Engl Thunder 50 Combo

Mine was a Thunder Reverb. It was an earlier version, with brown loudspeaker cover, and frontplate. It had two channnels, but three modes (clean-crunch-lead). Only one EQ section, but it was enough. Does it have enough power for you? - Unfortunately not. The amp sounds amazing by clean an distortion sounds, but when you spin the master pot to 12hours, it wouldn't be louder, either muddyer.

Fender like Cleans, and Peavey like Drives are the honours of this amp. Sorry that the drive channel is to noisy by higher volumes.

Never had any problem with it. The amp-chassis is way robust builded.

Never dealt with them.

I'm playing over 18 years guitar. I loved this amp beacuse its sounds, but it wasn't enough loud on stage, and by higher volume it was noisy and muddy.

My Engl was made in ~1998.
I play mostly clean stuff with a some rock-ish elements. This amp did anything i wanted until now, and it did it great.

It has 2 channels, clean and crunch. There's also a "global" Reverb and standard effects loop.
Although I don't mind having a shared 3band EQ, I believe that you might want to get some other amp if you really need different EQ settings for your clean and crunch channel.

I wish it had a standby switch, but the newer models have it anyway. Remember: My model is over 10 years old (Brown face without standby switch).

I use this in small to medium locations and it does great. 50W Tube power, but it definitely has the balls for bigger events.

As somebody before me said: it doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.

I play a B.C. Rich Exclusive model + some Strats through it, so I use both Humbuckers and Singlecoils.

This amp is really versatile, it has a really effective EQ, so you can get a nice wide range of sounds. The only thing you have to do is sit down and spin the knobs (and maybe write down cool settings). When I bought it I was a bit disappointed, but it turned into enthousiasm after having worked with it.
It is a nice amps for guitarists that like having a large effects chain (like I do). I mostly use it with a rather low to medium gain setting and I crank it up with my T-Rex Alberta Overdrive. This gives me 4 different overdriven sounds:
clean/clean - clean/overdrive - crunch/clean - crunch/overdrive.
The amplifier really shines in this setup.

I had some gear going through my hands in the past time, this amp turns out to be a real jewel.

You might want to change the preamp Tubes because I was able to get some nice improvements by changing them. It made the amp more balanced and gave some more balls to the crunch channel. Google might help you here ;)
Even without adjustments this amp soungs amazing. It might get a bit too bright (but this is highly subjective) with strats.

I never managed to get the clean channel dirty but I believe that its possible (obviously it doesnt depend only on the amp). As I mentioned before its very versatile, so you can go from really really warm and mellow to sparkling bright. Very nice.

The crunch channel is really good. Better than a lot of gear I tried. It reaches from "soft warm" to "edgy dirt". It has a lot of gain but I dont think you can do metal without any distortion pedals. Nice response to the guitars volume knob. You can get it really clean by turning the guitar volume down.
However, I believe that you can get really professional sound out of this baby by using the right effects rig (e.g. it interacts nicely with the t-rex pedal overdrives).

What I have to mention here is that this amp is very responsive to the guitarists dynamics. Its incredible what you sounds you can achieve by changing pluck strength, differing positions and so on. Really cool.

Reverb does NOT remain if you turn the knob to 0, at least for my amp. (why would you turn the knob to 0 if you can switch it off anyway?)

I actually use this without backup.

~11 years without any trouble. Its rock solid, Engl has done a really nice job here.

The only thing I thought would be a problem was the (relatively) thin cable from poweramp to speaker. Well, it's not noisy and it lasted until today without any problems.

It had a resistor changed, it was a preventive change though.

One thing i have to mention is that it tends to get a bit noisy when it gets hot (e.g. if somebody covered the back). but maybe that is just my amp?!

Never had to deal with them.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?
Well, I dont think its easy to find a "brownface" Engl, but I would try getting the same one. I would also try the new Thunder 50.

I compared this amp to some others like similar peaveys, laneys and H&K ones. It kicked ass.

