It's Official

I've owned two ENGL amps. One was a Powerball I or II (I forget which) and another the Savage 120 Mark II. Both were without a doubt the biggest POS I have ever encountered; equal or less than Blackstar. While the sound was so, so the build quality was less than lacking. They may be assembled in Germany but they consist of 100% Made in China PCB (printed circuit boards). Who in their right mind mount tube sockets to a PCB? A company who is maximizing profits whilst minimizing manufacturing costs. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Having to work on one or paying some one to work on one would be ridiculous. I am just relaying my experience with their substandard product. ESP should have stayed in Japan and they should have never gotten involved with ENGL as the USA importer of their products. Their customer service sucks whether going through either one. Lesson learned.

I don't think this will cause a rep to answer your questions, being that you don't like their product.

A lot of manufacturers mount tube sockets to the PCB. I don't like that either, but if there are enough standoffs/rigid mounting to secure the PCB from bending/warping, I don't mind.

I have a 1992 VHT that's all PCB, and PCB mounted sockets. Still rocks. But I agree it is a PITA to service, and I prefer sockets to be hand wired.

It really comes down to how much do you wan't to pay? Hand wiring is a laborious task, stuffing a PCB, and shoving it in a wave solder takes a fraction of the time.

It's very ironic you mention VHT and handwired in the same post I imagine Fryette would be the last person on earth to care about handwired. But yeah, those handwired Dr. Z amps look pretty sweet, I love watching his videos. Put in a zillion features, though, and you get amps like the invader, jvm, ect. Can't really do turret boards and such then. But amps like the road king really traverse both worlds imo, like flying leads to the pots. I love amps.

I finally sold the Savage 120 Mark II. Just installing/removing the power tubes flex the PCB. Overtime that cannot be good. ENGL amps are just not for me.

Oh wow, that does not sound good, I need to check out my invader for the flex when I'm not feeling lazy. I always rock out/in the tubes in slow circular motion or back and forth motion. Do you do this?

Ive worked on lots of Engls. I agree 100% they are made to a price point, everything is PCB mounted and machine placed which drops the manufacturing cost dramatically. Not outright a bad thing, but it does mean that care is required for swapping tubes which places a mechanical force direct to the pcb. A good thing about this design is it makes for a robust amps as there are not wires everywhere subject to vibration related stress during general use.

I think they mostly sound great though for a unique compressed high gain tone that records extremely well. I dont care much for hte clean or crunch tones but ive heard other players get something sounding good.

This motivated me to open up my invader and really check it out, and long story short, I'm not remotely concerned about the pcb mounted sockets. Especially the power tubes have zero pcb bend, and only one or two of the preamp sockets can noticeably bend the pcb, and it's just the last push of the tube in the socket, and it's just barely noticeable. I do think Engl can benefit from maybe two more standoffs near those preamp sockets, but I don't think it is a huge deal.

I was initially excited to check out the new Savage Mk2, but man I have not heard a single clip on youtube that sounded any good. Maybe I got lucky when I chose the Fireball 100 as my first Engl, but man this amp does one thing right and fucking nails it. Thick, saturated, molten metal for days. I boost it with an SD 805 to tighten it up a bit and it's simply amazing.

Bummer to hear about your experience man. Engl has a pretty massive lineup so it could be worth trying a different model at some point if the price is right. I found mine for $1k and would probably pay a little more to check out an Invader II at some point. I hope they replace the SE with an updated model, but I've seen those going for sub $2k easy.

Meeotch":q78j8jf6 said:

I was initially excited to check out the new Savage Mk2, but man I have not heard a single clip on youtube that sounded any good. Maybe I got lucky when I chose the Fireball 100 as my first Engl, but man this amp does one thing right and fucking nails it. Thick, saturated, molten metal for days. I boost it with an SD 805 to tighten it up a bit and it's simply amazing.

Bummer to hear about your experience man. Engl has a pretty massive lineup so it could be worth trying a different model at some point if the price is right. I found mine for $1k and would probably pay a little more to check out an Invader II at some point. I hope they replace the SE with an updated model, but I've seen those going for sub $2k easy.

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$1k, man that's a nice deal! For a great amp. I have yet to check one out at volume though. Ola Englund has a nice vid of the savage mk 2.