Quick poll Boogie/EVH iii/Engl

professorben

hi guys, just tried a couple of amps in the £650 price bracket and I quite like them all. 

Mesa/Boogie Mk3 non SimulClass but with GEQ 1x12 EV massive magnet 
could be RedStripe. 80's battered but serviced in a flight case. 

EVH 5150 3 50w head 

Or my Engl Screamer. 

Im now a fully fledged metal guy lol. 
Or at lesser hard rock. 

timmysoft

I'd always go Mesa.

guitarfishbay

EVH, if you just need clean and high gain. Be aware there's a volume jump between channel 1+2 which share controls.

Channel 3 pretty much is plug and play metal though. Tight and aggressive 

welshboyo

I would say Mesa

Maynehead

I've got a Mesa (DR) but I miss my screamer combo. I'd happily take it to gigs over the the Mesa. The Mark series is very mid heavy and weighs a ton. The EVH's volume drop issue puts it third in my book.

Probably a disappointment but I would choose the engl. Mine had a speaker change for a G12T-75 and it was a surprisingly good improvement over the stock V30. Maybe a speaker change is all you need?

simonk

I'd take the Mesa.

andy1839

I've just seen a single rectifier 50 head on a fb fs group for around £500 it may suit you better than a Mark series for metal.
I've always loved mesas.

 I've had an EVH 5150 III 50w head and the hiss was unbearable, even took it to my amp tech who tested everything, said there was nowt wrong with it, and that's just what the amp does. Even without a guitar plugged in it still hissed away. 

did you find the EVH was hissing/humming when you were playing through it? 

ThePrettyDamned

guitarfishbay said:

EVH, if you just need clean and high gain. Be aware there's a volume jump between channel 1+2 which share controls.

Channel 3 pretty much is plug and play metal though. Tight and aggressive 

This. 

Channel three is the ultimate metal amp. It can be huge and looseish or tight and thrashy. 

The crunch channel can do some pretty awesome thrashy stuff, too, but you sacrifice the clean channel due to the issue above. 

You can pick up the older peavey 6505 heads/2x12 combos (USA made, the 1x12 isn't but is still awesome) for peanuts compared to original retail these days. Built like tanks. 

professorben

Yea it's reinforced my original idea that the Eng is the one. 
I'm  putting it through my JetCity 2x12 which smooths out the high mids and warms it up a lot. 

So much so I'm thinking of taking the amp out and converting it into a head, purely for portability and convenience. 

professorben

Yeah just played my Engl again and it smokes the Boogie, it's 'as nice' as the EVH and I think the trade off in versatility of having a totally separate 3rd channel is countered by a GE7 in the loop.... 

I shall not be spending money I will get in trouble for..... 

sweepy

I'd never associate the MESA Mk3 with metal tbh, I'd stick with the Engl and experiment with cabs and drivers 

professorben

sweepy said:

I'd never associate the MESA Mk3 with metal tbh, I'd stick with the Engl and experiment with cabs and drivers 

Yeah, I just made the link from Mk2c+ to Mk4 and assumed the mk3 would be metal as your mother.......
sadly it's a more Classic rock type deal, which is great, it does sound good, just not what I want it for.

meltedbuzzbox

I still really like the screamer. I'm not an all out metal guy but I remember being super impressed with the clean channel and loving the grunt on the dirty channels. Great amp, especially at the price

John_P

Out of those choices the evh sounds the better amp for what you describe imo.    Find a way to deal with the ch1/2 issue. (Multieffects via midi etc). And you have one of the best mid and high gain amps on a budget.      I'd go back to gigging one happily.  
Mesa are great but a 3 isn't right without pedals and I'd prefer a different model engl for higher gain 

professorben

John_P said:

Out of those choices the evh sounds the better amp for what you describe imo.    Find a way to deal with the ch1/2 issue. (Multieffects via midi etc). And you have one of the best mid and high gain amps on a budget.      I'd go back to gigging one happily.  
Mesa are great but a 3 isn't right without pedals and I'd prefer a different model engl for higher gain 

I'd be with you on the different Engl, however I've found the 'metal' Engls a bit too compressed and tight, the screamer has a bit more 'give' in it. 

Fortheloveofguitar

Engl all the way. My Ironball is awesome 

professorben

Fortheloveofguitar said:

Engl all the way. My Ironball is awesome 

Not much love for em here in Lazy(j)Town........

Fortheloveofguitar

professorben said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

Engl all the way. My Ironball is awesome 

Not much love for em here in Lazy(j)Town........

I know a few gear snobs that slagged engl without ever having played one 

Two of them tried my Ironball and now own one too

imalrightjack

I had an Engl Gigmaster 30 combo which moved on to a mate then to @kennedydream1980 and Lord knows where next. When I had a Cannabis Rex in it, it did saturated neck pickup leads beautifully (with pedals) and was memorably described as 'warm as fuck'. I used it for a hard-driven bluesy Santana kind of sound. It was good but, other than the aforementioned sound, never spectacular. Amp quest has since led to a Jet City Custom 22 (I didn't connect with it at all but could see the potential), Egnater Rebel Mkii 30 (gorgeous clean, meh channel two), BluGuitar AMP1 (really cool for some things but the lack of valves made me a bit queasy...it didn't ever sound truly 'real' to me).

I'm now onto a Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 head. The 'clean' channel takes my T-Rex Soulmate wonderfully. The lead channel seems to have endless gain options and can get into excellent thrash tones with a quick crank of the volume. Direct recording is first class.

Despite the latter, there's something about a powered Kemper which appeals...but Mesa gets my vote, from my experience. 

Apologies for the long, barely relevant reply. 

professorben

imalrightjack said:

I had an Engl Gigmaster 30 combo which moved on to a mate then to @kennedydream1980 and Lord knows where next. When I had a Cannabis Rex in it, it did saturated neck pickup leads beautifully (with pedals) and was memorably described as 'warm as fuck'. I used it for a hard-driven bluesy Santana kind of sound. It was good but, other than the aforementioned sound, never spectacular. Amp quest has since led to a Jet City Custom 22 (I didn't connect with it at all but could see the potential), Egnater Rebel Mkii 30 (gorgeous clean, meh channel two), BluGuitar AMP1 (really cool for some things but the lack of valves made me a bit queasy...it didn't ever sound truly 'real' to me).

I'm now onto a Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 head. The 'clean' channel takes my T-Rex Soulmate wonderfully. The lead channel seems to have endless gain options and can get into excellent thrash tones with a quick crank of the volume. Direct recording is first class.

Despite the latter, there's something about a powered Kemper which appeals...but Mesa gets my vote, from my experience. 

Apologies for the long, barely relevant reply. 

Long barely relevant replies are the cornerstone of this forum, it's good to get people's opinions.
id love to try a Mk5 I think it would suit me very well. 
But damn they are pricey. 

TBH I couldn't affford to buy my Engl if I had to get it new. 

simonk

Whilst we're embracing the barely relevant, I had an Engl Powerball head and 2x12 about 15 years ago and boody loved it. Then I ended up forming a Blues Brothers tribute band and it looked a bit ridiculous so I had to get rid... I'd have it back if I could find it.