ENGL Users?

[IS350xtrm]

Recently got my first Engl... An SE Thought I'd be tweaking it constantly with all the different knobs, etc, but as it turns out, I found settings very quickly that sounded great. I agree these amps are pretty compressed, but keeping the gain down a bit opens them up. The nice thing is you can keep the gain way down and still have more sustain than a lot of other amps. These things have gain coming out the wazoo.

Very nice amps though.

 

[steve_k]

Thanks for all the response. Damn, I think I made another good choice. The Fireball 100 is supposed to be out in June. Here's the advert from ENGL.

The pdf download is here: http://www.engl-amps.com/index2.html in the upper right corner.


Steve

 

[jkdsteve]

Owned a Powerball, Blackmore, SE and then a Blackmore again...

...all great amps...I think the BM is my favourite of the 'shared EQ' amps....

The SE was crazy versatile but too gainy and compressed on one of the channels (ch4, modern voicing maybe?)...10 o'clock on the dial was insane gain.

One of the modes on the Powerball..can't remember if it was focused setting or not I didn't care for...

Had a hard time with 'crunch' on any of the ENGL amps...always killed my ears and sounded kinda brittle...maybe it just wasn't good at low volumes doing that...or maybe needed a warmer speaker.

 

[tnourse]

I used to own a Powerball and I currently own a Blackmore. I've also spent quite a bit of time with a friends Savage 120. I LOVE my Blackmore! I've had it a few years now and I can't see ever selling it. I like it much more than the Powerball. Something about the mids in the Powerball didn't sound right to me.

My friends Savage sounds very good as well. Very similar to the Blackmore. I had an opportunity to purchase the Savage, so I spent a lot of time comparing them side by side. There wasn't enough of a difference to make me want to spend the extra cash on the Savage. The Blackmore sounded just as good, if not a bit better, without all of the unnecessary extras the Savage has.

 

[turmoil]

i've heard lots of amazing things about the savage and the blackmore.
i'd really love to try these two amps out but it's a shame i don't think anyone around the philly area stocks ENGLs.

i bought my powerball based on clips alone and i couldn't be happier

 

[putnut77]

Owned an SE...which Erock now owns, and an original fireball. They are pretty bad ass, but the SE was not really my bad, too much stuff going on. Didnt sound right to my ears, or like I thought it should have sounded I guess.

 

[Joeytpg]

hey steve, how are you liking the Axe Fx my friend?

 

[jonny toetags]

Hated the Powerball, loved the Fireball and Blackmore.

 

[steve_k]

hey steve, how are you liking the Axe Fx my friend?

Well, I haven't done much with it. I have some active studio speakers in my office at home and go straight from the AFX to those and just noodle around with it. I haven't even used it with an amp yet, but I suspect it will be pretty good as a multi-FX in an FX loop. There is a lot of presets in it, so for mucking around, it is a snap and the tones aren't bad either. Putting your own patches together and dialing in tones if using it for a preamp will take me years to figure out.

Steve

 

[axeman81]

I've owned a Blackmore with V60 slant cab for 2 years, then I chanced upon a second hand Herbert, and after getting that I sold the ENGL to my bandmate (couldn't justify having that much firepower sitting at the house)
I think a lot of people underestimate the Blackmore, thinking they have to get a powerball to get metal tone. I think the Blackmore sounds the best out of all ENGL's (have not tried the Invader though) for my specific kind of chuggable tone
The fireball is a very good second but is a lot more compressed, and has some breathing troubles at only 60 Watts. (the 100W version should be interesting though!) The Blackmore sounds just awesome with a band.
I ran the Blackmore with V30's but that is too much mids for metal to my liking, but it sounds just awesome with the V60 cab.
Some people say they have poor build quality but I have not had a single problem with it, stood up to loud gigs and loud rehearsals, and a good bit of hauling as well.
My settings were bass/treble at noon, mids at nine, a bit of presence, lead at 8 or 9 (depending on pickups) master set to taste.
They are IMHO absolutely the best bang for the buck tone outside of the "boutique" builders (Diezel, Bogner etc.)
I feel a sneakin' GAS coming on

- Rune

 

[saxxamafone]

