SeriesLaney LC

I have played since I was 12 or 13 and I am 42 now in march 2007. I like classic rock music likes of neil young, love, the who, new wave late 70's early 80's the likes of television the teardrop explodes echo and the bunnymen and everything between john martyn, nick drake, the doors, nirvana you get the picture. I also like the old school hip hop like bambata and the old tommyboy stuff, and house music, and modern stuff white stripes, blur, killers, arcade fire, tapes'n'tapes, artic monkeys, oasis, ETc, ETC, ETC. I bought the amp from ebay for £135, the amp was £199 @ the time, these amp do keep their price. I bought it because I wanted a small valve amp with reverb. I have had the amp for approx 2 years. The LC15R is pretty well equiped for the price @ the time there wasn't many valve amps around in the cheaper bracket, there seems to be more and more cheaper small amps around now like the ones from ibanez and epiphone. The amp has 2 inputs one brighter than the other, it has bass, treble, middle, gain, volume, and reverb. It also has an effects loop, direct out, ext speaker, and a reverb on/off footswitch, which work with any latching switch. It has quite a lot of gain so you can get the full range of sound and volumes from it. The amp is pretty well featured and the tone is pretty good for an amp of the price. What I have noticed about these and other equpment reviews is that people arn't too objective about their equipment, I mean whos gonna say well I went and bought a piece of crap, or perhaps people just wouldn't go and be bothered writing about something the don't like. But anyway this amp comes with a crap speaker ( I believe that it now comes with a celestion tube 10). I replcaed the original one with a nice webber signature 10, I also junked the sovtek valves and put in a set of JJ's, the amp really sound nice with these alterations. I also rigged the speaker up so it plugged into the ext socket because when you plug into the ext in the original config it didn't short out the internal speaker so I wasn't too sure about the ipedence. The other thing with the amp is that the pots are really small with tiny chicked heads and some are getting a bit scratchy but it is a cheap amp. The build quality is a bit harder to say the cab looks like it's made from MDF, the finish is a bit rough around the back but hey. The tolex looks perfect so far and the amp is made in the UK, which I am not sure about the newer ones, I noticed in a review of one of the larger Laney amps that it was made in the far east. More and more British amp companies seem to be doing this IE Vox, Celestion, Marshall (their cheaper amps anyhoo), Orange, and Laney. To me this seems wrong especially for the like of Vox and Celestion, people pay for a product that is associated with Britain and they are made in China vox and celestion arn't cheap either, if Marsahll can manage to make all their more upper class stuff in the UK I don't see why they can't. The other nice feature about this and all of Laney's stuff is the chrome front panel very classy. The bottom line is that this amp is a good buy @ the price, when you compare it to say the fender blues junior @£325, with no reverb, the laney @ about £200 or less, and with reverb is a good deal, and with the non reverb version @ about £160 they are well priced. Check it out yourself try ebay or as I said they are pretty cheap new and if you don't like it you will get rid of it on ebay and you won't loose much. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Bought it because I was tired of my Marshall and wanted more valves. Previously I had a Marshall VS265R which was very good but not really warm enough for me... and also I don't really like complicated amps. The Laney seemed like a good buy and had valves... I bought it mail order and paid 329 UK£, plus p&p so £344 overall. Well, where do I start? It has a lovely proper distortion sound, and responds very well to picking dynamics especially when the pickup volume is turned down. I use a Chinese Squier with one Gibson and one Seymour Duncan humbucker, plus a single coil... the tone of the amp is especially suited to chordal work using the bridge HB and middle SC; it has a glassy, defined quality to the tone. The overdrive is very responsive to changes in the guitar volume, and will give a convincing tone anywhere from blues crunch up to complete mega-gain. Overall I'm highly impressed by all the overdrive tones, and I look forward to exploring their potential even further at larger gigs. I'm also pleased at the way it responds to overdrive pedals; the tone becomes even smoother and more dynamic. I like the fact that it was relatively cheap, and I like the independent EQ controls (ie EQ for each channel). I'm also pleasantly surprised by the volume of the amp; it's ridiculously loud for an amp rated at 30 Watts, and I've done fairly large gigs using it only on 3 or 4. Mind you I plug a Marshall 4 by 12 into the extension socket to give it more warmth and spread, so this probably contributes to the impression of volume. The clean tones are good but I venture to say that they're not as exceptional as the overdrive. I tend not to use the clean channel though, so I probably haven't explored its full potential yet. I'm doing a few acoustic gigs soon so that'll tell me a bit more about this side of the amp. It's highly portable too, which I find a huge advantage. It is quite treble-y overall, but this is largely personal preference as to whether this bothers you or not. For me I solve this problem by turning the guitar volume down and using the amp EQ, as well as the 4 by 12, but I find I have to do this on most open-backed amps so I wouldn't say that it is a disadvantage as such. One slight niggle is that the FX loop isn't very effective... even when turned up to 10, I would guess that this only represents a 50% or below FX blend. Have a good play on one if you're considering buying it, because it is basically a no-frills retro-ish valve amp (retro-ish because there is some mega gain if you want it... for true retro try the VC30.), and it has a distinctive sound. If you don't like that sound, the EQ isn't powerful enough to let you get a different one. It is a good EQ in that it will let you fine-tune the nuances of the tone of each channel, but you can't EQ a completely different tone out of it. I can't really give a proper comment on this at the moment, as I've only had the amp for about a month. Certainly nothing's fallen off it yet, though I suspect that the lack of corner protectors on the top front of the cabinet will soon take its toll... Overall it seems well made, I have heard from a few sources that Laney's build quality in general isn't up to much, but