Engl Savage 120

This amp is as versatile as it gets, but if you like a simple straightforward amp, you should try another Engl with less features as there a lot of different options on this one. It has 4 channels (2 channels with each 2 gain controls) with very sensitive equalizer settings and other buttons (I don't know names from the top of my head) to shape the sound, two effects loops with dry/wet mix, two master controls (very cool if you need a volume boost for leads), two presence controls, a direct out and probably some stuff I forgot right now. I only wish they had built in the midi interface, because now I'll have to buy an external midi interface (wich I will in the near future) this is the only minus, otherwise I would have given it a 10.

This amp is incredible, what I had been looking for for years.
I always wanted an amp that sounded great clean and distorded, without any effects. And this is the one!
I play anything from dire straits to testament and this baby covers everything. I use a Vigier with a floyd rose and seymour duncan PU's, an Ibanez rg760 with Dimarzio's and an Ibanez rg7620.
With this amp you can tell how good (or crap!!) your pickups really are. People who say this amp is noisy in high gain should try cranking up a 5150 HAHAHAHAHA. Clean this amp is very quiet.
With my guitars and Engl standard 412 cab I can get sounds from Dire straits to Santana from Dream Theatre to Slayer.
Unlike amps like 5150 and Marshall, Engl kan be tuned to fit anyones style, if you'll take the time there are a lot of knobs.
As for the distortion: You wanna know what brutal is?
This amp is as brutal as is gets without getting muddy like a rectifier. Just dial bass 8-10 mid 0-2 treble 4-5 and presence 8-9, and there you have the most brutal, but very defined distortion known to mankind. There is no better sounding all-in-one-amp for the allround demanding guitarist! I'll bet my balls on that!!!!!

Never broke down or anything, but It's just 6 months old.
I would use it without backup, because this thing is built like a tank. I'll give it a 9 because I don't haven't had it for a long time.

Never dealt with the company myself.
A friend of mine bought one and it broke down the next day, manufacturing error. Was replaced by a brand new one, one week later, no hassle! Great service!

I've been playing for 10 years now, and owned or heard just about any amp available in holland, this is the best by far. I was fond of 5150, but the lack of options and the noise made me search for something better, the SAVAGE 120.
If it were stolen I would kill the bastard and after I get out of jail I would save up for a new one, this is the only amp that meets my demands; tone, gain (lots!), versatility and attitude. This amp is also the best looking amp out there check it out! with this amp combined with the Engl standard 412 cab, I dare to take on anyone, because I have the best sound available, without bullshit effects, external pedals, pre-amps or active pickups (yuchhhhh!) to artificially enhance the tone. This is the best, and that's the bottom line

See my previous review with "more to come" in all fields except this one.

Continuing my evaluation of the savage 120:
My guitar is an Ibanez SC420 with stock pickups. I use no FX, just plug and play and it sounds great. When I got my Ibanez, it enhanced the sound of my crappy Crate. When I got the Engl, I was blown away by how great it sounds in every channel, but over time I've realized some of the poor characteristics/weaknesses of my guitar and will be replacing the pickups as I feel my guitar is now the weakest link in the chain (besides me :).)
I'm running the amp through a Mesa Recto Cab and I think they complement eachother quite well. I first tried the Engl through an Engl cab and it sounded great, but I didn't have a chance to evaluate it anymore with the Engl head/cab setup. I purchased the Recto simply because I thought it was one of the best cabs available. I liked it more than the Bogner cabs too. I may eventually look into getting an Engl cab with V60's just for some variety.
I'm in a 3-piece band that plays a progressive/classic rock mix, mostly originals. Therefore, being the only guitarist, I was looking for a versatile amp, preferably 3 channels, that could get a great glassy clean as well as high gain heaven and everything in between. I also wanted something that sounded unique. I tried the 3-channel Rectifiers, Mesa MKIV, several Riveras [not the Knucklehead though:(] Soldano Decatone, Bogner Ecstacy, Hughes and Kettner Duotone, Marshall TSL, and more. All of these amps offered great things, but nothing in one complete package like the Engl. A breakdown of each channel:
Clean - The most surprising channel on this amp. I wasn't expecting a great clean tone, but the more I played, the more I fell in love with this channel. It doesn't have a glassy clean (I felt the MKIV and the Soldano had the glassiest cleans) but rather a very warm tone that is tight and punchy. You can play insanely loud without an ounce of breakup if you keep the gain below 3 and it will sound nice and soft. You can add some meat to it with the occasional breakup when playing hard with the gain a bit higher. Or you can get a great mild, yet distinct, breakup with the gain past 12 o'clock. Unlimited variety since you can tweak master, volume and gain. Sounds great with my friend's Tele as well. The Rectifiers clean channel doesn't stand a chance against the Engl's. Not even close. I felt that the Riveras and MKIV are the only amps with a clean channel that can compete with the Engl's.
Crunch 1 - Great channel! Dirty rhythms or blues leads sound phenominal with this channel. It can be bright and spanky or dark and muddy and is really responsive to your pick attack. A little more tweaking can be done on this channel because the master, volume, clean gain, and crunch1 gain all influence this channel. If you can sacrifice a crystal clean channel, the clean gain can be cranked for a little more of a low-end bite. If you keep the clean gain low and crank the crunch1 gain you get more of a dirty crunch (but very pleasing!!). I even experimented and cranked the clean and crunch1 gains, went to dropped "D" tuning and, honestly, I was able to keep up with the metal heads. Can you say versatility? :)
Crunch2 - I probably use this channel the least, but only because the other 3 channels kick so much ass! This channel is great for distorted chords because it is extremely clear and distinct, despite the ability to go from light crunch to all out distortion assault. The only part where it may lack anything is for heavy palm muting. It's a bit too thin for that. This distortion is more of a buzzy type, but not fuzzy necessarily. I'd compare it to a Mesa Nomad distortion (don't remember which channel/mode specifically, but the mid-high gain sound) except the Engl's isn't CRAPPY like the Nomad. Again, it sounds great, but has that kind of characteristic. In the smooth mode, with the pronounced mids, you can get sort of a Collective Soul sound, minus the FX, and with single coils you

