Engl Screamer 50 Head

Has two channels, plus a Hi/Lo gain control, reverb, effects loop, provision for 1x8 ohm, 2x8 ohm, 1x16 ohm or 2x16 ohm outputs. Master volume. Would get a 10 if each channel had its own EQ. 4 12AX7 preamp tubes and 2 6L6 power tubes.

If you like Ritchie Blackmore's sound, you'll love this amp. This is basically the 50 watt version of the "Blackmore Signature" amp from ENGL. Good clean sounds and the overdrive sings well with good definition. Add a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and you're off to the races. I added an Alesis Nanoverb to the effects loop which adds a nice touch to the built-in Accutronics reverb.

It's a tube amp, so you should back it up at a gig.

E-mails sent to ENGL in Germany and U.S. are answered promptly.

A good alternative to a Marshall or Mesa head. Good price/value ratio.

Bought for 1600 EUR together with a Laney 4x12 Celestion Vintage 30 Cabinet. The amp is offering a lot of Features.
-4 channels, or if you want: 1 American and 1 British channel each with own Gain control and a boost (loudness differences adjustable via separate Leadvolume).
-Accutronics reverb
-In my own opinion, I like the fact that there is only one EQ.
-There is a Treble switch to add some high-end for muffy guitars.
-Very versatile switching possibilities. You can use 2 standard two-switch pedals (stereo-jack) to switch between the 4 channels. Further, there is a footswitch with 6 buttons available, where you can stomp on two additional Features: Reverb and VLS
-VLS: there is a poti on the back where you can adjust as second master volume, switcheable with several Engl gear (e.g. the MIDI switcher or the Z5 pedal (150 EUR)
-Parallel FX loop (poti for FX amount on the back)
-4 Speaker outs offering all possible combinations you might need (even mixing 8 and 16 Ohm cabinets possible)
-Balanced Line out (XLR) w/ optional ground lift -> signal is frequency compensated

Overall really great features given the quality of the amp for the money. Not as much as a Line6 or Valvetronix, but these are of a completely different category. I would say it is very useful what they are offering. VLS is a real plus! And the parallel FX loop and speaker simulation are no standard features on a full tube amp and very very useful additions.

I am playing the amp with a Hamer Sunburst (Seymour Duncan '59 and JB) and a Gibson Les Paul Special w/ P90 Soapbars. Usually I am looking for sounds like Led Zep, Gary Moore, Santana and Metallica. This is quite a variety of differences, but the Engl is really good for all those styles. I usually put bass quite high, treble on 2 or 3 o'clock, with mid on 10 o'clock it's quite heavy, with mid on 3 o'clock it is more toneful and warm.

In the past I had: Boogie Caliber 50+, EVH5150, Rivera Knucklehead, Soldano Atomic 16. Although the Engl is lacking a little bit of character, it is probably the best Amp I've had so far. This because of its versatility and its harmonic and open and transparent distortion.
The Clean Channel can go from crystal clear until evil Stevie Ray Vaughn (but I don't use it so often).
Among all its good features and the affordable price, there were 2 factors that mainly made me buying it:
1. The Fun Factor: It is really kickin your play - means: it is supporting your style, it's singing, it has endless sustain, but it is not too compressed so you can even do open chords on high gain - I never had more fun playing!
2. It sounds really really good already on a very low volume (below 1), but can as well have a kick ass punch if you crank it up.

In the shop the amp was on an Engl cabinet with Celestion V60 or V80 speakers. It was big luck that I tried it on a Vintage 30 cabinet. I strongly recommend you to try this amp with a 4x12 Vintage30 Cabinet as the important mids are kickin' much much better with that.
The reverb is useful, I only put a little of it (around 4).
The line out is quite OK but cannot replace a well placed, decent microphone. Still useful when you want to do a quick recording.

Overall I am very happy with my choice to buy this amp!

