tell me how you really feel (about ENGL)

PaintChipsAreVegan said:
I think it's kind of funny that *this* forum in particular, is known for having a reputation of having some quite opinionated views on ENGL. Personally, I am of the opinion that, like pretty much most manufacturers, some of them suck to my ears, and some of them are amazing.

Those of you that have a strong opinion one way or another, why?

Personally, I had a Fb100, FB60, invader mk1, blackmore, savage 120 mk1, pb1 in the past. I have an SE FE670 now. Of the ones I owned, I particularly disliked FB60 and PB1. They sounded like tinny, cold, buzzsaw shit, and had this nasty upper mid range snarl, but not in a good way, with anemic low mids, for an overall thin sound.

On the flip side, something like the SE FE to me is another beast. Thick and saturated how I like it. Quite compressed as well (like many dont like it).

A few criticisms I more than sympathize with:

1) Live sound. I'd argue some exaggerate the...poor ability of these to cut in a mix, sometimes. However, I'd argue that while these naturally scooped amps do have that tendency, they absolutely can be dialed in correctly to sound crushing in any live mix. I don't think it's as easy to make that happen as say, a 5150, SLO, or JCM, but I guess i just dont get the "this thing cant cut no matter what" claim

2) Natural voicing - scooped, compressed, somewhat sterile. Personally, these characteristics are what makes them appealing in application, but outside that application (high gain modern metal), to me, ENGL loses any appeal very fast compared to better options. That said, many prefer the opposite of "scooped, compressed, and sterile," so I understand

3) Service - this is mostly a thing particularly outside europe. getting these things serviced by an authorized tech statestide is simply a god damn bitch.

I think in general, the company as a whole gets a disproportionate amount of shit for sound qualities unique to just a few in their lineup, but that's completely subjective.
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I saw Kyle Rasmussen live playing a fireball i believe. No problem cutting. That said, i like single channel.amps because there are far less connections to fail. Engl is the vh-140c of tube amps in reliability
 
The addition of import tariffs and distributor markup would give the impression that they're boutique-quality, but they are not. I had an Invader II and a E580 preamp, and for the most part had no problems with them, just not the tones I was looking for. In the US though, you're getting a value-built amp for boutique prices.

Very tough to get authorized service in the US, and neither ENGL or their distributor seem that interested in helping in any way. If the schematic isn't already freely available, you're pretty much on your own.
 
Les Zombie said:
I hate them, i owned a dozen engls and bought 9 of them brand new, i had issues with 4 of them including a new invader 150 that broke within the first hour and wasnt tube or fuse related, i had a brand new engl se el34 that broke 13 months later and the warranty was only 12 months and it was a pain in the ass to get it fixed and engl customer support and the usa distribution sucked really bad and wouldnt help me out, i took it to a authorized repair center and a month later it broke again and it was back in the shop getting pairs and it wasnt tube or fuse issues, i also had another engl se 6L6 that the led lights blew out, plus a new powerball that had issues which did get replaced under the warranty. I was a huge supporter for about 12 years but i got tired of my amps breaking down and my dealer told engl i sold around 30 amps for them thru my recommendations and the pricks at engl still wouldnt help me out with the SE, brand new amp at 4k a month past the warranty and they refused to do anything about it, i can understand it i guess but for a valued customer who sold alot of amps for them over the years plus owned a dozen engl amps personally i thought they coulda helped me a little under the circumstances but maybe im crazy to expect something like that, they sent me a tshirt and ink pen to try and smooth me over and alot of double talk, and at that point i said im finished, i couldnt do it anymore, i sold all my engl stuff and never looked back. Haha the used engls i owned had no issues.
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Jeez man. I never knew any of that all the years we’ve chatted and been friends. Yeah I think my curiosity of the Artist and Inferno has been squashed thanks to this post.
 
Les Zombie said:
I hate them, i owned a dozen engls and bought 9 of them brand new, i had issues with 4 of them including a new invader 150 that broke within the first hour and wasnt tube or fuse related, i had a brand new engl se el34 that broke 13 months later and the warranty was only 12 months and it was a pain in the ass to get it fixed and engl customer support and the usa distribution sucked really bad and wouldnt help me out, i took it to a authorized repair center and a month later it broke again and it was back in the shop getting pairs and it wasnt tube or fuse issues, i also had another engl se 6L6 that the led lights blew out, plus a new powerball that had issues which did get replaced under the warranty. I was a huge supporter for about 12 years but i got tired of my amps breaking down and my dealer told engl i sold around 30 amps for them thru my recommendations and the pricks at engl still wouldnt help me out with the SE, brand new amp at 4k a month past the warranty and they refused to do anything about it, i can understand it i guess but for a valued customer who sold alot of amps for them over the years plus owned a dozen engl amps personally i thought they coulda helped me a little under the circumstances but maybe im crazy to expect something like that, they sent me a tshirt and ink pen to try and smooth me over and alot of double talk, and at that point i said im finished, i couldnt do it anymore, i sold all my engl stuff and never looked back. Haha the used engls i owned had no issues.
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Good to see you Les. What guitar and amp are you primarily using these days? You have always had quite the collection
 
It's a shame they're built like they are. The Savage 120 sounds awesome and the Fireball 100 sounds great too. Sucks that they're such a risk to buy.
 
