Engl for rhythm, Boogie for leads?

[The Magic Hoof]

Would you agree with this?

From what I can tell, people are raving about Engls because of the extremely tight and high gain rhythm, and others rave about Boogies because of the phenomenal lead tone.

This leads me into a predicament because I do want a really good and tight metal crunch, but I'm mostly a lead player.... and I'm definitely not rich enough to afford both an Engl Powerball and some Boogie stuff.


Is there any chance in hell that an Engl can pull off something as good as a Boogie in the lead dept.?

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

I'd go Boogie or Engl any day.

Engls sound way too synthetic for me. Boogies have a much more natural grind, and I've found that they do rhythm VERY well...

If you want an amp that does crazy rhythm and lead with the same settings, try a Boogie Stiletto.

 

[wildrat666]

you should try for yourself what you think. Ive got a engl savage 120 and it is great for solo playing and rhythm. I also got a Mesa boogie roadster that I prefer over the engl.

I used to own a engl powerball but I did not like the tone in it.it is too processed. very tight yeah but not my sound.

but check them out, you might like them.they are good amps with good quality

 

[zenabI]

I would also say that the ENGL is ultimate for rhythm while Mesa is ultimate for leads but I also agree with ibanez4life SZ!.

As for badass allround amps Mesa isthesh!t for sure! 8)

 

[TomiR]

I have an ENGL Invader and a Triple Rectifier and I personally prefer the Recto over the ENGL.

The Mesa is more natural sounding, not nearly as compressed, more dynamic and more aggressive sounding when needed.

The ENGL is a great amp though!

 

[Paul Secondino]

Would you agree with this?

From what I can tell, people are raving about Engls because of the extremely tight and high gain rhythm, and others rave about Boogies because of the phenomenal lead tone.

This leads me into a predicament because I do want a really good and tight metal crunch, but I'm mostly a lead player.... and I'm definitely not rich enough to afford both an Engl Powerball and some Boogie stuff.


Is there any chance in hell that an Engl can pull off something as good as a Boogie in the lead dept.?

If you need to choose then go for the amp you would use the most. Will you be playing rhythms 90% of the time or leads 90% of the time ? Most people would be playing rhythms far more than anything else.

I have the Engl Invader as well and feel it's a more versatile amp than the Powerball or Savage and still slightly more versatile than the Engl SE. I own Mesa Mark 3 and 4 heads as well as triaxis and quad preamps but never liked Rectifiers. I've always found that I can get great lead sounds out of my Mark series heads and I can get a similar sound from the Invader as channel 4 has a healthy amount of midrange. So with any of my amps, I can do fine and not be left without some channel that will work.

The last thing to consider is your playing ability. The better you play , the less you will need heavy compression.The Rectifiers are super compressed which makes them easy to play.The Engl amps are similarly compressed but different. Engl seems to build their amps with less headroom so that the power section saturates quickly but some how manage very good clean channels. I'd say most Engl amps have much better clean channels than the Mesa Rectifiers however the Mesa Roadster version 2 has been improved over the standard Recto .

If you think you'll really like Mesa, consider the Roadster.Good cleans and a very saturated lead sound.

 

[stadidas]

I'm currently doing a similar thing using a Knucklehead for rhythm and clean, and a Dual Rec for leads. I'd lose the boogie altogether and only use it occasionally if it weren't for the Rivera having terrible lead tone.

 

[Rampage]

Well, after owning a few Engls I have a little input:

The Engl Powerball would be my first choice for a modern day rhythm tone. The thing is, it does sound extremely processed with the wrong speakers and settings. If you couple the Engls with a Greenback or G12H30 cabinet, it really gets away from that type of tone. A lot of people laugh at the idea of mixing a vintage inspired speaker with such a modern amp, but there is a reason why the folks at Framus did what they did with the Cobra 4x12.

As far as leads, it would be a Mark series Boogie hands down.

Having a MKIV and PB would make for one hell of a setup methinks.