All Things ENGL!

gergohajer said:
Wow, that's a great video, thx for linking! I love the Mercurial a lot!
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The Mercuriall model is solid, did you grab it for free recently?

IMO the 530 gives a pretty solid representation of the savage as long as you pair it with a good power amp. You can pick the 530 up cheap and use it with one of your poweramps for a “budget” Savage
 
MirrorProfiles said:
The Mercuriall model is solid, did you grab it for free recently?

IMO the 530 gives a pretty solid representation of the savage as long as you pair it with a good power amp. You can pick the 530 up cheap and use it with one of your poweramps for a “budget” Savage
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Not yet... is it still free?

Thank you for the recommendation of the 530. I will check it out!
 
gergohajer said:
Not yet... is it still free?
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Nah, it ended about a week ago I believe. It’s often on sale for $30 or so. Or you can see if their artist A&R can give you a hook up in return for some exposure.




gergohajer said:
Thank you for the recommendation of the 530. I will check it out!
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There’s lots of discussion recently on this thread about the 530 and how it compares to the Savage and other ENGL’s. Lot of guys here have just picked one up recently and are sharing their experiences of it.
 
I very much look forward to hearing more about the E530 preamp. Bring us clips! :-D

I’m exploring a real preamp/simulated power amp setup to get the most of my playing situation so perhaps an actual preamp would be better for me. I really like having knobs to twist, at least for the preamps, as I’m still floundering around trying to get better grips with tone in general.

Side question for the tube-experienced folks: how much wear does it put on the power amp tubes if master volume is set to zero and you’re just using the amps preamp? This is my third tube amp and I’m not very experienced but this is what I’m now trying to do with my Fireball 25.

I found that using the built-in resistive load on the FB25 makes the line out signal sound like ass compared to using no attenuation (no big surprise), so I’ve started testing utilizing a NAM capture of only the power amp instead of the real deal. Signal chain is then guitar into amp then FX out into audio interface plus a dummy plug in FX return.

Still have a cab connected as well but silent. Would this reduce the wear on the tubes compared to having the master volume at 9 o’clock and running with the resistive load, or is it harmful in any way?
 
Progressive_disclosure said:
Side question for the tube-experienced folks: how much wear does it put on the power amp tubes if master volume is set to zero and you’re just using the amps preamp? This is my third tube amp and I’m not very experienced but this is what I’m now trying to do with my Fireball 25.
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I'd say very little.
Progressive_disclosure said:
I found that using the built-in resistive load on the FB25 makes the line out signal sound like ass compared to using no attenuation (no big surprise), so I’ve started testing utilizing a NAM capture of only the power amp instead of the real deal. Signal chain is then guitar into amp then FX out into audio interface plus a dummy plug in FX return.

Still have a cab connected as well but silent. Would this reduce the wear on the tubes compared to having the master volume at 9 o’clock and running with the resistive load, or is it harmful in any way?
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If there's no signal going into the poweramp it won't matter where the MV is pointing.
 
If anyone is interested I can upload some snippets of what a Fireball 25 sounds like running the internal load versus running unattenuated.

I think the ”speaker off” mode sounds OK for silent practice etc. but I would not recommend it for recording hi-gain tones after A/B’ing it.
 
laxu said:
Tubes are pretty robust. Steven Fryette says that the biggest reason for tube failure is going to be vibration. So just don't roll your rig over cobblestones and let it cool down before moving.
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No worries on moving it around, this is my Madison Square Bedroom-rig for now! It feels like every other thread on here talks about switching power amp tubes. But then again those tubes probably see a lot more usage than mine.
 
Progressive_disclosure said:
If anyone is interested I can upload some snippets of what a Fireball 25 sounds like running the internal load versus running unattenuated.

I think the ”speaker off” mode sounds OK for silent practice etc. but I would not recommend it for recording hi-gain tones after A/B’ing it.
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Please do!

Have you tried running the poweramp capture after the resistive load?
 
Progressive_disclosure said:
No worries on moving it around, this is my Madison Square Bedroom-rig for now! It feels like every other thread on here talks about switching power amp tubes. But then again those tubes probably see a lot more usage than mine.
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I’ve been playing tube amps for 30 years…and replaced powertubes once…cause the guy selling them promised new ones sound better..they didn’t.
My amps dont get lots of burn time, almost never use them at home, but still, I’m pretty confident the internet exaggerates a bit on this topic.
I do believe you might run into a bad one every now and then that gives up fast.
 
laxu said:
Please do!