As robust as any Fulltube Amp these days. I have no doubt in its reliability. Come on, should be great, it is a GERMAN amp! However, I've not had it long enough to judge.

no experience so far

I've been playing for 15 years. I use no FX, except a VOX wah. I would buy it again, if stolen. I love that it's so much fun to play with it. It could have more bass punch (only for playing alone). I compared it A/B to Marshall, VHT, 5150, MesaBoogie, Line6, Valvetronix and also the Engl Blackmore signature. None of the others was as much fun (except the 5150 which I still love, but too noisy and no decent clean)

i bought it new in 2002, it was built shortly before (according to the dealer who ordered it from them). 4 x 12ax7 pre-tubes, 2 x 5881 (6l6 gc) power-tubes for 50 f*ckin-loud tube-watts.

the music i play varies from clean and crunch sounds (emo, jazz and blues at home) to overdriven chord sound (rock, ska) to distorted (punk, hardcore) and finally mad hi-gain (metal/core, hardcore, trash).
this little screamin' box fits all my needs perfectly. its got two channels (clean/lead) each with two switchable gainsettings, make two more channels (crunch and heavy lead).
clean and lead both have a gainknob. there's an additional "bright"-switch on the clean channel. (only) one EQ (bass-middle-treble) for all of them, plus a "lead presence" knob controlling the power(not pre-)amp treble control for the lead channels. master reverb (footswithable, like the 4 modes) and master volume.

on the back, it's got some of the reasonsi bought it for: first, a engl "VLS", which is simply a second (footswitchable!!!) mastervolume with the control knob on the back. second, a frequency compensated and cabinet-emulating XLR-direct-out (great for home-recording).
less important for me is the (NOT FS'ble) effects loop, controllable between serial and parallel.
speaker-options are 1x8 / 2x8 / 1x16 / 2x16 ohms.

9 for the screamer from me because the sound controls are enough to get every sound i want and because of the extra features. to give a 10 i would have requested seperate EQ's for clean and lead (i for myself don't care much though), but what the f*ck are you to expect at this price?
also, one shouldn't exchange versatility and knobs! this one is versatile with just some knobs!

reeally damn good.
i use a mid-to-end 90's gibson SG standart and a 90's epiphone LP with a seymour duncan SH-6 at the bridge. right now through a no-name 4x12" with some standart (=bad) celestions, soon through e engl or orange 2x12" cel. vint30.

i don't want to write too much (like to features ;).. simply very, very good. the clean channel, with reverb at 12 o clock and the neck humbucker of my SG gave me a shiver. just great. crunch can be jazzy or for warm and floating chords (perfect for emo). all in all very warm sound, even with the hi-gain-shred and with my crap cabinet.

yet: wou may find yourself being disappointed at first. i was, when i turned it on first. very important: it may take you some time to find "your" setting, especially for the lead channels.
i found out for myself that it is best to turn gain up, to put a lot of bass and some mids (like 3 o'clock) in it. then i turn treble up to 3 o'clock and lead presence down to like 10 or (not more than) 11 o'clock. sounds boring, but if you use this one, you'll soon know hat i mean...

this amp really fits all my sound styles... all i need for a absolutely perfect sound is a better cabinet and a power attenuator, because 50 tubewatts are far too much, even for practicing in middle-sized rooms.

well, i own this for a month now, so i can not say too much. looks (and weights!) very reliable and solid. open back with a metal plate to protect tubes and stuff, and a useless but cool-looking metal grill at the front.

haven't dealt with them.
heard they're very helpful though (like the senior amp designer answering all technical questions himself - just look up other engl reviews here).

i'm playing for 3 years now (which isn't long), and i'm so glad that i got (very) goog gear now for relatively small money.


it's very versatile, it's loud, it's got so f*ckin useful extra features, and it's pretty cheap - what else do you want?



<<< if you want, check my (hardcore/emo/punk-)band's website:
http://calledandseenas.de.vu - you might find some demo records recorded with the screamer there soon >>>

Bought it in 2nd hand but as if it was new in April 2002. I like to play Progressive rock mainly, but i like to play about everithing i rebember to... What i look for in an amplifier is total versatility and i'm a big mesa/boogie fan, but lacking the money to buy one this seemed to me the next best choice. At first i had some dificulty in setting up the sound i wanted but once done it came out awsome! From cristal clean to a fairly nice lead sound (not a shredding distortion "a la" Pantera")you can get about anykind of sound you wish. The only problem is switching fast from a nice clean to a nice lead because the amp has only one equalizer for both channels... But hey u can't have it all for this price! Great price/quality.

