Rack guys, educate me on the Engl E530

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Steinmetzify

Steinmetzify

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Was hunting around the other day for something and stumbled onto this. This is some fuckin GNARLY tone to me, especially for shit in drop B, just riffing around or whatever.

Dude says in the comments when asked for his settings that everything was on 10 with the gain at halfway lol. I'd just use this thing into impulses/headphones for recording and practice...seem to be going for around $400 or so. Worth it? Tell me of your experiences please and thanks.

 
Ah yes. Drums panned hard left and guitar panned hard right.
 
jsp":34baiipn said:
It's not very versatile, but the high gain sounds are great.
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Not true. It's fairly versatile and offers a range of sounds. It's best running through your amps power section or with a tube power amp, but I have used it with a solid state power amp with great success. You can do a lot more than just metal. To me, it's great for lead playing. It's worth the money, but if you can pick up a special edition preamp, that's even better. Tons of flexibility in it.
 
i had one years ago, run through a Boogie 20/20 EL84 power amp, used mostly for low-mid volume practicing, playing gainy prog metal and hard rock/classic rock.

i thought it sounded really good. i don't remember my settings--it definitely wasn't everything on 10, like this dude says. :lol: :LOL: but i remember a mid-shift or similar switch that did a good job changing a more middy hard rock tone into a more scooped metal tone. the write-ups say it has 4 channels, but IIRC it was actually 2 channels with a gain boost setting for each of them. the gain channel with the gain boost on was noisy, so i usually played that channel with the gain knob pegged but the boost off, and that was plenty of gain for metal rhythms IMO. to my ear, it had a Mesa Mark sort of high-gain tone, thick but articulate, dense. IIRC the clean channel did a nice shimmery clean tone when not-boosted.

i never used the DI, but it's supposed to be good. i think they were ~$350 back then?

if you're a rack guy or into gain tones in the Mark ballpark, i think it's definitely worth playing.
 
I owned one for a few months. It has versatility in its levels of gain, but I found all levels had a stinging high end. It shines at higher gain settings and sounded fantastic with my 7 string. Also has a great squeaky clean channel, but I found the tones between clean and high gain lacking. If those are the two tones you need, then you won't beat it (especially in a 1U preamp), but if you need versatility, especially without having to tweak knobs, I would look elsewhere. FWIW I've owned both a triaxis and JMP-1, and for the money and reliability, I would choose the ENGL.

I believe the 530 has a compensated headphone output, so you may not even need those IRs.
 
I used one for years with a Peavey 120/120 tube power amp and it KILLS! Like the Blackmore it is based off the Savage voicing IIRC. For $350-400 it's a good buy.
 
SavageRiffer":1xtl8rmh said:
jsp":1xtl8rmh said:
It's not very versatile, but the high gain sounds are great.
Click to expand...

Not true. It's fairly versatile and offers a range of sounds. It's best running through your amps power section or with a tube power amp, but I have used it with a solid state power amp with great success. You can do a lot more than just metal. To me, it's great for lead playing. It's worth the money, but if you can pick up a special edition preamp, that's even better. Tons of flexibility in it.
Click to expand...


To each their own. I found it to have essentially one tone, with just different levels of gain. It still produced a passable mid gain sound, but nothing I would call great, personally :dunno:
 
The 570..There is the one like yours,then the 570,then the model above it,which I believe was the 580/full midi,ect.
 

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jsp":3irydd8k said:
SavageRiffer":3irydd8k said:
jsp":3irydd8k said:
It's not very versatile, but the high gain sounds are great.
Click to expand...

Not true. It's fairly versatile and offers a range of sounds. It's best running through your amps power section or with a tube power amp, but I have used it with a solid state power amp with great success. You can do a lot more than just metal. To me, it's great for lead playing. It's worth the money, but if you can pick up a special edition preamp, that's even better. Tons of flexibility in it.
Click to expand...


To each their own. I found it to have essentially one tone, with just different levels of gain. It still produced a passable mid gain sound, but nothing I would call great, personally :dunno:
Click to expand...

If you put it that way then I wouldn't disagree too much.
 
Little B":3rnnpc72 said:
The 570..There is the one like yours,then the 570,then the model above it,which I believe was the 580/full midi,ect.
Click to expand...


-thats beautiful man!!
 
Ive always wanted to try the 530.No one ever had one where I lived.It seemed at the time like most the love for engl preamps was centered around the 570 & 580..Thier poweramps were pretty cool too.
 
I had one, thought it sounded good for high gain metal, but a bit sterile, sort of like a more modern sounding ENGL Blackmore - maybe like a Blackmore meets Powerball without the ability to get to Powerball levels of gain? Even through nice power amps I liked the Blackmore tone and feel better. I didn't care for any of the non-metal gain tones or cleans from it.

The E570 sounded better and was much more versatile, in my opinion. Also was like $1200 more expensive, so...
 
Necro bump. Anyone have one of these they want to part with? :cheers:
 

Here is my video on it! I enjoyed it. I used AxeFX Ultra Cab IRs
 
I used one as my main rig for years (in to fx return of my carvin legacy) - it's super legit and an insane value (or at least it was, not sure how much they go for now)

I usually boosted mine with my keeley-sd1 for ultra tight modern brootz stuff
 
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