german guitar preamp wildness

[Guitarist]

I love Engl and what they do with convention. They are really %^!@* smart and complicated. Attached is a clip of one of their amps. Anyone care to venture a tour of what's going on there?

One thing I notice: just like the Ampegs I loved, it also has a 4.7M impedance resistor. I recall that value worked just amazing even with low-Z pedal outputs (let alone guitar pickups).

The baxandall stack is cool too.

[Alex/Tubewonder]

1st gain stage - a combination of fixed and cathode bias, this reduces the negative feedback effect of cathode bias only thus adding a touch of dirt.
Tone stack is James, not Baxandall - to be correct, Baxandall is the guy who put James stack in the feedback around EF86 tube in his first version.

2nd stage operates with grid leak bias, cathode on ground and 22M grid leak resistor. It has been used as 1st stage in some old Gibson amps among others.
Gives nice OD but can be finnicky on microphonics.

Pretty smart everything considered.