killertone
Well-known member
FUCKING STOP ALREADY WITH THIS STUPID BULLSHIT.
P
PrestoDone
New member
engl hate usually come from people who 1. never played an engl and 2. never owned one. I got a Powerball II and the thing cuts...just gotta know how to dial it in.
A
Anonymous
Guest
savage is a top 5 amp for me. fucking things slay.
S
Shiny_Surface
Active member
PrestoDone":2nyn8ep3 said:
xiwiwix has owned quite a few Engl's over the years if I'm not mistaken.
A
aftec
Active member
The practice space we use has some Engl Screamers with Engl Cabs with V60s. We have to flip the coin who to use them, they sound horrible.
Cleans are the typical German "clinic" cleans. Kinda nice, but lacking any warmth or character.
Crunch is horrible, they have an upper mid rasp which cannot be dialed out, sounding like wax-paper on a comb. They have like 4. All sound the same.
Cleans are the typical German "clinic" cleans. Kinda nice, but lacking any warmth or character.
Crunch is horrible, they have an upper mid rasp which cannot be dialed out, sounding like wax-paper on a comb. They have like 4. All sound the same.
X
xiwiwix
Member
Shiny_Surface":20tu00pu said:PrestoDone":20tu00pu said:
xiwiwix has owned quite a few Engl's over the years if I'm not mistaken.
Yup.
A least 20 lol's!!!I only had a problem with one, an ENGL Fireball. A tube went out and took the screen grid ris. I must have not been here when all the ENGL's had problems.
As for not cutting, I remember the first time I played live. The 'ENGL PowerBall I' had a mid boost that worked well.
Marshall 'fronts' with ENGL 'backs', It's still funny to me. lols
X
xiwiwix
Member
aftec":robeo4t0 said:
+1
I agree. I didn't like the Screamers either and Standard with V60 suck ass.
That was the first ENGL that I was let down by, that and the E530 (the rack one, only because of the lack of gain).
B
blackie13
Well-known member
Business":1qxs9qzh said:
MAN you are so damm right!!!!!
The quality of these amps is TERRIBLE...
I wont' debate about the sound(I think it's shit) but if you take a look inside,or ask a electronics guy who has nothing to do with sound and specializes in electronics,he will conform this...
The PCB in a friends Fireball 60(MADE IN GERMANY) is sssoooo cheap...cheaper than boss pedals...
and the transformer is as big as a cell phone...
That amp started to get rusty in the corners of the transformer,without heavy use(my friend plays at his bedroom).
ENGL USED to make great amps...
but they decided to pay the artists to promote their amps and forgot the QC...
More endorsments=more fanboys...
Thank god,some people still have good ears(for the sound) and good eyes(for the construction quality) and they pass this rubbish...
engls I've owned:
Engl Screamer
Engl Powerball
Engl Blackmore(the best of 'em,the transformer suddenly died though)
headlessdeadguy
Well-known member
Fireball 60 = biggest POS I've ever had the displeasure of owning.
ridner
New member
Immortal! 
A
Anonymous
Guest
PrestoDone":3lxdf7r4 said:
Personnally I've owned 8 different models, that's why I commented on them
The E530 is the only one I still own, the only model worth the money IMO
spirit7
Active member
headlessdeadguy":1pdou4zu said:
Tis all subjective. Personally, I think DSLs (or any Marshall since the JCM900, more or less) is a POS
I enjoyed my Powerball back in the day - has a really fun and EASY metal tone, but it's true that it struggled in a band mix against a 5150 II.Oh, and it got eaten alive by my Herbert and Pitbull UL.
-C
srommes
Active member
I've had my E570 pre and 850/100 poweramp for quite a few years and have never had a single problem with either. I think the sound crushes and cuts through the mix just fine. Love this set-up! Lotta bands using Engl live these days and even though they may be endorsed, I doubt they would go out on the road with and amp they can't trust.
Ye Black Knight
New member
Mayhaps these minstrels wish to cloak ye machines of theire tones, to preserve'th secrecy and intruige.
Just as one may ornament his visage with corpsepaint at a performance, or adorn his "loinsword" with leather and fur condoms at an orgy.
This post now concludeth!
Just as one may ornament his visage with corpsepaint at a performance, or adorn his "loinsword" with leather and fur condoms at an orgy.
This post now concludeth!
stefvorcide
New member
Ye Black Knight":1jw05ggr said:
Piero the Guitarero
Member
angelspade
Well-known member
Business":me4mn53k said:
I dig Immortal....But I have to agree with the above regarding ENGL based on personal experience. With the possible exception of the Blackmore, which I though was a great sounding head.
maddnotez
Banned
Well-known member
I've heard the savage put out some pretty mean tones and there's a Blackmore clip floating around on yt. With a death metal player that sounded beastly.
AmpliFIRE
Well-known member
I had my Powerball for a few years and used it in a band setting numerous times. I never had an issue cutting through the mix and I received a bunch of compliments on my tone. Me thinks the haters never tried one 
A
Anonymous
Guest
I'll do a more in depth review as to why I'm not a big fan of Engl amps
General observations:
- Those who say they've never had a problem with their Engl, wait until the amp is at least 5 years old. I've seen a dead SE (the supposed flagship) for sale on here and there's currently a Steve Morse with dead effects loop for sale; also seen local "refurbished" Fireball 60s, etc. If it breaks, you're in even more trouble; it'll be pretty hard to find a tech willing to work on a thin, upside-down, often multi-layered PCB with really small and crappy components. Endorsed bands have backups, and they'll probably have a replacement sent if one breaks down.