This head is heavy and solid and was bounced around tours by a guitarist (well his tech)in a relatively well-known/famous band that shall remain nameless. When I bought it from him he made no complaints about the reliability over his 6 years of ownership and it was clearly beat up a bit externally. My tech says the circutry is top-notch/very well-made and I trust his opinion. I had a loud "popping" problem when switching channels when I first got it and all it was was a loose light bulb (the head is backlit with two bulbs, looks SWEET in the dark.) A tube amp is a tube amp so you always should have backup tubes, at least, but one great feature on this amp is that if one tube fails/goes bad, the amp will continue to run at 1/3 power on the remaining good tube. So at least there's a little safety there.

I bought this amp used without a footswitch and being in the States, I'm having a dickens of a time finding a dealer who can contact Engl for me. The one dealer in my area claimed that they moved their U.S. distribution center from New Jersey to Minnesota so they were literally unreachable (no phone numbers worked,etc.) This was a few months ago and I haven't checked back yet, so I hope Engl-USA is settled in now and reachable. I did, however, get some quality help from the forum on the Engl website, so that is a positive. They're a German based company so I don't expect to get quite the same service as someone in Europe, just as someone in Europe might not get the same service from someone like Mesa or Rivera.

I've been playing for almost 13 years now, but just started really getting into gear during the last few years. I knew that I needed versatility and I knew I wanted something unique. This amp was PERFECT for that. It's A LOT easier to use than the MKIV, and almost as versatile (I don't know of any amp that has all the options the MKIV does). When I first tried it, it was very easy to identify which knobs affected which channel's etc. Basically, the layout on the front panel is perfect. Makes complete sense. I love this amp, plan on keeping it forever as it is be a gem in the studio as well as live and I'll look at ANY amp that Engl makes before making a decision on another one. I don't give 10's for anything because there's always something better out there and some amps aren't for everybody, so there needs to be room in case I find something better. But that may take a LONG time,

Made in 1994; 120 Watts; Power Tubes - 2 KT88/6550; Preamp tubes - 6 12AX7/ecc83; 2 Main Channels w/ 2 channels each; 2 masters; 2 presences w/ depth boost; FX loop for each channel or master loop w/ levels; Direct XLR -preamp or poweramp signal;

Main Ch1: Clean - level and gain (main channel gain); Crunch 1 - level and gain; Bass, Mid, High EQ controls; Pushbuttons - Sensitivity (for input level), bright (boost high end), preshape (scooped mid shape), countour (out - boost lower mids; in - boost upper mids, cut lower mids).

