ENGL E610 Savage 120 Head

This amp is simply a beats! Nothing I can say or anyone else for that matter can really describe the enormous power this amp has. This is the metal player's dream amp if there ever was one. This amp has more power and chunk than a '43 Ford. It is heavy and brutal for the demands of a the high energy modern rock player.

This amp is four channels of extreme metal tastiness. There is a distinct voicing within Engl amps and this one captures all that German metal flavor in a nutshell. Yep it can clean up with the clean channels but this thing is build to tear down walls.

UTILIZATION

Technical specifications:

Preamp:
4 channels, Clean, Crunch 1, Crunch 2, Lead, 2 EQs, Sensitivity switch, Bright switch, 2 FX loops (both parallel to serial adjustable), Lead Boost, Contour switch, Rough/Smooth switch plus Hi Balance control, 5 x ECC 83
preamp tubes.

Master Section:
Presence A/B, Master A/B, Depth Boost,
120 watts (1 x ECC 83, 2 x 6550 power amp tubes)
ECS tube protection

Outputs:
Balanced Line out, frequency-compensated, adjustable, overload control, speaker outs (2 x 4, 2 x 8, 1 x 16 ohms), 2 FX loops, Z-3/Z-4 footswitch jacks, MIDI interface port, Z-10 footswitch port

Dimensions & Weight:
71 x 27 x 27 cm, 20 kg

SOUNDS

The sound of this amp is just about as brutal as they come. The tone from this amp is just simply brutality in a box. You can destroy many walls in and objects in front of you with the level of power this amp has produce.

The tone of this amp is very punchy. It has an attack that just puts a hammer in your chest. Which for the style of music that caters to these amps will enjoy. You will most likely be better off bringing a guitar with active pickups in there and don't show up with a Fender telecaster.

OVERALL OPINION

I would recommend this amp to the brutal heads than need a good chugga chugga amp that is thick and powerful. At new these amp come in at around $2499. More of the expensive side of Engl amps. This is a rocker amp though and you won't be disappointed.

The ENGL Savage 120 is probably the amp that really made a name for ENGL. It's an extremely versatile amp that took brutality to an entirely different level. It's a four channel amp that has tons of features such as multiple effects loops, a line out, MIDI capable with an external device and tons of different switches to change the voicing. The amp is a bit different from the original SE in that it has 6550 tubes that deliver crazy output.

UTILIZATION

The ENGL Savage 120 does a pretty good job at being versatile. There are tons of different voicing switches you can utilize to help sculpt the tone to what's in your head. The manual also does a great job at explaining everything. That said, I find the amp to be a bit lacking in the way they laid it out. The controls are not independent. Clean and Crunch 1 share controls, as do Crunch 2 and Lead. I also wish they would have included MIDI instead of forcing you to buy an external device.

SOUNDS

This thing sounds phenomenal. If you play metal, this should be one of the top three amps you look at. I can't stress how absolutely brutal this amp gets. Just listen to Darkane or Dying Fetus' Descend Into Depravity. It'll show you exactly what this amp sounds like. The amplifier doesn't need a boost, so no need to worry about external pedals. Cleans are not bad, and midgain tones are pretty good for a high gain amplifier to boot.

OVERALL OPINION

I find the original SE to be a bit more versatile, but if you're looking for one of the most brutal amplifiers out there, this should be one of your first choices. It's versatile enough to do most any genre, but it truly excels at metal. I've heard some reliability issues with some ENGL amps, but I've never experienced any first hand, so take that for what it's worth. I just wish it had independent controls for each channel and had MIDI built in already instead of making you buy another device.

The Savage 120 is an all-tube amp, running 6550s (or KT88s) in the power section and ECC83s in the preamp. The "120" in the name is misleading, this is not a 120w amp. 2 6550s will get you about 90w depending on bias and tube brand but that doesn't mean this is not a loud amp.

