Man Engl amps are really underrated on discussion boards where expensive boutique amps are touted since they are a major brand, not hand-wired, etc... but Engl amps have incredible tone and are solid performers. I've owned and kept a few Engls for some time, and wish I could get my hands on an Invader 100 (not the newest one but regular model). Their amps always have good cleans and lots of gain options, and they are great about loading their tone with mids.
The Screamer is a relatively affordable amp, but with a lot of really awesome, versatile sounds and real reverb too. The Steve Morse has immaculate clean sounds that are to die for and all kinds of great thick Marshall sounds. The Raider is sold only as a combo, but has amazing tone on all channels. When you're soloing with the Raider, it's so rich in beautiful mids that it's almost like you have a cocked wah on. The Powerball and Fireball make it easy to get great metal tones, but is capable of a variety of other sounds as well. With the available gain ranges, you can get very clean, blues or classic rock sounds, that are fairly useable, but metal is where they shine.
The Blackmore is very versatile, but kind of stripped down. It's more in the Marshall vein, and you can hear it on a couple of Joe Stump albums. Lots of people do all kinds of metal stuff with it, but I'd say it doesn't really share the court with the Powerball & Fireball as much as it lends itself to classic and rock styles. The Ironball and Gigmaster are both amazing amps. For some reason, a lot of people dump the Gigmaster kind of into the Blackstar HT Metal category, but it offers a nice warm tonal variety and that signature Engl midrange. The Ironball to me is like a slightly expanded Gigmaster. Still a warm tone, but more range of cleaner sounds, reverb, and slightly louder.
All Engl amps have warmth, but by that I don't mean dark. In fact, I think they rather have a very, very appealing treble range and of course loads of mids. You will never have to struggle dialing in sounds like you might have with Mesa Boogies or some other amps. Engls eliminate the need for pedals, but lends themselves to various pedals quite well, especially the Engls with the more pristine cleans. Perhaps that might, in one obscure aspect, be a limitation for people who use extensive pedalboards since they are really satisfying to play without any kind of boost. They usually have some kind of boost and mid boost or mid cut feature too.
One of the complaints you hear from the amp snobs are that Engls sound processed and that you can't hear the wood, blah blah blah... Perhaps they aren't the kind of amps that resonate every little nuance of your guitar wood, etc..., but they really don't need to. If you use a single coil to solo in the neck position, for example, you will get a certain amount of woodiness, but there is some color in the tone. I quite like that though because I don't always care for a transparent underlying tone that still maintains some amount of transparency when you click on a distortion. To me that is useless at that point, but if you can click on a pedal and nice a nice colored sound, then you can get more flavors out of your pedals. I think the balance they have between transparency and color is ideal.
As far as the touch-sensitivity and dynamic response that a lot of boutique snobs rave about, well I guarantee you that with the exception of amps like the Powerball, Engls have a wide dynamic range. Even the Powerball has a certain level of dynamics, but when you go that high gain and compression, no amp is going to be a finger-picker's delight. I think people that don't make assumptions about Engl amps and are open-minded to exploring the sounds Engl amps offer, will be extremely pleased with what they find.
Now, the Invader is my favorite Engl of all, but the SE is probably just a slight cut above and also like $1000 more too. The Invader is not a dark amp, and while some people even complain that it's too bright, it's not either unless you want it to be. It doesn't get put into the modded-Marshall category, but to me kind of fits into that type. It's overall tone is kind of a British flavor. It's much more than a high gain amp with a clean channel and a blues channel. The clean channel is an amazing world onto itself as is the crunch channel. The other two channels get most of the hype, and they certainly deserve it, but the Invader is what I consider to be one of the only amps that truly does everything extremely well.
I should also mention that Engl amps are very reliable. I know a dozen people who kick the shit out of their Engl every day, gigging in bars and playing stadiums. The Screamer and Raider I had were with me for a couple of years each and never had so much as a single microphonic chirp. They performed flawlessly. I had a friend who gigged with a Thunder combo for 10 years and it go so beat up that I could hardly recognize it as an Engl, but every feature on that amp still worked flawlessly. Therefore, whatever negative rumors of Engl reliability you can probably reduce by 90%. I always run into guys who are happy with their Engls until someone convinces them to go out and buy a Friedman BE100 or something, and then they suddenly start dumping on Engl amps. I suppose there is a certain satisfaction to owning very expensive amps, but some of the brand-loyalty and ass-kissing is ridiculous.
zewango":29ud2uav said:
Never got tp try the Invader II price kept me away. If I could find Invader 100 cheap I'd pick one up. I had the 150.
I also had the Ironball (it can keep up with a band no problem) Powerball II and Artist Edition. Jesus I guess I like Engl's
Right now the Friedman Small Box is the coolest amp on the planet for me.
yngzaklynch":29ud2uav said:
zewango":29ud2uav said:
Never got tp try the Invader II price kept me away. If I could find Invader 100 cheap I'd pick one up. I had the 150.
I also had the Ironball (it can keep up with a band no problem) Powerball II and Artist Edition. Jesus I guess I like Engl's
Right now the Friedman Small Box is the coolest amp on the planet for me.
Gain wise how is the Smallbox