Main Channel 2: Crunch 2 - level and gain (main channel gain); Lead - level and gain; Bass, Mid, High EQ controls; High Balance (smooth mode only); Pushbuttons -Lead Boost (boost low end), Contour (same as above), Rough/Smooth (works on both channels. Rough - scooped mid voicing. Smooth - Midrangey voicing, highs cut)

With 4 distinct channels, this amp is extremely versatile for both live and recording purposes. Direct Out is a nice feature, though a little noisy. If one power tube fails, amp will still operate but at approx. 1/3 power.

Could have reverb, 1/2 power switch.

No more time to review, more later...

More to come

More to come

More to come

More to come

made in 1997 i think, i own it half a year now.
5 preamp tubes (ecc83), 2+1 power tubes (kt-88c + ecc83) -> 120w. Basically 2 channels, each with 2 different modes(1: clean + crunch1, 2: crunch2 + lead), makes 4 channels + 2 independent master volumes w/ presence, so you can choose from 8 different sounds... i think it's hard to top. 3band-eq per main channel, channel 2 has two distortion characteristics (rough/smooth), channel 1 has some switches to tailor the clean sound (bright/preshape/sensitivity), each channel has a contour switch to shift the mid-frequency, deep switch in the mastersection of each channel to boost low frequencies.
two effect loops (loop1 for channel 1, loop2 can be assigned to channel 2 or master), direct-out (xlr), fully midi-controllable via the optional midi interface.
i play brutal death and black metal, so i mainly use the lead channel. up to now i used it only at home, because i currently have no band to play in. i tried to play it loud and it almost destroyed the house ;) it sounds great at every volume imaginable. i can't think of features i miss because it has everything i need (and much more that i don't need). this is a perfect 10.

i play a jackson dr-3 w/ an emg-81 in the bridge position. i use d'addario chromes .011-.052, i tuned down to B or A# (varies). and not to forget, i play this amp through a marshall 1960-VA (280w, celestion vintage-30). as i mentioned i play brutal death and black metal which require a really brutal distortion. i went through all stores, tried lots of amps (marshall, laney, mesa, peavey, line6 etc.) but when i heard this beast the first time, my decision was set. i'm serious, i did not waste my time trying hundred other amps, i wasted my time looking for a used savage 120 in good condition because i couldn't afford a new one. and i didn't regret it, it has the most brutal distortion coming right out of an amp i have ever heard. it distorts heavily at low volumes (below room volume !), when volume is turned up loud i have to reduce gain because then the distortion is too extreme... amazing.
the clean channel distorts slightly when gain is past 10 o'clock, but i think this is caused by the emg-81 delivering a high output. but i don't play clean that often so i don't care.
i'd say this amp is suitable for ALL music styles i can think of... i didn't try it, it's just a feeling because i've not been disappointed by this amp a single time.
back to the distortion, as is said it's as brutal as a distortion can get. i.e. in combination with an eq (boss ge-7 in the loop to suck out the mids ;) i can create any sound i want, i just tried to get that growling sound cannibal corpse have on "gallery of suicide" and i got it just with the use of a small eq. ultra-heavy, lots of bass, buzzing, sawing, simply great. btw, i tried the "normal" marshall 1960-A cabinet at first, but i found it to be too midrangy. the 1960-VA suits this amp very well, it's got more low end and less mids which i think results in a "clearer" tone (engl offers a suiting cabinet for this amp, it's got vintage-30s as well, but it was too pricey for me, again). i'm amazed by this amp everytime i turn it on.

well i didn't play it live or something like that, so i can't jufge it's reliability. so far i've had no problems whatsoever. no wait, i have one problem with the direct out, i don't get a decent sound out of it... but i think it's just me not being able to manage.
this amp has a some kind of failure-circuitry, when one of the two power tubes failes, the amps still works, but with reduced power. there is an LED for each power tube in the back signaling a failure.
but since i didn't play it on the road (i don't think i ever will) i won't give a rating here.

here's the story: i bought it used, without an instruction manual. i visited the web site but i found no manual to download. so i contacted the company via email, asking if there's one available. the chief technician who mainly designed this amp himself answered me (on holidays !), attaching the complete manual to his mail ! i was impressed. i had a small mail exchange with him, asking about some technical details concerning the tubes. he was very helpful and gave all information i wanted plus hints and tips for better sound and playability.

