I just bought a new amp!

Ravelleman · 12-10-2005 8:36pm #1

Recently I've been struck by the uncontrolable desire to buy a nice new tube amp. At first I was thinking of getting a Peavey Classic 30 or a Fender Deluxe but then I began to hear good things about Engl amps over here and on Harmony Central so I decided to check out some reviews and clips of the Thunder Combo. I was impressed. Thomann was the first port of call but I decided I'd wait for a few weeks and watch ebay for a second hand Thunder and maybe save a few Euro for myself. A few appeared but I didn't bid for various reasons. But then on Sunday I came across a new auction. It was running at €500 with €32.40 for shipping with no bids so far. I waited until the last seconds of the auction and pounced. It ended with only one bid - mine.

So anywho, I should be receiving my perfect condition, 1 year old Engl Thunder in a few days time. I'm so excited

. I'll be spending the money I saved on some nice boutique effects pedals to go with the amp so that's my next project. I'll post a little review whenever I receive it and get acquainted with her.

feylya · 12-10-2005 8:39pm

Nice! Now, don't forget the pictures rule.

Oh, how I'd love to get a tube amp very very soon...

Ravelleman · 12-10-2005 8:46pm

This is all that came with the auction. I think its a really nice design as amps go.

Apparently it was designed by some guitarist called Scott Moffat... I have no idea who he is. At least it doesn't have his signature printed on it!

feylya · 12-10-2005 8:47pm

I don't like the idea of a single gain knob for clean and distortion channels. Not at all!

Ravelleman · 12-10-2005 8:56pm

Yeah, that could be a bit of a pain now that I think about it. But whatever, it's still a sweet amp!

feylya · 12-10-2005 9:04pm

Feck it, throw a tubescreamer in front of it

Nyom.

Ravelleman · 12-10-2005 9:30pm

Yeah, I was planning on getting a Ts or Ts style pedal first. I'll probably get a wah, phaser, delay and looper after that. Nothing too complicated.

feylya · 12-10-2005 9:32pm

Keeley modded Ts would be nice.

Ravelleman · 12-10-2005 9:36pm

What's a Keeley Mod? I keep hearing about them...

feylya · 12-10-2005 9:40pm

http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=5

Giblet · 12-10-2005 9:41pm

You have Input gain, crunch channel and distortion gain/volume and a master volume!

feylya · 12-10-2005 9:44pm

Is it not the same one that freakonaleashx bought?

Giblet · 12-10-2005 9:47pm

Depends if he got the reverb or the scott moffat one.

feylya · 12-10-2005 9:53pm

I thought the only difference was reverb

david · 12-10-2005 10:30pm

Yeah Moffat all the way! Never heard of Mr. Moffat but its a sweet amp anyway. For modern metal tone you only need the gain slightly over half way anyway so single gain is kinda cool after a while, you get used to it.

Johnny Storm · 13-10-2005 8:20am

Nice looking amp. Enjoy it!

jcoote · 13-10-2005 8:22am

well done ravell enjot mate"!!!

Quattroste · 13-10-2005 8:36am

Nice One Ravelleman! Congratulations.

Are ENGL amps high gain amps for that heavier style of music? Metal etc

JMArr · 13-10-2005 11:39am

Sweet amp man ...they've got serious balls , rock on.

Ravelleman · 13-10-2005 11:12pm

Thanks for the kind words people!

Quattroste wrote:

Are ENGL amps high gain amps for that heavier style of music? Metal etc

A lot of metal heads seem to like Engl amps. The thunder combo is meant to have great cleans, which is what I'm mainly looking for.

On another note, I couldn't wait. I just spent the rest of the money I earned from my crap job last year on some nice new pedals - a Dunlop 535q wah, an Mxr Phase 90 and an Mi Audio Blues Pro (a hand made, boutique tube screamer alternative, which came out cheaper than a Ts-9).

This spending spree is the culmination of several months of planning, day and night. I've finally committed to a plan, after changing my mind hundreds of times.

Now I play the waiting game...

feylya · 13-10-2005 11:19pm

Where'd you get the Mi Audio from?

