Engl Thunder 50

A powerful mini stack from the home of BMW and Mercedes
Engl…a tribute to Englebert Humperdinck per chance?
An unsettling obsession with David Hasselhoff aside, German musical tastes aren’t quite that bizarre. We seriously doubt it’s a reference to the perma-tanned, moustachioed crooner. Certainly, the sound this amp produces has no place in MOR – it rocks! Engl may not be too well known in this country, but the company’s been making amps in its native Germany for some time now, picking up some prestigious users along the way (notably, Ritchie Blackmore, who has a signature model).

The Thunder 50 is a solidly built 50-watt all-valve guitar head, which in this instance is paired with an equally solid 2×12 cabinet to make a funky-looking mini stack. That particular combination is not set in stone, however, as the 50 head has speaker output connections that allow it to be used with plenty other types of cab. There are two sets of speaker outputs: parallel 8 ohm output jacks for connecting one 8 ohm cab or two 16 ohm cabs, and two jacks at 16 ohms connected in series to accommodate one 16 ohm cab or two 8ohm cabs. There’s also a 1×12 combo version of the Thunder that comes equipped with reverb.

What do you mean by solidly built?
Brick shithouse, mate! Quality Teutonic workmanship. The wooden cabinets are made of thick birch ply, and protection at the front for the valves and the speakers is by a chunky basket-woven metal grille. If Mr Townshend were to try to clobber the speaker cones in this one he’d turn his Strat into matchwood before leaving as much as a scratch on the grille.

Is it a twin-channel amp then?
Well it’s more of a three-channel jobbie. There are lead, crunch and clean channels, all of which utilise the common bass middle and treble knobs, with a master volume switch setting the overall output level. Right at the front of the circuit is the gain knob which adjusts the input sensitivity and effectively sets the volume of the clean channel. Then there are separate volume knobs for the crunch channel and the lead channel which is great for setting the relative signal boost when you kick in with a solo. When the lead or crunch channel is active the gain knob serves to control the amount of preamp distortion.
Switching between channels (in the absence of a footswitch) is undertaken by a pair of front-panel push switches that work in conjunction.

The clean/lead switch (equipped with a red LED to show its status) either switches between the clean and lead channels or between the clean and crunch channels, depending on the position of the crunch/lead switch. If that sounds confusing, think of it is as a two-channel amp with a clean and distortion channel, the distortion channel having two switchable modes: lead and crunch.

Although the front-panel switches allow easy setting up of sounds, no-one’s realistically going to use them at a gig. In a live situation a footswitch is a practical necessity and Engl’s double footswitch does allow you to switch between clean, crunch and lead sounds with ease. Unfortunately, Engl only supplies one as an optional extra and, although it’s well-built, at �65, it ain’t exactly cheap.

What about connecting my effects?
If you don’t want to plug them between
guitar and amp – or want to place your time-based effects (eg, delay, phaser) in their own separate chain – there’s an effects loop between pre and power amp stages with send and return jack connections on the back panel of the head and a balance knob that can blend in the amount of effects signal in parallel with the pure amp signal. At one extreme of the knob’s travel you get the dry amp signal only, while at the other extreme the whole signal passes through the effects.

So does it sound any good?
Oh yes, there’s nothing like a warmed-up valve amp at full throttle and this one certainly does the business, seemingly capable of pumping out both familiar vintage-style sounds and those of a more modern tonality. This is a great amp for rock and metal with all shades of distortion available in the crunch and lead channels, but it also has a lovely clean tone that begins to dirty up ever so nicely with the gain knob turned up.

The crunch channel is ideal for cranking out chordal rhythms and riffs and can provide some stinging lead tones while the lead channel takes things one stage further for some sustaining single-note stuff and fully saturated chords. Oh, and it’s loud.

Is it for me?
Could be. The Thunder 50 and 2×12 is a cool combination for gigging and provides plenty of versatility in a recording situation.