Can somebody tell me if my Engl Savage is working properly?

bungimeala

New member
I have acquired an Engl Savage (built in 2011) which I guess never sounded "right", just kinda average. I have retubbed it, re-biased, try all kinds of tubes in, but it never sounded as brutal as I would like it to be. I also own a Fireball 60 which is just great.
Now I have come to think that there might be something wrong with the actual distortion or something else is faulty. I have a general understanding of electronics and tube amps and I am able to repair faulty components, but it is a pain to remove the main PCB to check all the components one at a time. Therefore I am hoping someone might be able to chime in on this.

I have done some tests with the oscilloscope, applying a 1KHz, 150 mV input signal to see what kind of output do I get. I have tested channels 2 and 3 (Crunch I and Crunch II) on roughly everything set to noon and this is where I can see some interesting results.
On CrunchI I get a good distorted sound which has the fundamental frequency as well as 3rd harmonic quite high and so on. I assume this is good.
On CrunchII I get a distorted sound which has the 2nd harmonic very high and as far as my knowledge goes, it appears the preamp tube is cold biased somehow (not properly biased by the cathode resistor) as it is kinda clipping on the low level input.

Basically I have 2 questions. If anyone is able to test the "distortion" shape with an oscilloscope, would you please confirm that indeed, this is the way it is supposed to look on Crunch II vs Crunch I?
If this is not how it is supposed to look like, should I then look at replacing the cathode resistor and capacitor? Or could there be other issues to look for?
Thanks for any inputs. :confused:
 

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Do you have an authorized ENGL service/repair shop near you? I feel that is the only way you are going to get to the bottom of your issues with the amp. They should be able to diagnose and tell you what it will need to fix it. Keep us posted on your progress with the amp. Sorry I cant offer any more to help. I love my ENGL SAVAGE from 2010. It sounds amazing and understand where you are coming from wanting yours to kick ass as well. Mike
 
I don't know about all that technical mambo jumbo, but sounds like something is wrong with yours if you can't get the utmost aggressive thumping metal tones out of it. The 2012 Savage 120 I owned was absolutely crushing and brutal. That amp brought the heavies BIG TIME without even breaking a sweat!
 
Thanks Never thought of looking to Ikea for tall cabinets for speakers. We have a store in Atlanta so I will have to look into this. Dont remember how much they cost, do you?
 
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