Laney

I bought it to complement a cheap rig for a few gigs as a guitar/voice duet. I’ve used it with a Cort AF510E and had the opportunity to hear a martin junior and a seagull played on it during gigs where we shared gears. That’s an honest amp which can be compared to Marshall’s 50W acoustic model, but it’s more practical as it can be tilted, allowing to use it as a stage monitor when the venue has its own sound system. The sound is transparent, you get what you give. Perhaps with less lows at a high level compared with the 60W model, but the sound is true to the guitar. The sound volume is enough for playing in a bar with a 15-20 attendance, beyond it tends to be limites (but in such situations there’s often a sound system). Regarding its effects, the spring reverb is not bad and suits both the guitar and vocals. Sadly it only offers a common setting, which can be inadequate if you don’t have an external vocal preamp. The anti-feedback feature does the job, nothing particular to say about it (except how practical it is). The chorus would have used a footswitch, as it sounds good but you have to switch it on or off on the amp, which can be a problem. The EQ is rather noisy, with a bachground noise that can be heard as soon as you turn it on when you don’t play (not really disturbing, but unpleasant when you’re in the amp’s axis, while less perceptible when you move away). However, it’s not a problem when playing. The DI does the job with no background noise. I only add a compressor before it to make the sound thicker and it works wonder. In the end, it’s a cheap amp that sounds transparent (both for the guitar and voice), and nice to play small venues or as a stage monitor on bigger ones. Perhaps not the most adequate choice for a beginner as it’s rather powerful, but in the end, for such a price, if you can move mountains you can move molehills ;-) PS : I just wanted to mention that the amp has no master volume, so the voice and guitar volumes are used as gain settings for the preamp that sends the signal into the power amp which default level will be full-on. It’s nice to know, as this induces a small background noise even at a very low volume, but the noise won’t turn up with the volume. It may also be the cause for the EQ’s background noise (short version is, you have the noise of a similar amp that would be maxed without being able to lower the master volume to reduce the noise). For such a price, nothing too horrible. ;-) A demo of the amp used with a Cort AF510E is available here (no other effect, only compression, the rest such as the reverb comes from the guitar and amp, flat EQ setting and signal through the line out):

100w into 8ohm UTILIZATION easy to use..as it should be...still suits my needs as it retired to a practice amp SOUNDS musicman stingray, warwick thumb nt5. aria avb nt5...i only use it as a practice/house amp these days.. OVERALL OPINION have gigged with it recorded with it and after 23 years the only thing that ever happened to it in all the years is a blown fuse... never ever failed me...i have had many many amps over the years, i use a mesa 400+ with trace cabs ,and also have a trace quatra. but the laney still gets used every day,and for the money,best thing i ever bought in my musical life. its still easy good enough to do smaller gigs with if needed...not a fan of 15s but the dp100 is tight and does the job at lower volumes,cant handle the 5s when louder,but i started out with it still use it 23 years later,cant say fairer than that,its heavy by todays standards,never found a reason to change it,would i buy another ,yes i would...any amp thats been bashed banged,dropped, and dragged in and out of vans for years and still works as well as the day i bought it gets my vote...had various ampegs that could not handle the life. laney dp100 .bought it new,still use it .great great amp that i will never sell...end of story.

Laney is a great company feels high quality amplifiers and equipment very low and ask inexpensive prices. This amplifier is a great little 20 W amplifier that has a clean in overdrive channel. You also get a little bit extra features such as the bright switch as well as reverb an effects loop. You have any general EQ global passes bass, middle, and treble control knobs. You also have one high input guitar input as well as one low input guitar input. You're granted three speaker connect so that you can choose the different type of impedance that you so need. UTILIZATION Laney Lionheart L20H All-tube Class A Guitar Amplifier Head Features: Power RMS: 20W Inputs: One High input, one Low input Channels: Clean and Drive EQ : Passive bass, middle and treble Bright Switch: Yes Preamp Tubes: 3 x 12AX7 Output Tubes: 4 x EL84 Reverb: Yes Footswitch: FS2 (Included) Speaker connections: 3 x jacks FX Loop(s): Yes Impedance: 4, 8 and 16 ohm Baffle: Marine-grade plywood Cabinet Design: Marine-grade plywood cabinet with retro banding strip, leather strap handle Weight: 17Kg Channel controls: Gain (Clean), Gain and Volume (Drive) Master section: Global EQ, Reverb and Tone controls SOUNDS The tone of this amplifier is very good and it feels and sounds exactly what you expect have a high quality British sounding amplifier. It has a great warmth in almost in vintage tone due two EL 84 power tubes. These are the selected power tubes if you would hear out of amplifier such as a fox or other small wattage vintage British amplifiers. This is a great little amplifier for someone he needs just a little bit of low wattage but a good groove tube tone. This amplifier sounds good and pretty much any setting wetters to clean for the overdrive setting. It's not could be a very high gain amp but it's going to excel at the medium to low game in the clean channel. The distortion overall it's kind of blah to me it doesn't really inspire me to play at the clean channel is very good worth the price. OVERALL OPINION I would only recommend this amplifier someone who enjoys Laney amplifiers likes the voice mother hips. The distortion channel was a very unique one and it's not exactly the typical British town. It has that British feel invoicing but it's very thick almost like a buzz distortion box.

