[Karl Hungus]

Ok, so my Petrucci should be here tomorrow, and I'm giddy as a little boy at Christmas eve. I'm kinda bored, so I'm going to write a thread fawning over something else. The GAS gland has gone into overdrive for some reason. And before, I had bad gas for a new amp. As awesome as the Fireball is, I felt my needs have outgrown the simple 2-channel and that I yearn for more tones! Well, I was seriously eyeing up a Mesa Roadster head there a while back, but that passed easily enough.

Anyway, I try not to pay too much attention to gas, because sometimes I think I really want something, and then never feel the want again. But when something keeps coming up again and again, then I realise I need to get it! And there's one amp that I've been gassing over more than anything. I've said before on a number of occassions that if I ever upgraded from my Fireball, it'd be this:



It's an ENGL E670 Special Edition head, and it is the greatest amp in the world.
(Ok, greatest is subjective, so don't say "That's just your opinion" because I think it's the greatest.)

I've actually made up my mind that it's something that I will get. After I sell some stuff, and pay of the Petrucci, I'm going to save up for one of these incredible amps. So probably this time next year, I'll get one. Then sell the Fireball to a friend of mine, and live happilly ever after in a beautiful cottage by the sea, with many kids. Amp kids. :p

What's so great about this you ask?

Well, first of all, you have to understand my mindset. Let me put it this way, a pet hate of mine is gear that costs silly amounts of money, yet does nothing special. Take for example, a Soldano SLO100; one of these would cost nearly e4000 to buy from Germany, but all it is really, is a simple 2-channel head. It might be handwired, but I don't really care about that, because to me, it has nothing going for it that would justify the cost. On the other hand, the Engl SE costs e3000 so it's still pretty god damn expensive, but unlike a lot of other things, I think the cost is completely justified because of the incredible features it has.



Intruiged yet? Imagine every cool, innovative amp feature you've seen, all rolled into one. Imagine an amp so technologically advanced, it has a sense of self-preservation. Think I'm joking about that one? It's got a very awesome feature that detects whether or not it's plugged into a speaker cabinet. That's right, if you're a doofus and forgot to connect up a cabinet before turning the SE on, it automatically turns itself onto standby mode. That's right! This amp won't let you accidentally blow it up! Neat, huh?

There's probably more features than any other amp on the market, and the kicker is, it's all midi switchable. It's as if Engl looked at John Petrucci's rig of doom, and thought "Lets put every feature that entire rig has into one amp!" and so they did. That sounds like an exaggeration, but I assure you, it's not. You can actually select different speaker cabinet outputs! That means that you can set up the SE with 2 different cabinets and route the signals via midi. The amp is also switchable from 100 watts to 50 watts output, which is also controlled via midi. What does all that mean in practical terms?

Imagine playing a tight, dry high-gain rythm tone at 50 watts through a closed back 4x12 loaded with V30's, and then at the press of a single footswitch, go to a pristene clean tone with reverb at 100 watts through an open back 2x12 loaded with C90's?

And that barely touches on the sheer wealth of tone-shaping options that are all switchable via midi. With the amount of high/low gain, mid boost, mid contour, depth punch, bright, ultra bright, reverb and so many other switches, you can completely change the characteristics of a single channel. Try and imagine the 3rd channel, set up for a nice high gain rythm tone. Then, at the press of a single button, that same 3rd channel gets a mid boost, volume boost, switches to low gain, maybe even switches wattage, and all of a sudden the very same channel you got a killer rythm tone from, you now have a creamy lead tone from! And that's just from one channel, imagine the possibilities when you've got 5-channels to work with!

Of course, all that versatility is only part of the reason I think the SE is the greatest amp in the world. The other part is quite simple. It sounds fucking amazing!!! Honestly, best sounding amp I've ever heard. The lead tones are astonishing! Right up there with the Mark IV, that's how awesome they are. So that's why the ENGL E670 Special Edition head is my dream amp.

It's just godly.

In my opinion, ENGL don't market this baby properly. People just aren't aware of how powerfull it is, what it's capable of, and just how many different tones it's possible to get from it. I'd say you'd probably need to spend well into the tens of thousands to build a rackmount rig that can do the things the Engl SE is capable of. It's freakin' scary how much this amp can do.

And it's also, without doubt, the coolest looking amp on the planet:



So yeah, there you have it.

That's what I believe is the best amp in the world. That's why I think it's well worth the money, and I'm damn well going to try my bestest to get one. My plan is to use the excellent Pod XT Live as a midi controller, aswell as running it through the FX loop for effects, and having all my amp features aswell as all my effects. That would be awesome, and simple as hell just having everything running through the one footcontroller. It would infact, be much neater than my current setup, which requires a seperate footswitch for my Fireball.

Then I would really have a rig of probable endangerment!



So yeah, thoughts?

[ajdehoogh]

Damn. Now you're feeding my GAS!

[Karl Hungus]

Originally Posted by ajdehoogh

Damn. Now you're feeding my GAS!

Haha! My suffering is inflicted upon others!

[Toshiro]

It's neat, but overkill for me personally. I'd like to play through one down the road.

The SLO I played through years ago made me drool enough for there to be a puddle on the floor, though.

[Marko]

hahaha this is what i was afraid of...

Just now, I'm so close to finally buying the Fireball (even though I still can't afford a cab ), and I'm thinking - could it be that when i get it, i'll gas for an even cooler amp?!?

[Karl Hungus]

Originally Posted by Toshiro

It's neat, but overkill for me personally. I'd like to play through one down the road.

Ah yeah, I mean, there's features on there that I doubt I'd really use, like the speaker output select, so yeah, it's probably overkill for me too, but the fact that it sounds awesome, and it's completely midi controllable is enough for me to want it desperately.

Originally Posted by Marko

hahaha this is what i was afraid of...

Just now, I'm so close to finally buying the Fireball (even though I still can't afford a cab ), and I'm thinking - could it be that when i get it, i'll gas for an even cooler amp?!?

To be honest with you, I don't think GAS ever goes away, so don't worry about it.

[Loserchief]

i already own two Engls and i've ordered an A/B/Y Box to run them in stereo through a 4x12 for each(8x12 Stereo Engls for ftw ), i'm not in danger of getting GAS. I admit the SE is a killer head but imo a little too expensive for me.

[Karl Hungus]

Originally Posted by Loserchief

i already own two Engls and i've ordered an A/B/Y Box to run them in stereo through a 4x12 for each(8x12 Stereo Engls for ftw ), i'm not in danger of getting GAS. I admit the SE is a killer head but imo a little too expensive for me.

Oooh, that sounds like a cool setup! Which two Engls?

[Loserchief]

My Powerball V2 and my Sovereign 100 Vintage combo(internal speaker disconnected and then into 4x12 with V30s). That way i can use the great cleans of the Sovereign switch between the Pball gain and the more savage-like sound of the boosted combo and lots of other stuff(8 channels). And of course running both amps on channel 4 and in stereo should be brutal.

[Karl Hungus]

Originally Posted by Loserchief

My Powerball V2 and my Sovereign 100 Vintage combo(internal speaker disconnected and then into 4x12 with V30s). That way i can use the great cleans of the Sovereign switch between the Pball gain and the more savage-like sound of the boosted combo and lots of other stuff(8 channels). And of course running both amps on channel 4 and in stereo should be brutal.

Fuck, that does sound brutal alright! I want to see pics of this rig of doom!

Although I do imagine that the 2 amps would be considerably more expensive than the SE head?