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iamqman
Published on 07/11/11 at 08:00
Engl is one of those companies that make high quality amplifiers within a good price point for boutique designs. They are essentially a boutique company that has now more world wide success because of places like Musicians Friends and other online retailers keeping them in stock. This German company has build rock metal primarily for metal and hard rock guitar players.
Even though this amp is only 30 watts it still pacts quite a punch. This two channel amp does see a small departure from the rest of the Engl line of products. This amp while still has a robust distortion/lead channel or more drawn back on the fiery high gain metal voicing.
UTILIZATION
Preamp controls:
Volume: Input Gain control for the Clean and for the Lead channel.
Bass: Bottom end voicing control for both channels.
Middle: Mid-range voicing control for both channels.
Treble: Upper range voicing control for both channels.
Leaddrive: Gain for the Lead channel, controls the amount of preamp overdrive
in the Lead mode.
CAUTION: Extremely high gain and volume levels in the Lead mode can produce
strong feedback. Avoid feedback squeals, they lead to hearing loss and
damaged speakers!
Reverb: Reverb control, adjusts the portion of the reverb signal and increases
reverb intensity when you rotate it clockwise.
Preamp sound switches:
Gain Boost: Bass and Gain boost of the input stage.
Mid Boost: Boosts the mid frequencies at 500 Hz.
Bright: Alters the EQ by boosting the upper treble range.
Bypass: Defeats the EQ (Bass, Middle, Treble).
Clean/Lead: Channel selector switch for Clean and Lead; This feature can also be
switched via the footswitch jack "Clean/Lead" located at the rear panel: the
channel selector switch is deactivated once a footswitch is connected to the
footswitch jack.
The red LED beside this switch indicates Lead channel activ.
SOUNDS
I think this was an approach by Engl to get into the lower gain markets and appeal to a larger audience. This amp only lasted a little while and for good reason. Engl does one thing very well and that is making fire breathing metal amps and people come accustomed to that from this company. So a lower gain amp probably wouldn't snatch up players from Fender or Goodsell. Even though this is a fantastic amp for the blues rock stuff.
This amp's clean channel is superb. One of the best cleans from a multi-channel amp you can find out there. It has a silky clean that is chimy and sparkles when switching the guitar's pickups to the neck. You can get a great tone from the neck pickup with this channel. Switch over to the distortion channel and great tone for rock and pop. You can use the mid boost to get it going into hard rock territories.
OVERALL OPINION
These amps have been discontinued for a while now. You can find them occasionally on evilbay or in the classifieds. These amps were made in limited numbers so finding one will be a bit difficult. If you can find one they are a good little versatile amp. They are hard to score so I would recommend a Diezel Schmidt or a Engl Gigmaster 30 or 15 watt amps.
Even though this amp is only 30 watts it still pacts quite a punch. This two channel amp does see a small departure from the rest of the Engl line of products. This amp while still has a robust distortion/lead channel or more drawn back on the fiery high gain metal voicing.
UTILIZATION
Preamp controls:
Volume: Input Gain control for the Clean and for the Lead channel.
Bass: Bottom end voicing control for both channels.
Middle: Mid-range voicing control for both channels.
Treble: Upper range voicing control for both channels.
Leaddrive: Gain for the Lead channel, controls the amount of preamp overdrive
in the Lead mode.
CAUTION: Extremely high gain and volume levels in the Lead mode can produce
strong feedback. Avoid feedback squeals, they lead to hearing loss and
damaged speakers!
Reverb: Reverb control, adjusts the portion of the reverb signal and increases
reverb intensity when you rotate it clockwise.
Preamp sound switches:
Gain Boost: Bass and Gain boost of the input stage.
Mid Boost: Boosts the mid frequencies at 500 Hz.
Bright: Alters the EQ by boosting the upper treble range.
Bypass: Defeats the EQ (Bass, Middle, Treble).
Clean/Lead: Channel selector switch for Clean and Lead; This feature can also be
switched via the footswitch jack "Clean/Lead" located at the rear panel: the
channel selector switch is deactivated once a footswitch is connected to the
footswitch jack.
The red LED beside this switch indicates Lead channel activ.
SOUNDS
I think this was an approach by Engl to get into the lower gain markets and appeal to a larger audience. This amp only lasted a little while and for good reason. Engl does one thing very well and that is making fire breathing metal amps and people come accustomed to that from this company. So a lower gain amp probably wouldn't snatch up players from Fender or Goodsell. Even though this is a fantastic amp for the blues rock stuff.
This amp's clean channel is superb. One of the best cleans from a multi-channel amp you can find out there. It has a silky clean that is chimy and sparkles when switching the guitar's pickups to the neck. You can get a great tone from the neck pickup with this channel. Switch over to the distortion channel and great tone for rock and pop. You can use the mid boost to get it going into hard rock territories.
OVERALL OPINION
These amps have been discontinued for a while now. You can find them occasionally on evilbay or in the classifieds. These amps were made in limited numbers so finding one will be a bit difficult. If you can find one they are a good little versatile amp. They are hard to score so I would recommend a Diezel Schmidt or a Engl Gigmaster 30 or 15 watt amps.