# ENGL Releases 15W 'Gigmaster' Tube Heads/Combos



## zimbloth (Jun 1, 2010)

Apologies if this is old news, but I just found out today that ENGL is about to release the GigMaster head (E315), combo (E310) and cabinet (GigBox 110) later this month. It looks pretty cool, sweet features, but of course time will tell if it delivers the goods tonally. Thought you guys might want to know.

I've been looking for something like this for a long time. I love my Mesa Studio 22 combo but would love something more modern and tight. I know Krank came out with something like this, but it wasn't for me. Hopefully this one fairs better!

It has EL84 power tubes and 12AX7s in the pre and can be switched between 15, 5, 1, or even 0 watts. Two channels and mid boost (all foot-switchable), fx loop, line out, speaker cab outs, etc. The combo comes with a 10" Celestion speaker. 

There's apparently a YouTube video on engl-amps.com demoing it, but as always I'd take clips with a grain of salt


----------



## Deathbringer769 (Jun 1, 2010)

Pretty good demo of it, sounds big in this clip.


----------



## sevenstringgod (Jun 1, 2010)

Those are pretty cool man, so which are these intented to compete with?


----------



## zimbloth (Jun 1, 2010)

sevenstringgod said:


> Those are pretty cool man, so which are these intented to compete with?



I don't know what its competing with necessarily. I just think it's trying to appeal to those looking for that ENGL tube tone at low volumes and low dollars. There's very few (if any) small tube combos on the market that are ideal for metal in my opinion. As for how good it sounds, time will tell of course. When I get some in I'll let you know what I think.


----------



## potatohead (Jun 1, 2010)

I am in the market for one of these little 5 - 15 watters, but I am having trouble pulling the trigger because I know there are going to be so many more coming down the pipe.

Edit - Good Lord, show us a demo with some humbuckers at least


----------



## zimbloth (Jun 1, 2010)

potatohead said:


> I am in the market for one of these little 5 - 15 watters, but I am having trouble pulling the trigger because I know there are going to be so many more coming down the pipe.



Well try one and see if you like it. That's the only way to know. When the first batch comes in I'll run some tests and see if I can compare it to any of their full-power heads so people can get a good idea. That would help since if you're like me, I love certain ENGLs and don't like certain others. 

If it resembles the Fireball 100, Powerball II, or Invader at all I'll be happy.


----------



## youheardme (Jun 1, 2010)

Any idea on the price range on these things?


----------



## guitarguru777 (Jun 1, 2010)

My only concern is the 10" speaker. Not gonna move much air and sound very metal imho.

The clip sounds good but he really didnt go full on metal. It also looks like hes cheating a bit as there is an ENGL 1x12 cab underneath the 10"


----------



## guitarguru777 (Jun 1, 2010)

Also depending on the tone you are looking for the new 6505+ combo is a steal at $500


----------



## splinter8451 (Jun 1, 2010)

Damn that thing sounds pretty good in the video. That guy and his strat have "MAXIMUM TWAAANG". 

Any ideas on price range? Hopefully it will be priced to compete with the Blackstar Ht-5 and Marshall Haze.

meaning I MIGHT be able to afford one some time XD


----------



## Duke318 (Jun 1, 2010)

Sounds amazing in the clip on the clean channel, but if its another classic rock voiced mini-head I couldn't care less...


----------



## zimbloth (Jun 1, 2010)

guitarguru777 said:


> My only concern is the 10" speaker. Not gonna move much air and sound very metal imho.
> 
> The clip sounds good but he really didnt go full on metal. It also looks like hes cheating a bit as there is an ENGL 1x12 cab underneath the 10"



That's a reasonable concern, we shall see. I don't think someone should buy the 1x10 combo thinking it's going to sound like a 4x12 though. If this amp delivers the goods, to me that just means it will have a great tone for practicing, recording, or playing small clubs. I wouldn't expect it to put out thunderous bass, nor would I really even want it to. You never know though, we'll see when they start shipping. ENGL has been full of pleasant surprises lately (to me anyway).

We shall see. 



youheardme said:


> Any idea on the price range on these things?



$749 for the head, $849 for the combo, $299 for the extension cab.



Duke318 said:


> Sounds amazing in the clip on the clean channel, but if its another classic rock voiced mini-head I couldn't care less...



Yeah, I seriously doubt it can't do mega high-gain, but I'll see when they come in. I'll post some vids of my own.


----------



## splinter8451 (Jun 1, 2010)

zimbloth said:


> $749 for the head, $849 for the combo, $299 for the extension cab.



Geez o shits. I shoulda figured


----------



## Duke318 (Jun 1, 2010)

Yeah. Just from what I've seen, EL84 based amps aren't the best for modern metal tones. $750 just for the head is a bit steep for me, but hey, it's an ENGL. For $750 I'd rather just get a used 6505+.


