Got a deal on an ENGL Invader 100, what to do?

H-evolve

H-evolve

Member
Apr 21, 2014
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Montreal, Canada
Hi guys,

A store close by is getting rid of all its ENGL products. It's not going to sell ENGL products anymore, as they are difficult to sell.

My first question to is: Why all the hate against ENGL? I really like their tone, but reading many threads here, it seems most people don't like them. It seems the metal industry is mostly going for the 6505 or the Mesa Dual Rectifier. (or any Mesa product for that matter.

The other question is: What do you think of the Invader, if it's 1000$ cheaper than the regular price (since they are getting rid of their inventory)? Should I jump on this deal?

As a background, listening to videos of different heads, I have always been a fan of the Dual Rectifier and the ENGL Powerball and Fireball. But, I've never played neither of them. Seeing this nice deal, I was perhaps thinking on jumping on it. Listening to some youtube videos of the Invader, the tone seems quite nice as well, slightly different than the Powerball and Fireball, but quite nice.

I play music similar to Mors Principium Est, Nevermore, etc. (I'm not into djent for instance)

Obviously I will go to the store and try it (unless they already sold it), but I was curious to get your opinions.

What do you guys think?
 
I say try it out and if you like it, then go for it. Personally, the only Engl I liked was the Savage.
 
I have not heard much at all about the Invader, but I don't think it has a bad reputation. The hate around ENGL amps is that they often don't translate well to recording: the Powerball especially has a reputation to sound fizzy, harsh and muddy under a mic, but people with hands-on experience should comment.

OT: C'est quel magasin qui se débarasse de son inventaire ? C'est bon à savoir. :p
 
I think a lot of the criticism of ENGL amps is because they're tonally inconsistent. Having played around with lots of Kemper profiles, the Powerball seems muddy, the Fireball seems harsh, and the Invader seems both muddy and harsh. The E530 and Savage are pretty sweet though imo. There just doesn't seem to be the common tonal quality that you get when you look at Orange amps, for instance, or even most Mesa Boogies.
 
Basically what Jim said, they are overpriced and don't sound nearly as good as their price would entail. I've tried a savage and a Blackmore a couple years ago in Edmonton, defintely some good amps but then I look at the price tag and see that I could just pick up a used 6505/5150, 5150 iii, or dual rectifier which are basically hard to fuck up tone wise and for a half or even a quarter of the price.

Also the powerball I tried maybe five years ago, it sucked. No matter what you do you cant get rid of the scooped sound. Basically no mids and it sounds great by itself but in a mix setting good luck getting it to cut through any sort of dense arrangement.
 
MoTang said:
Also the powerball I tried maybe five years ago, it sucked. No matter what you do you cant get rid of the scooped sound. Basically no mids and it sounds great by itself but in a mix setting good luck getting it to cut through any sort of dense arrangement.
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Same experience here. In the past, I had some extended experience with a Powerball. At the time, I was playing a very mid-rangy guitar due to it being built from swamp ash and a maple neck-thru. I got a decent sound by basically cutting some lows and highs and giving the mids a healthy boost on the eq panel. Also being conservative with the gain is crucial. Boosted with a tubescreamer as basically a clean boost (no gain, high level) worked surprisingly well too because of the natural mid-hump of the TS.
 
P-E said:
I have not heard much at all about the Invader, but I don't think it has a bad reputation. The hate around ENGL amps is that they often don't translate well to recording: the Powerball especially has a reputation to sound fizzy, harsh and muddy under a mic, but people with hands-on experience should comment.

OT: C'est quel magasin qui se débarasse de son inventaire ? C'est bon à savoir. :p
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Thanks for the input. But aren't there some bands, like Chris Broderick, using it in studio?

Le magasin c'est Drum Guitare Plus. Il reste juste le Invader, ils ont vendu le reste.
 
Chris Broderick with megadeth or like pre megadeth? I know with nevermore he used engl amps on stage but all of the nevermore records were mostly dual rec iirc blended in possibly with others?...Andy tracked tge, dead heart and obsidian conspiracy.

With megadeth Broderick had to use marshalls and then they switched out to axe fx (though I guess on the axe fx they were using a powerball sim I think, at least he was). Not sure what they used in the studio, though I'd guess 5150/jvm.
 
There's the E530 preamp that's on sale there also, AFAIK it's much smoother than most other ENGL amps and is usually liked better (along with the Blackmore and Savage, from what I read here). It's rather cheap at 500 bucks too, so you could maybe try it there? The ampsim TSE X30 is based on it and sounds pretty good, but again I don't have any hands-on experience with it (and you'd need a power amp).
 
P-E said:
There's the E530 preamp that's on sale there also, AFAIK it's much smoother than most other ENGL amps and is usually liked better (along with the Blackmore and Savage, from what I read here). It's rather cheap at 500 bucks too, so you could maybe try it there? The ampsim TSE X30 is based on it and sounds pretty good, but again I don't have any hands-on experience with it (and you'd need a power amp).
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Yes it's interesting, but I don't have a power amp... :(

This ENGL would be my first tube amp. With all that was said, I'm not so sure I want an ENGL anymore though! Haha

I mean, if it's really an overall consensus that it's too scooped to be great in studio... Well I don't know...

I'll try it and see how it feels.
 
the people who cant get a good result in the studio are not good enough at dialing in an amp and mic'ing a cab... period. ditto for the kemper profiles. you can get a good mic'd tone out of anything if you know what you are doing.

the savage, invader, and fireball are all great amps. def prefer the savage though.
 
I used to own an e530. As a rack pre its actually very, very good! Put together with a nice power amp and it will sound great. The unit has a built in 6w SS power amp, which sounds ok, but the unit also works nicely recorded direct with some cab sims. For the money its definitely worth it. A friend owned the blackmore which sounds like a marshall on roids. Can get a really nice heavy tone and has a lot more mids than most ENGL amps, records well too.

To my experience engls sound terrible with a boost.

If its a first amp and the price is low, definitely go for it. Once i got my 5153, I lost all interest in ENGL, just saying. ;)
 
cfh11 said:
the people who cant get a good result in the studio are not good enough at dialing in an amp and mic'ing a cab... period. ditto for the kemper profiles. you can get a good mic'd tone out of anything if you know what you are doing.

the savage, invader, and fireball are all great amps. def prefer the savage though.
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thats a pretty sweeping generalization.

Sure, I could probably get a usuable tone out of a powerball by doing what delitzsch suggested but then there are the factors such as ease of use...what will get me a usable tone faster?

Ultimately you are right in that most amps tend to sound similar these days and that it doesn't matter to much what you get, but I would argue that there are certainly amps that get results faster and in modern day studios time is everything.
 
Sure there are amps that will get results faster, but they won't be the same result. I've always felt the thing about ENGLs is that they require taming more so than dialing in. I owned a fireball for awhile and actually quite liked it after I was able to spend enough time with it. If you can get an ENGL for a good price I say give it a shot.
 
I don't know, I absolutely love ENGL amps. For my own personal use, I refuse to use anything besides an ENGL, with the exception of the Screamer, because it doesn't get that bite that the others do. Now, obviously, for outside projects, I use what will work the best. Like others said, the e530 and Savage are incredible (the Savage is probably my favorite amp, and I really want one), but I've had positive experiences with the Fireball as well. I have a Thunder which I feel is a very underrated amp, a little lacking in features, but great tone.
 
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