Tone Monster said:
Yeah the transformers are laughable
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I’m not sure the SE and Savage 120 OTs are much smaller than say, the OT in my 5153. The cheaper way it’s installed, recessed into the chassis, one side of windings uncovered, also adds to the effect of small appearance

Tho I think if the same OTs were not installed as such, at least on those 2 models, they’d appear bigger

Could be wrong idk
 
Had a FB100..best sounding amp I've ever played...had it for like 10 years..had some resistors go bad...but I found a local tube amp guru who fixed it for me and even modded up the bias a bit for more range...cost me like $150 bucks...traded it off recently for $100 bucks under my cost...will miss it, but I've joined the Fractal club so I got everything I need.
 
RaceU4her said:
i dig the engl tone and im not really sure why i never pulled the trigger on one, if i was to get anything now though it would probably be that E530 or whatever preamp
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I have all these amps and I still keep my Powerball . It’s totally different than my others and I like it
 
I've tried almost the entire Engl line-up and owned 5 different ones. My 2 favorites were the Inferno and SE EL43 and then the Artist Edition. They have good things about them: they're tight, have good growl, grind and good feel and those 3 in particular were well voiced with also good mids, but as others said, they sound synthetic vs most quality amps and most of them are really compressed and IME I just didn't find them to be frankly in the same league when AB'ed with other amps I considered top tier, but for the price the Inferno and Artist sound quite good imo
 
I like my Steve Morse & Inferno and haven't had any issues with them. I wouldn't put them in the same class as say my Naylor or Alta, but they are both solid upper-mid tier amps. They're voiced really well and have more than enough in the mids to cut through. That's especially true for Ch. 3 on the Morse with "mid-matrix" as they call it. They are both more open than what you typically expect from ENGL, but still have a slight aura of that signature compression. To me that makes them a great fit for heavier rock & thrash where you want a hint of compressions, but not over do it.

I bought mine a few years ago new for around $1500 which I feel is a pretty good price to quality & sound ratio. All of that said, I did look up that the Inferno was going for $2300 and the Morse for $3000. At those prices they're not as much of a deal. I'd probably pass and get something else for that money.
 
Having owned several of them and also having had two of them go up in smoke I can’t bring myself to buy another. As much as I would like to try the new Special Edition. In my experience the problem with both amps came down to poorly designed layout of fuse protection. If a power tube red plates in an ENGL it takes out a lot of components inside the amp. This should never happen IMO, if the fuse protection is properly laid out. This might be something they have addressed recently but one of the amps this happened in was a FB100 . That is one of their more recent designs.

I have had a power tube red plate in many other amps built by other companies. In all other examples it took out a fuse only. Replace the tube , replace the fuse and you are back in action, not the case with the ENGLs I had. Power tube failure happens it’s not uncommon. I just had one red plate at a rehearsal in my Mesa 2:90 poweramp with no damage to the circuit.
 
PurityS.L.G said:
Jeez man. I never knew any of that all the years we’ve chatted and been friends. Yeah I think my curiosity of the Artist and Inferno has been squashed thanks to this post.
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It was back in the hcaf days, its so long ago and i normally dont say anything because alot of guys around here likes engl amps and hasnt had problems with them and i hate to be the crazy guy who constantly tells people i think the build quality is shit. I think the biggest issue is that for the price engl charges they should be better built, years ago i heard somebody say they are the peavey of europe but i think peavey amps are built better haha. I never has issues with any of my 5150.
 
Gitfiddler said:
Good to see you Les. What guitar and amp are you primarily using these days? You have always had quite the collection
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I still have alot of gear, my main amps havent changed in a ver long time, im still using my uberschall, herbert, jp2c, recto, vh4, i also have a friedman cantrell but it rarely gets played. As for guitars i still have a bunch of Esp, Les Pauls, and a couple KL, the past year i mostly been playing a camo zakk lp and a esp alexi pinky or the alexi greeny. I still check rigtalk daily but havent the last 10 yrs i havent posted much, just once and a while.
 
Never played one but they sound great for death metal from the clips I've heard. Super tight Amos.

The Savage, FB and Blackmore sounded great on YouTube.
 
I've owned the Savage 120 MK II and the Artist Edition. I actually had two Savage 120s because the first one died 30 days into owning it. The second one didn't give me any issues, but overall, I just decided that I prefer the tone of EVH amps to that of Engl. I think they are overpriced for what they are. The Savage should be a $2K amp. I so wanted to love he AE, but I just found the amp to be very stiff and lacking in saturated gain. That's not the amp's fault. More just my tastes. I do think their build quality is seriously lacking.
 
Les Zombie said:
It was back in the hcaf days, its so long ago and i normally dont say anything because alot of guys around here likes engl amps and hasnt had problems with them and i hate to be the crazy guy who constantly tells people i think the build quality is shit. I think the biggest issue is that for the price engl charges they should be better built, years ago i heard somebody say they are the peavey of europe but i think peavey amps are built better haha. I never has issues with any of my 5150.
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My made in China 6505 is better built than $3800 SE
 
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