well, when i heard this amp the first time i imediately wanted it. but there was one point that made me stop thinking if it was really worth it: the price. see, i just needed an amp with a very brutal and very good distortion, this amp has 4 channels with great sounds on every channel. i thought it might be oversized for my needs. but i came to the conclusion "what the hell, you love the sound, it's exactly the sound you've always been looking for, so got get it !".
even tough i hardly use the "first" three channels i don't regret buying this amp mainly for it's lead channel. i've only been playing for 3 1/2 years now, so i still have a long way to go... before the engl i owned a marshall vs-8080 (which i sold) combined with a boss metal-zone (which i still own but NEVER have used since i got the engl ;) i will evolve in my playing as well in my musical taste, but i'm sure the engl will suite and support every development i'm going through. and i think this is the best what can be said about a single amp. i love it :) (don't even think about stealing it, i can get VERY aggressive and i promise, i WILL when anyone tries to steal it ;)

Yes, this amp has all the stuff other people are reporting, it's MIDI, and has probably more features than you actually would aspect!
It's versatile enough for most styles, but i'd say the high gain channel it's a bit noisy, and the distortions had something too hard for my style (they tended too much on the metal side), i used to play a type of heavy/hard rock, and this head seemed very fine to me the first time i tried it, then i catched the bad things:

1) The sound sometimes really didn't shine and it wasn't very "understandable" (not muddy, but something of that type!)

2) This head was much less powerful than i'd thought......tried side to side with a Dual Rectifier, the Savage was really put to shame!
It takes my volume to 6 before the sound of the Dual (put to 3 and 1/2..) was covered!!!!!

I used it with a custom shop Strat, and the clean sound was very, very good. The eq on all the channels were really responsive.
The crunch wasn't really that much to talk about, cause it sounded a little fake to me.
The high gain channels (3-4) were good, nothing more, nothing less, but the lead sound had a bit too attack for my style, and it was also very difficult for me to rise from the overall sound of my band.
I really haven't this problem anymore.

Had it for two years, never used it without a backup, and it never had a problem......i'd give 10 if I'd had this head for some more time!

Never dealt with.......

I haved this head for 2 years, then i switched to the Dual Rectifier (you'd not said that?).
This is really a GOOD, GOOD head, only it hasn't the fullness and the richness of harmonics of the Mesa.

This is the mother of all good amps. This amp was made in 1999, in germany. Versitality of this amp is enourmous. I can do everything with this amp that I need to do. This is 4-channel amp and the switching is made thru MIDI or foot controller. there are two effects loop. One for channels 1 and 2, another for 3 and 4. There are no features that I want more. There are no features that I don't need in this amp. I use this amp in everything I do. Channel 1 is extremely clean, channel 2 crunch, channel 3 is plexi-marshall sound and finally channel 4 is the mother of gain. This baby has five ECC83 in preamp on ECC83 in power amp. Power amp has two 6550 tubes.

My main guitar is Fender Yngwie Malmsteen model. The pickups in YM are DiMarzio Hs-3 and two YJM. Does this amp suite my styles, simple answer is that this suites every styles that you can think. I play mostly heavy metal, but I play blues and rock too. This baby is quiet baby no hiss and crackles. This amp has very clean channel and very brutal distortion channel. Im happy, wouldn't you be if you had this amp.

Made in Germany, this is my answer. Made like rock, for centuries.

No haven's dealt with company.

Well perfect amp from perfect company, need I say more. Check: www.engl-amps.com

This amp is an all tube 120 W head (I don't know the tubes) and so versatile so I don't know where to start a complete decription: It consists of two main channels both with treble, mid and bass. Each main channel has got two gain, master volume and presence controllers (so some people say it's a four channel amp). There are switches on the front for sensivity, bright, Preshape, Rough/smough overdrive characteristics and several other knobs I never use. The best thing is that you can set the gain of the 4 controllers from total crispy clean over crunchy to hard rock/metal and super high gain distortion all by a footswitch or a MIDI panel. You can even turn up the volume for soli or something by footswitch. There are two fx loops, a speaker simulator d.i. output and several other features. One important thing is that if one tube is out of order the amp will still work correctly, but with lower output. There ar still interesting features to describe but I think: check it out. Only one thing to say: you do need a MIDI-panel or the footswitch. Otherwise you have to switch chanels by hand (shitty while playing...) The MIDI interface is about 200 $ (300 .-DM). Poorly the MIDI-interface is not built in but added as a small box. This is the only feature I don't like.

