The venerable German tube amp specialist ENGL Amplification has teamed up with Steve Morse for a signature guitar amp that not only promises to nail the Dixie Dregs and former Deep Purple guitarist’s electric guitar tone, but also pretty much any other tone you might be chasing.
Compact, with a maximum power output of 20-watts, switchable down to five-watts and a bedroom-friendly single-watt setting, the ENGL E658 Steve Morse 20 is packed with features. Little wonder Morse sounds so enthused by this thing; there’s not much it doesn’t do.
“I’m incredibly excited about this new signature amp,” says Morse. “ENGL has done a fantastic job capturing the essence of my tone in a portable, versatile amp. It’s perfect for everything from rehearsals to recording to live shows. I think players are going to love it.”
What doesn’t this thing do? Not only does it have an onboard reverb, it has digital delay as well. And a noise gate.
IRs? Come on. It’s 2024, of course there is an IR loader, and around the back of the amplifier you will find an eight-way rotary dial for selecting your favourite cabinet emulation. Stick it into speaker-off mode and you have plenty options for sending it direct to desk or DAW.
There is MIDI connectivity, USB, a balanced XLR output with ground lift, a tube-buffered effects loop for easy pedalboard integration, and a headphones out with level control for silent practice and monitoring when recording.
Engl says its Clean channel is voiced for warmth, with the Lead channel where you’ll find all the dirt you need for classic rock tones. With that effects loop and onboard noise gate, ancillary dirt from the overdrive, fuzz or distortion pedal of your preference is welcome. Though we would be taking full advantage of the onboard gain boost feature.
Despite all these features, and a fair few switches on the control panel, Morse’s amp looks to be a user friendly model. All of those front-panel features – and IR management, delay, reverb and noise gate threshold – can be programmed via MIDI.
There’s a three-band EQ serving both channels. Each channel has independent gain controls, while the Clean channel has its own presence control.
Under the hood you will find a quartet of Engl ECC83 / 12AX7 tubes in the preamp, and a pair of EL84s in the power amp.
All this and the amp weighs just 7kgs. That is portable. And at £1,245/$1,600 the Steve Morse 20 is a fairly sweet deal. For more details, head over to Engl Amplification.
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