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!

Model 320. Gain, Bass, Treble, Reverb, Lead volume and Master. I like it simple, that?s why it is good and practical amp. There are no unimportant knobs and traps you have to play with, there is everything you need.

This amp sounds just great! I have tried different kinds of amps and i must say that ENGL just have the touch. Why not all the tube amps sound like these? Clean is beautiful and with little of reverb you can make it really sing. Crunch channel is good you can have lots of different kinds of sounds out of it very easily. Lead channel is awesome, when you press your pedal to switch the lead channel you almost drop from your bench. With 4X12 cabinet it only gets better. The sound rises whole new spheres. You can blast off the walls of your house with it.

I am little incapable to tell you about the reliability because I have owned this amp just a one month. I think it extreme reliable because it is made in germany :) For this month it has worked perfectly.

No experience about their customer support.

I have no bad words to say about this amp it`s just great. It fits almoust all sorts of music styles that you can play with guitar. If someone there consider buying tube amp, please take a test with ENGL thunder I bet you fall in love with it.

Input Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Crunch Volume, Lead Volume and Master Volume. Might not sound like much, but you can get alot of different tones from this amp without having to do much.

The three channels are pretty good. The clean sounds ballsy and upping the input gain makes it great for strong rhythms. The crunch is great, put the input gain up a little and crank up the crunch volume to get a great AC/DC tone. Add more gain to the crunch and you'll get close to Izzy Stradlin. With the lead channel you can pull off heavy chugging metal or with a bit of tone rollback, soaring solos.

The lack of Reverb on the 322 model is dissapointing, the clean channel would sound even better (although it is pretty sweet). Buy some sort of pedal and you're all set.

The footswitch I bough (The Z-4) was a bit expensive also, and requires a stereo Instrument Cable. Loses marks for lack of Reverb and The cost of the footswitch.

I'm using a 1995 Gibson Les Paul with two P90's in it and a Fender Strat with a hotrail in the Bridge.

I play anything from Indie Rock to Heavy Rock and it sounds great, the different overdrive types make this amp really versatile. Using my Gibson which is usually noisy with the P90's there is no real noticable noise when not playing. Although when you pump up the Lead channel volume, you will get some squealing but this is expected.

I noticed with a hot pickup, the Clean channel roughs up nicely and the distortion kicks you in the chest. You won't find this kind of punchiness in a Marshall. There is no dull muddy sounds with this amp. I was considering a JCM2000 TSL 100 and the only thing I can think that's better than this amp is the fact that the Marshall would be louder and only because it has a 4x12 cab. This amp is loud, you should never need to use maximum volume.

I was playing with the Bass up full and the punch that comes from every note is fantastic. You get that double tracked, Tom Morello feel from it, it's just so strong!

This amp is the best amp you can buy at this price range and stands up extremely well to it's more expensive brothers.

It feels fantastic to be able to get the smoothness of My Bloody Valentine and the sheer brute of Pantera with one amp!

I haven't had any trouble with it, but it seems tough. Even the footswitch is tank-line.

I bought this from Thomann and they are usually good with returns. I don't know anything about ENGL.

I have had Marshalls and a Roland and this amp trumps them all. You'd be looking hard for a Marshall that will have the same satifying sound.

If it was Stolen? I'd be annoyed and I would definatly replace it/

I'vo bought it two years ago (2003). All tube combo. It has three channels: clean, crunchy and lead. Mine has a reverb and a lead volume which balances the clean channel with the other two. It also has a master volume, preamp gain and 3-band EQ which it's shared for all the channels. This features make it a bit hard to set for live performance if you want to play with different channels in the same song. Relative volumes are hard to tune, specially if you want to use the gain knob to set the amount of distortion. Mine came with a Celestion Sirver Series V12-80 which sounds great but I haven't tried any other high end speaker so I can't compare.

I use this amp mainly in the clean channel which it is very clean. When pushed, the gain knob gives a very nice overdrive-breaking tone although it get's a bit noisy. The Lead it's very veratile channel, ussing Gain and Lead Volume you can get from slighly overdriven tones (almost clean) to heavy metal distortion. I barely use the crunch channel but it's vey similar to the lead but with less gain.

The amp's overall tone it's very warm and middy. Sometimes I miss a bit of treble and bass but, in the end, is the amps personal character. You have to live with it :-).

The volume it's more than enought for gigging or practising. This amp delivers a great tone at low volumes which it's great for home practissing or recording.