The Savage 120 has 4 channels, one could say it are 2 channels with 2 gain settings each and shared eq. There's a master section with dual presence controls and dual master volumes. The high gain channels have a rough/smooth switch and the clean channel has a bright switch. At the back, there are switching options, a great loop and power amp outputs.

For sure it's a feature-packed amp and all the features are useful and most are switchable with the footswitch or midi. Saddly, the footswitch is an extra but worth the price. Unless you want to control the amp with midi, the you should get the Z11 switcher.

UTILIZATION

I always, and still do, loved this amp. It was my first "boutique" amp and it served me well for the 8-9 years that I owned it. Somewhere out there, somebody is still digging it!

I was playing rock-originals and in a coverband when I got this amp and I was able to get whatever tone I needed for my gigs and rehearsals. I was running the Savage 120 with an Engl standard 4x12 and the combination sounded killer.

The layout of the amp is very easy and it's not hard to get the great tones from this amp. The manual is straightforward and clear.

SOUNDS

I was running a number of guitars with this amp, teles, strats, PRS and always found my sound with it. I switched to using Vintage30 speakers after a while and the tones were killer.

One of my fav tones was the 2nd channel (hit it with a nice OD/boost for amazement) or the 3rd channel in smooth setting. These were my basic rhythm tones, lotsa punch, tight low end and smooth mid. Bot channels responded very well to dynamics and boost. The clean channel was very tight and direct sounding, a bit similar to Hiwatt-clean tones. The 4th channel was a killer lead channel. Although I also played lead hitting ch3 with a boost, the 4th channel sounded amazing. The rough/smooth switch worked great for this as you could get a great crunch tone in "rough" and turn it into a liquid lead tone when switching to smooth.

At 1st I ran the amp with a pedalboard but later on started using rack gear thru the loop. I must say that the loop sounds very good and I never had problems with this.

OVERALL OPINION

I owned the amp for about 9 years and had a lot of good times with it. Eventually I sold it because I bought some others and simply had to many. BUT, it's the one amp that I definitely would love to get back. The tones were stunning and it just worked for me. I had the amp in a flightcase and never had a major issue with it. couple of blown power tubes but never an issue with the amp.

120 W. tube amp With 4 channels (Clean, Crunch 1, 2 crunch, lead). Two presences, two volumes, two modes of saturated amplification (which acts on crunch2 and Lead) called Routh and Smooth (one is huge the other lighter).

There are 2 small red LEDs behind the two large lamps 6550 amplifier, which gives a fairly staggering pace in the craft.

UTILIZATION

Really very easy to use. From rock to death metal to funk, punk, hardcore, post-hardcore, hard rock, heavy, neo-metal, black, death, ... He is comfortable in all categories. A very versatile amp.

SOUNDS

This is the big huge well, with something extra compared to MESA / BOOGIE (we hear around for a long time now), this little twist, this charm that makes it unique, ... It certainly has a wild grain, a little more "dirty". The sound is also much more precise and oriented media, to disappoint the fan of the atmosphere.

On the other hand this amp, regardless of its settings, restores perfect guitar sound to the point that any volume control on the guitar changes the grain and can be observed very sharp differences between various microphones and selections . Moreover, the lower harmonics is fully restored, so you find yourself discovering new harmonic along the sleeve! And if he meets all these little details, it also means that you have to play very clean because the slightest shit is perfectly transcribed at the end! In any case, it will enhance your game

The most surprising is the sound clear. This is the last thing I tried it, and then: slap!
The clean sound is not back from the other CHANNELS, it is also excellent: bright and slamming but can also be quite friendly and sweet with the setting (nombreux!)

OVERALL OPINION

As soon as I got this amp, I fell in love. It's really a bomb. Personally I think it's worth a MESA (for the distortion) and a Fender (for clean). This amp is very versatile and each channels sound different. Really very good amp. Serve with the baffle ENGL Vintage (designation: E412VS)