Engl Screamer 50 112 Combo

This Model was made in 2002.
4 Channel, all valve amp - Clean, Crunch, Soft Lead and Heavy Lead. Spring reverb, effects loop, line out and sockets for extension cab and foot switches.

Two main shortcommings of the amp are the lack of a headphone socket and the fact that the foot switch for channel switching, reverb etc is not included (and is VERY expensive - #115)

take two points off for what is otherwise a very good amp

WOW
I went into the shop to decide between a Vox Valvestate and a Marshall AVT150 - the guy in the shop said rather than buy a solid state amp that was trying to sound like a valve amp, why not try the real thing. I tried it and was blown away. The Vox and the Marshall could not even try to come close to this amp - I played it for an hour in the shop then played each of the others for about a minute each - they just could touch this amp - the tone is superb.

I play a Les Paul and an Ibanez Ergodyne and I like classic rock sounds which this amp produces perfectly - and VERY loudly as well.

Both the Valvestate and the Valvetronix are very good amps and give a very good approximation of a valve amp, but they DO NOT compare to the real thing - i cannot repeat that enough - this amp sounds like heaven!! - if i could give it an 11, I would.

Haven't had it that long so can't comment - my only worry is the valves - I carry it VERY gently and ALLWAYS carry spares - haven't needed them yet though

no contact as yet, but the guitar shop rates them very highly

Have been playing for 10 years and have had a number of solid state amps - mainly Laneys and have never got "THE SOUND" - I've got it now though. The guy in the shop is a professional musician and owns 7 Marshalls - he is still going to get one of these though. As I said, my only gripes are the lack of a headphone socket and the price of the foot switch - its very solidly built though.

Made in 2001. All valve amp. Four channels - clean, crunch, soft lead, heavy lead, with separate gain controls for the clean/crunch channel and the lead channels. It has a very nice reverb, effects loop, and an adjustable master volume accessable through a footswitch. The controls are very easy and very sensitive to adjustment. I suppose the only thing I would want in terms of features would be separate Eq for the clean channel, however this can be overcome by placing one or more eq pedals in the effects loop.

I am using a 1992 Les Paul standard, and a 2002 American series Stratocaster. I run the guitar into a TS-9 Tube Screamer with all dials on set about 10:00 o'clock (I like the compression and the edge I get from the tube screamer.) I have a Boss eq pedal in the effects loop - bass and treble boosted with scooped mids. I use good quality leads. I play AC/DC, Led Zep, Neil Young, Cream etc.

Clean channel: This channel is really nice with the stratocaster. With clean channels I like just a bit sting in the sound, so a bit of gain here or over-drive from the tube screamer produces are very workable sound. While shopping around for a new amp I tried the Fender Pro Tube series amps. The clean channel on these amps is just simply amazing. (The distortion channel was OK but nothing special, a bit weak for my taste) I think most people would agree - Fender set the standard for clean channels, you cannot beat a good Fender clean sound. While you might come close, you wont beat it.) Having said that I was surprised at how nice the Engl's clean channel sounded. I would say it is about 85-90% as good as the Fender (not bad considering you are comparing with a sound that has been perfected over a long peiod.) It is very open and has a nice bite when you dig in.
Crunch channel: This is where you will be surprised. This channel really kicks ass. Turn up the gain and it sounds like a Marshall Plexi. I think Engl have said to themselves what is the best sounding crunch amp going and can we better it - Yes they can! This is the channel where you can play all of the classic 70s and 80s rock sounds - AC/DC, Zep etc. This channel has alot of head-room - stand back. This channel sounds great with stuff like "Highway to Hell" "Stairway to Heaven" and "Sweet Home Alabama", "Run like Hell".

Soft Lead: I don't use this channel much. I suppose I have not really explored the possibilities, because the heavy lead channel sounds so damn good. I am sure there are alot of songs/styles that would suit this channel.

