Mesa Vs ENGL

[XevKai]

Anyone here have any experience with ENGL Savage 120's or Powerballs? Im curious to hear what other MEsa owners thing tonially between these amps. I love my Dual Rec but I've heard nothing but good things about ENGL as well.

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

I spent a few hours comparing an ENGL Invader 150 and a 3 Channel Dual Rectifier.

Both great amps...the recto came out the victor for me, and here are the reasons.

The ENGL was a GREAT amp....versatile as all heck, but to my ears, all the tones were sterile. The only setting that this WASN'T a problem to my ears, was when I was playing ALL OUT metal with it. It was killer in that setting. It had a bunch in the lower mids and bass that the Mesa just didn't have. The Mesa was bigger in the low end, but the tight and aggressive kick that the ENGL had just wasn't there with the Mesa.

Other than that punch, the Mesa won hands down. Anything from cleans to hard rock, the Mesa did better IMO. Obviously, it does metal great too, but just a slightly different flavor. The Mesa sounded organic in all gain settings...the ENGL sounded VERY stiff and fake unless it was putting out 'balls to the wall' gain.

Overall, if you're playing super high gain speed death metal, the ENGL is your amp, bar none. If you play a variety of high gain, along with other genres, keep your recto.

My experiences, and I hope they can help a bit.

Eric

 

[Chris McKinley]

The only Engl I've tried out was the Powerball and I was, unfortunately, not very impressed with it beyond one aspect. It's low bass was tuned a bit lower than the Rectos so it provided more thump rather than mud. That was good. However, the overall frequency response was surprisingly not very high gain for what I was expecting. Further, there was so little harmonic content in all ranges that even on a high gain setting, the bass was a little too tight, the mids were anemic, and the highs, though not as irritatingly glassy as a Recto, managed to be both not very bright and thin at the same time.

The amp could do a decent job on Dimebag's rhythm parts but not much else, and forget any kind of lead playing on it. It seemed solidly made and I'm sure it will continue to do what it does for years with little maintenance. I just don't particularly care for what it does. One of the least versatile amps I've ever tried among what are supposed to be 'boutique' quality amps.

 

[droptrd]

Played a powerball a few times. to me, is seamed like a very well refined 800. More like a BMW to a mustang. Clean was deffinately better than my recto. But, i agree, not as much gain as i expected. Very jcm800ish. Has that low mid marshall thing that the recto wont do. Not a bad amp, but id still take my recto. If i could afford to have a ton of amps, i would add one to my collection!

 

[zenabI]

As a general rule I would say, ENGL is more tight amps and better for extreme metal and downtunings and Mesa is far more versatile amps and way better in other styles than Metal. To me Mesa also have better cleans, think, Mark IV, F-50, Studio Preamp, great cleans IMO, so far I haven't played any ENGL with better clean than those amps. But if I were a 100% metal player I would play ENGL instead of Mesa, a Savage or a SE.

Played a powerball a few times. to me, is seamed like a very well refined 800. More like a BMW to a mustang. Clean was deffinately better than my recto. But, i agree, not as much gain as i expected. Very jcm800ish. Has that low mid marshall thing that the recto wont do. Not a bad amp, but id still take my recto. If i could afford to have a ton of amps, i would add one to my collection!

Hey sure you played the highest gain channel? I bet you didn't because the PB has tons of gain, more than you'll ever need. Waaaaay more than a Marshall JCM800. It has a channel with lower gain also, exactly as you describe it. I bet it was that channel you played on or it was something wrong with the amp :lol: It's a gainmonster ffs :wink:

 

[XevKai]

Thank you for the posts thus far, guess I should have added my playing style to the question. I am primarily a metal player and a rhythm guitarist. I can do some leads but I tend to focus on overall tightness and powerful rhythms. Im a huge fan of Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth), Marcus Siepen (Blind Guardian), and of course James Hetfeild. But I don't want to your generic "metal" tone. I set my Dual rec up as such right now:

Presence: 9oclock
Bass: 1oclock
Mids: 11oclock
Treble: 1oclock
gain: 1 oclock
Diode Rectifier, and bold

With my OCD set at:
Volume: 3oclock
tone: 11oclock
Gain: O
on the HP setting

It's tight but I would like to have the bottom end tighten up a bit more but not loose the clarity of the top end.

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

IMO....ditch the OCD, and get a Maxon OD808....I spent a week with the OCD boosting my recto, and if was horrid at tightening the bottom end IMO. The OCD has WAY too loose and big of a bottom to do that job.

The Maxon, on the other hand, has a kick in the low mids that makes it REALLY nice to that. Cuts out the way low bass to make things tighter.

My opinion...YMMV.

 

[wildrat666]

Thank you for the posts thus far, guess I should have added my playing style to the question. I am primarily a metal player and a rhythm guitarist. I can do some leads but I tend to focus on overall tightness and powerful rhythms. Im a huge fan of Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth), Marcus Siepen (Blind Guardian), and of course James Hetfeild. But I don't want to your generic "metal" tone. I set my Dual rec up as such right now:

Presence: 9oclock
Bass: 1oclock
Mids: 11oclock
Treble: 1oclock
gain: 1 oclock
Diode Rectifier, and bold

With my OCD set at:
Volume: 3oclock
tone: 11oclock
Gain: O
on the HP setting

It's tight but I would like to have the bottom end tighten up a bit more but not loose the clarity of the top end.

hi.try to lower your bas down to 11-12 oclock. you got a lot o boom going on there.switch to maxon od 808. and on the maxon volume max. gain zero tone to taste

 

[gibson5413]

I owned a Powerball for a year and an Engl SE for 14 months. I liked the amps at the time but have moved on. I have been a Mesa player ever since. To my ears, they have a more balanced tone and feel to them. The Engls sound great on their own. They struggle a tad in band situations (not horrible though). My only real complaint is that there is a real harshness in the high end. I could never EQ it out and I could always hear it. It drove me nuts. It really comes down to voicing. If you like how they sounds then go for it. The Mesa voicing just fits me.

 

[siggy14]

You might also like the Ibanez TS9 reissue better then the maxon OD808, both pedals are great and the difference is slight. The maxon is more of a natural pedal, not coloring the tone as much, but it does in the lower mid's. The TS9 has more upper mid's so it does change the tone more then the OD808 but in my opinion it gives me the more upper mid's that I like which might be the difference you want.

IMO....ditch the OCD, and get a Maxon OD808....I spent a week with the OCD boosting my recto, and if was horrid at tightening the bottom end IMO. The OCD has WAY too loose and big of a bottom to do that job.

The Maxon, on the other hand, has a kick in the low mids that makes it REALLY nice to that. Cuts out the way low bass to make things tighter.

My opinion...YMMV.