Never had a problem. I've replaced the tube myself so I've messed a bit inside of it, looks very cleanly built. The cabinet it's very sturdy. In two years and a half I've never had a problem.

I don't know, never had to contac them.

If somebody stole it probably I'll have an excuse to buy a MESA/BOOGIE, haha! I love this amp: it's cheap, I's well built and delivers a great tone.

The way I see it: This amp doesn't excel at any of his tones, it doesn't have the Fender cristal clean, not the Marshal overdrive. But works great in all of them, it's like a generic tool. It serves you in any field. It's very worth buying.

I play in a couple of UK bands one of which is mainly rock and the other is more of a function band that plays around europe. I've used many different amps over the years and have been playing a Marshall DSL 100 head through a 4x12 cab for the last two or three.
I've been using a boss GT6 with a Fender Tele and a Strat.
I've just purchased a thunder reverb 50 and I can honestly say that this is the most functional amp I've ever used. It does absolutely everything right, the Marshall has always given me a headache at low volume obviously as there's no tone but with the Engl you can get a great overdrive sound at any volume - in fact I've ditched the GT6 and I'm back to using the overdrive on the amp with a boss delay and a Boss chorus pedal and for me personally this amp has a really good quality effects loop, I find the overdrive is great - it really sings in a way that you don't get with amp modelling effects etc. If I had to have a criticism it would be that it could use a extra knob for crunch gain, but that's being picky at this price. I would say this is the kind of amp that you would probably keep no matter what else you bought along the way.

I've not had any problems with this amp so far

It doesn't have that much features, but that's good for me. It has 3 channels (clean, crunch, lead) and they share the same EQ, that's the only thing I don't like about it. For the rest...it has an effectsloop with a dry/wet knob on it, and that's about it (and a cab out). "Basic", but that's what I like about this amp. It has a lot of power though! You can blow the walls out of your room with level on 2, so it's really suitable on stage or with a band.

The clean sounds fenomenal....really warm and full. I use a not so expensive Ibanez AXS32 with two humbuckers and I can get a very good clean out of it. The crunch isn't that special....it's crunchy :), which is good for (softer) rock purposes. The lead channel.....awesome.....I can get a wall of sound like Rammstein's last album, or other more subtle and gentle distortion sounds. It is really versatile and the sound is excellent. I have placed a Boss GT6 in front of it, to give some boost to the input signal and now I can get any sound I want (even on Crunch channel).
I'm not giving it a 10 because the crunch channel is a bit redundant for me.

Well...I bought it second hand and I got it checked by some technician and nothing was wrong with it, so I guess that's pretty reliable. Germans....

I missed a knob for the reverb level and I contacted ENGL by email and they forwarded it to the disributors in the Netherlands and they emailed me back. There's a new knob on the way :)

Excellent! Nothing more, nothing less.

It has 3 channels: clean, crunch, and Lead.
Mine is the model 322 so it has no reverb (I chose to use a separate reverb which I think is a better solution because I don't like lots of reverb in my distortion)
The good thing is that it has a tremendous power for a 50W amp.
The bad thing about it is that all 3 channels share the same eq.
The rating for its features is really subjective. I would like to give it 10 for simplicity and power, but the eq part is a lack for perfection.

I play Heavy and progressive Metal and I must tell this amp suits it perfectly!!!
The guitar I use the most is an ESP M-II special with EMG 81 (neck) and EMG 60 (bridge). Make no mistake: this is the best combination if you want to whipe everyone's ass on stage!
The amp is sweet and silent even in lead mode.

The CLEAN is awesome. Very rich, warm, fat yet smoth. You can feel each and every single note. It responds perfectly to your string atack when doing clean rythm.

I don't use the CRUNCH that much but I've tried it several times and I must say, if you are into blues, don't you turn your back on this beauty. I've used it even for things like Pearl Jam and Eric Clapton and it's amazing.

The LEAD is God blessed. It is definitly one of the best ROARS I've ever heard in ANY price range amplifier.
It has lots of gain, power and presence. It has a unique Engl tone. There is nothing like it. It's Megadeth, Metallica sound: powerfull and clear!!! It has a GREAT response to picking tecnique and you won't loose any notes as you speed up. BUT it doesn't have a punchy, fat lead sound (because it's a combo) which you might find if you had a cabinet 4X12 (I won't do it because I like it simple to carry around each gig). And you won't miss it in the mix of a band (I'm supose to play guitar, not the bass part)

No problems until today. I don't even carry tubes nor backup amps with me.
But you must be carefull with the transportation. It's all tube, not solid state. What you loose in reliability and resistance, you get in sound.

