Engl Savage MkII Project

glpg80

glpg80

Well-known member
Does anyone know whether the power tube sockets on an Engl savage mk II are board mounted or chassis mounted with bus wire extensions?

Debating buying one to completely gut and turn into a true 120W (4x 6550s with DC heaters, stock PT)

But to do this I have to know how much of a gap exists under the original board or if there isn’t any at all.

I could go down the path of raising the board and converting the whole chassis to chassis mounted sockets but I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze for that one.

IMG_3564.jpeg
 
I do not know. However, looking at that picture, the top socket looks a little like something rectangular is soldered into the holes. I can't tell if that is just reflections or solder fillets I'm looking at though.
 
7704A said:
I do not know. However, looking at that picture, the top socket looks a little like something rectangular is soldered into the holes. I can't tell if that is just reflections or solder fillets I'm looking at though.
Click to expand...

You’re right, it looks like the shadow of a ceramic base socket is present on both of them through the resin in the board. That means in order for it to imprint in a flash photo that the board has surface mounted sockets and the center area of the sockets of the board aren’t filled with copper.

For an amp to cost that much that’s some cheap shit.

Given how the rest of the amp is wasted space and the size of the boards it really doesn’t give any path forward for the idea. I hate they advertise it as 100W when newer 6550’s can barely handle 35W in today’s quality. To make it a true 120W it needs double the tubes and they could be biased colder to last longer and the amp would be tighter.
 
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Engl-Savage-120-Mark-II-2.jpg



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From a cursory glance, the PTs appear to be pcbs mounted. Nothing supporting them to or attached to the chassis topside.
That is one reason Engl still uses the old school spring tube retainers... to add some stability to the PTs.
These amps are more like 60-80W total power output.


As to your next point:
"For an amp to cost that much that’s some cheap shit."

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I look at my projects and they’re WAY overbuilt comparatively.

Maybe I’ll just figure out the Engl savage II preamp and mod a Marshall.
 
glpg80 said:
You’re right, it looks like the shadow of a ceramic base socket is present on both of them through the resin in the board. That means in order for it to imprint in a flash photo that the board has surface mounted sockets and the center area of the sockets of the board aren’t filled with copper.

For an amp to cost that much that’s some cheap shit.

Given how the rest of the amp is wasted space and the size of the boards it really doesn’t give any path forward for the idea. I hate they advertise it as 100W when newer 6550’s can barely handle 35W in today’s quality. To make it a true 120W it needs double the tubes and they could be biased colder to last longer and the amp would be tighter.
Click to expand...
IDK. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the construction of that amp. Many other companies do the same and nobody criticizes them. It's a final product, not a mod platform. Series production with a relatively large amount of German handwork. Here in Europe, the price is comparable to the Mexican 5150III 100W, for example. As an end user, I wouldn't mind if it was cheaper, of course :)
 
the ENGLs have Angel hair traces on them. I’ve contacted a few amp repair places and they won’t touch them.

I got a Powerball V1 for dirt cheap that has a channel 2 issue in sending in as they are a few of the places that are certified to repair them.

For the board gap, on my Powerball some of the electro caps add flush with the chassis - they have the cut outs like on the picture above.

If you can find the dimension specs on the caps and measure how much it sticks out that may help you figure out out much space is under the board.

For my PB I’d say it’s probably 1” from bottom from board to chassis.
 
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