Ravelleman · 14-10-2005 3:47pm

From a guy on Harmony Central who owns an effects store called tonefactor. I was gonna buy directly from his website but I decided to go through ebay for the extra feedback

.

feylya · 14-10-2005 4:03pm

Cool. I'm sitting here going crazy at Thomann. They sent out two parcels. I'm still waiting on the good one

Ravelleman · 18-10-2005 9:23pm

So the amp and the package from Tonefactor arrived today...

and the amp is buzzing like mad at the moment. Its like a fizzing in the background with a loud hum going on all the time. From what I understand it could be the tube or the grounding. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this infernal buzzing go away?

To make matters worse, Tonefactor sent me the wrong pedal! I asked for a blue overdrive pedal not a puple fuzz pedal!!! But to give them credit, they included a bag of sweets in the package and did offer to pay for return shipping etc. I'll be sending it back to them tomorrow.

Oh and Music123 haven't even shipped the other pedals yet. At least with ebay the seller has the shadow of negative feedback spurring them into action but online stores can take their time...

I'm paralysed with rage at the moment.

feylya · 18-10-2005 9:27pm

Have you tried the amp in different rooms/different house? My new amp is currently....somewhere

Ravelleman · 18-10-2005 11:20pm

I'm currently using a power cable from a marshall amp with the engl since the power cables that came with it are German. Could that be having an effect? What do you mean about the position of the amp? It's in a different place to where I normally kept my old amp (which didn't buzz). Maybe I'll move it in there and see what happens.

feylya · 19-10-2005 8:19am

Just cut the plug off the one that came with the amp and attach a new Irish plug. That's all you need. I mean try the amp else where. Could be the electricity line in the room you have the amp. Seems to happen quite a lot

david · 20-10-2005 10:14pm

Sounds obvious but is it a grounding problem with your guitar cables? Does your setup hum with a different amp?

Ravelleman · 26-10-2005 6:43pm

Yeah it does kinda buzz through my *cough* Marshall Mg100dfx *cough* too. If it's a grounding problem then what should I do about it.

In other news:

1) my OD pedal arrived today. It sounds great so far. I'll have to spend more time with it until I'm happy though.

2) my wah seems to be broken, despite the fact that it's only a week old and has been babied since its arrival. For some reason it seems to be crackling and breaking up my sound. There's a lot of volume loss too. It went from working perfectly to this over night (literally). There's a huge difference in the sound now. Looks like I'll be returning it... *sighs*

Johnny Storm · 26-10-2005 8:08pm

Ravelleman wrote:

....2) my wah seems to be broken, despite the fact that it's only a week old and has been babied since its arrival. For some reason it seems to be crackling and breaking up my sound. There's a lot of volume loss too. It went from working perfectly to this over night (literally). There's a huge difference in the sound now. Looks like I'll be returning it... *sighs*

Could it be the battery?
(PS Yes, I do specialize in stating the obvious

)

Ravelleman · 26-10-2005 9:19pm

If only it was that easy...

I checked it with two different batteries and it was still the same. The problem seems kinda similar to a scratchy pot, though it's in the moving pedal part not the actual pot. I'll shoot them an email and see what happens.

jcoote · 27-10-2005 10:41am

hey ravellman i had exactly the same problem with my wah last night and i know its 100% perfect...i switched leads et voila it worked...something is messed up with your leads man has to be

Quattroste · 27-10-2005 1:46pm

Ravellman. Did you piss off the Gods! I hope you get everything sorted man.

Kenny_D · 27-10-2005 2:25pm

Thats interesting about the leads jcoote. My wah is acting up lately. Must get a new lead and see it helps. What are the best leads without paying a fortune?

Ravelleman · 27-10-2005 9:36pm

Quattroste wrote:

Ravellman. Did you piss off the Gods! I hope you get everything sorted man.

Thanks for the positive vibes. I must have forgotten to make my offering to Baal this year or something.

I don't think it's the leads. I tried alternating a few and it made no difference. It's such a pain when electrical equipment isn't working properly. :mad:

Ravelleman · 09-11-2005 9:50pm

Ok so I'm returning the wah to Music123 and getting a Vox v847 instead. I think I really prefer the simplicity of the Vox to the endless tweakability of the Dunlop 535Q.

The buzzing is still there in my amp. I did notice that the buzzing was reduced slightly when I alternated my two leads. Is there a chance it's the leads that are causing the buzzing? I don't really want to buy a new one and find it doesn't help. :v:

Someone suggested that it could be a grounding problem. What should I do if it actually is a grounding problem?

As you can probably tell, I'm trying to avoid a retube until it's my last resort...

I just bought a new amp!

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