Goodbye roadster!

[fendercustom]

today i made my decision and traded my roadster. the options were:

Mesa dual rectifier
Mesa mark IV
Evh 5150
Engl Powerball

i tried em all through a Mesa cab and i started with the mark IV, first though: where is the gain?! i got 10 on both drive and gain and still there was much gain missing.

dual rectifier first though: sounds just like the roadster...got off that quickly and moved ahead to the evh: not my type of sound.

then i tried the Engl powerball! my eyes looked like this -> :shock: i was stunned by the sound...it got huge amount of gain, its tight and really "metalish" sound...i think u by now already know what my choice was. it was way better than the other amps!

i went from being a total mesa guy to a engl fan! go engl!

 

[Commander Coo1]

ok now you must leave.

just kidding, i have heard great things about those engls especially from the metal dudes. i hope to try one out someday. post clips

 

[fendercustom]

i will post clips when we go into the studio...it wont take long!

its goin' to be crushing

 

[Platypus]

Not to speak ill of your choice but you either weren't setting up the Mark IV properly or there was something very wrong with it.. there is a disgusting amount of gain the Mark IV...

congrats on the new amp

 

[kmanick]

Engles are very cool amps.
I played around with the SE (el34's) at the Boston guitar show last fall and If I could justify spending that typed of cash on an amp that is only going to be used in my house I would've bought it on the spot.
Incredible amount of useful tones in that thing and the gain was incedible.

 

[fendercustom]

Not to speak ill of your choice but you either weren't setting up the Mark IV properly or there was something very wrong with it.. there is a disgusting amount of gain the Mark IV...

congrats on the new amp

actually i think it was some wrong with it...heard many clips of it that sounds alot better than the sound on the musicstore

 

[wildrat666]

I bought an Engl powerball when i was tired of my dual recto. I was happy and the powerball just have an amazing amount of saturated gain but.............when i tried it in a band situation the powerball did nt cut through. it is a weak amp. I know it is an eq question and i was forced to buy an eq pedal too boost the mids. I have now sold it and i´m back again with a mesa boogie roadster and man what an amp. better than all dual recto i´ve tried. Now i´ve to turn the volume cause i´m chrushing all the bandmembers with the huge sound.Powerball=nice amp but need som serious boost to cut through

 

[fendercustom]

really?!:O that was one of the reason why i dropped the roadster...because it ididnt cut through. and the powerball got lots of mids and cut through very well:O

 

[scottcrud]

I owned a Engl Blackmore for about a year, and if I ever quit using Boogies, that'll be the amp I go back too. Sounds great in a band mix and is just a great sounding amp.

 

[creekhed]

When I was trying out my Express 5:50 in GC I remember thinking to myslef that there wasn't as much gain as I thought there should be...even in Burn mode. BUT...when I got it to rehearsal I ended up keeping the Gain Down to about 1:00 max in Burn mode ...just the RIGHT amount of Distortion and TONE TONE TONE~~~
Man I love that amp!!!!

 

[Misery Signals]

I live in Europe and Engl amps are here all around us to try and buy.

Engl is a total other amp than a Mesa Dual Rec, tight vs loose amps.

They are right about Engl, clean tight sound with lotsa gain and bass response but the amps realy don't cut through in a band situation.

Check recordings of Caliban, Deadlock and so on. Walls of sound but's all onedimensional and no detail. Try to play different accents on chords and you just won't notice on recordings... Good for basic heavy riffings but all the deails will get lost in the mix.

A Mesa cuts through way better and details will be heard properly. Enough experience with both amps...

MS

 

[wildrat666]

really?!:O that was one of the reason why i dropped the roadster...because it ididnt cut through. and the powerball got lots of mids and cut through very well:O

powerball is the engl amp with least mids in it. I own a savage 120 and there you got an amp with mids in it. but i´m glad if you cut through with your powerball. it did nt work for me ....sadly cause i like the sound

 

