[madasahatter]

Looking into a new amp. I was going to go for a Kemper Profiler but scrapped that idea. Maybe one day but right now it seems too much for me to want to deal with... finding good profiles, figuring out a setup for play through a cab etc. etc.

Now Im going back to where I originally started and getting a tube amp. On the short list was an H&K Triamp mk2 or and ENGL Powerball or Savage. I recently listened to some clips of the ENGL Invader 2 and Steve Morse. I have a chance to get either an Invader2 or Steve Morse at a really good deal and both will cost virtually the same. My understanding is that both were built on the same platform. I like the idea of having 4 channels with the invader but it may be more than I need. The Steve Morse has a number of mid shaping options & I do like my mids.

I play mostly hard rock/metal in standard tuning. Not much drop tuning brutalz stuff. Either amp seems like it would fit my style, but unfortunately I do not have access to them to try for myself. I have to rely on sound clips & other's feedback. Do any of you have experience with either of these amps and if so how would you describe and compare them?

 

[LHORAXE-Seba]

Do you have a way to play through VST's?
I haven't looked for an emulation of that specific amp, I'll poke around for a minute, but some of the emulations that are no older than three years are pretty accurate and almost everything put out over the last year is hard to tell the difference unless your ears are really well trained, Mine aren't at that level yet but I'm also not a tone nailing beast yet.
give that and some similar newer emulations a shot if you have a way to run your guitar into a pc.
A lot of emulations offer a free trial run.
This is how I ended up getting my orange based on the rockergain amp sim, now they were a very different "exerience" you cant duplicate that, and it somehow affect the way you receive the sound, but It was close enough. plugin alliance charges like 10 or 15 a month for unlimited access to all their amp sims (there's a lot, including some "boutique" stuff). I maintain my subscription, and theres some ENGL bstuff on there, possibly others you mentioned, I'll try them today and report my personal opinion and interpretation based on the sim. (what kind of guitar will you mainly be using with it? that way I can try it with the closest one I have.)
on that note,
my second suggestion would be to bring your guitar into a shop and try them out yourself with your own guitar so you know exactly how it will sound, I bet most places will be okay with that if you come off as serious about making a purchase.

A lot of this, and feedback you get, will be very subjective. its best to try it out yourself with your own doo-dads. if there's a way you can pull it off. most

 

[peromucho7]

I played Richie Blackmore Engl sig head.
Excellent amp.

Played H&K Triamp few years ago. Ears melting too.

Either amp is good choice.

 

[madasahatter]

Do you have a way to play through VST's?
I haven't looked for an emulation of that specific amp, I'll poke around for a minute, but some of the emulations that are no older than three years are pretty accurate and almost everything put out over the last year is hard to tell the difference unless your ears are really well trained, Mine aren't at that level yet but I'm also not a tone nailing beast yet.
give that and some similar newer emulations a shot if you have a way to run your guitar into a pc.
A lot of emulations offer a free trial run.
This is how I ended up getting my orange based on the rockergain amp sim, now they were a very different "exerience" you cant duplicate that, and it somehow affect the way you receive the sound, but It was close enough. plugin alliance charges like 10 or 15 a month for unlimited access to all their amp sims (there's a lot, including some "boutique" stuff). I maintain my subscription, and theres some ENGL bstuff on there, possibly others you mentioned, I'll try them today and report my personal opinion and interpretation based on the sim. (what kind of guitar will you mainly be using with it? that way I can try it with the closest one I have.)
on that note,
my second suggestion would be to bring your guitar into a shop and try them out yourself with your own guitar so you know exactly how it will sound, I bet most places will be okay with that if you come off as serious about making a purchase.

A lot of this, and feedback you get, will be very subjective. its best to try it out yourself with your own doo-dads. if there's a way you can pull it off. most

I don't have anything to plug my guitar in a PC or really anything for software. All i have is a tiny mixing board and a free copy of Audacity. Ideally I'd love to be able to sit in front of the amps and play but they're across the country so I'd be buying online.

I'd definitely appreciate your assessment if you have some time. My main guitars are Icemans with humbuckers... Duncan JB/'59, Dimarzio Super 3/Air Norton & Dimarzio Breed.

 

[LHORAXE-Seba]

Yeah no worries man! Its nice to have the ability to help some folks out here, I'm new to Ibanez as well as this forum, so I'm still finding my "spaces" lol.
I happen to have a dean rigged w/ JB-n/ Dimebucker-b. I'll try that. its got a fun/weird shape too. lol.

