Engl 530 vs Soldano SP77

[Rupe]

It's my experience that you will get a bigger, fatter live tone with less gain. It will have more percussive impact and cut for your rhythms. Add a gain boost for solos and your all set.
If you go with screaming high gain for your rhythm tone, you are almost sure to bury yourself in the mix...more gain=less attack.

[jgcable]

For me, the gain thing has to do with being in a 1 guitar or two guitar band. I've always been in two guitar bands. Now that I'm the only guitar player I find myself wanting more gain. Look at all the great two guitar bands AC-DC, Def Leppard (early), Maiden, Early priest andthe Scorps. They all had such great tone that sounded like they had a tone of gain, but it wasn't gain, it was the two guitar thing. If you could duplicate that tone on a tube amp or create a patch on the Vetta, that would be worth a gold mine.

You know, I've been noodling around with the Soldano tonight and I have to say that the tone that rig has is unbeatable.

I need to play with the Engl when it gets here.

I agree Jim. The tone of that Soldano rig is magical. Its a perfect combination. Maybe you should just try throwing a pedal in front of it for a touch more gain.

[horns666]

Its all what you want to do..some people like it AC/DC...some people like it Nevermore..

Saturation and gain or lack of..is extremely important for both.

[sambencuda]

Thats the thing Bill. The problem is, I want one rig that can do both. The more I screw around with the parametric eq, the more I'm liking the Soldano for both applications. You can scoop the hell out of it and it gets pretty raunchy.

[Cleveland Metal]

My ramblings....

In my age, I have found I like to run less gain. Mostly because of the complexity of what I'm doing requires the clarity of not walking through marshes of gain. BUT, I like the edge and chunk that certain types of heavy gain gives me (ummm, at certain times).

I will use more gain for low end chugging and simple note runs, and use a lot less when I am picking up speed for leads and require the clarity to make the notes legible and havethe dynamics that heavy gain kills. This includes faster leads and low end but complex/quicker riffage.

I use a CAE3+se preamp. It has a ton of gain, BUT, the gain that it has goes into Jeff Baxter Fuzzland... Quite fuzzy and unusable. So, I run fairly minimal amount of gain on this particular unit really. My settings are usually 4-5 on the 10 dial actually to keep edge and clarity. 4 being more VHI like, and 5-6 being more modern chugga stuff.

I use a TC Parametric to increase perceived gain and get some seriously cool metal sounds that I would NEVER get out of that preamp. I also slam the front end of the preamp with clean gain to overdrive the front. THAT, gives a me totally different style of overdrive gain that doesn't usually come from a knob in a preamp. For that, I use a EMG PA-2 preamp, but you could effectively use any clean boost pedal or strong output wireless to do the same.

I personally enjoy the lively sound of the SP77 BUT, I feel it is more of a lower gain 80s shred style preamp. Hence, the reason I keep my CAE, it is quite the same, lively and shreddish sound, but just not quite brutal enough when ya need that. But they are damn close and the CAE is the best I've had so far for "most" of my needs... I think the SP77 is in that realm for the most part.

However, For many of my low end modern chugging grind needs, I prefer the Engle stuff as it is a darker sounding unit that fits my tonal needs more than the CAE3+se or SP77 for the low end grind...

Might be nice to use both and switch them....

After hearing Gilberts (Severed Savior) stuff.I'm dying for an ENGL 570... But the 530 is a sweet peice for the dough... Sadly I'd still want my CAE for what it can do. Man, to even contemplate two 1800 dollar preamps. I must be nuts... I'd hope the 570 would be adequate, but I KNOW I'd miss some stuff the CAe does. Maybe i could use an SP77 for that area.

Ugh....

[Robotechnology]

Cleveland Metal... contact this guy:

http://www.paulsecondino.net/

I sold him my 570 and he just sold his CAE pre so he might be a good person for you to talk to for some opinions.

Ivan

[jackson1]

Ivan, why did you sell the 570, if you don't mind me asking? I'm just curious about your opinion on it and why you didn't keep it in your setup.

[shredmonster]

The better i get as a player, the less gain i use.

It's not a planned thing - but reflecting back, i see that is what's happening.

+1 Thats because you learn to create tone with your fingers and when you trun the gain up too high on the amp it compresses too much and you lose the dynamics of the sound that you can create at lower gain settings.

I currently have a Framus which is a great amp. I will keep it for the high gain stuff. But I am currently looking for an amp that drips tone where if I need higher gain I can use an OD pedal.

[Tetsuo]

Thats the thing Bill. The problem is, I want one rig that can do both. The more I screw around with the parametric eq, the more I'm liking the Soldano for both applications. You can scoop the hell out of it and it gets pretty raunchy.

Best time I had was when I was running an SP-77 through my powerballs powersection then being able to bounce to my powerballs pre section anytime I wanted. Heavenly it was seriously.

[horns666]

I would like to switch between my Marshall and Bogner for both..Rythms and leads..

The Bogner has a very brutal tight, extremely high gain chug..but it truly shows all your flaws when playing solos..you really have to hit all the notes on the head with that amp..or it just won't cooperate..

Unlike the Marshall..you can totally jack off with the Marshall..it's pretty player freindly when it comes to all the squeals, divebombs and Satch dips..every single note without effort..it's really good for that stuff.

This is why alot of dudes use cheap stomps to slam their expensive high gain boutique amps..which is somewhat blasphemous..but got gotta do what "works"..

Thinkin' of doing that myself..in the back of GW..all the guys that use high gain amps setups..always use one or more dist/OD stomps so they can pull all that shit off in studio and live..

I myself like it all Amp without a stomp..the only amp I can do that with ironically is my Marshall..the diode in the JMP-1 is basically a built in distortion box..so..

The Bogner has gobs more gain than the Marshall...but it's a different kind of gain..it's actually a clean gain really...too clean to do all that harmonic wankery sometimes..which is what I always do..

[Spivonious]

Bogner...tight you say? Where were you in my amp thread?

[horns666]

Bogner...tight you say? Where were you in my amp thread?

Tight as a Nun's snatch...where were you???

I can't be on EVERY thread...I do try!

I'm known to high jack a few..that doesn't bother me..it may bother others..but I don't care..