[jdurso]

really?!:O that was one of the reason why i dropped the roadster...because it ididnt cut through. and the powerball got lots of mids and cut through very well:O

the whole idea of cut all depends on the band you play with and the style.... to me its all about the balance of the mix and how good you arrange your songs..... for instance with my last band, my other guitarist was a fender/marshall purist (hated boogies/vht/bogners), while i lean more towards the boogie/vht tones and dont care for the marshall tones.... anyway, my setup was a 2channel TR and a jc120, and his was a marshal tsl and a fender twin..... our tones sat at very different ends of the spectrum and i always hated his marshall played alone, but when we played together everything fit perfectly.... our songs were in the vein of apc/metallica/tool(my influences) meets gnr/the jellyfish/janes addiction(his influences)

where i'm going with this is that neither of us ever worried about "cutting" through the mix because everything was well balanced both live and recorded which to me is the key... i know a lot of guitarists like to stand out when playing leads and solos but to me its more about how you and your rig fit the band.... and to this day i still sware by the marshall/mark iv for leads and 5150/recto for rhythms (for heavier music)... but thats me and since i'm a rhtyhm player i stick to what i know will mix well for what i play

 

[zenabI]

today i made my decision and traded my roadster. the options were:

Mesa dual rectifier
Mesa mark IV
Evh 5150
Engl Powerball

i tried em all through a Mesa cab and i started with the mark IV, first though: where is the gain?! i got 10 on both drive and gain and still there was much gain missing.

dual rectifier first though: sounds just like the roadster...got off that quickly and moved ahead to the evh: not my type of sound.

then i tried the Engl powerball! my eyes looked like this -> :shock: i was stunned by the sound...it got huge amount of gain, its tight and really "metalish" sound...i think u by now already know what my choice was. it was way better than the other amps!

i went from being a total mesa guy to a engl fan! go engl!

Nice post on the Mesa forum :lol: :lol:

Nah j/k, ENGL are great metal amps, a bit fizzy but thats nothing a good set of preamp tubes can't fix.

Engles are very cool amps.
I played around with the SE (el34's) at the Boston guitar show last fall and If I could justify spending that typed of cash on an amp that is only going to be used in my house I would've bought it on the spot.
Incredible amount of useful tones in that thing and the gain was incedible.

Go for the preamp then. Only €1500 instead for €3000

 

[Alivefor5]

the whole idea of cut all depends on the band you play with and the style.... to me its all about the balance of the mix and how good you arrange your songs..... for instance with my last band, my other guitarist was a fender/marshall purist (hated boogies/vht/bogners), while i lean more towards the boogie/vht tones and dont care for the marshall tones.... anyway, my setup was a 2channel TR and a jc120, and his was a marshal tsl and a fender twin..... our tones sat at very different ends of the spectrum and i always hated his marshall played alone, but when we played together everything fit perfectly.... our songs were in the vein of apc/metallica/tool(my influences) meets gnr/the jellyfish/janes addiction(his influences)

where i'm going with this is that neither of us ever worried about "cutting" through the mix because everything was well balanced both live and recorded which to me is the key... i know a lot of guitarists like to stand out when playing leads and solos but to me its more about how you and your rig fit the band.... and to this day i still sware by the marshall/mark iv for leads and 5150/recto for rhythms (for heavier music)... but thats me and since i'm a rhtyhm player i stick to what i know will mix well for what i play

Really well put on how it all fits together.

 

[Aart]

About the Mark IV with no gain: I guess you didn't turn the treble up and bass down, that crucial for a good metal sound.

 

[fendercustom]

the thing is that i used the john petrucci settings...:O i got to be something wrong with it...the musicstore special ordered the mark IV for me. could be delivery damage.

to wildrat666: i find the rectos much much more bassy and less mids than the engl powerball

 

[Chris_Lonerock]

Don't worry, You get back to recto again soon LOL
As anyone who loves the RECTO sound, you may get borred at a time but, after trying other brands, you'll get back to it because only a recto can sounds like a recto ! (looks like an advert... lol )
I had many rectos, tried other amps and preamps like a CAA 3+se, and finally, I got back to a Roadster.
maybe you should try differents settings in rehearsals to cut through the mix?
by the way the powerball is a cool amp too but not a recto.

 

[fendercustom]

actually i dont think i will get back to recto...i dont like loose amps and the roadster was terrible when trying to play fast riffs

 

[123thefirst]

actually i dont think i will get back to recto...i dont like loose amps and the roadster was terrible when trying to play fast riffs

Tjena! No, the looseness of the Roadster doesn't affect the sound so severely as to make playing fast, even ultra-fast riffs difficult. That's a factor of setup: guitar, pickups, strings, pre amp settings, etc.,

But, the Roadster/RK do make your setup limitations painfully obvious!