Have you tried running the poweramp capture after the resistive load?
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I’ll try to piece it together then! Since it’s a mix of how the load plus how it sounds with different power amp captures I made I’ll put everything in a new thread under the member clips section.

Haven’t tried putting the capture after the internal load, but since the line out on the amp is after the power section wouldn’t that mean it’s basically going to do the same filtering twice to the signal? I can still try it with the audio I already recorded though.
 
Progressive_disclosure said:
Haven’t tried putting the capture after the internal load, but since the line out on the amp is after the power section wouldn’t that mean it’s basically going to do the same filtering twice to the signal? I can still try it with the audio I already recorded though.
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Well kinda, but with the resistive load the poweramp might sound kinda flat so this might be a case where you enjoy the result.
 
Progressive_disclosure said:
My testing adventures with the FB25's power amp and attenuation can be found here for anyone interested!
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I’ve had great preliminary results running a Mesa Studio Preamp into a direct Tonex capture I created of my Mesa Mark III head using a 1960A cab as the load.

I haven’t made it around to creating that power amp capture on the NAM platform but Tonex was at least good enough to prove that the idea has merit.
 
[Nathan] said:
What's everyone's end game ENGL? I've got the OG Fireball 60 and have a feeling I'll be side/upgrading it to something else. I would have thought the Savage 120 or Powerball II would be the logical options but I see things like the Invader and other models. Not sure if there's a logical "Just get this one" kind of amp of theirs.
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I have mentioned this before - to me the Powerball II is like a „Best of ENGL“ amp. It has really great Clean and Crunch channels, one Lead channel that is very similar to the Fireball (but with a much more useable gain range and slightly clearer low mids) and a second Lead channel that is tighter and very reminiscent of the Savage. So if you want an amp that is very versatile and covers pretty much the whole range of ENGL sounds, it‘s the Powerball II.
 
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I've been playing with the E530 for the last few days and I have to admit, I wish I'd bought it sooner. Playing with it somehow feels particularly fluid and easy, I can't quite describe it… the saturation is just somehow exceptionally satisfying. In terms of tightness, I could most likely manage without an additional overdrive, but I still prefer it with the good old Tube Screamer. However, I find the labeling of the EQ section as low and high mids somewhat misleading. While the low mids are set at approx. 500 Hz, the high mids simply correspond to the regular treble control of other amps. According to the manual, the actual treble control, on the other hand, is intended to compensate for the possible lack of a presence control on some power amps. Anyway, fantastic device! ENGL have got it right.
 
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DrewJD82 said:
[…] That said, every time I go to dial in a high gain amp I haven't used the real version of before, I end up dialing it in to sound as close to a Mark or 5150.
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The Fireball is possibly the closest amp from ENGL to the 5150, while you can get a Mark-like character with a Savage. In general, however, ENGL amps have a fundamentally different midrange character. Instead of the typical 5150 midrange honk (which you can either love or hate), it's the lower midrange frequencies from 500 Hz and below that are more emphasized.
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
I've been playing with the E530 for the last few days and I have to admit, I wish I'd bought it sooner. Playing with it somehow feels particularly fluid and easy, I can't quite describe it… the saturation is just somehow exceptionally satisfying. In terms of tightness, I could most likely manage without an additional overdrive, but I still prefer it with the good old Tube Screamer. However, I find the labeling of the EQ section as low and high mids somewhat misleading. While the low mids are set at approx. 500 Hz, the high mids simply correspond to the regular treble control of other amps. According to the instructions, the actual treble control, on the other hand, is intended to compensate for the possible lack of a presence control on some power amps. Anyway, fantastic device! ENGL have got it right.
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What’s your setup around the E530 like? Specifically power amp?

I don’t think I need it but having lo/hi gain switching and separate BMT knobs for the clean channel is enticing. How’s the clean channel in general?

Right now I’m mostly using my FB25 with headphones so a downsize to a preamp is more and more tempting. Wish Helix had passable power amp modeling!
 
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