ENGL Special Edition: Founders Edition

[Whizzinby]

When you need all da knobs and switches.





Crunch channel sounds glorious.

Lead channels, ya know, ENGL

5.42 Stomps

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

 

[Life Eats Life]

Founder’s Convention Edition?
The “elderly statesmen edition”?
There’s waaay too much poop in that headshell man.
I gotta cool my jets here..however..
“I don’t like ENGL’s “Mr White”…

Learned a brutal lesson at the school of hard knocks with them things..
-speaking of school of hard knock’s,
-I’m either attending or graduating..

 

[Achilles]

I have a really big dislike of $2-3K+ amps that come with PCB mounted little plastic push buttons on the front/rear panels. I honestly stopped liking Marshalls once they started using them. There's no other way to justify them other than it's a labor/cost saver to panel mounted mini-switches. Having an obvious cost cutter so out front and visible on an amp just makes me wonder about what's going on under the hood. Stupid quirk but I've never gotten past it.

 

[DrewJD82]

Damn, I've never paid much attention to Engl's for some reason, but that thing is ridiculous. All those extra functions actually did something I'd find useful, I didn't hear many bad tones within all the tweakin in that vid. That Tube Driver is pretty cool, too.

 

[Mongillo19]

Damn, I've never paid much attention to Engl's for some reason, but that thing is ridiculous. All those extra functions actually did something I'd find useful, I didn't hear many bad tones within all the tweakin in that vid. That Tube Driver is pretty cool, too.

I just wish amps these days weren't $3500+. I feel like they are pricing themselves out of the market. But this does seem to have all the bells and whistles!

 

[GreatGreen]

Might be a bit of a nitpick here, but every time I see an SE, I always wish that all those buttons were "switchable" mini-knobs, not toggle buttons, so you could blend them into the signal instead of only being able to toggle them fully on or off. They all seem to change the sound in a very extreme and exaggerated way. If you could just blend a little bit of what they do into the signal, you might end up with more interesting tones.

That said, I have a 570 preamp and it does sound great. I never use any of the tone-altering switches though because I think the preamp sounds best with all of them off (with the exception of the Gain Boost switches at the input).

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I just wish amps these days weren't $3500+. I feel like they are pricing themselves out of the market. But this does seem to have all the bells and whistles!

kind of feel like the market is pricing amps up to that level. We’re sort of at a juncture where if you want something affordable, it’ll be built in the far east with budget in mind - cheaper quality components, faster and more economical assembly style.

For anything “flagship” I really doubt they are making them in big enough numbers to get the cost down any lower.

Despite obviously wanting everything to be affordable, I don’t mind where we’re at right now because 100W (or more) amps ARE a luxury, and there is basically something at every price point that is good and will fit your needs. I wish everyone was buying massive amps in huge numbers but that’s just not going to be the case ever again. It’s quite amazing that things are still made to the extent they are.

Sucks paying so much, but it is what it is. On the plus side there are so many affordable options that sound pretty indistinguishable and most of what the difference in price accounts for is build quality, aesthetics etc.

Not sure I’d include ENGL into high end build quality (it’s more “functional”) but that’s another discussion.

 

[Whizzinby]

I just wish amps these days weren't $3500+. I feel like they are pricing themselves out of the market. But this does seem to have all the bells and whistles!

Yeah I think my days are over spending $4k on an amp. I’m still in the “amp and cab is best” camp, but amps are rapidly becoming a luxury item with decreased value and utility in an increasingly digital landscape. I probably auto preorder this at 3/4 price, but even that’s getting hard(er) to justify.

kind of feel like the market is pricing amps up to that level. We’re sort of at a juncture where if you want something affordable, it’ll be built in the far east with budget in mind - cheaper quality components, faster and more economical assembly style.

For anything “flagship” I really doubt they are making them in big enough numbers to get the cost down any lower.

