All Things ENGL!

Mongillo19 said:
Someone talk me out of selling my FB100. It just doesn't get the love it deserves between the 6505 and Recto.

I also find it to have a very scooped sound and gets lost in the mix very easily.
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I can see the overlap between those two amps. How do you usually run treble and presence? With my 25 I mix it up a bit with either one or the other lower/higher if you get what I mean. Then dial in the mids as needed.

Give the amp another chance I would say!
 
Mongillo19 said:
Yeah I knew it was going to sound silly when I typed it out šŸ˜‚

Idk what it is about the FB but yeah idk it just sounds thin to me. I should probably look up some settings.
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I didn't jive with the Fireball either. For what it's worth.

I could not get one sound out of it I liked. :idk
 
The Fireball isnā€˜t my favourite amp either - not because of lacking mids but because I find the low mids somehow bloated and the low end a little bit too woofy and compressed. Thatā€˜s why I prefer the Artist Edition. It is less compressed, punchier and doesnā€˜t have that low mid bloat. In fact itā€˜s a quite scooped (but in a good way) little Thrash machine. :D
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
The Fireball isnā€˜t my favourite amp either - not because of lacking mids but because I find the low mids somehow bloated and the low end a little bit too woofy and compressed. Thatā€˜s why I prefer the Artist Edition. It is less compressed, punchier and doesnā€˜t have that low mid bloat. In fact itā€˜s a quite scooped (but in a good way) little Thrash machine. :D
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Ah yeah, Iā€™ve gotten so used to my always-on EQ in the loop but I can see what you mean. When I turn off the EQ and the freqs I cut out comes back itā€™s definitely low mids woofy. Probably one of the best gear purchases Iā€™ve made, an Ibanez Pentatone EQ which is fair priced and has five adjustable bands with Q-dials. I found the worst sounding frequency spaces and just toned them down a bit. Made a huge difference.
 
Mongillo19 said:
Yeah I knew it was going to sound silly when I typed it out šŸ˜‚

Idk what it is about the FB but yeah idk it just sounds thin to me. I should probably look up some settings.
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In my experience the trick with the Fireball is to dial back the bass to clear up the low mids and turn up the mids and treble. When I had a Fireball these settings worked best for me: Bass 2-3, Middle 6,5-7, Treble 6,5-7, turn the Mid Boost off (you donā€˜t want that boxy 400 Hz boost) and be careful with the Presence. Try these settings before selling the amp.
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
This video provides an excellent comparison between the Fireball and the Artist Edition.

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From the video itā€™s really easy to like the Artist more than the Fireball. Gotta make those low mids work for you or cut them out!

Would be nice if Engl made a 50W amp with clean, crunch and then two lead channels like the Founders Edition. Seems like a missed opportunity that the Savage MK2ā€™s have crunch 1 and 2 instead of double lead channels, thinking of the main clientele.
 
Fireball has a lot of bass and gain, I use it with v30 loaded 2x12 engl cab for less boomy, more focused sound. I barely touch things except the volume:

1000022398.jpg

(Bottom, mid boost: off)
Boosting it with maxon od808.

I find tb5 (custom)(6 strings, standard tuning) is very suitable with these settings, medium output gives the dynamic feeling you need, less compressed. When I play with JB pup or with 4x12 I get help from 10 band eq pedal otherwise I hear what @TheTrueZoltan! complains. Some people love that though. 2x12 engl cab handles the bass very well, od808 tightens more, many say you dont need to boost fireball but I dont boost for the gain but low cut.

Artist edition is old school while fireball is much more modern (low tuning, death metal stuff). Different beasts for different purposes, best would be having both lol.
 
So, here are my first impressions after one day. The sound of the amp is exactly as I remembered it - extremely clear and tidy, with a very punchy bass. Much leaner in the low mids and also a little drier than other ENGL models, with a slightly British edge in the upper mids. In combination with the usual Tube Screamer, there is no better amp for Thrash in my opinion.

When I switched it on for the first time, I was unpleasantly surprised to hear a clearly audible transformer hum, which I had never heard from ENGL amps before. Quite annoying because I sit right next to the amp in my home studio. I was worried that it would annoy me so much that I would have to send it back. Today I opened it up, tightened the screws on the output transformer a little, then measured the idle current - and lo and behold - it was set far too high at the factory, at more than 80%. I then set the bias to the usual 70% and after reassembling the amp I noticed that the humming of the transformer had been reduced to a barely audible level. Phew!
 
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Progressive_disclosure said:
From the video itā€™s really easy to like the Artist more than the Fireball. Gotta make those low mids work for you or cut them out!

Would be nice if Engl made a 50W amp with clean, crunch and then two lead channels like the Founders Edition. Seems like a missed opportunity that the Savage MK2ā€™s have crunch 1 and 2 instead of double lead channels, thinking of the main clientele.
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Crunch 2 has plenty of gain on my Savage and could be used for a lead without issue ĀÆ\_(惄)_/ĀÆ
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
So, here are my first impressions after one day. The sound of the amp is exactly as I remembered it - extremely clear and tidy, with a very punchy bass. Much leaner in the low mids and also a little drier than other ENGL models, with a slightly British edge in the upper mids. In combination with the usual Tube Screamer, there is no better amp for Thrash in my opinion.

When I switched it on for the first time, I was unpleasantly surprised to hear a clearly audible transformer hum, which I had never heard from ENGL amps before. Quite annoying because I sit right next to the amp in my home studio. I was worried that it would annoy me so much that I would have to send it back. Today I opened it up, tightened the screws on the output transformer a little, then measured the idle current - and lo and behold - it was set far too high at the factory, at more than 80%. I then set the bias to the usual 70% and after reassembling the amp I noticed that the humming of the transformer had been reduced to a barely audible level. Phew!
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80% holy crap! My hunch those tubes would not have lasted that long had
you not caught that. I am guessing it is brand new? :idk
 
MirrorProfiles said:
Fired up my NAM models of the E530 today, and also jammed on the Mercuriall version just to remind myself what the knobs do. Killer sounding, more fun than I remember
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Cool. Does it have the split Lo-Mid/Hi Mid controls?

I think I am smitten with those on my E530 and am shocked it is not
more of a widespread thing. Not even Engl has those on all of their
Amps.

It's just utterly brilliant for dialing in the perfect Spectrum of Midrange. :chef
 
la szum said:
Cool. Does it have the split Lo-Mid/Hi Mid controls?

I think I am smitten with those on my E530 and am shocked it is not
more of a widespread thing. Not even Engl has those on all of their
Amps.

It's just utterly brilliant for dialing in the perfect Spectrum of Midrange. :chef
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Yeah, itā€™s definitely one of the better ā€œtoneā€ buttons. Although I still basically leave it how I like. I do quite like having a low mids and high mids control though.
 
la szum said:
Cool. Does it have the split Lo-Mid/Hi Mid controls?

I think I am smitten with those on my E530 and am shocked it is not
more of a widespread thing. Not even Engl has those on all of their
Amps.

It's just utterly brilliant for dialing in the perfect Spectrum of Midrange. :chef
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The Lo- and Hi-Mid controls on the E530 are actually not what you think they are. RTFM. ;)
TheTrueZoltan! said:
[ā€¦] 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. [ā€¦]
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