If you can get one of these, get it! you won't regret that.

No idea when it was made. Guitar isn't my primary instrument, but I play a little rhythm here and there to make things a little fatter and back up the lead guitarist. This little amp is sweet - really. I don't think I need any more variety for what I do. Can cover a wide range of overdrive/distortion. I have the reverb version - so one lead volume controls the lead and crunch channels - would be handy to have seperate controls, which is how the non-reverb version is set out (the extra knob controls reverb on mine). So far I have used it at one gig and it's certainly loud enough. I would feel comfortable up to a medium size gig before needing to mic it. Tube pre, tube power - 12ax7 and 6l6 valves I think? Well...that stuff is in the manual. An 8 for features...it doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.

I love it. What can I say. I had read that it won't do the really brutal distortion as some young guys might like - but it certainly goes as far as I need with the gain at or slightly below 12 o'clock...it sounds pretty brutal to me! Keep it clean and drive the master really high and you get a sweet natural overdrive from the power stage - I could do with some sort of power soaker for this! I use an 80's Yamaha SuperR'n'Roller (jap strat copy) and the pickups can sing through this amp. I play in a covers band - and really guitar isn't my primary instrument - but it pretty much gets me any sound I need for what I do. I think it's a quiet amp - only noise comes from my strat as far as I can tell, and the Engl certainly doesn't make it any worse.

Hmmm...well now. I haven't had this long so it's hard to say. It seems that the reverb wasn't working when I got it - I didn't notice until I tried the reverb at home (D'oh), so I took it back to the secondhand store and they're having that fixed. Who knows why it's not working - someone may have plugged something into the wrong place or something, so I won't mark it down because of this. The cabinet is soooo solid - quite a heavy beasty for the size. I have seen inside one of these and I can't say that the PCB mounting impresses me all that much with valves mounted directly on the board and cheap looking plastic risers holding the boards to the chassis - but that may even help provide some protection (a little give perhaps) for the components. Like I said, cabinet is super-solid, and there is a decent cage protecting the valves so I'll see how it goes.

Manual is online, which is great and more manufacturers should do so. Dunno about warranty since mine was secondhand and I haven't otherwise dealt with the company - so aside from online manuals I can't really rate them!

I guess I've been playing a little guitar on and off here and there for close to 20 years now. My rig is simple - the Yamaha and this amp - but I must say that this is the best rig I've owned - this is a keeper! I've had cheaper strat copies and a niceish Washburn jazz guitar in the past through various amps, the best of which was a Marshall JTM30 - but I think I like this Engl much more than I did the Marshall! For the price - full points! Did I mention TONE?

Llevo utilizando este ampli desde hace 5 a??os y puedo decir que guarda la mejor calidad precio del mercado. Tienes 3 canales que basicamente son 2, agudos, medios, graves y una reverb. La verdad es que al principio los controles de los potenciometros te l??an un poco, ya que el "Gain" controla la ganancia pero a la vez el volumen del canal limpio, y luego tienes el Lead para el volumen del canal saturado y luego un master para el volumen general, hay que pasarse mucho tiempo para pillarle el truco y estabilizar los volumenes

Sinceramente este ampli destaca por su canal limpio. Yo utilizo una Gibson Les Paul Standard y para el limpio un SuperChorus de BOSS, y es increible el sonido que saca. El canal crunch no lo utilizo mucho. Para la gente que quiera hacer metal que utilice mucho el canal Lead quiz?? notara que poniendo la saturaci??n a tope el sonido pierde presencia, pero para rock una saturacion media es cojonuda, consigue un sonido potente y seco, pero a veces puede "chicharrar" un poco.