I use the head with a '69 Marshall cab w/ V25 Celestions. I own a Gibson Les Paul (With a SH4 Jeff Beck at bridge) and a Blade RH4 SSH Strat (swamp ash and rosewood fingerboard). What can I tell you: The amp is incredible. clean souns like a Fender. Crunchy Marshall-like Sounds as well as Lukather-super-high-gain-solo. Every thing is possible. I play it on stage in smaller clubs but also in big venues for 2-3000 people. It's the non-plus ultra live amp. It kills me every time, but mike it, the speaker simulator is bullshit. I played many guitars from Tele over ES 335 and a whole bunch of Fender Strats in the recording studio. The sound is great, but you have to try several poti settings. I play pop/rock on recordings, but I also do hardrock stuff in the sparetime on stage. This amp has got it all. I would give a 10 if the super high gain wouldn't be so noisy. But, hey this is really super high gain so... This amp is really versatile and you can have lots of sound from one head, but it's always an ENGL even if it sometimes sounds like a AC30, Twin reverb or hot-rodded Marshall. And of course it depends on the cab you use. If an AC30 sound is the one and only none would use a Marshall 4x12 cab with an ENGL head, but you can even reach a very similar sound.

I play it since '93 about on about 5 albums and about 300 gigs. The amp never left me alone, but if you have bad current (unstable voltage or something) you might not use MIDI, because you have to switch by hand then.

I, ve never dealt with the company, because the amp was o.K. since date of delivery. I hope I'll never can answer this question

Yes I would buy it again, because it sounds great and it's super versatile. I've played for 15 years yet, and ownede a hot rodded Marshall JCM 800 2203 and a '72 Fender Twin reverb. The Marshall sounded very good for hard rock and metal stuff, but for the most time it didn't work so I sold it. I use the Twin at home and sometimes on smaller stages with a Marshall Guv'nor and of course for recordings But I think the ENGL Savage is so versatile, very dependable and it sounds great on stage as well as in the recording studio. The only thing that decreases the joy is the MIDI interface but I can live with that. Maybe a good technician can solve the problem...

The reason why I write this review is the fact that I think of this amp as one of the most versatile yet most underrated on the market today. This amp is originally a 2 channel amp, but those two channels are separated into different settings. Channel 1: clean and crunch 1 - Channel 2: crunch 2 and lead. This way you have 4 basic sounds that all sound very different (and all have their own volume controls!). Both channels have separate gain controls, which react very well. The second channel also has a lead boost and a mid boost. Both channels have their own tone controls (bass/mid/treble) and the gain channel has an added treble control. The amp also features 2 master volumes and 2 presence knobs which work independet from any channel. In that section there is also a depth boost with each presence knob. Engl offers a midi-interface which I highliy recommend, because it enables you to totally change your sound with one switch on your footcontroller. Example:
- You save midichannel 8 as channel 1/clean, master 2, presence 2, mid boost off and then set the master volume at 6 and the presence at 8
- Then you save midichannel 7 as channel 2/crunch2, master 1, presence 2, mid boost off, lead boost off and then set the master volume at 4 and the presence stays at 8
- Next up is midichannel 6 which might be channel2/lead, master 1, presence 1, mid boost on, lead boost on and presence at 6
If you think about this, you can change from a sparkling bright clean sound to a killer metal sound with just one footswitch and since it is midi controlled you can switch all you effect processors simultaneously with the amp. Another very useful feature are the 2 effect loops: one for the clean channel and one for the gain channel with separate mixing controls for manual dry/wet adjustments. The amp is equipped with a supposedly frequency corrected D.I. out, but I haven`t tried that one and probably never will since I use a SansAmp for direct signals. Another cool feature is the fact that in case of a blown power amp tube the head reduces its wattage, shuts down the blown section and continues working at a lower volume, which enables you to continue playing your gig by simply having your soundengineer adjust the guitar levels at the FOH. There are also LED`s at the back of the amp that signal whenever a tube has blown, so if volume drops you just need to take one look at the back and know if it`s the tube or something different. I`ve only needed this once and it was very helpful. As the name of the amp says this head has 120watts and can be extremely loud. I play it through a 4x12 Marshall 30th Anniversary cabinet and you can blow your brains out if you crank it up to 9 (never tried 10!!). I usually run it at about 3 or 4 cause I prefer lower volumes (3 is still way above room volume!). Due to this power you can use that amp virtually everywhere. It sounds great in you bedroom, it sounds great in a small club (with no P.A. - that`s where you can really use all those boost knobs to tailor the sound considering the room acoustics) and it sounds great on big festival stages where you can crank it up (and have your pants vibrating!). I truly believe that there is no other head on the market with that much versatility although I don`t use crunch 1 and crunch 2 very often.