For some reason, Laney doesn't get talked about that much. The GH100L is a 100 watt Marshall-esque amplifier complete with a switchable boost, effects loop, switchable bias, resonance control and slave out. It's not exactly a great looking amplifier, but it does that lightly modded JCM800 tone in spades. They're also fairly reliable to boot. UTILIZATION Laney seems to have built an amp to directly compete with the modded JCM800 style of amplifiers, and they didn't do a bad job. The footswitchable boost enables another gain stage to help kick the amp up a notch. The resonance knob helps give the amp some more shaping of the low end, and the effects loop is a huge plus. SOUNDS As we all know, the sound is the number one thing when it comes to an amplifier. The clean tones on the GH100L are somewhat dismal. You'll need to plug into the additional jack to get a decent clean tone, and when you do, the high gain sounds will be lacking. However, this amp wasn't exactly built for clean tones. The main thing it was going for was that hot rodded Marshall sound. Even with the boost, the amount of gain isn't a ton. Don't expect to get 5150 levels of gain with this amplifier. Instead, it's more like a typical early modded Marshall sound similar to Lee Jackson and the such. Personally, I felt I had to boost it to get the tone I wanted. Once boosted, the thing really did come alive, especially at lower volume levels. The switchable bias to 5881/6L6 tubes also helps give it another flavor of that Marshall sound. With the 5881/6L6 tubes, you can get a nicer bottom end and bigger sound. Your midrange shifts a bit, and it sounds quite a bit bigger. I keep mentioning that this amp is a good JCM800 alternative, and it is; However, I felt that the JCM800s just sounded a bit more "alive" than this amplifier. I'm not sure if it's due to the transformers, effects loop or what, but it's just something to keep in mind. OVERALL OPINION Anyone looking for a lightly modded JCM800 tone on a budget should definitely check out the GH100L. For the used market price, this amp is a serious contender to the other Marshall clones out there. While I felt it doesn't sound quite as good as an oldschool JCM800, it's surely close in terms of overall tone. On top of that, they're fairly reliable, so touring shouldn't be an issue.