----------



## zimbloth (Jun 1, 2010)

splinter8451 said:


> Geez o shits. I shoulda figured





Look at similar products. The Mesa Express 25W combo which I think sounds like ass is $1300. The Marshall DSL combo is around $900. Isn't it reasonable to assume the ENGL would smoke either of those in the metal department? And it's cheaper than both of those?



Duke318 said:


> Yeah. Just from what I've seen, EL84 based amps aren't the best for modern metal tones. $750 just for the head is a bit steep for me, but hey, it's an ENGL. For $750 I'd rather just get a used 6505+.



My 1980's Mesa combo has EL84s and along with a Tube Screamer sounds great for modern metal tones. It would be best to reserve judgment here. It could sound awesome, or it could not. Either way it's silly to compare it to a 6505+. It's not supposed to compete with 100W heads. It's a 1-15W head/combo.


----------



## splinter8451 (Jun 1, 2010)

zimbloth said:


> Look at similar products. The Mesa Express 25W combo which I think sounds like ass is $1300. The Marshall DSL combo is around $900. Isn't it reasonable to assume the ENGL would smoke either of those in the metal department? And it's cheaper than both of those?



Yes, the Mesa Express amps are ass. And I don't like Marshalls. I figured these would be like _"cheap" _ENGLs for the bedroom dweller. And by cheap I was hoping for about 150-200 less then the prices you said. For those prices I would rather just use a modeler for my bedroom practices and save up a few hundred more for a nice used high gain head  

Already mentioned in this thread was the new Peavey 6505+ 112 combo which is like 500 for a 60 watt high gain amp. And also the Blackstar Ht-5 which is not ALL tube but it sounds damn good and is 400 for the head and 500 for the 1x10 combo. 

Im not trying to start a debate in your thread about the price or anything, I just wanted to give you my reasoning. 

Now, I will say, once these start going for sale used I might look into one  cause I am sure they are going to kick ass.


----------



## guitarguru777 (Jun 1, 2010)

Ya i hear ya there, for "modern metal" your hard pressed to beat $500 for a 6505+ combo. The blackstar I didnt realize it was so cheap. Ill have to look into that.

Of course if the ENGL sound is what you are after then the 6505 isnt gonna cut it


----------



## zimbloth (Jun 1, 2010)

Yeah it's all a matter of taste and having reasonable expectations. I personally use ENGLs live and would love a somewhat similar sounding combo to practice with at home. I wouldn't expect it to compete with the Invader 100 or Fireball 100. 

Another factor is speakers. I hope the speaker in this ENGL is decent. I can tell you the speakers in the 6505 combo I owned were garbage, to my ears anyway. I had the 2x12 not too long ago and couldn't return it fast enough. Fizzy and muddy, very poor definition. Stock tubes could have played a part in that but the Sheffields or whatever they use had to be the main culprit.


----------



## potatohead (Jun 1, 2010)

ENGL (or any other higher end brand) aren't going to build something and sell it for $300. They would rename it even if they wanted to, like Soldano did with the Jet City brand. Look at the Mesa TA, that thing is about $900 also.


----------



## splinter8451 (Jun 1, 2010)

potatohead said:


> ENGL (or any other higher end brand) aren't going to build something and sell it for $300. They would rename it even if they wanted to, like Soldano did with the Jet City brand. Look at the Mesa TA, that thing is about $900 also.



Well I was hoping for around $600... they allowed to keep the name at that price point?  

And yeah from what I have heard the 6505+ 112 does not have the greatest speaker in it either. 

I am looking forward to clipz and vidz from you once you receive one of these Zimbloth!


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 5, 2010)

splinter8451 said:


> I am looking forward to clipz and vidz from you once you receive one of these Zimbloth!



Will do man. I'm getting some of these in this week, so stay tuned as I'll be making some clips/vids/reviews. Hopefully it's cool!


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 15, 2010)

Heads up, I've been getting these in and I posting some first impressions on my Facebook/sites that I can share here. The GigMaster definitely most resembles the Powerball II in terms of its pre-amp voicing. It's got a ton of gain, very tight but thick low-end, and plenty of attack. It has a smooth lead character to it as well. The cleans are nice but not amazing. A reverb or chorus in the loop definitely helps matters. It can get _very _loud but sounds great at lower volumes too thanks to the power soak options. 

The built-in speaker on the combo versions sounds good, with excellent low-end response (I was playing a PRS Mushok baritone tuned to Ab standard through it the other day and it sounded killer!). I wouldn't say the speaker is _great_ by any means, but what would you expect from a 1x10? It's great for a small combo however, but the best results will come from pairing this up with an extension cabinet (a quality 2x12 would be ideal, but even a 1x12 with a good speaker would do wonders).

