ENGL E670 Special Edition Head 6L6

This is the height of German engineering. Engl is a company that excels as making those over compressed metal voicing amp for straight ahead metal tuning and drop tunings. This amp is a metal guitar players dream amp. This amp will blown down doors and bust through walls. This is a three channel amp with a clean, crunch, and lead channel. Each channel is extremely usable and friendly to just about any music. However, this amp's voicing is tailored to a metal players amp. What that means is the voicing serves towards the metal style rather than a British style amp.

This amp is the same amp as the E670 El34 version but with a different power tube section. You get 6L6 powers tubes which gives the amp a bit different feel and tone. You will get a blooming tone that is very top and bottom focused. You get a tighter lows end a crisper highs and cleans for a better headroom. You will get a slower crunch in the power tube section but it sounds great with the tighter lower end with this amp.

UTILIZATION

Preamp:
4 channels: Clean, Crunch, Lead 1, Lead 2, each in modern or classic mode, mega-low punch, noise gate, 3 FX loops (one serial, two parallel), tube driver circuit (extra channel plus EQ for direct switching to the power amp), 5 x ECC 83 preamp tubes.

Master Section:
100 watts (4 x 6L6GC tubes), half-drive mode
(50 watts), Master A/B switch, Presence A/B switch, Deep Boost, electronic tube protection circuit, Speaker A/B switch.

Outputs:
Balanced Recording out, cable test/impedance check, Speaker A/B out (4, 8, 16 ohms), Z-9 footswitch port,
MIDI In/THRU.

MIDI-programmable functions at a glance, storable in any combination as required:
Channel switches, preamp boosts, normal/ultra bright, modern/classic mode, preamp defeat, FX loops, tube driver circuit, mega-low punch, Depth Boost, Reverb, noise gate, Master A/B, Presence A/B, Speaker A/B,
Half Power Switch (100/50 watts).

Dimensions & Weight:
71 x 27 x 29 cm, 26 kg

SOUNDS

The tone is going to be more open and blomming. Your tone will have a tight low end and the overall tone will be more 3D and top and bottom focused. This amp says it has four channels but it really has 6 different voicings if you count the modern and classic modes on the the two lead channels. This amp can be a bit confusing upon first glance. It looks like something out of some space ship. It has a tone of features and a tone of control and all of them are lit up like a Christmas tree. There is so much going on with this amp that it makes it some what confusing. You eventually get the feel for it but it certainly is not a plug and play kind of amp. If you are used to looking at the front of a Marshall amp or a Peavey or even a Mesa Boogie aside form the Mark V, then looking at this might worry you how to dial it in. There is a system tot he madness but it can take a you a while to find the balance necessary to get a good tone out of this amp.

This amp does have a clean and crunch channel but the reason for getting this amp is not a clean and crunch channel you can get that out of many other amps. This is ultra high gain and saturation. This is an amp that is extremely saturated and extremely modern in its voicing. This sound like German metal amp which it is and you can not dial that out of any lead channel.

OVERALL OPINION

At new these amp comes in right at around $4100. A bit of a price for a amp. This is an amp that someone who knows what they what is going to buy and probably and active touring musician. This amp costs little more that the EL34 version since 6L6 tubes are more expensive.

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.

see site
http://www.engl-amps.com/index2.html

Manual
http://www.engl-amps.com/manuals/E670-ba.pdf

with all that you do your idea.
See also the "5th channel". behind.



UTILIZATION

for the manual is available only in English or German.
config ultra simple, it's a guitar amp anyway,
despite all the buttons were easy to use, provided you have the MIDI-pedal.
You choose your channel on the pedals, you make your adjustments on the amp you can save by just pressing (write / copy). only the EQ settings are not saved.


SOUNDS

then say that this is a must.
I compared the day of purchase a mesa roadster, Dual Rectifier, JVM 410 and powerball all in the same cabinet (a mesa 412 in V30)
is the best of all, I liked the powerball but not as versatile for my use.
Its very soft and "analog" on all channels, compared to the JVM 410 which resembled a Metalzone.
Not aggressive to me, but I have V30s.
they spend little of their vintage / modern
Hi gain / normal
Deth boost
Mega Lo Punch
Blue Flower / Big Volcano erupts

we must also try out preamp DI at the back, the sound is exceptional, we can dispense with microphones before the HPs, I'm sérieux.faites test. When he went to the loc ingestion are amazed.

I play rock, Heavy, etc. of baloche, it adapts to all styles
I use a Kustom section 412A in celestion V30s.par cons I never use it in 50W, lack of chest.

What about
I found my amp.


OVERALL OPINION

now after a year of use, 2 seasons
it is top
what I like most:
sound, MIDI implementation, the 3 FX loop, DI output, the look that kills.

what I like least:
the fx loop 1 and 2, there is always an active loop.
the Tolex fragile.