Bought in Sydney for AU$1400. I needed an amp that sounds good and suits my plauing style. It is very basic and simple amp with an incredible sound. Some say the drive isn't enough, but I find this very strange because I never go ever 2/3 and can do any type of lead in this setting. This amp is not for people who can't play well as the amp will show all bad playing very clearly. However for people who play well (like me), this amp is a "god sent". It lets me do things like subtle expressions etc like no other amp and I've had a lot of them the high end ones and actually have sold my Fender to replace it by V30. The sound is full, thick and bright yet creamy. It's loud enough for any un-miked gig. Like I said it is simple amp and that's what I likwe about it. No nonsense like EQ or multiple tone or drive controls which when it comes to live playing often become more of a pain than a usefull features. I wanted a great sound in a siple package and VC30 is just that. Nothing I don't like about it when it comes to usability, sound and operation. Oh yeah there is one thing. The big LANEY plastic logo makes the amp look "cheap" in my opinon and doesn't reflect it's sound quality. I wish they used smaller chrome logo. I took it off and replaced it with nice old tube radio badge. Now it looks as it sounds - personal thing really....:-) Ok, I hate the handle because it's too soft and bends too much while carying the amp and that hurts my hand. I've fixed that by strapping rod over it so it done't bend and it's great now. The Tolex covering is not thick enough and can tear easy but it's not a reall problem and if it brings the price of the amp down I'm all for it. The amp chassis get very hot and being an tube amp builder my self I know that is not that great for component life in the long run. I've installed smal PC fan at the bottom rear of the cabinet and now it's fine and I feel better. What I don't like the most is that the new model 2003? don't use HH Invader speaker anymore but apparently Celestion. With this new speaker the VC30 seems to lose some of the live sound and I think I'd be forced to buy 2th hand amp if something happend to mine. Apart from that I've had this amp for nearly two years and so far no problem eccept one tube blown in the first 6 moth of usage. It was a faulty one because the plates got loose and shorted the tube. If I'll need to buy another amp again it'll be VC30 and nothing else. I play with a lot of people who use Fenders, after one rehearsal with me some of them wen't out and bought VC30. What else is there to say? Last thing I'd like to add is amnp might not be for everyone. If you want Marshal or Fender sound get those. You won't get VC30 to sound like them, it's an amp in class of it's own and the only thing that comes close to is AC30. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Laney amplification has been around for a long time. They were one of the first amplifier companies to really take the British voicing and compound on it. They're one of those companies that use that familiar British tone and gave it a lot more features and saturation. These amplifiers really take on that heritage that lthey started years ago. This is basically 100 W amplifier has two channels of operation. This is an EL34-based power amp tubes section as you probably would expect from a British company. You have a high and low input jack to give you that medium gain all the way up to high gain application. UTILIZATION Features Power RMS: 100 Watts Inputs: Hi & Lo Jacks Channels: 2 - each with footswitchable gain Equalization: Independent Bass, Middle & Treble for both channels Master Presence Control: Yes Bright Switch: Yes: on clean channel Switchable Resonance: Yes Preamp Valves: Premium ECC83 Output Valves: Premium EL34 Switchable valve bias (5881 / EL34): Yes Class: A/B Reverb: Yes- With independent levels on each channel Line Out: Yes Line In: Yes Footswitch: FS4 (Included) Speaker connections: Connections for 1 x 16 ohm, 2 x 16 ohm, 1 x 8 Ohm, 2 x 8 ohm FX Loop(s): Channel A, Channel B, Channel A + B, Global Insert/Side Chain with Return level SOUNDS If you've ever played any type of Marshall amplifier or even in orange amplifier then your in good company with this amp. This is 100 watts loud sonic British tone that gives you a little bit more features that standard Marshall Plexi or Marshall on JCM 800. One cool feature that existed is the line out and line in of the power section. So basically you can run a wet dry wet operation with the out as well as going direct for recording as well as having the line in of your favorite preamp and using Laney's power amp section of this amplifier. That's a cool feature and you don't see that tofeature on many high gain amplifiers. OVERALL OPINION These amplifiers are great alternative to a Marshall or an orange amps. It does have multiple channel so it gives the user a lot of flexibility in features that you wouldn't find out of a single channel amplifier. Overall this is a good amplifier for someone who needs 100 W of power and needs multiple channels to cover a lot of musical possibilities. These are great amplifiers for recording primarily because of the line out features as well.

The Laney LC30 1x12 combo is the amp that picks up where the LC15 and LC15R left off. It's got a 12" speaker and puts out 30 watts of power as opposed to 15. It's two channels (separate clean and drive) and with the same core EQ controls and the reverb and effects loop that are left over from the 15 watter. It's pretty simple overall, just a great British set of tones. The clean channel has a typical layout of volume, bright switch, bass, middle, treble, and the drive channel has gain, volume, bass, middle, treble. The master section has a reverb control for controlling overall reverb levels and then a master volume. UTILIZATION Getting a good sound out of this amp is pretty easy overall. It's got a pretty typical EQ layout and the controls react in the typical way for an amp of this style. They're not insanely tweakable like a modern style amp (IE: Mesa Boogie) but they have more of a subtle curve like a Fender or VOX amp. The two channels offer a nice range between clean tones and drive tones that is easy to balance and offers a different take than a Fender, VOX or Marshall. The tone of this amp is nice and smooth, but with a certain biting quality to the top end that sounds great when pushed hard. SOUNDS The overall vibe from this amp is that of a British amp with a vintage tone in mind. The clean channel is nice and spanky, with a hint of grit and saturation that lurks within if you hit it hard enough. It works best for a nice country or early rock n roll tone I find. It's not really sweet or dark enough for true jazz sounds and it's a bit too clean for gritty blues to my liking. The drive tones are pretty solid as well, very smooth and clear overall. The tones can range from Cream/Hendrix levels of saturation all the way up to some dinosaur sized rock tones that really give some nice kick, especially when using some hotter humbucking pickups. OVERALL OPINION All in all I think the Laney LC30 is a great amp for someone looking for a unique take on the British tube tone in a versatile dual channel package. This model has been superseded by the LC30II which updated some of the features, so you'll only find this model used now, but when you do see one it's definitely worth a look. They can be had for about $400 used which is a great deal considering the quality of the sound that you get.