I use a Jackson DXL Professional guitar with a Hot Rails p.u. on neck position. This guitar i use is a little bit weak for the amplifier and my next invesment should be a MusicMan John Petrucci or a PRS.
The amp is for heavy or light rock/fusion/clean kind of music and not quite a heavy metal amp. Although with a good pedal you can get it to make such sounds.
50 wats may seem unsuficient, but believe me its more than enough (my problem is setting it low enough not to disturb the neighbours).
The controls are quite simple but it may take you a wile to get the sound you want.

Never had problems with it. It seems quite simple not to break any electrical system and the case is ultra strong. A nice thing too is that the speakers come protected by a steel net of some kind.

Never had to use it. Bot the ENGL web site is quite nice.

When i bought it i was thinking on the Hughes and Kettner amps but i think this was a weiser choice. The amp suits me perfectly for now and i think i wont get rid of it so soon. I think until i have somekind of music carrer on the way this amp will suit me fine.
Wish it had seperate equalizers for both channels and a midi interface. It sounds awsome but as a all tube amp most of it comes from your fingers...

I bought the amp this year. It has lots of features for an amp in this price range. I think for the money, this is more than you can ask for... Read the previous reviews for specifics...

REALLY good sounds. It took me a while to get what a was looking for. In the beginning, I set the gain way too high, but now I think I have it at the one clock position. That is more than enough. I play in a prog metal band, and versatility is the goal in any amp I look for. For me, the only weakness for this amp is that there is only one gain control for the whole amp. That means that if you wanna get a decent amount of distortion in the lead channel, you won't probably be able to get crispy-glassy tones on the clean channel. That's even more radical when you use high output P/U's like I do. See, the sound I am looking for is probably Petrucci's, that kind of versatility. From Heavy leads and rythms to glassy clean tones. You are extremely close to that with this amp and a good set of FX. Oh, by the way, if someone's new to all tube amps, keep in mind they are MUCH louder than solid state!! In the beginning I thought this amp could be not loud enough for me, but now I rehearse with the volume at the nine clock position, which is 1/4 of the power cappability of the amp!! REALLY loud. I won't give it a ten because this amp is not a top notch amp. I mean, you can get really close to extremely good sounds, but the amp is limited, thus never getting quite there. I want to but the ENGL SAVAGE SPECIAL EDITION. After listening to it and reading the manual and its possibilities I am sure that is the amp that suits me perfectly!!! Their new ALL MIDI ALL TUBE PREAMP 580 seems to be an out of this world machine as well!!

So far so good... Seems reliable.

I have been sending and receiving emails from Horst Langer, the designer himself, and that is just sweet... Who could know anymore about the amp than its own father!!?!?

Great value. As I said before, not an EXTREMELY GOOD AMP, but for the money, you can't ask for one. I'll give it a ten because it is a great value for the money, the perfect amp for those starting in the all-tube amp world!! Also, a great backup amplifier. Thanks ENGL, Great JOB!

Bought it in 2001. It has two channels which can be switched to more gain and to lead. Two 5881 tubes (50 watts), four ECC 83 preamp tubes. Although very simple looking (personally I don't like the chicken head knobs), it is very versatile and more important, very practical. It is well build and has a build-in Accutronics reverb. I opened it, and you can see it is completely hand build. There is also a balanced XLR output for direct recording. The compact size makes it easy to handle (we don't have roadies you know).

I play Fender Strats and Teles, so all single coils. I bought the amp mainly because of its two strong points. A Fender like clean sound, with slightly more mid and the really great distortion. When you put all the controls in the mid position, there is no need for adjustments when you switch channels. That's something I could not do with a Marshall, where I had to use the EQ after switching. The ENGL Screamer also features a very useful Variable Level Switching, which allows you to switch between two preset volume levels. Great for rhythm/solo playing! The lead sounds are very good; with the gain on 2 o'clock you have enough distortion to leave a Marhall gasping for breath!

I just had it for a few weeks, but I think it won't let me down. Like I said, it is clearly built for gigging.

I asked ENGL some questions by email about the use of different speaker cabinets and the amp designer (Horst Langer) personally answered me the day after. That's cool!

I only use an Ibanez Tubescreamer and a Boss Chorus pedal. Over the years I learned that sound is in your fingers and secondly in a good amplifier. The first thing needs practising and talent, the other could well be an ENGL amplifier.
When you're into buying an amplifier, give the guys at ENGL a change. (Jim M. made enough money with his gear).