Engl is great at building high gain monster metal amps. These amps are not for the Fender guys who wants a nice blues amp. These amps are for fellas who need massive amounts of gain and low end thump for their heavy riffing at blazing speeds. It certainly can do the Fender clean sound but is doesn't stop there. This amp has 6 basic sound with 24 possible operations within those sounds. It has 128 presets for people who want to run their sounds with their midi foot controllers. This is 100 watts of just raw metal power. UTILIZATION Features Tube Driver circuit for effect devicesAlso serves as a separate 5th channel that can be selected directly (with or without EQ)Modern and Classic sound-shaping buttons determine the basic voicing of all 4 channels,2 gain variants for each of the basic channels: Gain Boost and Hi Gain3 voicing sections: one EQ for Clean and Crunch (Main Channel 1), one for Lead I and Lead II (Main Channel 2) and another for the Tube DriverEvery channel sports a dedicated Treble knobVarious sound-shaping buttons tuned to match the tonal requirements of the given channelsLarge spring reverb with separate knobs for the 2 Main Channels3 effect loops: FX Loop I and FX Loop II are variable, switchable effect loops, while Serial FX Loop is a separate circuit that can be used in series with 2 main effect loopsEach effect loop may be activated for each channel as well as for the Tube Driver circuit2 each power amp Master and Presence knobs, accessible via MIDIVariable MIDI-switchable power amp output (50 or 100 watts) with hot impedance adjustmentA/B speaker switching with separate impedance selector for connected speaker systemsBalanced, frequency-compensated XLR line output for routing preamp or power amp signals to mixers or recording gearMIDI In and Thru ports serve to integrate the amp into a MIDI system128 MIDI presets, accessible via 16 MIDI channelsOffers three different remote interface ports: Serial Amp Control Port accepts the Custom Z-9 Footswitch (sold separately); the MIDI In accepts the Z-9 for use as a simple MIDI footcontroller or any other MIDI footcontrollerAmp is equipped with a stereo jack that takes a dual footswitch allowing you to switch the four channels remotelyProgrammable Noise Gate for suppressing noise in the Crunch, Lead I, and Lead II channels SOUNDS This amp definitely has a German metal voicing. Sure the cleans sound chimy and nice but this thing still retains that edgy metal tone. So I would suggest using a humbucker equipped guitar if you want to even try to hang with this amp. This is not an amp for the faint of heart. You get an insane amount of gain and power which needs a 50 watt cut switch, which Engl added to this amp to try and tame it for smaller gigging uses. If you don't like the voicing of the German metal amps then this amp will not be for you. These amps do have a distinct sound that cannot be dialed out with a simple EQ change. It is there and no amount of polishing will change that. OVERALL OPINION At new these amps come in at around $3999. That is a hefty price for a lot of people. Chances are that the local shop in town will not carry this amp. I would suggest jumping on a forum and trying to locate one from someone near by if you can. If not then you can take a chance on a used one and if you don't like it then flip it for about the same price. A new one you will obviously loose money trying to flip it. This is a risky amp at this price so if you ever get a chance to hear one at a amp fest or show I would suggest that before putting down hard earned cash for this amp.
The ENGL Savage SE is one of the flagship models that they offer. It's a four channel amp that comes in both EL34 and 6L6 varieties, depending on what flavor you're going for. It has a ridiculous amount of features that almost makes your head spin. I won't go through all of them, but the ones that stand out are multiple voicing switches per channel, fully MIDI enabled, multiple effects loops and a noise gate. It also has all the standard features you'd expect from an amplifier at this level. UTILIZATION ENGL did a great job at fitting nearly everything you can think of in this amplifier. Seriously, if you can imagine it, chances are it's in this thing. Being fully MIDI enabled and having multiple effects loops put it in a category where not many amps can keep up. The manual does a really good job at explaining everything, too. However, the biggest disappointment is probably that Clean 1 and 2, as well as Lead 1 and 2, have some shared controls. Bass and middle are both shared in their respective channels. I really wished they could have added the extra knobs to make this thing a bit more versatile. Instead, you have to rely on the voicing switches and independent treble, gain and presence controls to shape the channels to how you'd like them to sound. SOUNDS This thing sounds like most ENGLs out there. It's extremely versatile with a pretty good clean, good crunch, amazing rhythm sound and ridiculous lead sound. The amp can do most any style you can think of, but I think these excel best when doing metal. There's no need to boost these amps at all; they tend to just get noisy when you do. The EL34 gives it that more Marshall-esque vibe where as the 6L6 version gives it that more round-ish, big low end sound. I think the 6L6 version is a little better, but both are great. OVERALL OPINION Overall, it's a great amplifier. Whether you get the EL34 or 6L6 version, you should be very happy with your purchase. There are two things, however, that bug me about this amp -- the lack of fully independent EQs and the reliability. Sometimes things like LEDs will go out or they'll start to act a bit odd. With all the technology cramped inside, it's not really a surprise. I've never personally had problems, but I've heard some people have issues getting ENGL to help them out, so just keep that in mind. Regardless, the amplifier sounds amazing.
- 100 watts head (4 EL34 - 5 12AX7) - 6 channels - midi controlled - hard to list all of the connections and possibilities here, have a look on ENGL website UTILIZATION - So much functions that you feel a little lost at first, really need lot of time to set it correctly but after that it's great to control simultanéously the head and your multi fx with the midi system. - The manual is very clear SOUNDS - you can do everything with that monster, each of the channels cover a great range of styles: 1/ Tube driver: leave the sound of your instrument unaffected and amplified directly by the power amp 2/ TDHQ: the same channel as above but with EQ settings for shaping, a volume and a sensitivity potentiometer (to set from clean to crunch) 3/ Clean channel: from extreme clean to overdrive 4/ Crunch channel: From slight crunch to heavy warm distorsion 5/ Lead 1 channel: a very tight and focused channel, great for hard rock or métal rhythm work (reminds me of the gun's n' roses rythm sound) - also great for soloing with neck pickup 6/ Lead 2 channel: less défined, bassier and more drive than the prévious channel. Was designed for solo work but i use it for heavy distorted rhythm. There's so much gain in the lead 1 and 2 channels that i never set the gain setting past 12 o'clock in hi gain mode ;) Once the channel is set you can choose between dozens of tone shaping options, some are really usefull, others are less depending on what type of sound you want to have OVERALL OPINION - been using it for more than one year and i'm still amazed by this head, you can do everything with it, it is designed to sound amazingly even without multi fx (the head has multiple semi-paramétric tone shaping options as well as compression mode) - This head is expensive, but it's worth every euro - There is no other amp that can match the possibilities the ENGL SE provide, it's the world best kept secret