I've been playing for 10 years now, but I only started to do live performances five years ago (I'm 21). I play in a Hard Rock band, AlluminiA (www.alluminia.web.pt). We play things like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Megadeth, Slipknot, Guns'n'Roses, Dream Theater ... and we are now heading towards the creation of our first album.
I'm simultaneously the singer and rythm guitarist in the band. Among several other devices, I like to use my afore mentioned M-II, and I use a boss GT-3( there are features on this pedalboard that allows me to use only 1 footswitch as a sub control pedal to control all efects on it, which makes everything really simple because I move a lot on stage and don't like to have the pedal board beneath my feet).

Before I buy this amp I tried lots of gear in every price range: Mesa, Framus, Marshall, other Engl stuff, Peavey, Laney, Carvin, Randall, ... PRICE WAS NO PROBLEM TO ME. I had money to spend in my pocket. But I wanted to make sure I would choose right, according to my needs (and I needed something practical to carry around and still great sounding), so I searched, I tried a lot and I failed a lot in finding that sound each of us have in our head: our definition of sound perfection. And then I found mine where I didn't expect it to be. Inside a small, cheap amp...
Don't be deceived by it's size. This is a BEAST! A lion in a match box! I am very happy with my choice.

But remember: NO amp is perfect! And other's opinion is s Shitt. And sometimes a bitch (a really confusing bitch). And that includes mine!
The best you can do is TRY FOR YOURSELF. Try lots of amps and decide for the one that satisfies you the most (not only the sound). I can only give you my sugestion: If you're a Metal player who likes it really simple but cares a lot for great sound, try the thunder 50 combo.

Well, it's made in germany (superb quality), and its equipped with a superb Celestion V30 speaker. And it's a 50W full tubeamp with clean channel and two channels for distortion (lead/cruch), and both distortion channels have seperated volume controls, to get that extravolume for solo ect. Gain, master volume. Then you have a basic EQ (bass, middle, treble) wich all channels share. Well, this is a bit of a problem, cuz you don't want so much mids when doing riffs, but you need them when doing a solo. So seperated eq-pedal is a great pal for this amp.

And then there's the gain.. Wich, again, all channels share. When you have the gain turned up to like to two o'clock, and you switch lead > clean, the volume rise is HUGE. Well, you can live with this by turning up the lead/crunch volume, and turning down the master, and this adds noise.. It just would be so much easier if it had seperated gain nobs for clean and distortion.

It's a simple amp, but what quanties/parts it does have.. Well, they're superb.

Well, i'm using two guitars wich are both loaded with EMG-pickups, and i'm playing music like Slayer to Black Sabbath, and doing clean stuff also, like Pink Floyd. But i won't go heavier than Slayer. And i do a lot of soloing.

To the amp. Distortion channels, they're just great. With crunch channel you get great 'Metallica' etc. Like raw, midscooped tones, and while turning down the gain, you can get ac/dc or sabbath like tones. It's very versatile from this part. And with lead channel you get even more gain and a great sustain for singing leads, and this one doesn't get 'fuzzy', so you can play as fast as you could imagine, without messing up the tone, like it does with these "super heavy smash" -pedals, so you can't even seperate a note from another.

This also responds to your playing very neatly, like the way a real tube amp should! And it does. With decent gain on the crunch channel, you can get tones to your clean parts easily by tuning down the volume from your guitar. Now you might think that "hey, i can do that with my 80$ 15w peavey too!", but it really is different with a real thing.

Now to the clean part. It's, again, awsome! It's crystal clear when you turn down the gain, with eq, you can make it really smooth or neat, or crancked up vox like aggressive and sharp.

Well, it's made in germany. I can't imagine where it would break a part. I think it can handle the same that my boss pedals, and army tanks do. The tubes are also attached with a way, that it handles gigs.

Never had to deal with them.

How long? Well long enough to know what sounds right for my purpose. I'm using boss pedals, they won't let you down by any means. And if would be stolen, and if i had the money i would probably get an ENGL Powerball wich has seperated EQ, gain etc. and if i couldn't afford one, yes, i would get a another one of these. It misses some useful features tha you might miss, but what it does have, it's superb..