Heavy Lead: OK this is where the amp really excels. This channel defines the Engl sound. Open chords sound really well defined (best I have heard on any amp. I compared the Screamer with a Mesa Boogie Nomad 45 combo. The Mesa had a nice clean channel - the Screamer's clean channel was very close to the Mesa. The distortion channel was a different story. When I played the Mesa I was expecting wonderful things to happen. However, I didn't say to myself 'Yes this is the sound I have been searching for..." It was OK, but pretty ordinary. On the other hand, when I played the Screamer, I said "YES YES YES"! I couldn't beleive it. I kept on trying the Mesa and coming back to Engl. There was no comparison - the Screamer sounded alot better. Here we go again, I am thinking Engl have done it again.... outdone what is often considered one of the best sounding distortion amps. So what we have is the best of everything - a very close Fender black face (clean channel), a better sounding Marshall Plexi (crunch channel) a better sounding Mesa (distortion channel). I would say that these are not copies but rather interpretations with a unique Engl sound. Make no mistake the Engl has its own voice.

So far OK.

I have sent 3 emails to Engl, received a reply for one.

I have been playing for 30 years. I have had 2 Marshall JCM 900s (dual reverb and SLX) before this. Marshall has one great sound and that is it. (Although the Marshall distortion can sound very muddy at times.) If that is all you want, well then that is great. However if you want every song you play to sound fantastic, think about getting an Engl. The Screamer is very versatile. It has obviously been designed with one thing in mind - great tone in each channel. Congratulations to Engl. I don't think you will find a better sounding combo for the money. I hope I will have this amp for a very long time.

Allright, mine was a 2001 model, features like mentioned before. 50 tube watts, which even are too loud to be able to play at a master volume 5, my bandmembers get blown away. Shame, now I only get pre-amp distortion.Engl traded it for a 2002 model due to strange hum.

We play popular (hard)rock and pop with the band, and I like to play some cool funk. Guitars: Blade Strat, Yamaha Pacifica with Seymour Duncans and an '78 Ibanez Mucisian. The Screamer suits it all. Just want some more EQ, and seperated for clean and lead channel. Strikes me that I have to turn up the volume of the lead channel to 8 or 9 to get a simular volume to the clean channel at 5.

The vinyl sucks badly. It ets hurt just by lookin at it. The amp itself rules in sound, but my amp suddenly had terrible hum, not due to the tubes which were changed immediatly after my complaint. So I got a new amp! Is that service or what!

Never got any answers from Engl's website, but at the store it's unbelieveble. My amp had noise problems. After first changing the end tubes, which was'nt adequate, the store just gave me a new amp and send mine to Engle. I will only buy Engle in the future!

Play for some 15 years, play Rock, Rockabilly, Funk, Soul and Disco. Even nice vintage sounds are possible with the internal reverb and a little slap back echo from may TC G-Major. Lead distortion sings superbly and with a Strat, some chorus and perhaps a little EQ from the G-major you'll get that funky stuff. Just love the crunch.

The features on this amp have been listed a few times above, but to break it down a little I?ll just list the important stuff. The Screamer 50 Combo is ALL VALVE with 2 channels with some extra switching functions on each channel effectively making it a 4 channel amp. Clean, crunch, lead and lead with hi-gain. Passive EQ with some shift options (bright button) and reverb. The Screamer has a couple of extra options that most of the ENGL range doesn?t. It has a balanced XLR out for recording or running into a desk. It also has a 9pin jack that connects to the Z5 footswitch enabling direct access to all functions via the one pedalboard which is excellent on stage.

