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All the flexibility you'll ever need.

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Engl’s reputation has been steadily growing in recent years, thanks to highly flexible amps like the Powerball head. You will find straightforward no-frills models in the company’s catalogue, but designer Horst Langer’s personal mission seems to be to push the limits of what can be done with an all-valve design – and his new SE head looks set to redefine those limits for just about every amp manufacturer out there.

Like all Engl designs, the SE is immaculately styled, with looks that easily sit alongside the best the USA can offer. The tough ply cabinet is neatly put together and expertly finished with a cool futuristic look thanks to the black chrome bars that serve as a front grille. There’s more visual candy from the 3D front panel, with controls and switches partly recessed into cut-outs which denote the main channel and preamp sections.

As well as looking good, it’s logically arranged, which is just as well as there are quite a few controls to play with. Inside the welded steel chassis the electronics are all PCB mounted. This is one of the most densely packed amps we’ve ever peered into, but everything is impeccably fitted and soldered.

The eight main boards are high quality epoxy double-sided affairs, with short ribbon cable links, and the overall parts quality is first class. It’s a totally professional piece of kit that’s easily going to handle heavy touring with a minimum of maintenance.

The front control panel looks complex and the rear one even more so, but thanks to an excellent manual full of diagrams and helpful advice, setting up the SE is actually quite straightforward. Just don’t expect to know everything in five minutes.

Essentials

The SE is basically a reverb-equipped four-channel head with two partly shared EQs, though each channel has separate gain, volume and treble controls. Each channel’s voice can be varied with several small pushbuttons and, in the master section, there are more switches governing bass response, noise-gate and power amp functions.

There’s a fifth and sixth channel lurking on the rear panel: called a ‘Tube Driver’ this can be used in place of the main channels, either with or without its own EQ section. The Tube Driver is intended to feed combined preamp and effects units, bypassing most of the SE’s preamp functions, but also works well as a second clean channel with a totally different vibe to the front panel choice: fatter and warmer, with a nice mild overdrive when pushed.

There are no less than three effects loops – two parallel and a third series loop which can be preset to work with either of the other two. As well as a balanced line-out, the Engl’s pro standard is reinforced with unprecedented features that include microprocessor-controlled power valve monitoring, a cable tester and a speaker impedance checker.

There are two pairs of speaker outlets, each governed by separate master volume and presence controls, and you can switch from one to the other to capitalise on the effect of different drivers and cabinet types.