Here are some actual pics I took. I have both the heads and combos available:


----------



## SargeantVomit (Jul 15, 2010)

I think it's aimed at the crowd who want a lightweight/portable rig for more manageable transportation to rehearsals and gigs. You can carry this with one hand and your guitar in the other which is a huge step as far as guitar gear goes. 

Sorta the same thing Genz Benz is doing for portable bass rigs. 
Shuttle Series | GENZ BENZ


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 15, 2010)

SargeantVomit said:


> I think it's aimed at the crowd who want a lightweight/portable rig for more manageable transportation to rehearsals and gigs. You can carry this with one hand and your guitar in the other which is a huge step as far as guitar gear goes.
> 
> Sorta the same thing Genz Benz is doing for portable bass rigs.
> Shuttle Series | GENZ BENZ



Yeah, it's definitely loud enough to gig with, but to me it's most valuable as a practice/recording amp. It's hard to find all-tube 1-15W amps that actually sound good for modern metal applications. This definitely fills that niche. The most important thing for an ENGL fan is that the Gigmaster sounds like an ENGL. For those who have heard the new Powerball II with its improved midrange voicing, this one is very similar but just in a smaller package. I wouldn't be surprised if the preamp wasn't taken right out from that.


----------



## LorenzoD (Jul 15, 2010)

Wow. From what I watched in the video, it sounds KILLER. Definitely would be a top-notch home amp for sure.


----------



## brodjentle (Jul 16, 2010)

damn I am now in the market for one of these or atleast to try and play one and you guys forgot the mesa boogie subway rocket reverb it's [email protected] watts el84s and that thing tore it up I'm not even kidding I didn't need a tubescreamer just plug in and play and it was pretty damn brootal I loved it it was great at bedroom levels but then I had to sell it cuz I needed the money... But definitely wanna play this little beast


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 16, 2010)

brodjentle said:


> damn I am now in the market for one of these or atleast to try and play one and you guys forgot the mesa boogie subway rocket reverb it's [email protected] watts el84s and that thing tore it up I'm not even kidding I didn't need a tubescreamer just plug in and play and it was pretty damn brootal I loved it it was great at bedroom levels but then I had to sell it cuz I needed the money... But definitely wanna play this little beast



Yeah older Mesa combos definitely were awesome. In terms of current production model stuff however, not a big fan (the Express, etc).


----------



## Valserp (Jul 17, 2010)

OK, I don't get it - how is it all-tube, when it only has 1 tube in the pre-? The gain section must be built with a bunch of solidstate components to deliver the clipping, no?


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 17, 2010)

Valserp said:


> OK, I don't get it - how is it all-tube, when it only has 1 tube in the pre-? The gain section must be built with a bunch of solidstate components to deliver the clipping, no?



I don't know, I have not researched the amp just demo'd it at my shop briefly. It's a really cool amp, and to the best of my knowledge it's all tube, but who knows. Perhaps ENGL tech support could answer that question definitively for you.


----------



## Valserp (Jul 17, 2010)

I'm pretty sure it's cool - I'm gassin' for one, as it is the answer to almost all my needs. I just don't like it when manufacturers call something "all tube" when it is packed with diodes and transistors to deliver the extra punch.

Not a deal-breaker, I would think, especially if it sounds like you say it does. But sometimes they try too hard to appeal to the broke-snobs(the ones who THINK they want all-tube but have never owned one  )


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 18, 2010)

Valserp said:


> I'm pretty sure it's cool - I'm gassin' for one, as it is the answer to almost all my needs. I just don't like it when manufacturers call something "all tube" when it is packed with diodes and transistors to deliver the extra punch.
> 
> Not a deal-breaker, I would think, especially if it sounds like you say it does. But sometimes they try too hard to appeal to the broke-snobs(the ones who THINK they want all-tube but have never owned one  )



Well it definitely sounds like a tube amp at least. It's definitely not as good as one of their full powered 100W heads, but it's really sweet for lower/moderate volume applications. Whether or not people will love its tone is of course up to taste


----------



## highlordmugfug (Jul 18, 2010)

Do you have any clips or vids made, zimbloth (aka guy who owns Axepalace whose name escapes me )?


----------



## Deadseen (Jul 18, 2010)

How does it compare to orange tiny terror ?


----------



## Caparijackson (Jul 18, 2010)

Thanx for your pix Zimbloth, can you post some more, perhaps the rear of the combo and pix of the head version as well???

Cheers~~~~~!


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 18, 2010)

highlordmugfug said:


> Do you have any clips or vids made, zimbloth (aka guy who owns Axepalace whose name escapes me )?



