Too much edge/fizz on my amps...or my cab? ENGL Cabs

[ShiroNekoMusic]

Hello everyone! I'm a proud owner of an ENGL Savage MKI and I've had several tight high gain amps. This amp is the one that I love the most but it seems that it has some edge with very high gain/ceramic pickups when you use too much distortion (well, almost every amp I had did this) but I like the super tight, round palm mutes I get with neck pickups, but I want to get rid of that edge/fizzy/grind bit. Should I buy a new amp or a new cab? I'm using an ENGL Standard with v60s.

 

[budda]

Use less distortion.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

buy a 10 band eq and cut the 6khz plus range.

 

[Emperoff]

Been there, done that.

- Sit in front of your amp and play. That is how it really sounds. Chances are it's a truckload more fizzy than you thought, as it's usually behind you aimed at your butt. Probably it's time to re-eq.

- Engl V60 cabs are somewhat scooped. You might prefer V30 speakers which have more mids. Most of the "Engl sound" comes from the cabs, since their "chain grill " design lets a lot of high end through compared to a traditional grill cloth. Randall does the same and compensates with less agressive speakers (like the Celestion V-Type).

- Treble/presence balance is critical. Treble is more of a high-mid control and presence is where the fizz resides. I run treble at 4 and presence at 3 with good results.

- What tubes are on it? Engls usually come stock with JJs which are dark and harsh at the same time. The fizzy part comes mainly from the second gain section (lead boost or whatever is called). Try a warmer tube in that position (I believe is V2 or V3). An RFT ECC83 (NOS) will be cheap and address that problem perfectly.

- While we are talking about tubes, Engls also benefit from lower gain tubes at V1 like a 5751 (since they have a huge gain reserve to compensate). Again something like a Raytheon or Sylvania 5751 will smooth things up while retaining articulation and won't break the bank. If changing a couple of tubes saves you the money of a new amp/cab, it's worth a try. If not you can keep them for your next amp.

Saludos!

 

[ShiroNekoMusic]

Okay thank you all. I've owned several amps as well and tried different heads. To begin with, I don't use nearly as much gain as everyone does so the "use less distortion" thing is kinda useless. Right now I'm playing in a non treated room which has TONS of reflections, that might be one of the causes because this happened with some pickups (blackhawks, black winter set, alpha omega set) in all the higher gain amps I had. I believe it is the honky cab I'm using all together with the non treated room. When it's the least honky is when I'm right in front of the cab, that way everything sounds much more articulated and not fizzy at all.

 

[Emperoff]

Okay thank you all. I've owned several amps as well and tried different heads. To begin with, I don't use nearly as much gain as everyone does so the "use less distortion" thing is kinda useless. Right now I'm playing in a non treated room which has TONS of reflections, that might be one of the causes because this happened with some pickups (blackhawks, black winter set, alpha omega set) in all the higher gain amps I had. I believe it is the honky cab I'm using all together with the non treated room. When it's the least honky is when I'm right in front of the cab, that way everything sounds much more articulated and not fizzy at all.

Sound changes whenever you move. If you sit in front of your amp and it sounds good, it is good. Rememeber that's what the microphone will capture in a live setting as they basically kill most reflections since they're super close to the speaker.

 

[ShiroNekoMusic]

That's a really good opinion, thanks! I'll try to find some good ENGL cabs though. There's still a particular frequency on my town that bothers me all along I've been using this cab, and it has been for a very long, long time. I'll try to test things!