- Most of the models have pretty good straight up metal sound, flat EQ and without the need for a boost or much pedals; it's hard to get another good sound out of them though
- Cleans sound similar on pretty much every model I've tried: not warm, crystal clear and without much character. It would help if the loop was as good as, say, a VHT/Fryette UL, so good effects would shine through on the clean channel, but the loop is average
- Crunch sounds are pretty worthless; they sound like a watered down high gain channel on most of the models I've tried, similar as if you would turn your volume knob down on the high gain channel
- Amps don't come with a footswitch, while you can get generic footswitches for some models, you have to buy Engl's shiny overpriced footswitch for others in order to access all the functions. And, of course, you won't be able to use that same 200$ footswitch with any other model, since they made sure about every model gets a different footswitch (9 different footswitch models to choose from)
Particular observations on amps I've tried:
- E530 preamp: the only model worth the money IMO, as you can get it used for 400-500$. Same observations as above on clean and crunch channels. The high gain channel is more "organic" and less compressed than other models I've tried.
- E570 Special Edition preamp: Ultra-compressed fizzy POS. Unless you play death metal from beyond the grave, you won't need these types of gain. The "Classic" mode is a laughable attempt at vintage types of sound and I didn't find all the switches to be able to alter the horrible basic voicing enough to make it worth playing.
- Thunder: I owned the combo. I'll say it's not that bad, it has your base Engl sound with a good amount of gain, nothing special. Considering the build quality and other amps available in that price range, I wouldn't pay more than 600$ for it brand new.
- Fireball 60: What can I say... a little bit less gain than the E570, but the same basic idea, without all the "bells and whistles" in between the ultra clean and ultra high gain. 5150 stomps all over this
- Powerball II: It gets a bit interesting, the high gain sounds are much better than the E570 and Fireball 60, but this amp doesn't do anything else really. A disguised, overpriced one trick pony
- Savage 120: I didn't give this one a good enough run. The voicing seemed really harsh to me and it was really noisy. Back then, I didn't experiment much with tubes, I should probably have tried something different. I would give this one another try.
- Blackmore: Nicer pure tone, more open. Better cleans and crunch than other models, but still shines best on high gain channel. Also one of the few models that can benefit from a tube screamer type of boost. Unusable as a 4 channel amp, it's more of a glorified 2 channel amp. I would say it would be worth it if priced like a 5150/6505
- Steve Morse: Probably the best sounding of the bunch, maybe the EL34s help? All channels are usable and channels 2 and 3 are voiced differently enough that they can be used for different applications. Nice flexibility, noise gate works pretty good. The low/hi md voicings is a nice option, making channel 3 the best channel I've played on any Engl amp. If it was built like a Mesa, its price tag could be justifiable
Hope this long post is a bit informative
General observations:
- Those who say they've never had a problem with their Engl, wait until the amp is at least 5 years old. I've seen a dead SE (the supposed flagship) for sale on here and there's currently a Steve Morse with dead effects loop for sale; also seen local "refurbished" Fireball 60s, etc. If it breaks, you're in even more trouble; it'll be pretty hard to find a tech willing to work on a thin, upside-down, often multi-layered PCB with really small and crappy components. Endorsed bands have backups, and they'll probably have a replacement sent if one breaks down.
- Most of the models have pretty good straight up metal sound, flat EQ and without the need for a boost or much pedals; it's hard to get another good sound out of them though
- Cleans sound similar on pretty much every model I've tried: not warm, crystal clear and without much character. It would help if the loop was as good as, say, a VHT/Fryette UL, so good effects would shine through on the clean channel, but the loop is average
- Crunch sounds are pretty worthless; they sound like a watered down high gain channel on most of the models I've tried, similar as if you would turn your volume knob down on the high gain channel
- Amps don't come with a footswitch, while you can get generic footswitches for some models, you have to buy Engl's shiny overpriced footswitch for others in order to access all the functions. And, of course, you won't be able to use that same 200$ footswitch with any other model, since they made sure about every model gets a different footswitch (9 different footswitch models to choose from)
Particular observations on amps I've tried:
- E530 preamp: the only model worth the money IMO, as you can get it used for 400-500$. Same observations as above on clean and crunch channels. The high gain channel is more "organic" and less compressed than other models I've tried.
- E570 Special Edition preamp: Ultra-compressed fizzy POS. Unless you play death metal from beyond the grave, you won't need these types of gain. The "Classic" mode is a laughable attempt at vintage types of sound and I didn't find all the switches to be able to alter the horrible basic voicing enough to make it worth playing.
- Thunder: I owned the combo. I'll say it's not that bad, it has your base Engl sound with a good amount of gain, nothing special. Considering the build quality and other amps available in that price range, I wouldn't pay more than 600$ for it brand new.
- Fireball 60: What can I say... a little bit less gain than the E570, but the same basic idea, without all the "bells and whistles" in between the ultra clean and ultra high gain. 5150 stomps all over this
- Powerball II: It gets a bit interesting, the high gain sounds are much better than the E570 and Fireball 60, but this amp doesn't do anything else really. A disguised, overpriced one trick pony
- Savage 120: I didn't give this one a good enough run. The voicing seemed really harsh to me and it was really noisy. Back then, I didn't experiment much with tubes, I should probably have tried something different. I would give this one another try.
- Blackmore: Nicer pure tone, more open. Better cleans and crunch than other models, but still shines best on high gain channel. Also one of the few models that can benefit from a tube screamer type of boost. Unusable as a 4 channel amp, it's more of a glorified 2 channel amp. I would say it would be worth it if priced like a 5150/6505
- Steve Morse: Probably the best sounding of the bunch, maybe the EL34s help? All channels are usable and channels 2 and 3 are voiced differently enough that they can be used for different applications. Nice flexibility, noise gate works pretty good. The low/hi md voicings is a nice option, making channel 3 the best channel I've played on any Engl amp. If it was built like a Mesa, its price tag could be justifiable
Hope this long post is a bit informative