Ok guys, thanks to everyone for their help. I've just scored an Engl Thunder Reverb Combo on ebay for £350 w/Z4 footswitch. I hope I've done the right thing (I would have prefered the head but probably just for aesthetic reasons). Couple of q's. Its second hand so it may need the Power Valves replacing in the near future (2x5881) any recommendations to maintain the tone and clean/distorted balance? Engl's own valves are too expensive methinks and the only review I've got of the relative brands doesn't really go into high-gain territory, plus its difficult navigating between a decent clean tone (and one that doesn't break up too soon) and maintaining the heavy-ass saturation needed for the chuggy stuff. I've also ordered a Framus V30 2x12 cab for gigs. The Combo has 4 outputs on the back 2x8ohm and 2x16ohm, how do I configure the combo and cab so that they both work i.e. 3 speakers simulataneously powered. The Cab is 8ohms btw. Lastly any recommendations for pedals to go with this, I guess I still have some Gas (and Cash) left over!

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SED winged C's and JJ's are the King Shit of Fuck mountain for 5881s, so either of those would be great.

Well just run one of the 8 ohm outputs on the thunder into your Framus cab(which I own btw, it kills!).

I would've bought the head if you're just gonna power a cab with it... A good idea would be to stack it vertically, installing the rubber feet on one side like a vertical 2x12, and swapping the Framus logo horizontally if you want.

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Sounds pretty sweet dude, get some soundclips up when you get the cab! ive never heard an engl thunder combo being played

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I'm hoping it should sound pretty awesome as in theory its more versatile. The combo is open-backed and I'm planning on running it on top of the cab so I should get a nice spread of sound. Either that or I could always use it as a monitor (for playing gigs with no PA or small PA only for vocals) and the cab away from it etc. Thanks for the tube advice I'm 99% sure I'll go for JJ's as thats what I had in mind anyway. I'll post some clips once my band records our first EP after Easter.

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www.rocksolidamps.com

The amp sounds way better in real life to those clips, considering it was only a little 1x12 it has awesome presence and balls. It really filled the room way better than my JCM900 ever did.

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