys know, like Alex, I own many of the most coveted plexi style amps in existance today and am extremely anal about the tone and - just as importantly - feel of my amps. This weekend I had a chance to jam for the first time in a while and knew I had to take a rig that could cover the gamete of tones (southern rock to progressive metal type tones), and didn't have the time to load a bunch of gear, so I chose the Engl Morse, Z-12 midi controller, 1981 Boss DM-2 and my favorite Mojave straight 4x12 cab. Long story short, I had forgotten just how good the Morse is and was once again reminded why after so many MANY amazing amps have come though my tone cave the Engl Morse still remains.

It sounded flipping AWESOME all day and the feel is fantastic just as it always has been. It literally made me play better than I've played in a while. I've spent all of the very limited time I've had to play over the last two years on my Friedman's, Cameron's, Bogner's, etc, etc, that my old workhorse hadn't had the cover taken off of it for quite some time. So I got up today, got my coffee, locked myself in my tone room and started doing head to head's with my other favorites and it held it's own against any amp in the room and when you add in full midi program-ability, 2 - FX loops, noise gait, four channels, boost, mid matrix, and on and on, the pallet is endless. But most importantly it does all it does and still sounds amazingly articulate, clear and FEELS amazingly responsive to your every finger and picking nuance. I am going to do some demo clips and post ASAP. If you've played every other Engl and still haven't played the Steve Morse Sig, you haven't played the best Engl ever. It is unique among the rest, and it's the ONLY Engl that will satisfy the deep cravings of an old plexi addict. There probably is no better single amp on the planet this good at covering damn near everything and sound as flipping amazing while doing it! IMHO And I've damn near owned them all - literally! Hail Engl - German engineering is still some of the best on the planet!

Hey there. I just picked one up this weekend in trade with the z9 foot controller.
Just wasnt bonding with the VHT I had so off it went. I played thru the Engl to test it out and right away I knew I wanted it. Very easy to dial in and sounded warm, organic and dynamic. Not overly compressed but just enough to make it feel like it plays itself. Sounds great at low volumes too. Something I definately could not say about my VHT. Now I just have to figure out all this midi stuff.

motorboy1":71v5y1kw said:

Hey there. I just picked one up this weekend in trade with the z9 foot controller.
Just wasnt bonding with the VHT I had so off it went. I played thru the Engl to test it out and right away I knew I wanted it. Very easy to dial in and sounded warm, organic and dynamic. Not overly compressed but just enough to make it feel like it plays itself. Sounds great at low volumes too. Something I definately could not say about my VHT. Now I just have to figure out all this midi stuff.

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Congrats! You've got to spend a lot of time playing with the mid matrix too! It's absolutely amazing how you can alter the tone and feel of the amp working all the different combinations of low - mid and high - mid in the blue and red modes. Make it possible to get the amp to sound and feel perfect to taste, and is great for matching various guitars. Just can't say enough how great an amp the Morse Sig is.

I hear you. It is really hard to get a bad sound out of this thing. You can tweak it for all these different flavors and none are bad.

Accurate description of this way under rated amp. The cleans and crunch are better than the other ENGLS I've had and better than any amp I've tried. Among many others, I own a 1957 tweed super and a 1965 deluxe and the Morse has much more usable clean for any application desired from country to funk. The amount of compression is perfect for live work as the aforementioned amps can make the house engineer uncomfortable with peaks. Actually the compression you hear some complain about with ENGLS is needed and just right for live work. Professional sound on stage requires consistency and not spikes and the Morse does that in all channels perfectly. The thing I like the most about the 656 is the way feedback happens so musically. And beautify controllable. I find only a few the best and often handwired amps do this as well. Something about the harmonics and size of the tone. My ONLY slight gripe would be that I wish the 3rd channel gain boost was adjustable. 3rd channel has dual volume controls (normal & gain boost on)as well as dual masters so it has never been but a very small wish.
I have never had an issue or had to compromise anything just that it would make it perfect. Actually it made me think of an Invader II but actually the 3rd channel midi controlled with all the options makes it really like a 4 channel amp with or without a huge tonal difference between the 3rd & 4th channel I've heard the Invader has. So you can make your "lead boosted gain" channel sound just like the rhythm channel or way different to suit your every whim. I have never played a better sounding amp that has as much finger control and response or better clean,crunch,lead sounds. If there was one I would sell my Morse and buy it. So far nothing I have tried can beat it. And I try new amps all the time as a side hobby to playing.

motorboy1":gdfozgcv said:

Hey there. I just picked one up this weekend in trade with the z9 foot controller.
Just wasnt bonding with the VHT I had so off it went. I played thru the Engl to test it out and right away I knew I wanted it. Very easy to dial in and sounded warm, organic and dynamic. Not overly compressed but just enough to make it feel like it plays itself. Sounds great at low volumes too. Something I definately could not say about my VHT. Now I just have to figure out all this midi stuff.

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The MIDI on a Morse is easy. Too easy. You just enter a program number you want to use with the amp set on the sound you want and press a button. The same sound switching (any button,master volume& channel selection)will be called up. To save knobs,I take a pic with my phone and dial it in before shows if anybody brushes the knobs going in and out of the head case.
I have spoke of only 1 small request with this head but I guess I have 2. The second one being I wish it had a little readout in the back telling you what preset # it is on. Not a necessity but I am just used to that. I use about 10 presets and it is simple to manage and change them. Real simple.

Was interested in trying an SE next;gonna have to add this to the list as well. Have owned a FB100 for two years and still love it and just picked up a Savage 120 and am extremely happy with it so far. In fact, the Savage is blowing my mind Have to see how I feel once the honeymoon wears off. The Engl stuff really does just kick all kinds of ass.