To clarify, this is the Thunder 50 Combo Model #322 which is the Scott Moffatt model (some young gun from Europe, never heard of him either). What does this mean? It doesn't have reverb but instead has an added crunch volume. The other Thunder 50 combo model #320 does have reverb but no crunch volume.

Very nice appointment of features. It's essentially a 3 channel amp (clean + crunch + lead). Shared 3 band EQ, also has an FX loop, master volume, gain, crunch and lead volumes. All tube.

I do wish that the channels had seperate EQs but read on for more...

I play technical and prog metal. This amps sounds fantastic. From crystal cleans to molten gain. I set up the gain pretty high which makes the amp behave as such: gritty cleans (ala Zakk Wylde), Marshall-y like crunch (ala Spiral Architect or Ark) and molten gain (ala dream theater).

But get this, you can back off the gain control in half, and you have wonderful blues tones too!!!

This is one of those amps that sounds great at bedroom volumes, but when you open it up on stage or rehearsal...it's heavenly! God blessed us with tube amps, and this is a fine example. = )

no problems yet. hand built point to point quality in germany by the Engl gang. nice build quality too!

their distributer was very helpful.

been playing since '85. own lot's of gear, had nearly everything.

I'd be bummed if it were stolen, I find I play it more and more every day. Nice stuff that Engl makes.

I play mainly Rock, and some jazz standard
I used to play on a Mesa Mark IV witch has all the features
you can think of... the Engl is the opposite... only the essentials controls are here.
So Mark IV get a 10 and Engl a 1 ? not for me...
IMO, settings deserve only one purpose... getting tone. and it's way easier to get a good tone on the Engl than on the Mark IV.
there is only one EQ but it works like a dream for me.
you could also plug any external cabinet you want.
mine cames with an internal 1x12 Celestion vintage 30.
witch I like very much.

if can't live without a bright switch, you may consider the screamer 50.

give a 8 here cause even if there are few controls, they really works and finding a good tone is so easy...

One bad thing : you must buy a separate footswitch like the Z-4
(witch is pretty expensive for a footswitch)

3 channels... clean, crunch and lead
clean : very well balanced, not as bright as a fender (wich is a good thing for me...)
crunch is very good too and lead is awesome... very smooth and rich sounding.

seems to very well build. but I'm using it for less than a year
so I can't really say.
So far, so good.

nerver called them

I'm playing for 10 years now. have owned different kind of stuff
from cheap transistor fender to expensive triaxis rack setup.
I went to the Engl cause I was looking for a 'not too heavy' good sounding amp, the Engl beat all my expectations. lighter than my Mark IV, and sound better to my taste. a killer amp. I will buy it again
without any doubt.

This is very versatile. It suits many kinds of music. The tubesound is very good from nice crispy and very clear clean to roaring overdrives. It has 3 channels although on the englsite says that it has only 2 channels. Well anyway it's clean,crunch and lead,I dunno how many channels you make up of it.
Mine is the edition without the reverb but with de seperate volumecontrols for crunch and leadsounds. It's build in 2000 i think,maybe 2001. it has only one eq and although you can make it work with only one eq,there should have been more,or at least a bright switch for clean but then that it what you get for the more expensive screamer-model. Anyway there should have been more options in the eq-part.

My setup is a G&L Legacy Special (GREAT GUITAR! YOU PAY LESS THEN A FENDER CUSTOM SHOP BUT GET THE SAME QUALITY!!!(well at least thats what I hear often,anyway its a great guitar))--->boss ds-2---> boston volumepedal---->engl Thunder---->fx-loop Boss Gt-6
i use mainly the overdrives of the amp and they rock!!!for a while I used the overdrives of the gt-6 but they just couldn't compare to the nice overdrives of this amp.
I play mainly in christian rockbands,some worshipbands in church, most of the music ranging from very soft-pop-rock-kinda-music to hardrock. And it suits everything perfect although I think that the clean sound is mainly suited for more rock-kinda music so no jazz I think but probably that also strongly depends on the kind of guitar you are using.
the clean sound is very nice although it distorts more easliy then the other reviews say but anyway it is still very nice..extremely clear sound. The crunch sound is also very nice,sometimes a bit muddy but it's a very round sound.
and the leadsound...well what can i say,it's the best lead sound i have heard in this pricerange and some above,is very nice with a great defenition a long sustain,a real roaring distortion, like it very much

well it looks very sturdy but i haven't got the chance to really test it because i use it very carefully and no truck has ran over it so i cant reallly say if it is that solid as it looks

