This week’s amplifier has a lot of hard edges on it. In fact some of those edges seem to be at 90 degrees to each other. That would make them right ENGLs. That’s a terrible joke and I’m not sorry. I’m also not sorry that I am wishing the ENGL Gigmaster 15 head was mine this week. It appears to be the perfect combination of appropriate wattage, metal and blackness. I may be in love with an inanimate object. There may be medication for that. I don’t want it.
Although I don’t have any real-world ENGL amplification I am of course aware of them. Many big names use them. Although I’m not a big name, I do have the digital version of the ENGL Powerball thanks to the awesome AmpliTube software by IK Multimedia. So I can only imagine how awesome a real world ENGL amplifier sounds. That’s almost a lie. I don’t have to imagine. I can listen (and watch) many online videos that showcase how awesome these amplifiers sound. You can too thanks to the wonders of linkages.
For example, this right here is a link to an official ENGL video for the Gigmaster 15 head. Convenient right? That video has some seriously impressive tones going on. There’s also some impressive guitar playing going on. Perhaps I’m not worthy of this amplifier. Perhaps we need a list to check on that. Specs!
- 15 watts (with a power soak feature to reduce that to 5 watts, 1 watt and 0 watts (for recording))
- ECC83 preamp tube
- 2 x EL84 poweramp tubes
- Clean and lead channels
- Mid boost button (footswitchable)
- Clean/Lead button (footswitchable)
- Input Gain and Lead Drive controls
- Bass, Middle and Treble controls
- Master and Lead volume controls
- FX Loop
- Poweramp output (8 ohms)
- 16 ohm speaker output
That’s impressive. I feel worthy. Although I did also watch this other video demonstration for the ENGL Gigmaster 15 head and lose confidence again. Seriously, does anybody that isn’t insanely talented use this amp? Perhaps I need to be the first. I’m OK with that.
Disclaimer: I’ve not played through this head. I have not experienced the sound or tone of this head other than through video. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.