VALVES !!! What can I say. Just a huge, rich, deep and satisfying tone that sounds sensational with my Custom Shop Strat and my American telecaster. The speaker outputs allow many configurations. I can use the combo speaker alone for rehearsal or with my single 8ohm Vintage 30 box (ie. 2 x 8ohm jacks) I have made a special Y plug that connects the two single 8ohm speakers which converts them to a single 16ohm input, then I plug another 16ohm half quad into the combo. (ie. 2 x 16ohm jacks) This allows me to run 4 x 12? Vintage 30?s which gives me one huge fucker of a sound. If I had two 16ohm quad boxes the sound would be even bigger, but hey? that?s overkill !! I have been playing a Johnson Millennium 250 Head for 3 years which gave me reasonable overdrive sounds and convenient on board effects, but the clean sound at high volume was never really satisfying. Believe it or not, 50 valve watts totally creams 250 transistor watts. It is hard to explain the difference in tone, just do yourself a favour and plug into one of these ENGL babies and you will know exactly what I mean.
I also tried the Mesa Boogie Mark 1 re-issue. Like the ENGL?s, the clean sound is to die for, but the gain on the MB Mk1 sucked big time? total crap, and is not internally switchable (ie. you have to hook up and A/B footswitch) and it cost heaps more? forget it !!
Don?t even consider the Line 6?s, ZenTerra?s, Cyber twins etc.. etc? All these mass produced electronic gadgets will fade away or fry their flash EPROM?s and wind up being expensive door stops. Get yourself a guitar amp that has been lovingly hand made, built for work and the road, can be repaired or serviced by guys who know and understand guitar amplification who also know and love valves..and there are 1000?s of them. The power and sound of valves CANNOT be successfully reproduced by electronic gadgetry. And they will never emulate/imitate the sound of the ENGL range of amps.
My only criticism is that the passive EQ (Bass, Middle, Treble) are a bit limited. However, once my amp is out of warranty, I will have my tech modify these controls?

These amps are basically hand made, tough as nails, and the quality of the build is sensational. I have spoken to a number of technicians who say they rarely see these amps because they are so well built and don?t break down. I took delivery of an ENGL Classic tube 50 which had a strange oscillation. It turned out to be a dodgy 12AX7 valve, easily fixed. That particular amp didn?t have enough gain so I exchanged it for the Screamer 50. Oh yeah !!

While I was trying out different amps and investigating different configurations I emailed ENGL a number of times. I always received a prompt response with whatever information I needed. Excellent customer service. They have now added an email list on their web site to get direct to the department you need to contact.

The ENGL range of amps are just sensational. Each is built for specific applications. The Classic 50 for clean to blues, the Thunder 50 for clean to rock, the Screamer 50 for clean to harder rock, the Fireballs and Ritchie Blackmore models for ?I?m gonna kill your Momma? stuff. These are beautiful sounding amps that are made like tanks and supported by a company that is really proud of their product.
Do yourself a favour and check ?em out. You will only know if you try them.

The amp has been built in 2000. It's very versatile 'cause it has four channels and is an all tube combo. Oh there is also a good (switchsreverb unit inside and you can switch two master volume levels I play cover Blues, Rock and Pop. This amp is defenitivly designed to be a Blues and Rock amp. I was tryin' to get some funky sounds out of it and thats impossible without an additional EQ, because if you tweak your controls in that sound direction all other sounds become unuseable. An EQ stage for the both main channels would be helpfull but you could buy the Sovereign 100 instead there you'll find all that features. The effect loop is adjustable between seriell an parallel that's a very good feature 'cause if I use my tc.G-Major I need a seriell loop and if I use stomp boxes the parellel loop is the right choice. I use this amp for smaller gigs and for practicing and therefore it has more than enough power. I think if you would use it with a 4x12" cabinet it will be loud enough for a big stage.

I use a modified Strat with a Seymour Duncan 'Hot Rails' at the bridge position and a modified Ibanez RG570 with a Seymour Duncan SH 4 Jeff Beck at the bridge and an SH 1 '59 Model at the neck. The sounds of this amp have been mentioned in the earlier reviews and I confirm but I want to compare it with my "big" rig. This contains: ADA MP1 classic tube preamp, Engl 530 all tube preamp, Engl 930/60 all tube poweramp, 4x12" Marshall(1960B JCM 800) cabinet with Celestion GT 75 speakers. This setup is loud, heavy and very impressive but I have no possibility to create such a warm creamy blues or high gain lead sound as with this little combo. I never realized that a RG570 guitar is able to produce a sound like Gibson ES with a Fender Bassman, but it works. The other impressive thing is, the heavy lead channel is able to produce a lead sound that's comparable with a Peavy 5150 head, you know this feeling when you think there's a never ending tone nearly not to control untill the feedback strikes back. I will use this setup for the next recording session instead of the 19" gear.

