[Zero]

There's a chappie over on SS who's looking to unload a modded Soldano SP-77 Series 2 (Egnater mod, more gain), so I offered him my E530. Haven't heard back from him, though.

Any of you guys have experience with the SP77? I heard it's supposedly modelled after the lead channel from the SLO, but I've heard others say that it's not, or that it's supposed to but doesn't sound like it, etc...

I like my Engl, but I sometimes feel like it's missing something. Especially when using EMGs, it almost sounds too... clinical? I don't want to say sterile, because it's not a bad thing. I just might want something that responds well to pick attack and dynamic picking. If I went through with this, I'll probably get rid of my ISP Prorack and just use the G-major's gate as well, as the SP77 is a 2u ordeal.

 

[darren]

FWIW, i thought your e530 sounded fantastic when running through the Mesa 20/20 you had last year. (Samer's Invader was pretty tight as well.)

Maybe it's the combination of EMGs and the e530 that's not giving you the response you're after. EMGs aren't the most dynamic pickups, so maybe that's where you could try starting, with either an 18v mod or an EMG-X. I'm not entirely convinced that a different preamp is going to respond much differently to the fairly compressed EMG output.

 

[stealthtastic]

Blackouts are an option as well.

 

[Richard]

It sounds more like an issue with the EMG's than with the E530. I would recommend trying the Blackouts as well before trying a new preamp. I hated the way EMG's sounded but loved the Blackouts.