Engl Ritchie Blackmore Signature

I guess my amp is one of the early series (maby in 1998), it has black plastic corners (instead of chrome corners now). And it lacks the new multi-access footboard jack.
Features: 4 channels, better: gain stages, 3 band -EQ with presence knob for the two Lead modes and bright switch for clean/crunch. two switchable MV's, parallel FX loop, TRUE alltube design. 100W , 4x 5881, 4x ECC 83
All in all not plenty of features, I don't use the FX loop, although it functions very well, but versatile enough without a messy front panel, very nice looking (http://www.engl-amps.com/engl-amps/gear/pics/e650_big.jpg)
only thing what I'd like to have is a speaker-emulating rec. line out

I play a SG and a Flying V (both with Gibson P490 R/T PU's) and a few stomp boxes before the amp. It's a very modern sounding Amp with its own character. It seems to unite Marshall and Rectifier characteristics in its distortion sounds. Very suitable for the style of music I'm playing (softer melodic new metal x-over with samples&loops, check out www.unlearn.de :-))). Crunch Mode is a bit disharmonic and harsh - thats why I give it a 9. VERY loud, very versatile, inspite of its limited adjustment possibilities. nice, honest Clean Sounds. Distortion sounds are honestly, too, although with tons of sustain.

Had to fix an input jack because I misused my guitar cable's plug as a lever...;-))) I've had it opened - very well-built, although I think it is difficult to disassemble in case of a breakdown e.g. ...

I kicked off a potentiometer, as the amp stood on the floor. No problem: they sent me a new pot - for free !! Although it was my fault !! Plus: I had several questions concerning ENGL amps, cabinets and their specs - the ampdesigner himself answered, always helpful and interested.

I give it a 10, because it delivers first quality tube sounds, suitable for many styles, at a reasonable price. No real minus, well built, killer optic, after 5 years of Marshalls now the Amp that beats all I've heard before. BTW: I've compared it to Trace Elliot Speed Twin, Crate Blue Voodoo, Laney VH100R, Marshall DSL 50, Dual Rectifier: The ENGL was my personal winner of all !!

Based on the Savage-line, but less controlls. Nine knobs: Clean(Gain), Lead (Gain), Bass, Middle, Treble, Lead presence, Lead Volume, Mastervolume A, Mastervolume B. Four switches: Bright, Contour, Hi/Lo Gain, Clean/Lead channel. Input jack, powerswitch, standbyswitch. On the back there is a FX-Loop with balance control (par -> ser, 0-100%), output jacks 2x4, 2x8, 1x16 Ohms, 2x dual footswitch jacks. The Hi/Lo, Clean/Lead, VolA/B and Contour controls are switchable with a optionally footcontroller. This monster is a tube top with 4 channels (well actually it's a 2 channel top with nearly 4 channel flexibility). The preamp works with 3 ECC83 triods, the 100W poweramp with one ECC83 and four 5581 pentods. Pretty cool design, black leathercover with metallic front and the unique ENGL-lattice-front. The knobs are chickenhead shaped. Man, this thing looks like terminator meets vintage (just the design the sound is all but not vintage). Unforunatley the red glow inside the amp (like the Savagemodels have) is only available with the 120W model. But who needs it. The reason I only give a 9 is that you can't switch the FX-loop with the footcontroller. The "Contour" footswitchability is not very useful, a switchable FX-loop makes defenetly more sense. That's why I only give a 9.

Wow, best Amp ever played (except the Mese/Boogie Rectifier). The sound is amazing. In the clean channel you get really clean tone, I mean REALLY CLEAN. Not this Marshall-pseudoclean. With passive pickups the clean tone is stable over the 12 o'clock position, after that is slight crunchy. The Bright-switch is very useful, nomen est omen. Hey the EQ is great, very wide range of sounds, the tone changes very audible when you move this knobs. Even one step more or less produces an new sound. The Contour-switch changes the sound your strat will be a Paula. I don't like it too much, 'caus I don't like the sound of a Paula. But I'm sure blues players will. With the Clean channel + Hi-Gain function you can produce a very crunchy sound. But now the Lead section: it kicks ass. The Gain reserves are incredible, but a bit too noisy for palm muted "chungachunga" sound at the upper levels. Don't turn the knob over 3 o'clock, or you have to scoope the highs. I play most heavy metal, and unsing the Lead channel for lead purposes, for this palm-muted riff sound I use a Korg 104ds. Nevertheless I get all sounds I want out of it. You can easyly produce harmonics, chords are still transparent at high gain settings. It feels good to play this Amp, everything is so smooth, you can't stop once startet. When playing in high gain mode and Lead at 3 o'clock, simply switch to low gain and you have the old school ac/dc like rock sound. The internal EQ-shaping when switching between Hi- and Lo-gain is perfect. Btw, the Lead-Presence knob controlls the amount of treble of the powerampsection in lead-mode. Another tool to set the sound form "ear piercing"-screaming to "in the other room"-damped sound. I give this amp a 10. In my opinion the wide range of sounds outweights the bit noisy ultragain setting. Also this baby has no reverb - but who the hell cares. Ah, my setup is as follows: Ibanez RG507 with EMG-81 Humbuckers, Cry-Baby, Korg 104s Hyper distortion, Engl Blackmore Amp. In the FX-Loop I placed a Rocktron Hush SuperC (not as good as the price). One 4x12 Marshall JMC800Lead cab. Hey, if someone has questions or/and figured out soundsettings from Hammerfall or Blind Guardian, feel free to email me.

It's a ENGL. One could say it's heavy duty quality, but it is. The weight is 19kg. Very solid an durable construction with thik wooden walls, big metal edges, stable grip. The back is closed with a wood plate. Now I have the amp for 6 month but I think it will habe a long live. But you never now, so the rating is only 9. Have you seen the ENGL Cabs ? You need a fork-lift truck to move this things.

never needed them

"This amphead is geared for truly discriminating tone connoisseurs. The power trubes and the different channel's preamp tubes are selected, performance-matched and fine-tuned to ensure smooth, harmonious transition from sparkling clean to ripping hi-gain lead tone. These amp deliver a wide range of killer tone in an exceptionally easy-to-handle package; a sound fanatic dream come true." These are the words of the ENGL-promotion, an it's the very truth. It suits for all kind of music blues, rock, pop, hardrock, heavymetal, etc. Bevore I buyed this baby I testet different amps, thisone beats them all. Marshall is not as good as the reputation, I testet the DSL2000, which is the same price class -at least in germany- forget it. If you want a NAME buy the Marshall, if you want TONE buy the Engl. Ok, Mesa/Boogie sounds little better as the Engl (to me) but its much more expensive. Hughes and Kettner is ok, but the Engl is better. But just go to the music store an test it, take a ENGL, Peavy, or Marshall cab for testing. At least many artists choose ENGL, not for the name - for the tone: Ritchie Blackmore, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, Rudolf Schenker ... to mention a few. My overall rating is 10, many pluses less minuses - pure sound. This is my best buy ever. If someone stole my this amp ? Well I would really have drillparty in a fintness-center, buy one of of this ENGL 12"Cabs and brake it over the fuckin bastards head. And of course I would buy it again, if I can afford (or maby a Savage Edition Amp, but it's very expensive).