La construcci??n muy solida, tecnologia alemana. Es el ampli mas solido que he tocado, y lo he llevado a infinidad de bolos y le he metido mucha ca??a y sigue como el primer dia. en 5 a??os solo lo he llevado una vez para un cambio de valvulas pero por que yo queria, no por ningun problema

Por 720 ??? nuevo, y alrededor de 450 ??? de segunda mano es una opci??n genial para alguien que quiera su primer Combo a valvulas. Muy versatil y supera con creces otras opciones de primer Combo a valvulas como Peavey Classic 30 o Hot Rod de Fender (a no ser que te guste el sonido strato :D).Para los amantes del rock y del sonido Les Paulero es una compra estupenda

Ok before I start can I just say that over all my years of playing guitar, I've found that German equipment rocks. Literally. This includes the ENGL Thunder Reverb Combo. 12' Vintage Celestion, Tube Reverb, 50 watts of power, 3 channels, and made in Germany! The amp has one three-way equalizer for all channels, which is the only slighty annoying thing about this amp.

I play a lot of different kinds of music, ranging from Blues to New Age, and this amp does all of them. I use a lot of FX pedals through the amp, and it takes them in great. Clean channel can be warm and bright, and the reverb sounds great. To describe the distortion in one word = AMAZING. When I was trying out this amp, I was in the market for the under 1000 euro range, and it's competitor was the Marshall DSL combo. This amp beat it by a longshot. Oh, and 50 watts is MORE than enough, for any gig, as I've found out. From bars, to clubs, to small concert halls, this amp is great.

The drummer in my band dropped my ENGL from about 1/2 a meter, and not a scratch! This was before a gig, and it lasted out, and played at top performance. I've had it for 3 years, and it's never broken. Replaced the tubes 'bout 2 months ago, barely any quality difference.

I have never dealt with ENGL, but if their customer support is anywhere near as good as their products, well, it must be pretty good.

I've owned Fenders, Voxs, and Line-6s, and the ENGL outshines all of them in tone superiority, reliability, and, dare I say, beautifulness. A big hands down to ENGL for making such great products.

All right... It's the Thunder 50 combo, the one without reverb.

Well, the biggest problem with this amp is that all the three channels have only one gain pot. My guitar is Ibanez 520FM, and it has Evolution and PAF Pro -pickups. With this hot pickups, the clean channel gets a little distorted if you turn the gain over 13.00. This means that you can't get the best lead sound and the best clean sound at the same time.
Three channels are footswitchable and the amp has an effect loop.
Oh yes, one more minus. All the channels have the same EQ.

This... is the best thing with this thing.
The clean channel is really beautifully warm and comfortable.
The crunch channel gives you a really convincing, tight rock sound. The lead channel has even tighter lows and it really kicks ass when playing fast heavymetal-riffs. Sometimes it feels almost too tight.

Oh yeah... ITS NOISY! 50 tube-watts really can do a gig, without any problems.

Just bought it, so I can't really tell. But it should be quite reliable.

-

The sound is so good that the features don't trouble that much.
The thing doesn't have any effects, but i thought of buying a rack-multieffect some day.

50watt combo, 12 inch celestion speaker, reverb, 3 preamp tubes, 2 poweramp tubes. 3 channels: Clean, Crunch & Lead. The channel switching is a bit annoying sometimes: There is a button for switching from clean to crunch, and another button for switching from crunch to lead. It has a serial effects loop. No headphone jacks. Various speaker outs. I use the amp at home and for band practice, and in the future for gigging. It easily has enough power. The shared EQ is not really a problem for me, I don't change it too much. I have found 2 setting I like, and those are the only two I use. 1: Bass 11, mid 12 treble 13 and 2: bass 9 mid 13 treble 15 (all o'clock)

I use a 2005 MiM tele with it, just the stock single coils. I play mostly old-skool punk, and garage rock. I use the crunch channel with the gain around 15 most. Sounds killer. The amp itself is very quiet. I haven't got the chance to turn up the clean enough to make it distort. The distortion can be very brutal, and the lead channel can do metal, even with my tele. It won't have enought gain for the real gain freaks though.

