UNBIASED GEAR REVIEW – ENGL E656 Steve Morse Signature 100 Amp Head
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DISCLAIMER – all views contained herein are mine and mine alone. My comments merely reflect my own, individual experience with this gear. They do not necessarily reflect what your personal experience may be as a potential customer of the brand I am reviewing.
ENGL E656 Steve Morse Signature 100 Amp Head
– 100 watts
– 4x EL34 Power Amp Tubes
– 4x ECC83/12AX7 Preamp Tubes
– 3 channels
– Channel 1 (Clean) and 2 (Crunch) – Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Volume
– Channel 3 (Lead) – Gain, Bass, Lo Mid 1 & 2, Hi Mid 1 & 2, Treble, Lo Volume, Hi Volume
– Hi Gain button
– Tone button that affects each channel differently
– Power section with Presence, Depth Punch, Master A and Master B
– 5 speaker outputs – 2x4ohm, 2x8ohm, 1x16ohm
– 2x FX Loops
– onboard Noise Gate
– Midi-programmability
– Footswitches available
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#UNBIASED #GEAR #REVIEW #ENGL #E656 #Steve #Morse #Signature #Amp
Originally posted by UCUdZ3AsV1douTgxXCeu-4tw at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE5m8NlOkHI
When I've seen Steve Morse live (with Deep Purple), he would change his tone and volume controls on his guitar every couple bars, creating a tonal journey through his solos. I'm guessing he changes those channel 3 settings with his footswitch in the same way, changing the flavor slightly every couple of bars.
First time watcher. Good job
Hmmm, I know you might not see this after the fact, but this was a cool demo. I've been trying to get rid of my Revv Generator 120 MK III, because I'm just not jelling with it. Sad because it cost me $4600 new with custom tolex and hardware (I usually go used, but the GAS took me).
I've really been after a hot-rodded Marshall tone and got an offer of a Splawn Quickrod, which seems to do the thing, but I'd have to send to the US, then receive it back to Canada, so I'm going to be out $500 there.
Then I got a few local trade offers of a Suhr PT-100, which does a more vintage voice hotrodded plexi thing, as well as a very rare pre-production prototype Budda AS100 Preceptor Alex Skolnick, of which they only made like 10. This one does sound cool, but it's impossible to gauge the value if I don't like it and need to resell, plus the guy sent me a gut shot of it and it's like 10 circuit boards and 13 tubes, so if I have a problem with it, my tech is going to have a hard time, especially as Budda/Peavey won't support it.
While I've be trying to decide, I also picked up a JCM 900 Mark III (2100) for a great deal, which is very similar to the SLX that I saw you got from Kyle, but this one only has only three pre-amp tubes and in place of the fourth, it has a silicon diode, which you can essentially dial out of the circuit to get very close to a 2203 tone. Apparently, it was designed by a guy who used to fix modded 2203s that people wanted put back to stock, so he figured out what worked and what didn't work. That's scratched the itch a bit.
Anyway, this week, someone offered me the Engl E656 and its tempting. It seems from a lot of demos that it does a hotrodded plexi thing, but then yours seems to give it a more modern vibe, which it seems the Pt-100 can't quite reach, even though it does sound very open and warm.
sorry, that got a little long-winded. Decisions are hard, especially when you are trading amps in the 2-3K range.
Honestly, guitarists need to get basic eq skills in order to take a full step forward. Learning to use a 31 band graphic eq, and understand those same frequencies in terms of parametric sweep, as well as Q are important steping stones to live sound and recording. I feel that taking a drive around the third channel of the E656, and understanding where your personal tone sits, is a great way to visualize and understand some of those principles.
The comment you made in respect to multitracking (15:20) were very poignant in understanding the how your guitar sits in a mix, and how you "MUST" leave frequency ranges open for the instruments that belong there.
Hey man great video! Do you think that this head is suited also for new metal music (Korn, Limp Bizkit),downtuned guitars and chugga chugga riffs? Thank you ????
Steve Morse does not fool around. He designed the amp for versatility, most especially the 3rd channel and its midrange options, his favorite place to live. And 100 watts will drive 8 cabinets – at least that's what he says; and he should know.
“Clean channel” doesn’t sound clean at all. Very gainy
I was surprised to hear a little bit of Stevie ray nice
Way too complicated for a metal player, these inspector gadget do everything on earth heads are too much
Whats the Name of the Intro Song ? ????????
Love my smaller ENGL Ironball amp so massive for a small amp but want bigger one.
this amp takes a lot of effort to really get it perfect, but simultaneously it never sounds bad. my old guitar teacher used to have this one, and it's a beast of an amp. i've always had the blackmore, and it's my favourite amp ever, but sometimes i wonder whether the morse could get on the same level if i had a couple weeks to really get it dialed
edit: haven't seen one of your vids in a while, you look great mate
that 14:00 classic metal tone sound amazing.
Nice shirt!! Great sounding amp too!
Killer tone & song dude!
tasty amp! still prefer simplicity of the ENGL powerball, it as all the chunks I'd need (although I dislike the cleans)
Arnold, your demos are awesome! Great demo of this amp. It's exactly what we want to hear. How can you test drive a Ferrari without opening it up and seeing what it can do? This is Autobahn level amp driving. Love it. I've been an Engl fan since I first tried one of their combos in '87, when they were extremely rare in the US. I tried one at a shop in Santa Monica, the late, great Ace Music. The amp supposedly had gold soldiering. Extremely well built, and it sounded incredible. I had never heard gain like it. The Engl was doing its own thing and doing it well, not trying to imitate Boogies, Marshalls or Soldanos. Brilliant engineering.
That was some kick ass riffage
Thats why I love ENGL, they're basically 30 channel amps hahahaha
Arnold; is this the same model Engl Steve Morse head that you did an unbiased review of a few months ago and then sold the head ?
I usually love Engl amps but just my opinion this has a very flat and thin. Response.
I received my Steve Morse earlier today. Haven't fully dialed it in yet but so far it's a killer amp. Funny you like this one but not the Invader. My understanding is that the Steve Morse is based on the Invader and channels 1 & 2 are virtually the same. Great review by the way
Super cool old school vibes thrash riffing Arnold !
Love the demo.
It has that thrash feel to it.
Also, I'm glad it has passed the trve kvlt tone.
Best amp I ever owned was an Engl Blackmore. My block letter 5150 was my go to until I got that amp. There’s just something about Engl amps that just stands so far apart from the rest and always delivers on the tone.
Finally someone did it right! Great review! Steve is one of the best people on this Planet
As someone who prefers a more midrangey tone, that thing rocks.