How good is the Engl thunder, I was looking into a cheaper amp head (well relativelly) By Engl to test out the sound and what not, does that have as much balls as the other Engls or is it utter gayness?

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uh oh.......I can hear Def around the corner

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Try it yourself

or ask xdislexicx, he knows all

or look here

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Great thread! I too have been looking at this one or maybe the Screamer 50 Combo. Then again you could get a Fireball and pair it with a 412 Avatar cab loaded with v30's. The possibilities are endless. I hear so many great things about engl. For those unable to hear or play an engl you can download soundbytes from Rocksolidamps.com.

It's pretty good for the money, if you want to hear sound bytes, check out www.rocksolidamps.com the owner of that website is on this forum too, seems like a friendly guy.

a friend of mine (Mr. Kwint on this forum) has the thunder combo and it was pretty badass, basic tube amp with killer distortion. (ofcourse not as versatile as the powerball, savage and blackmore..)

I played the top version too, through a mesa recto cab with an ltd viper loaded with emg 81's, it rocked. so I suggest you try it out for yourself!

ofcourse I'm slightly biased, beeing an two time engl owner

agreed, I would save up for a fireball too, because it has a bit more options and sounds a tad more agressive. Still, a screamer has more options then the thunder, but the overall sounds are the same (most people use only 2 channels anyway)

a Savage 60 is another option, but those aren't around outside europe I reckon (or super-rare) I have one of those too and it rocks. Not as much as my Powerball though

Powerballs are supposed to be the king of amps. I've never even seen one for sale.

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I've only seen them in a store a couple of times too. it still looks hot as fuck in my room

http://metaltabs.com/forum/attachme...tachmentid=3793

I'de say, in Engl's, the special edition is the only thing that owns it. shame its about 4000 bucks. completely midi and that sorta shit, but too expensive for me and I would be afraid taking it with me to gigs and shit. luckily I have good flightcases for my tops.

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haha, my other toys

http://metaltabs.com/forum/attachme...tachmentid=2889

and...

Ich bin der Engl meister

hahhah get your dicks out...

(that is not mine, FUUUUCKK!!!)

Attached Images

Powerball-stack_edit.jpg (83.5 KB, 200 views)

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holy shit thanks for that link def!! Im definitally getting an engl as my next head
hey def would you say the powerball sounds better with the engl cab or your marshall cab? if the engl cab is better is it a big difference?

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I know you asked for Def but anyway... I've tested the Powerball lots of times with a bunch of cabs (Bogner, 1960, Engl Standard with V60's) at my local store/importer and I must say Engl was supreme. Though it has V60's, so the Vintage cab with V30's could sound just a little better. But there wasn't a major difference, so I think you can just pick any cab you like. Although an Engl cab would look soooo cool... but it means $$$. You'll probably be fine with a 1960.

But I can hear Def's footsteps coming your way...

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oh for god's sake DO NOT use the terms "Engl" and "utter gayness" in the same sentence... Or Def, I, xdislexicx and a bunch of other germantube-junkies will personally crucify you... upside down!!!

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k, cause i already have a 1960 cab so i was just wondering if it would really be necessary to replace it

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nope, I think you'd be just fine...
but wait for Def, he knows better than I do!

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I ve played both the screamer and thunder combo's and they rocked. The cleans and distortion were literally to die for. At the moment i'm seein whether theres any savage 60's going around

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well in all the pics i have seen of his rig he has a marshall cab for it

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Good luck, if there's one you're really lucky. I got mine from ebay.de, they are on there every now and then and you might get lucky in the auction because they're not that well known (but the savage 60 is just a 60w version of the topmodel savage) it even has tube monitoring with leds in the back, recording outs with volume control and all that shit a fireball/screamer/thunder doesn't have. *theres one on ebay.de right now.

as for cabs, the Engl V30 are superior to the marshall 1960 cab IMO, just like mesa v30 cabs, or most other cabs with v30's. they just sound great.
The V60 cab Engl has is not really special, a marshall does the job just as good with a bit more low end and you can get them used.

I might get a Diezel or Engl v30 cab next year if I've got some money left (gonna be in august or something...)

nicest thing about having a marshall cab is that you can borrow other bands' cabs, since everybody uses marshall I can allways rip a 1960A cab and stack those fuckers up
On another note, most clubs or other gigs have marshall cabs, if you can't bring your own cab, you still have your 'own' sound. we're going on tour to germany with a van but we can't take all our cabs man, just the complete bassrig and one engl cab (of our other guitarist)

Hey Def, what do you think is a better head, your powerball or a dual/triple rec?? I want one or the other as my next head, probably by the end of next summer.

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it depends on what kinda tone you like. I went for the Powerball because I just loved its distortion more then the mesa. I've compared it to single/dual/triple recto's in a store and I went for the powerball.

ofcourse that's no guarantee for you, just try them out next to eachother. I don't know how much a powerball and a recto are over there, but they're about equally priced here.

i think someone else should answer that, you are biased def...very biased

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like I said, that's no guarantee for him. He has to try them out yourself.

You'de be biased too if you had played the powerball, haha!

i was actually more suprised at how honest his reply was... i was expecting more more anti mesa...

personally i think they're both fucking awesome...

one thing i fucking hate about mesa, as good as they can sound, it's ten times easier to make them sound shitty... they demand constant tinkering... one huge reason for why anybody would dislike a mesa is if they didn't have enough play time on one...

i suppose that's why i'm more into european and boutique crap, with alot of those amps you can just knock the knobs around at random and always get good tones, kinda like a tube marshall... just plug in and play...

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hey, you won't hear me knocking on mesa, they're great amps but I don't think they're the greatest, like all 15 year old slipknot fanboys

Mesa's need tweaking, thats for sure, if you try one, take your time or else you won't get a fair impression of it. My powerball isn't exactly plug and play either, it's still damn versatile, it's easy to find a 'good' tone, but it's hard to find 'your' tone, if you get what I'm saying.

Ofcourse, in price comparisson, the mesa and engl would be more fairly matched in america I reckon, over here everything that says mesa is terribly overpriced. Both amps go for high prices used too, they rarely change owner

Thanks guys, I'm looking for more throaty distortion, and I really dont care of the quality of the clean channel, as I will probably only use it for one or two songs. Both Recs and Powerballs go for like low 1000's in american$ so that i am not worried about. The fiddling of the knobs I dont mind either.

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the powerball is close to $2,000 i think rocksolidamps sells them for like $1,850(which is actually a decent price compared to some botique brands) plus shipping... the lowest i've seen a used one go for is like $1,400, and they're very uncommon used...

the dual recto(my favorite of the three) is only like 1,500-1,600 and i've seen them go as low as $800(in bad shape).

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I just realised that although we brits get ripped off big time on guitars we come out fairly well wen it comes to good amps like Engls, second hand marshall jcm's and laneys.

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