there is nothing here to suggest that this is the case. The cabinet is sturdy without being overbuilt, the valves sit behind a secure grille (so secure that I haven't yet been able to get it off to inspect the valves...), and the knobs and so on all seem fine. It doesn't feel as tough as a Boogie, but then I haven't had to mortgage my house to buy it... when the cost is taken into account, I'd say it's very well built indeed. I'll post another review in a few months when I've gigged it more and see how things are going then... I love it to bits. It makes such a difference when your tone is right, and this amp has all I could want at a relatively affordable price. It's enriched my band and my gigging pleasure significantly! I would recommend it, but would add that it's well worth forking out for an extension cab too, as I think the combination of the open-back combo and the thump of a closed back cab is ideal. After all, you're probably not going to pay more than £550 UK for the whole set-up, which to me still seems reasonable. I'm going to give it 4 here just because I haven't had it long enough to comment properly on the build quality and durability of it. If it carries on performing like it is at the moment, it's on for an easy 5... buy one!... This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I swapped this amp with a band colleague for my Fender Princeton Chorus which was good but I wanted some valves and he wanted some chorus!! That was about a year ago, it had been around in the band for a couple of years before that but has only been gigged sinced I have had it. Very acceptable and easy to find clean valve tones, especially with my US Telecaster. I also play a Gordon Smith (twin humbuckers)and the sound is nice and rich though it needs a bit of tone control adjustment. The overdriven sound is fantastic with a very convincing range of blues crunch and solo tones to out of control mayhem (little explored or used by me but always fun). It is a very loud amp for its 30watt rating, I can't ever imagine needing more volume for the lowly bar and wedding gigs that I play, it rarely gets turned up beyond 3 or 4. I use mine with a Laney 12 inch extension enclosure to add a bit more bottom end. I also use an acoustic guitar a fair bit and using an acoustic amp emulator (in a Korg AX1000G stomper) it sound very nice indeed, big and tonally very rich. Could possibly do with a bit more bottom end, though as it is played more at decent volumes the speaker seems to be freeing up a bit and the extension cabinet (for which I paid not much over 100 pounds UK) made a lot of difference. For a 1x12, it seems heavy....very minor gripes really as it is a great amp. Construction seems as good as any I have seen, there have been no problems with it in the 3 or 4 years of its existence. It has been bashed and dropped and bears very little in the way of scars as a result. An extremely good all round amplifier, consider one as an alternative to the far higher priced US alternatives if you are looking around. Great value for money. The louder it is the better it sounds....still that's true of most amps and would we have it any other way? This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got it at a pawn shop for $135. I got it because I'd read good things about the amp, and the price was good for a low-wattage tube amp. It's a cut-and-dried tube amp. Simple in design, simple in features. Theres pregain, bass, mid, treble and a volume control. It has a really good tone at low (non-distorted) volumes. It's best to use an overdrive pedal rather than crank the amp's gain. It's plenty loud for 15 watts, and will hold up well for a rehearsal, however, do not expect it to carry over a drumset in a live situation. The amp does have a line out which is helpful, because you can always slave it to another amp to increase volume. The stock speaker is absolute crap. This matters little to me because I modded mine and added an 8 ohm output jack so I can plug into any 8 ohm enclosure. Also, the higher gain settings are not to my liking. It really sounds 'flabby' and disjoined on the low end and just doesn't sound as musical as when I use an OD pedal (I use a Boss SD-1 SD-808 mod) Another point on the down side is that this amp isn't incredibly flexible. It does one thing well, and that's about it. Construction and quality are so-so, but what do you expect at this price range. The tubes are mounted to the PC so I have the constant worry that the tubes will overheat and damage the circuit board. The thing's built well, but the stock tubes are mediocre, at best. Also, I must reiterate that the speaker is absolute crap. Overall, I am pleased with the amp. It's darned good tone for the money. I don't expect life-changing tone in such a modest package. If you buy one I would recommend replacing the tubes with Ruby tubes or NOS, and putting in your favorite Weber speaker (alnico or ceramic...pick your poison). Throw in a decent overdrive and you're off. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I had Laney LC50 and sold it for tube sound.I got an AC15 and a bunch of pedals and played around but got frustrated with pedals because if I wanted to play many different styles I either had mess around with settings between (or during) songs. I missed just creating programs and saving them. So, I decided to get a VOX ToneLab ST for my tube amp and I ditched the pedal collection. I was itching to get a solid state for practice and jamming to save tube life for shows. Enter the Laney LC50 . UTILIZATION I turned it on and immediately remembered what I loved about the Laney LC50 , diversity. I also bought the FBV Express MKii and immediately downloaded "FX Infusion", a firmware update that adds a boat-load of new effects: 5 additional reverb types, a handful of overdrives (like the tube screamer) and more modulations/settings. There is also a free software application you get from the website that allows you link the amp (through the footswitch) into a computer and you can edit your the settings in a "visual" program like you would in Reason or PodFarm. SOUNDS Your changes update in real time as you play. The software application alone is well worth cost of the footswitch. Volume: I found the amp to be plenty loud. I have an VOX AC15 and the Laney LC50 is much louder. Now, I'm not going to compare it to a tube amp on tone or dynamics. I love tube amps but a tube amp is a one trick pony and if you want diversity you have to add pedals or effect units. OVERALL OPINION The Laney LC50 is a horse of many colors. For jamming and practicing with a band, this is perfect for me. For gigs, I'll use the AC15 and have the Laney LC50 as a backup. For the price, this amp is cutting edge fun