The Laney LC-15R is one of the smallest variants of the LC series line, which is noted for its more vintage styling and tone. This particular model is a single channel amplifier, putting out 15 watts of power that is run on EL84 tubes. It has a single 10" speaker for great portability. The single channel has a gain control, a bright switch (acts sort of like a brightness control on a Fender, or a Top Boost channel on a VOX) and the typical EQ stack of bass, middle, treble. There's also the standard volume control, and a nice spring reverb as well. The back houses the speaker jacks as well as an effects loop, great and useful features. UTILIZATION Getting a good tone out of this amplifier is pretty easy. There's not a lot of controls to get your head around and the layout is pretty typical. Its closest competitor is the Fender Blues Junior for features and general layout. The amp is single channel so my best approach to setting it up was to either set the amp up with a more mid gain sound and use a boost pedal like a Super Overdrive to kick it into high gear or setting it up for its highest gain tone (think early Van Halen sounding) and then use my guitar volume to clean it up. The EQ reacts pretty typically for an amp of this type, though understandably there isn't a ton of low end considering it only has the one 10" in it. SOUNDS This amp, despite its simplicity, actually sounds pretty fantastic for the price and features. It's got to be set up for each, but you CAN get a great clean and some rippin' drive out of this amp as well. The clean tones are jangly and clear, with a teasing hint of Fender-y sparkle and chime, perfect for single coil players or perhaps P90s/lower output humbuckers. Easing up the gain brings the amp into great bluesy tones that work very well for gritty blues and early rock n' roll styles. Switching into the highest gain setting gives it a certain British fire that's reminiscent of that great tone used by many rock gods of the '70s and '80s. Sure it may not have the POWER of your vintage Marshall JMP put on 10, but it's got that sort of tone if you want it. OVERALL OPINION All in all I think the Laney LC-15R is a great little tube amp for the player who wants a classic look, easy to use layout, simple yet useful features and a great variety of tones in a single channel design. It sounds particularly cool and it definitely is a way to get that British tone in a cheaper and portable box. At about $500 new these amps were fairly priced when new and you can find them for $300 or so if you look now. Definitely a great little gem in this world of amps. Go check one out!

The Laney VC 100 is a nice little combo for someone who wants one of the most versatile amplifier companies in the world. This is a great little combo they can get you a lot of versatility in a lot of tone ringing for just about any style of music. First off you have four channels which consists of a light and overdrive, and then you have a distortion one and a distortion to channel. There seems to be a lot of buttons and switches on that face plate of this amplifier but don't let that confusing. The layout of this amplifiers pretty easy and is extremely self explanatory. You have two inputs one for high and one for low and you also have an effects loop on the back. You have probably a very basic EQing section on the front panel at you would see on most amplifiers along with a solid presence control knob that is very adjustable and can tweak your feeling of the amplifier from room to room as you see fit. This is 100 W amplifier and believe me you can crank out a lot of volume so be prepared. It is a good bedroom volume amp so you can hear a decent tone at low volumes. UTILIZATION This amplifiers pretty easy to use in again is self explanatory. It has a strong British feeling tone in the voicing is very martial bike. You can get a good clean tone from the clean channel as well as a good classic rock tone from the the overdrive channel. The distortion wanted distortion to you are great for it either switching from rhythm to lead voicings. This these channels are very interchangeable what you can dial them into half to lead tones on top of your overdrive we can have one as a good rhythm channel and another one for another rhythm channel. The possibilities of total variance is pretty endless with the four channels as offered as amp. SOUNDS I really like the tone of Laney amps in general. If a good squishy overdrive saturation feeling and the clean channels are better than what I have come to understand from Marshall amplification. I pretty much like just about anything Laney does because they are very user friendly and very good at getting the players exactly what they need for recording or getting purposes. This again is 100 W amplifier hate uses 6L6 power tubes to see you can have a lot of increase in the top and bottom ends of the frequencies. What I mean by this is that your base is going to be very full and it's good to be very low and very tight. The hives are good to be very sharp and clean and tight as well. It is suffering the midrange crunch a little bit because you're not using EL 34 power tubes but believe me this is a great power to section for the sample for cock fire and its voicings. You also have two 12aX7 preamp tubes which didn't get you a lot of preempting is going to be a lot of adjustability within the preamp section. OVERALL OPINION These have been discontinued for a while mouse at the use market is the only way to go at this point. This is a great little combo and if you like the tone of the British amplifier then this might be the way to go. In my opinion this is a stronger amp then many of Marshall's combos amplifiers that they have put out so if you're looking for a good British tone and you want something probably a little bit better than it Marshall amplifier that I would suggest going with this option or alternative. This is a fun amp and get the great tone and a great recording tone.

