Engl Straight 100 Head

100 watt all-tube head. I think it was made in the late 80's or early 90's. 2 channels. Separate EQ. The lead channel has a number of shaping switches (for lack of a better term), including a gain boost, mid frequency shift, bright switch, and channel volume override (if you want it to work more like an 80's style master volume amp). Master presence and volume controls at the end. Effects loop (not footswitchable), 1 8 ohm and 2 4 ohm speaker outs. Perhaps the craziest thing is the adjustable voltage on the back, presumably because the amp was made overseas but was shipped to the US. 110/120/200/240. Not useful in the US, but cool if I ever tour with this overseas.

This is HANDS-DOWN the loudest amp I've ever played. I generally keep the lead channel vol on about 4.5 and the master at 1. Anything more and I will drown out EVERYONE.

Also of interest is the size of the head - it's REALLY short, close to the Mesa Mark series short heads. Not a huge deal, but if you come across one (and I haven't already bought it, haha) be prepared to stuff some extra foam in your road case for a snug fit.

I use this as my main amp in a technical/progressive death metal band. I'm absolutely sure this was not what anyone had in mind when designing this amp, but man it has THE sound I've been looking for. Tons and tons of mids, heavy yet defined bass, and not too much treble! Most guys seems to want the ultra dry/bright sound for tech death, and while you can probably get close to it with this, this amp is much thicker, sludgier, and more crushing than those tones. I'm going for a mix between old-school DM (Suffocation/Obituary), modern crust/metallic-tinged hardcore (Trap Them, Cursed) while retaining clarity of single-note lines. This amp does it wonderfully.

I run a boost in front to drive the tubes a little harder, and as a result run the lead channel's gain on about 3. Yeah, THREE. This thing has gain for days.

Is it noisy? Probably, but I have a rack-mounted ISP noisegate to take care of all of that. No squeals/squelches at all!

The clean channel isn't really clean, especially at high volumes. That's a-ok with me, though, as I don't need a "true" clean tone. It serves as a nice contrast, with a crunchy low-gain sound that works for brief interludes.

I've had it for three months, been gigging with no backup. It stays in a live-in road case, and that's where it will be save for when it's retubed! No problems thus far at all.

N/a. Got the manual from their site, that's about it.

My favorite amp thus far. Would not trade it/sell it (unless it was for a brand-new one, haha). Were it stolen, I'd hunt down the thief and run him/her over in the tourvan repeatedly. Thus far I really have no complaints with it. Imagine a JCM800 on steroids with more low-end and all in a much smaller package. If you find one for a reasonable price, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. Or sell it to me.

100W all tube amp, 2 chanels, footswitchable gainboost in lead chanel, each chanel with its own EQ, many sound shaping switches, master volume, master presence, footswitchable spring reverb. for more features visit: http://www.engl-amps.com/manuals/e501-om.pdf

so it's very versatile. the only thing i miss is a 2nd gain knob in the lead chanel. and a 2nd master volume.

clean: from very clean to hard crunch. with high output pickups it begins to crunch at 4/10. with gain boost (which boosts bass mainly), freq shift, treble shift and a bright switch very versatile, from sparkling highs to mellow sounding clean all is possible. if you crank it up, you get very nice crunch sounds, with a fat tone and lots of punch.

lead: i mostly use ist for heavy metal style musik, with gain boost on and gain set to 10. the distortion ist brutal enough for any kinds of traditional metal, might also work for more modern stuff, but mid-scooped nu-metal is not good with this amp. but i dont need that anyway. it is a very straight amp, so if you play shitty, it will sound so. iff you play brutal it will sound brutal. i like that pretty much, because it gives me the opportunity to influence the sound alot just by the way i play, without turning a single knob. crunch sound is in this chanel not so good, its built to ROCK. and it really does.

once broke down becaus of my own stupidity. the tubes were in bad condition when i got it, but thats nothing to worry about in a 20 year old amp.

i once dropped it upon stairs. 4 knobs head to be replaced, thats all. it seems to me very reliable. i do gig without backup.

they sent me the schematcs of this amp, but i had to mail them twice to get one response, and it took them almost 2 weeks to answer... so i would say friendly but slow. hopefully i wohnt need to deal with them any more (due to reliability)

i'm playing this amp for half a year, into a 4x12 with celestion V30 speakers. i use a cort guitar with duncan pickups (SH-6 & hotrail) and i use no other gear, as the amp has all i need. i really like playing it, it sounds very good in a band, as its absolutely not muddy and yu cann allway hear it. and its a loud amp. i never have to turn the master past 2/10 (but i sometime do... you need to feel the sound :D) if it was stolen, i think i would get another amp, maybe an engl blackmore head. (which actualy sounds similar to the straight)

The amp was a prototype made in the mid 80s. It has a clean channel with 3-band EQ, bright switch, shift switch, and a lead channel with 3-band EQ, gain boost, midboost, shift and EQ lift switches. This makes it quite versatile.

I used it with an Explorer with a Floyd Rose vibrato and an OBL 500 XL at the bridge. The amp liked guitars with Floyds and midrangey pickups whereas it gave me problems when using traditional guitars like a Les Paul or a Strat. The highs and harmonics sounded just weird with those guitars. Clean sound is OK but not as good as a good Fender or VOX. Crunch sounds are not in there. Higain sounds are there, sound and feel good while playing but recorded it sounds very muddy. If you turn back the gain, the amp loses tone quickly.

Although the amp never broke down it gave me some problems. I got zapped a few times although the tecnician could not find the problem. The effects loop was unuseable since every effect connected triggered a loud 50-cycle hum ground loop. I guess this was better with the production models. However I have heard from other people that they experienced breakdowns leading to irreparable damage.

The people at Engl are quite friendly. They may have helped me hadn't I traded the amp in.

I have been playing for 25 years. I sold this amp in the early 90s. I never would buy it again. I play Bluesrock, Southern Rock and Country Rock, and I need that middle ground, those crunch sounds that the Engl Straight (or any other Engl that I have tried for that matter) cannot deliver. Therefore the amp was pretty useless to me. However, for the heavy metal player who occasionally needs a clean tone this could be a good amp if you can find one cheap.