Never had any problem with Engl gear.

Once I had a question about signal routing and switching with a 2nd preamp. Two days later I got an E-Mail directly from Horst Langer, the chief design engineer with a clear answer. Very friendly and fast.

I've been playing now for more than 20 years very different styles of music. I own two rigs as mentioned before. 1st the Screamer and 2nd ADA-MP1 classic preamp, Engl 530 preamp, Engl 930/60 poweramp and a Marshall 4x12" speaker cabinet. For both rigs I use a t.c. G-Major as effect processor and channel switcher, controlled by an Engl Z12 Midi foot controller. Additional I use a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah and a Morley Volume pedal.
If the screamer were stolen or lost I would buy it again. But to be honest there is a Fender Cybertwin out now, this amp I would try too, 'cause it has the effects inside and is an all tube combo too.
What I like most on this amp is the crunch and the heavy lead sound, they are really incredible good.
When I was going to buy this amp I was asking the guy in the store for a versatile combo and he was telling me: Try Line 6 Flextone, Mesa Boogie Nomad 45, Johnson Millenium Combo, Hughes & Kettner ZenTerra, Engl Sovereign and Engl Screamer. I was tryin' all the amps and always came back to the Screamer. It's the best price/value ratio in terms of the sound I was looking for.
I 'll give it a ten based on the sound for Money ratio. Maybe there are amps around which are better, but not for that price.

The amp was made in maybe 1999, or 2000, im not sure.
First of all, i play everything, except Funk, Pop, and others styles like that, i play mainly Blues, Metal, Grunge, Gothics etc.
The amp has 4 channels a gain switch turns clean to cruch and lead to heavy lead, has a bright switch that turns the amp, in a fender amp, it has an EQ for the amp, another knob, The lead presence, to the treble response in the lead mode, 2 gain knobs, for clean and lead, 1 knob for the reverb, and a master volume knob, then it has all the effect loops, and functions for recording procedures, it has a Celestion V12-80 that is very nice, altough this ClassA combo should have had a vintage 30 instead.
It has very good construction, no flaws that i notice, its an ALL-TUBE amp. It has 2 jacks for 4 types of cabinets, 1x8ohms 2x16ohms 1x16ohms 2x8ohms. It doenst have a Headphone jack, but that is for 10watt solid states not for tube amps in my opinion, this amp has 50 watts, that are truly 50 watts, so theyre loud as hell cant push the amp more than 1 at home cause its too loud for neighbours. The tubes it has are 3 12AX7 for preamp, and 2 6l6GC for power amp. The combo, is a bit heavy, but then again, all combo seem to be, at least "good" ones. Versatility isnt a problem with this amp, i can have everything, from bands like Tool, Soundguarden, Santana, Clapton, Hendrix, i can get those sounds, the only real problem with the amp is the Bass, it lacks some bass with the Treble "high", it just doenst have much bass, maybe because of the speaker, but it gives enough for the styles i play, i dont like to play Hardcore, so this suits me fine, its basically a amp that can reproduce classic sounds with simple controls. Its got a 10 cause its one of the best amps ive heard.

