New ENGL Steve Morse Signature 20 amp

[la szum]

It's not an amp for everybody, I totally get that!

I know one thing for sure, if they actually made an amp for everyone then everyone would hate it!

 

[FuzzyAce]

Cool. A lot of great 20 watt heads out there. Can you do a "My Top 10, 20watt head picks that You'll Disagree With." ?

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I posted this elsewhere after watching Michael Nielson's video. My opinion hasn't changed after watching other videos including Jon's.

As an owner of the 100 watt Steve Morse, this baby version sounds puny by comparison. I know 2 EL84's aren't going to match the fullness of a 100 watt quad of EL34's, but this sounds like a joke. It's even more of a disappointment when you think about the Fireball 100 vs 25. Those both use big bottle tubes and in the comparison videos I've watched the 25 holds up well against the 100. The baby Morse doesn't hold up to it's big brother IMO.

The biggest draw for the 100 watt Steve Morse is channel 3's mid-matrix. Controls for both low & hi mids and independent frequency shifts on both. Then add in global tone frequency shift and there's not much that cannel alone can't cover. The 20 watter doesn't even have low and hi mid controls, just a single mid knob. If ENGL really wanted to do a simplified low watt version of the Steve Morse, they should have built it off cannel 3. Keep the low & hi mid controls and maybe cut out the frequency shift part. Then use big bottles like the Fireball 25 instead of the puny EL84's.

I guess a positive would be it seems like it stacks up fine against other EL84 low watt lunch box amps. But at $1600 list price, that's not much of a positive to stand on. Going for an ENGL at that price point I'm going to go for the less expensive Fireball 25. Or put up a few hundred more and buy the 100 watt Fireball. Both of those sound better and more full to my ears.

Overall, swing and a miss by ENGL on this one.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I posted this elsewhere after watching Michael Nielson's video. My opinion hasn't changed after watching other videos including Jon's.

As an owner of the 100 watt Steve Morse, this baby version sounds puny by comparison. I know 2 EL84's aren't going to match the fullness of a 100 watt quad of EL34's, but this sounds like a joke. It's even more of a disappointment when you think about the Fireball 100 vs 25. Those both use big bottle tubes and in the comparison videos I've watched the 25 holds up well against the 100. The baby Morse doesn't hold up to it's big brother IMO.

The biggest draw for the 100 watt Steve Morse is channel 3's mid-matrix. Controls for both low & hi mids and independent frequency shifts on both. Then add in global tone frequency shift and there's not much that cannel alone can't cover. The 20 watter doesn't even have low and hi mid controls, just a single mid knob. If ENGL really wanted to do a simplified low watt version of the Steve Morse, they should have built it off cannel 3. Keep the low & hi mid controls and maybe cut out the frequency shift part. Then use big bottles like the Fireball 25 instead of the puny EL84's.

I guess a positive would be it seems like it stacks up fine against other EL84 low watt lunch box amps. But at $1600 list price, that's not much of a positive to stand on. Going for an ENGL at that price point I'm going to go for the less expensive Fireball 25. Or put up a few hundred more and buy the 100 watt Fireball. Both of those sound better and more full to my ears.

Overall, swing and a miss by ENGL on this one.

 

[ooglybong]

To me it sounds a bit too dark and smooth for my tastes, but I guess that works for Steve.

I'd totally agree... if this were most videos, but keep in mind that Steve tends to instinctively use his neck pickup as he goes higher up the neck, then he'll typically use his bridge pickup nearer at the bottom of the fretboard. Basically, he tends to play a LOT using the neck pickup, so that will inherently tend to come off sounding relatively "smooth", that being his preference. (Watching Steve constantly fiddle with his pickup selection and controls is a real challenge to try keeping track of. LOL. I use my controls a lot during my own playing, esp. volume, but his movements can seem a bit dizzying at times!)

But yeah. The amp does seem a wee bit darker than what I'd like to hear—in this video at least. But no way I'd ever find one around these parts to try, so it'd have to be an online purchase with a great return policy for me. But yes, I am quite interested.

 

[crustycabs]

What a badass amp. Wish I could afford it.

My ENGL Gigmaster 30 is pretty sweet. Gonna build a head cab for it, so I can just run it thru my "Magic"cab.

 

[banned]

Sounds fantastic in Michael Nielsen's video. I also like all the built-in features. Finally a delay, I wonder why it took so long. Always thought that a digital delay would add so much to an amp in making it a more complete grab-n-go package.

I wonder what it sounds like in person - multiple comments about it being very smooth. Obviously, I can't hear that through the videos because of the way the speaker is mic'd. People should do room mic demos as well.

 

[crustycabs]

I bet the footswitch for that puppy costs a few... Awful lot of features to control.