I play an Art Of Sound Custom guitar with 2 Seymour Duncan Humbuckers and a single coil. The guitar has a very tricky splitting system, which is too complicated to explain here, but the variety of styles possible is amazing (from gritty high gain crunch to strat to tele to fat bluesy leads and more). I also use a Les Paul Studio Lite. The custom is tuned down to D and the Les Paul is tuned to Dropped C. At home I like to play almost every style, but I generally use the Engl when playing with my band which is some kind of modern groove metal. For this kind of music the Savage is my favorite choice (tried absolutely EVERYTHING that`s available here in Germany, from Boogie to EVH to Bogner Extasy to Hughes & Kettner to Steavens Poundcake to ...), because the gain channel has what I like to call "clear distortion". Of course, if you crank up the two gain controls on the lead channel, you get insane amounts of distortion that remind me of Pantera or maybe even Obituary, but although they have the same crunch the Engl Savage manages to sound a) not muddy and b) a lot warmer and more natural than most other amps. Personally I don+ALQ-t use too much distortion, because I think that less distortion results in a clearer and punchier sound. The gain channel tends to be noise, but compared to most other amps it is pretty silent. Engl have done a good job at keeping the hiss down. I use a Behringer Noisegate however since I still think it is way too noisy. The clean channel is absolutely whisperquiet! This thing is marvelous! You crank it to maximum and the clean channel will NOT distort (unless you crank the crunch control, too). The clean tone is very good in my opinion. Not awesome, but very good and definitely good enough for me (don`t play much clean stuff in my band). As described under "features" the sound-possibilities are almost endless. You need about 2 or 3 weeks of testing to figure out what sounds you really like because every knob has profound effects on the sound and the controls react very well. I don`t like the sound of crunch 2 so much because I think it sounds a little bit like plastic to me. I don`t use crunch 1 too often, because that`s more for AC/DC, Bryan Adams-style bands. When I play blues I would rather turn down the volume on my guitar and use the lead channel, but you might get different results with cheaper guitars who don`t sound as good at lower levels. All in all: thousands of sound possibilities, but once you found 2 or 3 great sounds you are likely to stick with them (have done so for about 18 months now!), because those 2 or 3 are very good!

I bought this amp almost immediately after it came out (coincidence!) and my amp head the wrong power amp tubes in it. They blew up after only 2 or 3 hours of playing. Engl recognized the mistake, took the amp and gave me a new one, now with the right tubes. They never used the first tubes again but I was without amp for 3 weeks. Since then I have never had any breakdowns with my amp. I heard of one blown tube when a friend of mine played on a festival outside in the winter, but that`s probably only due to the temperature changes. I have never been without backup at gigs but that`s simply because my setup includes a SansAmp running through a Boogie PowerAmp (which run simultaneously with the Engl), so even if the head would break down, I`d have another one running. Right now I have some trouble with the FX-Loops, since the distortion channel bleeds into the clean FX-Send. This is not really bad sound wise, but I use two completely different chains of effect processors and it causes some minor problems (i.e. even when muting my racktuner, the clean fx-loop gets some of the distorted signal and you can hear the tuning on stage). All in all the amp is very rugged and has taken its fair share of hits, so I can+ALQ-t complain about it`s reliability. Other than the mistake in tube-choice in the very beginning, I`ve had no problems in 3 years! I would however never play a gig without backup since according to Murphy`s Law as soon as you leave your backup at home, the amp will break down!

I have never dealt with Engl myself because my guitar store has done everything for me so far.

I use a pretty big setup with a splitter that runs my signal a) through the Engl head and then through my rack (with denoiser, tuner, compressor and fx-processor) and b) through a SansAmp-Boogie PowerAmp combination. If possible I use two Marshall 30th Anniversary 4x12 cabinets which I mike with two Sennheiser BF504 mics (for each cab) and send one signal directly from the SansAmp to the board so that our mixer has 5 guitar signals to blend (this is only a very short explanation of my setup). If I`d buy this amp again? Yes, I would, because if you take into consideration the reliability (3 years without any problems, while playing and moving it almost every weekend) and the great tones you can get out of it after you spent some time working with it there is really no match. I have another hot rodded Marshall JCM 800 at home, which I believe is the best amp ever built, but that`s due to the fact that the guy who hot rodded it is a genius. The Marshall is a lot less reliable and prone to break down easily so I only use it for recording purposes. The thing I like about the Engl is the midi-option and the exterior design (it has lights the illuminate the tubes, which makes them "glow" in the dark). As stated above I+ALQ-ve tried almost every other amp on the market and to me the distorted sounds on this amp are the best you can possibly get for heavy music from any "regular" amp (not customized).