The Laney LC50-II is 50 watt, 1x12 tube combo amp powered by two el34 power tubes. It has a clean and a distortion channel, footswitchable reverb, and a bright switch on the clean channel. Each channel has its own treble, mid, and bass controls, as well as volume control. The 12 inch speaker is a Celestion Seventy/Eighty. UTILIZATION It is incredibly easy to get good tones out of this Laney combo. The equalization controls are all balanced in their sweep, and the Bright button on the clean channel really adds a nice sparkle to the tone. SOUNDS I use a Gibson Les Paul Custom and a small pedalboard consisting of a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, a Line 6 MM4, and a Boss NS-2. The LC50-II has slightly more gain than a Marshall JCM800, but not enough to be considered a “high gain” amplifier. I use the Fulldrive to boost the distortion channel with excellent results. The Laney amps I have played all tend to have a certain “fuzz” on the distortion channel, and the LC50 is no different. It’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just the Laney sound. Just listen to Tony Iommi’s guitar tone and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. The clean channel on this combo is amazing. It is VERY loud, VERY clean, and takes pedals well. OVERALL OPINION The thing I like the most about the LC50-II is how unbelievably LOUD it is for a 1x12 combo. This is a great feature in live settings, but this does not make for a good practice amp unless you have no issues with being loud where you live. I paid $500 for this used amp and I feel like I got an excellent deal. The tone and volume in the convenience of a 1x12 combo makes this amp a winner in my book.

Made a switch from playing the guitar to the bass and needed a practise amp to get started.Got it from Guitar World in Sydney and paid 300 Aus $. For a low end amp it has a lot of tonal variety , right from being able to get a fat round tone to a funky bright tone its all possible. It also has a line out to send the feed straight to a PA saving the need for mic'ing the amp. The lows arent that great. The compression does nothing more than clip and distort. Its really tough and quite heavy for a 30W amp. Ive dropped it , banged it , cranked it and what not and still in perfect condition. Ive had this amp for 10 months and have played about 6 gigs for approx 30 to 50 people with it and my friends in the crowd said they could hear me fine also during recording the jams even without a mixer the bass is heard distinctly. My neighbours complain even when i jam on the volume just at around 4 , although that would be mostly because of my lousy playing but its still a nice loud amp. Overall a great beginner/practise amp. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Got it at the music store that I work at (Cleveland Music), well...I didn't buy it, it was a Christmas present! I don't know how much it cost because I didn't ask but I know my parents got a good deal on it (well...I work there for cryin' out loud!) I know retail is somewhere around a grand but I'm not quite sure. I wanted it because I wanted a nice sized tube amp and I liked the sound of it. I like almost everything about it! I really love the fact that Laney makes an extension cab for it...that's really cool. It's set up really simple, no extra gadgets to fool around with...just clean and drive. The verb on it is ok I guess, if you really care about verb you could go get an ehx holy grail or something. If you really want a lot of distortion the drive's not for you...but a good dist pedal would also fix that! The only thing that I can think of is that the tolex is kind of thin so it rips easy...you gotta be careful. Also the handle broke once at a gig but I fixed it good as new and haven't had any more problems with it. It's built pretty sturdy, it's never malfunctioned on me and I've had it for about two years now. The only real negative I can think of is like I said earlier, the thin tolex rips easy. All in all, this is a GREAT amp. Some people probably wouldn't like it, but I absolutely LOVE it. To be honest, when you go out buying amps you should play as many as you can so you see what you like and what you don't like, and see what best fits your style of playing. I would DEFINITELY recommend that you check this one out, because it's a wonderful amp! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com