Despite obviously wanting everything to be affordable, I don’t mind where we’re at right now because 100W (or more) amps ARE a luxury, and there is basically something at every price point that is good and will fit your needs. I wish everyone was buying massive amps in huge numbers but that’s just not going to be the case ever again. It’s quite amazing that things are still made to the extent they are.

Sucks paying so much, but it is what it is. On the plus side there are so many affordable options that sound pretty indistinguishable and most of what the difference in price accounts for is build quality, aesthetics etc.

Not sure I’d include ENGL into high end build quality (it’s more “functional”) but that’s another discussion.

Yeah I don’t think amps are going to get any cheaper. More expensive to build, ship and the target market for these types of amps is probably shrinking.

 

[Mongillo19]

Yeah I think my days are over spending $4k on an amp. I’m still in the “amp and cab is best” camp, but amps are rapidly becoming a luxury item with decreased value and utility in an increasingly digital landscape. I probably auto preorder this at 3/4 price, but even that’s getting hard(er) to justify.

It's just been such a huge jump in a small amount of time. Even on the used market.

Back in my day (4 years ago) a dual rec could be had for $600 (here in the states) and 6505 for $400

 

[Whizzinby]

It's just been such a huge jump in a small amount of time. Even on the used market.

Back in my day (4 years ago) a dual rec could be had for $600 (here in the states) and 6505 for $400

Yeah, the pre and post Covid price jumps have been eye watering. I wish I would have subscribed to the “only buy, never sell” philosophy back then and just hoarded everything.

 

[Mongillo19]

Yeah, the pre and post Covid price jumps have been eye watering. I wish I would have subscribed to the “only buy, never sell” philosophy back then and just hoarded everything.

I really only made a haul on my Mark IV (wish in hindsight I'd still love to have). Bought it for $1300 and sold it for $2400.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Amazing, I want one



German amps are unfortunately priced in the US. New price in Germany is likely 25-50% less

 

[Whizzinby]

Amazing, I want one



German amps are unfortunately priced in the US. New price in Germany is likely 25-50% less

ENGL’s are actually pretty decently priced imo. I bought my Fireball 100 for $1,700 and the Powerball and Savage are $2,500 and $3,000 respectively. Most of their artist editions are around $2,100-300. This Special Edition is the first to shoot up into the stratosphere.

 

[Achilles]

Special Edition

Those two words are good for an extra $1K all by themselves.

 

[spawnofthesith]

ENGL’s are actually pretty decently priced imo. I bought my Fireball 100 for $1,700 and the Powerball and Savage are $2,500 and $3,000 respectively. Most of their artist editions are around $2,100-300. This Special Edition is the first to shoot up into the stratosphere.

IIRC the original SE was retailing for $3500-4k 15 years ago, so in that regard they've held up pretty good combating inflation with this price too lol


I paid $400 (used) for my Thunder, and only $1600 for the steve morse I used to have (MF scratch n dent, I couldn't find any scratches or dents on it tho) so don't have any complaints

 

[la szum]

I just wish amps these days weren't $3500+. I feel like they are pricing themselves out of the market. But this does seem to have all the bells and whistles!

Pretty sure they'll inevitably become a luxury item at some point. Might take 20 or 30 years, but
eventually they may turn into Victrolas.

 

[la szum]

Yeah, the pre and post Covid price jumps have been eye watering. I wish I would have subscribed to the “only buy, never sell” philosophy back then and just hoarded everything.

No kidding! But then again, we wouldn't have been able to try so many different flavours.

 

[la szum]

Go buy yourselves a Mark V already people. I am telling you. $1750-$2000 all day long, and it
won't last. One of the best deals on the tube amp market right now. But these days are fleeting!

 

[Mongillo19]

Go buy yourselves a Mark V already people. I am telling you. $1750-$2000 all day long, and it
won't last. One of the best deals on the tube amp market right now. But these days are fleeting!

Do you still have your MKV?