I have been playing for about 4 years and this is for it's price a really great amp. Although you can offcourse get a better amp if you pay more,within its price range this amp delivers a great quality in comparison to marshalls or fenders

I bought it 2 weekes ago, it is made in 2001, its the model without the Reverb.
The amp is very versatile, it suites my styles, Blues, Classic Rock, Modern Rock and Pop. It has 3 Channels, Clean, Crunch and Lead, You can switch between Clean and Crunch, Crunch and Lead and Clean and Lead. It has a Effects loop with balance. The only i wish it had is a Headphone jack, but I don't need it that bad. I doesn't have a reverb, i tought i would miss it, but i just don't, i use a Boss Delay.
I mainly use it at home now, but i will be doing gigs with it someday, it's a very loud 50 watts All Tube Amp. It has a Celestion Silver Series V-80 12" speaker

I use a Mexican Stratocaster with stock pickups, wich are going to be replaced with Kinman's because i like the strat siound but not the hum. It suite my styles very good, but it's the first 'Real Amp' i have, so i can't really compare it to.... let's say a Marshall. I do think it can do all the Marshall sound's pretty well, and it has a great clean channel. The clean breaks up at 8 -10 but i don't mind, it's a very nice tube breakup.
It has A LOT of gain, to much for me, i don't use the gain over 12 o'clock. But i don't mind the amount of gain, maybe i'll use it sometime.

I think it's very dependable, it looks sturdy, the speaker grill is made of metal, and has that nice chrome Engl logo. I thing you can drive a truck over it.
I dont think the tubes will like that. ;-)

I Live in Holland so i don't think support will be a problem here, because Engl is German, maybe it will be a problem in the U.S.A.

I have been playing for about a year now, i haven't used so many Amps but, hearing and comparing it in the store, this Amp is probably the best in his Price Range.

I bought this one in september 2000. It's a full tube amp with three switchable channels: clean, crunch and lead. All three channels share the same EQ (bass, middle and high). It features a send return at the back for effects and an accutronics spring reverb, which is oke but not be comparable to a lexicon reverb. Crunch and lead channel are adjustable with a lead level pot.

I play strats (american standard an a cutomized with semour duncans). use them for different styles form soul to hard rock. The amps suits all styles from crispy clean to screaming lead sounds, it covers the ful range. Even in lead mode it's a very quiet amp. Clean only get an edge at 9 or 10 or so. Crunch is absolutely outstanding for power chords. Lead is excellent. Turn it up loud and you won't believe what you hear.

I use it for gigs without backup. The amp itself looks and feels sturdy. Never had any problems whatsoever

Haven't had to deal with it yet, hope it stays that way.

I used to played a rocktron chameleon with a marshall poweramp and a fender super champ. I use the champ for practice (at home or in the basement with the band). I got tired of carrying the marshall and cabinets around so I decided to relief my back. Tried several other brands like fender, marshall, peavey, H&K, Laney, Trace Elliot in the same price range. Finally it was a Marshall DSL 401 combo or the Engl. The Engl just sounded better and looked more solid.

97 Model, all tube 50w combo, loud enough but light enough to carry about, strong full sound, low-noise, 2 Channel (Clean/Lead), nice Accutronics spring reverb, serial effects loop (which tends to chop out the nice amp sounds - the newer version of this amp is in this respect better I think - parallel?). Celestion 12" speaker, Cabinet output also possible but not both. The head version of this amp maybe a better choice, but I like the compact combo solution. Looks great.

I use Tele and Strat guitars at the moment, but this amp will favourably reproduce all good guitars without too much of its own colour, and with humbuckers really low-noise. I use this for soft rock to heavy metal with a Boss GT5, it's versatile enough, clean is really clean and distorted really fried. It's a simply laid out amp for miking in clubs and so on, too small for a big stage (try a cabinet hook-up maybe), but delivers reliably good sounds anywhere for the price. I like it a lot.

I chose this amp over the Marshalls and Fenders I tried because it's componentry, workmanship and sound is better. I carry spare tubes but don't use em up at all (spare fuse is on board).

Engl is still small enough to care about what happens to the little guy. 12 month Warranty, but in 2 years no problems experienced.

I'd probably buy a head + cabinet version to replace this if need be. This is the best combo I've ever had. I don't change gear alot, as the pedals these days are more important, but you still need in my opinion a really good tube sound, and this one delivers OK.