Engl Steve Morse Signature 100 head

October 2008 Guitarist 111
ENGL STEVE MORSE SIGNATURE 100 HEAD £2,199
GUITAR AMPS
The Knucklehead 100 Reverb
(£1,934) is Rivera’s current
flagship and packs stellar tone
with the power of a nuclear
reactor – three channels of
riotous rock from one of the
world’s top amp designers. The
Hughes & Kettner TriAmp
Alex Lifeson Signature
(£2,139) also benefits from a
rock star name, not to mention
three dual-mode channels with
nine 12AX7s! Four EL34s
provide the not inconsiderable
grunt. Custom Audio’s OD100
(£2,299) is a sonic powerhouse
with two channels that
epitomise the best in British
and American tone.
Engl’s latest superhead lands in the UK – do more controls
mean more tone? We decode it… by Nick Guppy
Engl Steve Morse
Signature 100 head
£2,199
franchises. However, many of
us will always think first of the
instrumental classic Take It Off
The Top, recorded by Steve with
the band he formed back in 1972 –
the Dixie Dregs – and used by the
late Tommy Vance as the theme
tune for BBC Radio 1’s seminal
Friday Rock Show as far back as
1978. In between, Steve has also
managed to form his own band
and reform the Dregs on several
occasions, not to mention filling in
the odd idle moment by becoming
an airline pilot! So when Engl
announced the Steve Morse
Signature head we were keen to
see how complex – or simple – it
would turn out to be.
As you’d expect, given that Engl
isn’t shy of setting itself challenges
either, the Steve Morse Signature
100 is not the simplest design to
ever land on our test bench – but
it’s not the most complicated
either. One thing Engl doesn’t
compromise on is build quality
and the Morse is a head of titanic
proportion, with massive
transformers bolted to a deep
heavy-duty steel chassis. Inside
that you’ll find all the electronics
supported on Engl’s printed
circuit board, which is fabricated
to the obsessively high standard
we’ve come to expect. There’s
nothing wrong with printed
circuit boards on a valve amp as
long as they’re done properly –
and while very few manufacturers
meet our expectations in this area,
The Rivals
Engl is one of just a handful that
consistently exceeds them. The
Morse 100’s internals are up to the
sort of standard you’d want if you
were building passenger jets or
satellites, let alone something as
down to earth as a guitar amp.
Although after a quick glance
at the control panel, you’d be left
in no doubt that this amp is far
from mundane, with no less than
23 control knobs to tweak. Ten of
these make up the Morse 100’s
first two channels, with standard
gain, three-band EQ and master
volume arrangements. Then we
come to channel three, which
features not one but four mid
controls – two differently voiced
lo mids and two similarly different
hi mids, both pairs of which are
switchable. There’s a switch
called high gain that kicks all
three channels up to an extra level
of filth, and channel three also
gets two separate master volumes
to provide separate levels for high
and low gain operation. Another
small switch is the tone control
that simultaneously reconfigures
each channel for a different,
expanded voicing: adding more
treble to channel one, scooping
the mids of channel two or
altering the frequency range of
channel three’s four mid-range
controls. Added on to that little
lot, there are global controls for
presence and depth as well as two
separate global master volumes,
which are again switchable.
Around the back there are two
entirely separate effects loops
(that can be run in series or
parallel), preamp and fixed level
line outs, a noise gate and sockets
for switching all of those
functions’ provisions, which on
this amp include MIDI.
Wrapped up in a tough ply shell
with a fetching blue control panel,
with blue LEDs lighting up the
valves and a cool chrome logo, the
Steve Morse 100 looks every inch
the super head you want it to be.
Can this amp cook up tone that
sounds as good as it looks?
Sounds
When switched on it is
immediately apparent that, like all
Engls, the Morse is practically
noise-free – and that’s no mean
feat in an amp this complicated.
Channel one has that bright
glassy clean tone that most
modern multi-channel amps
have (except here you can also
boost it into a fairly mean crunch
if you want), while channel two
can be wound up to the kind of
sustain that many amps would be
proud to have on their lead
channel. Using the tone switch to
scoop out channel two’s mids is
particularly effective for getting
that eighties LA grind, which is
still a popular sound for many.
Figuring out the functionality
of channel three’s four mid-range
knobs was made easy thanks to
a well-written and informative
manual – lo mid one has a woody,
vintage Brit-influenced effect
while lo mid two offers a smoother
more rounded character. Same
thing goes for the two hi mid
Is this amp okay for
playing small pub gigs?
It may well be overkill, but
compared to some big amps
the Engl can sound cranked
at relatively low volume, so
you can get a good tone from
it without shaking the
foundations.
Is it point-to point or PCB?
Printed circuit board – and
one of the best you’ll find in
any amp. There’s no way you
can build an amp this
complex and do it
consistently without a PCB.
Who is this amp for?
Well-heeled fans of Steve
Morse and serious pros who
want a powerful head with
a high level of flexibility.
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What we
want to know
A
s well as having a
reputation for being one
of the best players on the
planet, Steve Morse is known for
being an uncompromising
perfectionist when it comes to
equipment, resulting in some
complex and unusual set-ups over
the years. These days Steve is
probably best known for his work
with Deep Purple, one of rock’s
most successful and enduring
GIT308.rev_engl 111 10/9/08 2:48:49 pm