Young Angus
Kometose Tonologist
Probably about two years ago now I bought my ENGL Savage 120, and only now have I finally got it working properly...so I thought I might share with everyone on this fantastic forum just why it took so long.
When I bought the amp second hand through the trading post, the seller and I took it to a music shop just so we could use some of their cabs to test it (because the seller no longer had a cab). It sounded absolutely fantastic through the cabs, all four of it's channels (even its rough and smooth modes for those ENGL fans out there) and it sounded like the dream amp I'd hoped it would. So for the amazing price he was selling it for I bought it without hesitation. I didn't have a cab yet though so I started shopping around for some...first stop, Allans music in Kew to try it through a Peave 5150 cab (and also compare to the 5150 Mk2 that was sitting there just for kicks), and as expected the ENGL blew the 5150 away and all of it sounded magnificent once again (I was using a voodoo les paul to test it). I really couldn't believe how good the ENGL sounded and how lucky I was. So I started thinking that I wanted a 5150 cab because I hadn't looked into many others and as far as I could tell it sounded pretty darn good!
I started looking for cheaper cabs though because I didn't have that much money, and came across a Marshall 1960A in the post and took my amp to the sellers house to try it out...but it didn't sound very good so I knocked it back. I thought it was just the Marshall cab making it sound crap. I ended up saving up and buying a matching ENGL slant vintage 30 loaded cab which took ages to get in but I was pretty pleased when it came...but something wasn't right when I plugged in the amp...it just didn't sound like I thought it should have, it did however have old tubes in it and I hadn't changed them since buying the amp second hand, so I put that next on my list.
After much research I decided on a shipment of JJ's from Bob at Eurotubes (great man to deal with, great tubes, and even better prices...cheers Bob!) and when they got here I took the amp to the man who still in a lot of peoples eyes remains the most well respected amp guru here in Australia. I told him that I thought something didn't sound quite right with the amp and that I was fairly sure something was wrong and it didn't sound anywhere near as good as it used to, but that the tubes were also old so maybe putting new tubes would help...so I gave him the amp and new tubes and paid him to check it out and bias the new valves in. He put the new tubes in, but much to my dismay when I picked up the amp he said that nothing was wrong with the amp and it was just the way that amp sounded, that perhaps my perception had changed since I first tried it out (because probably six months at least had passed since then), plus I thought to myself that maybe it was the Les Paul Voodoo with its high output pickups that gave it that sound I was loving (but at the time forgot that the seller had demonstrated the amp to me in the store when I was buying it in the first place with a stock fender strat). So being the guru that this amp tech was I didn't dispute him, and just hoped that the new tubes would make a difference...so I paid him and left. Got home, plugged it in, and still although noticing a slight improvement I did not think it sounded much better, but this tech had told me that nothing was wrong with it...so I took his word for it.
When I bought the amp second hand through the trading post, the seller and I took it to a music shop just so we could use some of their cabs to test it (because the seller no longer had a cab). It sounded absolutely fantastic through the cabs, all four of it's channels (even its rough and smooth modes for those ENGL fans out there) and it sounded like the dream amp I'd hoped it would. So for the amazing price he was selling it for I bought it without hesitation. I didn't have a cab yet though so I started shopping around for some...first stop, Allans music in Kew to try it through a Peave 5150 cab (and also compare to the 5150 Mk2 that was sitting there just for kicks), and as expected the ENGL blew the 5150 away and all of it sounded magnificent once again (I was using a voodoo les paul to test it). I really couldn't believe how good the ENGL sounded and how lucky I was. So I started thinking that I wanted a 5150 cab because I hadn't looked into many others and as far as I could tell it sounded pretty darn good!
I started looking for cheaper cabs though because I didn't have that much money, and came across a Marshall 1960A in the post and took my amp to the sellers house to try it out...but it didn't sound very good so I knocked it back. I thought it was just the Marshall cab making it sound crap. I ended up saving up and buying a matching ENGL slant vintage 30 loaded cab which took ages to get in but I was pretty pleased when it came...but something wasn't right when I plugged in the amp...it just didn't sound like I thought it should have, it did however have old tubes in it and I hadn't changed them since buying the amp second hand, so I put that next on my list.
After much research I decided on a shipment of JJ's from Bob at Eurotubes (great man to deal with, great tubes, and even better prices...cheers Bob!) and when they got here I took the amp to the man who still in a lot of peoples eyes remains the most well respected amp guru here in Australia. I told him that I thought something didn't sound quite right with the amp and that I was fairly sure something was wrong and it didn't sound anywhere near as good as it used to, but that the tubes were also old so maybe putting new tubes would help...so I gave him the amp and new tubes and paid him to check it out and bias the new valves in. He put the new tubes in, but much to my dismay when I picked up the amp he said that nothing was wrong with the amp and it was just the way that amp sounded, that perhaps my perception had changed since I first tried it out (because probably six months at least had passed since then), plus I thought to myself that maybe it was the Les Paul Voodoo with its high output pickups that gave it that sound I was loving (but at the time forgot that the seller had demonstrated the amp to me in the store when I was buying it in the first place with a stock fender strat). So being the guru that this amp tech was I didn't dispute him, and just hoped that the new tubes would make a difference...so I paid him and left. Got home, plugged it in, and still although noticing a slight improvement I did not think it sounded much better, but this tech had told me that nothing was wrong with it...so I took his word for it.
)