It must also be noted that this amp sounds best when used in a band situation. When used alone it sounds good, but when used in a band it gets really good (not because of the volume, it just seems more in place with a band)

I own it for a month now, I bought it used. The previous owner never had problems with it, and neither did I.

I've been playing for 3 years now. I own a fender champion 30 DSP, some unidentified (bass?) amp, a MiM tele, and a shitty strat copy. If it were stolen I would probably try to find thesame amp. I like the simplicity of the controls, and the combination of a good clean sound, and a powerfull crunch sound. It's pretty dark sounding, wich is sometimes nice, but can be a pain in the ass. I compared it to a fender hotrod deluxe, and this one pwned the hotrod. The price for a new thunder is way higher than a hotrod, but the used prices are both around 500 euro's, so it was an easy choice.

-Made in germany (i think that in 2003) ALLTUBE 50w amplifier, 12' celestion vintage loaded

-3 channel combo : clean, crunch, lead...BUT have also esential 4th channel, which is very distort clean channel....

-channel switching works very fine (i bought Z3 schwitch, but has no len indicating, so that was added by one my friend)

-no reverb.....have to add some additional

-First thing that i found not very good, is that it has gain control both for clean and lead/crunch. Little bit confusing, when im using setting : master 15-16 o'clock
lead volume 2-3 o'clock
gain 16-15 o'clock
(in this setting ,power amp is making all the distortion stuff. Sounds really killer)
When im schwitching between clean and lead, lead is in normal volume level, but clean is blowing me away. So i have to make compromises and set less master and more lead volume.

second (but not very crucial) 'handicap' is ,that you have only one EQ for all 3 channels.
But i have to mention, that this EQ works very great ,and can easily make your sound beautifull.

all this little handicaps can be easily solved by buying Sreamer,which is more expensive, but you get all the comforts .
In addition it works great and everything has its purpose. You have many combination of settings ,that sound excellent and you get your tone after few minutes.
Another positiv thing is,that you dont have to go through manual 5 hours learning what is for what. Just plug and play.

I have just bought Framus cammarilo custom (another german pearl at home :) ) guitar loaded with 2 humbuckers :Seymour JB in bridge and Sh1 (55 or 59,i dont know ) in neck.
This amp is real motor chain saw. Sounds like mesa boogie,but in european style. Im not using stompboxes (only reverb and chorus are missing,but they are comming soon). Very suitable for rock, hardrock, death-doom-gottic-speed-trash metal. In case,every hard music where you have to have bottom-middle sound for riffs and power chords and also Malmsteen-Batio sound for fast picking licks. And also sqeals and string bending ....this amp covers everything what i need for good metal/hardrock music.Of course ...you can improve your sound by adding cabinet (me using handmade closeback ),and make the sound more realistic and '3D' (im using mainly lead at setting mentioned above).
Distortion doesnt sound muddy. You can hear every single tone from chord, and it still have its lead brutallity.For solos im using whether neck ,or neck+bridge pickup position to make it sounds smooth, that solo can easily follow your fingers.
Clean sound are also very nice. Briliant harmony. Very good with nice chorus and reverb sounds.Clean can be distored by going to 16 or 17 o'clock on gain control
The amp is not very noisy. Just classical little hiss, no reason for buying noisegate.

In my opinion it is reliable. Im using it without backup. Never broken down for its 2 year life .
I hope that it will overlive me and would play also when i would be 95 years old.
It is german ,so why not.:))

Yes,i had some questions,and they answered me within 2days.

