Engl Amps | E650 Richie Blackmore 100 Watt Amp

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E650 Richie Blackmore

Tube Amplifier

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From the late-sixties rock quintet Roundabout to the pummeling Deep Purple to the driving melodic rhythms of Rainbow, legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has had a defining career in rock and roll that few can claim to match, let alone exceed. The prolific guitarist has crafted some of the most infectious riffs in the history of the genre and helped found what is now known as heavy metal.

Like other guitarists of the time, his style was heavily blues-based, but he incorporated a strong classical influence that would later serve as a foundation for modern-era metal guitarists such as Randy Rhoads, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Dimebag Darrell.

Blackmore’s unique guitar tone was a combination of the best of both worlds. Originally achieved with a Fender Stratocaster with a scalloped fretboard (purchased from a roadie of Eric Clapton’s) into modified Marshall Major 200-watt heads, it had the cut and tightness of the Strat and the heft, thickness and power of the Marshall Major. Since 1994, Blackmore has been using amplifiers from Engl. More recently, his own signature model was released to try to replicate the sheer power of his past rig and offer a larger, more modern tonal palette.

The E 650 head presents the player with a relatively simple layout, consisting of a 3-band EQ section with a Presence control. A total of four channels share this circuit, and can also utilize the included Bright and Contour switches (more on this later). Along with a separate Lead Volume control and two Master Volume Controls, each channel setup reacts differently, depending on how the amplifier is set. The amplifier is all tube, running a quartet of 5881 power tubes and a total of four ECC83 preamp tubes.

4 channels: Clean, Crunch, Lead, heavy Lead, Bright switch, 3 band EQ, Contour switch, Hi/Low Gain switch, Lead Presence Control. 3 x ECC 83 preamp tubes.

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