I've owned a Blackmore with V60 slant cab for 2 years, then I chanced upon a second hand Herbert, and after getting that I sold the ENGL to my bandmate (couldn't justify having that much firepower sitting at the house)
I think a lot of people underestimate the Blackmore, thinking they have to get a powerball to get metal tone. I think the Blackmore sounds the best out of all ENGL's (have not tried the Invader though) for my specific kind of chuggable tone
The fireball is a very good second but is a lot more compressed, and has some breathing troubles at only 60 Watts. (the 100W version should be interesting though!) The Blackmore sounds just awesome with a band.
I ran the Blackmore with V30's but that is too much mids for metal to my liking, but it sounds just awesome with the V60 cab.
Some people say they have poor build quality but I have not had a single problem with it, stood up to loud gigs and loud rehearsals, and a good bit of hauling as well.
My settings were bass/treble at noon, mids at nine, a bit of presence, lead at 8 or 9 (depending on pickups) master set to taste.
They are IMHO absolutely the best bang for the buck tone outside of the "boutique" builders (Diezel, Bogner etc.)
I feel a sneakin' GAS coming on

- Rune

I sold my bogner uberschall coz it didn't sound as good as my blackmore

 

[racer_j]

I think there's a Blackmore at the GC in my area, I'll have to go try it out this weekend if it's still there.


J.

 

[tnourse]

I've owned a Blackmore with V60 slant cab for 2 years, then I chanced upon a second hand Herbert, and after getting that I sold the ENGL to my bandmate (couldn't justify having that much firepower sitting at the house)
I think a lot of people underestimate the Blackmore, thinking they have to get a powerball to get metal tone. I think the Blackmore sounds the best out of all ENGL's (have not tried the Invader though) for my specific kind of chuggable tone
The fireball is a very good second but is a lot more compressed, and has some breathing troubles at only 60 Watts. (the 100W version should be interesting though!) The Blackmore sounds just awesome with a band.
I ran the Blackmore with V30's but that is too much mids for metal to my liking, but it sounds just awesome with the V60 cab.
Some people say they have poor build quality but I have not had a single problem with it, stood up to loud gigs and loud rehearsals, and a good bit of hauling as well.
My settings were bass/treble at noon, mids at nine, a bit of presence, lead at 8 or 9 (depending on pickups) master set to taste.
They are IMHO absolutely the best bang for the buck tone outside of the "boutique" builders (Diezel, Bogner etc.)
I feel a sneakin' GAS coming on

- Rune

I sold my bogner uberschall coz it didn't sound as good as my blackmore

I hear ya! Since I've owned my Blackmore I've sold a 5150, Framus Cobra, VHT 50CL, Peavey XXL and a Cornford mk50h. I also passed up purchasing a Engl Savage 120. Sounded great, but too similar to the Blackmore. I would love to try a modded Marshall of some sort though!!

 

[killertone]

I think the Blackmore sounds the best out of all ENGL's (have not tried the Invader though) for my specific kind of chuggable tone

I owned an Invader along with my Blackmore and my Blackmore absolutely destroyed it. Took them to the first Austin ampfest and everyone freaked out on how much the Blackmore killed the Invader.

My friends Savage sounds very good as well. Very similar to the Blackmore. I had an opportunity to purchase the Savage, so I spent a lot of time comparing them side by side. There wasn't enough of a difference to make me want to spend the extra cash on the Savage. The Blackmore sounded just as good, if not a bit better, without all of the unnecessary extras the Savage has.

+1. That is pretty much exactly my experience.

 

[Valtiel]

I used to own a Powerball. To me if you want a ultra high gain amp there something to consider. I always thought of Engle's as 5150's with much better tone.

I really dug the PB everytime I played them for what they are, stupid industrial type tones with a ton of compression. Would not be my number one choice today though due to the amount of compression.

+100

I owned one awhile back, and for me I really only got one good tone out of it that I would use. Crunch channel boosted with a Keeley SD-1. Channels 3 & 4, the lead channels, both went from no sound with the Gain at zero immediately to way too much gain. Just about anything with humbuckers sounded about the same through it. I really like the idea of the switchable midrange controls with different voicings, cool idea I think but I never really found a tone I bonded with there. Plus I wasnt too impressed with the construction. The fact that they take the time to mount little red LED's by the power tubes just to look cool on a dark stage but still mount the tube sockets to the circuit board kinda bugged me. All in all I wouldnt say it was a bad amp, just not for me.

 

[guitar_god123456]

on the subjuct of engl, what are the tonal differences between the invader 100 and 150? just power output?