I use it with a Yamaha guitar, wich doesnt helps much, but it gives me the sounds i want and much more, ill be getting a hamer soon, i will post the review with the hamer then.
My music style is inlfuenced by bands like Tool and others, it suits me fine, i love the reverb, it is amazing, i use the treble very high, so it gives really sharp sounds, wich are amazing, this apm has amazing high end. The amp isnt noisy, with the guitar and the crappy pick ups, it gives undesirably hum with single coils and feedback with humbucker, but the amp alone without the guitar plugged in, is not noisy, so the problem is the guitar.
This amp makes muddy sounds, knife sharp sounds, bassy sounds, altough not as bassy as a Randall head, everything you can ask for, the distortion is simply excellent, the crunch channel, is a slight overdrive of the clean channel, wich is good for Pop-Rock and so, the lead channel is good for Blues and for Hard Rock if you get the EQ right, and the heavy channel, is a mercyless distortion, it is awesome, if you want more go buy pedals and ruin the signal of this amp, for me the amps distortion rules, and the clean is superb, even at high volumes it doesnt lose definition, this amp is compared to Mesa Boogie by lots of people who owns them, so go figure, even the legendary guitarist of Deep Purple uses one Engl, his signature amp, is basically the same as the Screamer, only a bit more toneful, but its quite the same, so this amp is used by some people who know what they want and found what can deliver.
Compared to Mesa Boogie, some say Mesa is better some say its worst, i dont know, all i know is that this amp is as "good" as mesa and a lot more cheaper, best or worst i dont care about that.

Here i have a couple insatisfactions, the amp had factory problems so i took it to the shop, they had it for a few weeks and they deliverd it with the same problem, i took it again the next day, and they had it for more 3 weeks and finally delivered it to me in great condition.
I understand theyre a small company, with about 20 people or a little more doing the amps, and all, so im not upset, maybe a little dissapointed, but thats ok. Apart from that the amp continues in great shape after almost 1 year, but its too soon yet to say anything.
I would gig withou a backup.

Like i said it had factory problems but theyre a very small company, that isnt a mass producer of this amps, i believe they make about 120 or so a year or thats what ive heard so...
The customer support was not efficient in the first time, but they finally did it right on the second time. The warranty is a year i think, so i didnt payed for anything.

Ive been playing for 3 years this amp is the Paul Reed Smith of amps, very well built good and distinct tone, i would never get it stolen, i would rather kill the thief, instead of letting him steal the amp.
Hovever if they did stole it from me i would buy another one, but a better instead i would get the Souvereign that i had the chance of getting and i didnt, i blame myself for that.
I would like to say, dont buy this amp, cause i dont want others to have a good sound like i have, keep your Marshalls, Fenders, Mesa Boogies and whatever you want, but dont get this amp.
Incredible, no more words can qualify it.

50 Watts all tube, 4 Channels (Clean, Crunch, Lead 1 and Lead 2), FX Loop, 2x8Ohm, 2x16Ohm and Freq compensated outputs.
2 connectors for Footswitch (Channel,Hi/Lo Gain and Volume,Reverb).
1 EQ for all channels. But that doesn't limit this amp at all. If you wan't more EQ capabilities go for an EQ pedal or the Souvereign 100 amp.
Used for practicing and minor Gig's.

Using this amp with an Ibanez RG 650 Limited Edition, and Fender Telecaster. I play styles from Jazz, Fusion and Rock.
This amps sound great. Clean sounds very warm and has a nice ringing sound that suits well with a little Reverb. Reverb is very delicated. Crunch channel works very well with my Ibanez Humbuckers to get that nice Blues tone but my Telecaster pickups are to weak to really drive the amp to that neat point of breaking up.
The Lead channels are Great. Especialy the Lo gain. With the EQ set right you can get that typical Santana Sound very warm and wooden. Hi gain lead will rip your pants off but keeps the sound well focused.
I love this amp. Had a Marshall Valvestate 80 before but the difference is HUGE. Never want to hear that amp again. Also tried a KOCH Twintone but although that amp has a GREAT Clean channel, it lacks warmth and sounds to harsh on the Lead channel. The ENGL sound more creamy. Yum, Yum.

It's built like a tank. Even got a Metal Grill for the Speaker. You won't be able to get this thing broken.

FX Loop was broken. Got back to the store and it was replaced during the time for repair by an ENGL Thunder 50 Amp. Now that's what I call Customer Support.

This is a great sounding All Tube amp that is very good value for money compared to his American counter parts like Mesa/Boogie.
Highly recommended