 

[JsXLine6]

I have never played through a H&K but I have been at a gig with a guy from another band on stage playing one. They sound nice. The tone was a classic rock warm british amp sound the guy loved the amp too I was able to ask a bit a bout it. The amp offers a lot... However they are super pricey... Just like my holy grail amp the jvm410hjs... The satriani head. It's discontinued... but damn It's just a collective of incredible classic marshall amps all in one. I did consider buying that same H&K you are considering but decided to go down the rabbit hole of educating myself on tube character and retube my amp. It's a peavey JSX.

When I bought it I loved it because it sounded like a high gain version of a plexi... or a soldanoish high gain while also being able to capture a variety of other tones. Retubed with JJ's 6L6GC power tubes and tungsol 12ax7's... My God what a difference. I wouldn't trade that amp for anything now. My only prayer is that the thing never dies on me haha. It's extremely high gain if you want but also very dynamic and can have the most beautiful cleans... Or perfect 70's classic rock tones. That amp is so underated... It's actually designed by the same guy who made the 5150... He used the basis of a soldano and ran with it for the jsx. It has 3 channels ultra, chruch and clean... 120 watts. But the main extremely important distinction if you ever play through one... Run the amp in stereo. The sustain is unrivaled... it tightens the gain... to smooth beautiful natural compressed sound. I was able to cover stevie ray vaughan, the police, Van Halen, sublime... Anything. And capture the character of those drastically different sounds. If you have a treble bleed circuit on your guitars that amp will suit your needs. It is a steal too. They come on eBay from time to time for less than $900... My cousin bought one for $600 shipped to his house... I retubed it and holy crap it's nice. I don't want you to be discouraged from a H&K or an ENGL. However... If you could have something that's at the same calibur for under $1k??? Wouldn't you want to consider it? I definitely would.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184662265933

There's one on eBay now. Youtube some reviews for tone if you'd be interested. Though I understand with any amp bought used there is a risk, and of course if you buy the new h&k or the engl... It's from a retailer who accepts returns and has a warranty.

 

[LHORAXE-Seba]

so I had some time to mess with it just a bit, Ill go more in depth tomorrow, I tried the savage 120 and the 765 rt. both are fully endorsed by engl as faithful reproductions. Again though, Ive never known it to be the same "sensation" as working with the real deal. I used some professional IRs made by Ugritone designed to handle extremely high gain stuff, and I tried my own IRs as well as the built in ones.
my first response was...
Holy crap the mids, Never messed with ENGL but I have to thank you for leading me to try this because I'm hooked.
I will say I thought the RT was easier to dial in because its features were streamlined and getting it to speak the way I wanted was pretty easy, compared to the savage which had way more features than I was accustomed to. For both of them in this respect I found they both needed pretty big cuts to get some certain sounds I usually use, but again, I don't usually mess with these. the fact that I could in fact get what I was looking for at all, is a testament to their flexibility. I'm working on a punktronica/blues-thrash project one of these would be perfect for. I had a hard time working with it if I boosted much of anything (high, mids, even lows) probably because they were so mid heavy to start. but I'm sure there's people out there who know how to do it that don't scoop as many mids as I sometimes do.
they also had something that threw me off, and that's how warm the clean channels were. a little more flat on the savage but still warm, I'm used to modern amps being bright across the board, not a bad thing, just unique. And when I threw a ts09 in front of it I could see the clean channels seemed to have been designed to get dirty. they brightened up and sounded better than a dirty clean on any other amp... so if clean tones are SUPER important to you its something to consider. again I'm probably using it wrong cause this is very different to me. but that was my initial experience... probably have to buy a real ENGL now... thanks...

I'll update again after digging a little deeper In a day or two, probably spend more time on the savage. Its definitely specifically voiced for the music you play though.
tried some single coils on it and it gave a skate punk/west coast and ska vibe, made me giggle. I had fun.
since these two were very different amps but were consistent with their performance Then I bet a lot of ENGL amps will have similar "vibes" (I hate the word but there's no other term for it)
Hope this helps, I know you were looking at other ones but I couldn't find an Invader emulation.
heard there's a free powerball emulation though. haven't looked for it, I mean, its free and the ones I played cost ~100-200 for a permanent license so who knows how good it is. If its not endorsed by the manufacturer, I wouldn't make a purchase based on it. so I passed it over for this purpose.

 

[Formerly Given To Fly]

I’ve played through an Engl Invader and was impressed! I imagine the Invader II is equally good and would be well suited for your purposes. If you go the Engl route, make sure it comes with the foot switch because getting a new one is rather expensive if I recall correctly.

Good luck!