Im playing for 8 years and have tried more tube amps in this prize cathegory....this one was winner .If someone will stolen it ,it would be an apocalyse day and one great metheorit will smash into his house....this amp is my precious......but seriously, if i want to change it for something more ,it would be again Engl,but it depens on money...i'll buy screamer or some of their heads (have played on savage 120,and this thing is an earthquake machine) but im still satisfied with Tunder

All valve combo amp with 2 EL34 and a 12 '' Celestion speaker.
2 Channles, spring reverb, serial effect loop, 3 foot switches, lead boost, diverse switches to add bass, mids, treble.
It has all you need, the only things i miss are a parallel effect loop and a separate volume control for lead boost, therefor 9 from ten points

I use humbucker guitars, two with 24 3/4 gibson scale, one power strat with floyd rose and 2 humbuckers.
The sound of this old valve amp is simply great.
Clean channel is clean and stays clean, even if cranked. It just amplifies the sound of your guitar and it adds no distortion or compression. Maybe at very high volume some power tube distortion will appear, but i never needed to turn up master volume that loud. This little 50 watts box gets loud as hell. On clean channel you have a separate eq. This eq changes the sound without hiding what guitar you play. Simply great!
The clean sound is good (given you have a good sounding guitar), but the overdrive chanell is even better. At about 12 o'clock you have a good old tube overdrive, lets say like ac/dc on highway to hell. It is not exactly a marshal crunch, but sounds very good. the eq adds lots of different sounds, the extras witches (mid boost, treble boost) add even more possibilities. a damn good rhythm sound for rock and metal or a lead sound for blues and blues rock or classic rock. if you turn up gain higher than 12 o'clock, lets say 4 or 5 o'clock, you get more overdrive. More than tubescreamer or similar pedals offer. Even if you split a humbucker,the dribve level is more than o.k., and the sound character ist very good. Not to rough, not to smooth. If turn down mids and crank treble and bass, it's metal-like, if you turn midsand treble to 12 o'clock and ad mid boost you have a damn good classic rock sound., much better than some all valve marshalls.
Drive still not enough for very heavy metal or compresed leads? Hit lead boost switch, and you get a shot more mids, slightly more volume and an absolutely great high gain lead sound.
The drive channel (without, and especially with lead boost) is extremely good. And rather versatile, no one trick pony. The amp has a lot of headroom for trebles and upper mids, without sounding too harsh. And the amp is very analytic. Even with very high gain it hides nothing. I heard from players who said the Engl improved the tightness of their playing so much because it hides no mistake, as opposite to many amps whose distortion tend to hide sloppy playing.
Imainly play blues rock, classic rock and hard rock, but the Engl can serve nearly all kinds of music, from sparkling clean country via smooth jazz/blues to power metal. Maybe with the exception of extremely harsh, transistor-like thrash/death/nu metal.

My main drive channel setting is gain at 5 or 6, bass at 8, mids and treble at 5 and mid boost on. For leads i use the lead boost.
If you turn up gain to 9 or 10 and add mid boost and leadboost,it gets a little noisy, but that is far more drive i ever needed so far. It also gets a little muddy, but many other tube amps get muddy at with much less drive.

I play the Engl Straight for 12 years and never had any troubles.
My straight is from the early 90s, and still works fine. Therefor 10 from 10.

No idea.

A very versatile amp with damn good distortion sound, good clean sound and very relialble. It has its own character and his own sound, no copy of marshall, fender or boogie. It has a good shot of treble, butnot too much. The Straight is kinda clear and analytic, even at high gain settings. This is the best amp i ever played. I'd never sell my Engl. If it was stolen, i'd try to get another Engl Straight as soon as possible. I haven't tested the newer Engls like Thunder or Screamer so far, but i can't imagine they sound better than the Straight.

Its very simple, you dont need more i think....

Im using a Gibson Custom, Jackson USA DK (EMG 85/81) and a fender 50th anniversaty strat dlx. Mine main amp is a Mesa/boogie dual rec.

So the thunder is a real monster... clean it awesome nice tones very warm much better then a mesa rectifier.

Crunch i do not use chrunch often but its good for blues/jazz nothing very special sounds good

Lead here comes a smile on my face :) its really a variaty of tones. You can play rock to hard rock and metal. its a wondelfull sound... Near as heavy as my good old friend the Mesa rectifier......

Never had a problem with it, very solid.

Its oke to

All very very good alround amp. please help yoursell and try it!