My name is Nick  No clips/vids yet. I'll get some up eventually, but as most people who know me know, I'm sort of an 'anti-clip' guy. Amateur recordings are such a crapshoot and 99.9% of what you see on YouTube are inaccurate/unflattering. If I can make clips that represent faithfully how it sounds in real life I'll be sure to post some 



Deadseen said:


> How does it compare to orange tiny terror ?



The Tiny Terror is more of a vintage, sweet sounding amp. The GigMaster has a clean channel but it's main focus is high gain rock and metal tones. The GM also has far more controls/options on board. The GM is made in Germany, I believe the Tiny Terror is made in China now. 

The Tiny Terror would definitely be the better option for blues, classic rock type stuff. For more modern, heavier tones the ENGL is the way to go. 



Caparijackson said:


> Thanx for your pix Zimbloth, can you post some more, perhaps the rear of the combo and pix of the head version as well???
> 
> Cheers~~~~~!



There are more pics on axepalace.com


----------



## groph (Jul 18, 2010)

Yeah, I think I heard of these things before but haven't seen pics, so now I have.

I don't really care for ENGL tones very much, at least not on record. Never tried one in person or heard one live so it could be a very different story. I've always liked those little EL-84 amps though, they seem to have a wonderful "squishiness" to the feel, I guess that's the power amp working hard, doing it's job.

If these things aren't going to be $900 I'd be interested.

EDIT: I've done metal out of a Tiny Terror with no boost, so I'm of the opinion that it's perfectly fine for metal. This ENGL is probably better optimized for metal, though.


----------



## cardinal (Jul 18, 2010)

Somewhat silly question, but can you plug headphones directly into the line out?

EDIT: Actually, I'm really interested in how the line out and the power soak interact. When the power soak is turned all the way to the right, it says "Speaker off" and underneath, it says "Important note: the Power Soak only affects the 8 Ohms Poweramp Output!"

So, when the power soak is in the "speaker off" position, is the power section loaded down (like a hotplate set on "load"), or is it like some other mini-heads where the power section is just disabled? If the power section is loaded down, does the line out follow the power section? In other words, does this thing have a built in Palmer-PDI-03-type load box/direct out that lets you crank up the power section for silent recording via the direct out?


Did that make any sense? If this can do what I hope it can do, the price is more than justified.


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 18, 2010)

cardinal said:


> Somewhat silly question, but can you plug headphones directly into the line out?



Yes I believe so 



groph said:


> Yeah, I think I heard of these things before but haven't seen pics, so now I have.
> 
> I don't really care for ENGL tones very much, at least not on record. Never tried one in person or heard one live so it could be a very different story. I've always liked those little EL-84 amps though, they seem to have a wonderful "squishiness" to the feel, I guess that's the power amp working hard, doing it's job.
> 
> If these things aren't going to be $900 I'd be interested.



Yeah ENGL has a ton of different models with different voicings so you can't lump them all together. You'd have to try one to really know.

As for the price, it is what it is. Not $900 though. The head is $750 and the combo $850.


----------



## cardinal (Jul 18, 2010)

zimbloth said:


> Yes I believe so



Cool, any idea about the power soak feature? (I ninja edited my post after you saw it, sorry about that).


----------



## All_¥our_Bass (Jul 18, 2010)

ENGL Practice amp?

Count me in.


----------



## All_¥our_Bass (Jul 18, 2010)

ENGL Practice amp?

Count me in.


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 18, 2010)

cardinal said:


> Cool, any idea about the power soak feature? (I ninja edited my post after you saw it, sorry about that).



What about the power soak feature? You can run it in 15W, 5W, 1W, or 0W. There's a knob on the back of the amp which controls this. I think the amp sounds best for jamming at home at 5W. 15W is pretty loud and would be the best if playing with a band. 1W is cool too if you wanna get a lot of power tube saturation. 0W would be if you were using the line out to record or use headphones.


----------



## cardinal (Jul 18, 2010)

I'm curious if the line out is before or after the power section. In many amps with built-in direct outs/emulators, the line out is only the signal from the preamp. With something like a Hotplate or a PDI-03, I think you can run a line-level signal from the amp to a d/i box/mixer and the signal includes the power section, too. I'm just curious which way the Gigmaster works.

Either way, it certainly looks cool.


----------



## Enselmis (Jul 19, 2010)

Mesa express is ass? Iunno where you've been..






(I haven't been able to make one sound good either, but this proves it's possible!!)


----------



## zimbloth (Jul 19, 2010)

Enselmis said:


> Mesa express is ass? Iunno where you've been..
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Where have I been? To GC on several occasions where I demo'd that amp, and I thought it sounded like shit. I don't think clips prove anything really. With studio skills anything is possible. I trust my ears  I am a big fan of certain Mesas, I own one myself actually, but the Express IMO is easily my least favorite Mesa ever.


----------

