Laney LC 15 - What do you think about it?

[yuza]

In my continuing search for a good lead tone I've came across this little combo tube amp. I haven't had the opportunity to try it myself... what do you think about it? I'm searching for a good distorted tone for lead, not noisy, that won't mess things up when playing fast. Liquid and fluid a la Gilbert and Vai..... the first thing i thought about was the Pod, but this little amp seems interesting too.....

[Pablo]

I had uploaded a sample of Vai demo-ing the BSB through an LC15, sounded darn good

[ripl3y]

It is a very good little amp for the price.

Quite creamy in the lead department, not too harsh.
I second the demo of vai and the BSB, although he did have an OD1 in front of it, but a great sound nonetheless

If you do get one then get the LC15-R then at least you have a reverb if you need one.

I'm grabbin' one at the end of the month as a stand in whilst I'm saving for a Cornford.


Steve

[pri0531]

FYI - As far as quality I have had good luck with my Laney 2x12 cabinet. *
Out,
Gregory

[RSVampire]

wow...all good comments....I must have a stroke of bad luck cause I haven't heard anything good come from a Laney amp......I saw a blues band today with a Laney amp and it was quite creamy....but he was also using a Les Paul and a lot of bass....so it was TOOOOO creamy.......but hey if you think they sound great...go for it man! I got nothing against bad gear kickin ass.......I've even been surprised sometimes at some cool tones that can come outta things I never thought possable....

[Pablo]

I can't decide if I sould go for a VH100R which I can get (to replace my GH100L) for £250 I'd need to try it first to see the condition.

Vai Satch and Gilbert have used Laney so they can't be bad.

[yuza]

I was planning to put a pedal in front of it to boost the signal and get more preamp saturation.... by the way, do you know where i can find the demo, sounds very interesting!

[gkelm]

Andy Timmons has used Laney as well (VH head I believe). *I really like the VC30...had nice "chime" to it, a bit like a Vox. *I'd expect the LC15 to be a great little piece.

Older Laneys like the Linebacker series seem to be different beasts.
Greg

[ripl3y]

Quote: from rsvampire on 1:11 am on Aug. 11, 2001
I got nothing against bad gear kickin ass.......

Laney isn't "Bad Gear"

I prefer to think of them "Priced Correctly"
i.e. you get what you pay for as opposed to not getting what you pay for (I'm sure we can all name names)

They make solid amps with some great tone.

Having played many Laney's the only one's I've found real fault with is the Tube Fusion series.
But they were marketed and constructed as a similar alternative to Marshall's Valvestate, and I found the same fault with the Marshall's.

If you wan't a great tube amp you can do much worse than a Laney and for the price (especially here in the U.K. you can't do much better)

People look for different attributes from an AMP (obviously)
Some poeple are sold on a "name" and spend a ludicrous amount of money buying their amp, and, most probably believe it sounds amazing as that is their choice and preference and I won't knock that, I just know through experience with Laney's that you shouldn't overlook the less expensive alternative as money doesn't make an AMP...the sound and what you like about it does.

Go for the LC15-R....it's a killer AMP.

Cheers
Steve

[yuza]

Thanks for sharing your opinions. I tried a LC 15R today and was very impressed.... it isn't muddy when it's cranked up and the distortion is very fluid and doesn't mess the things up.... I'm seriously thinking about buying one.....

[yuza]

Some problems have occurred.... i have read reviews on Harmony Central. Most people complains about the Reliability of this amp. A lot of them have had problem with tubes and fuse blowing and things like that. The main problem seems to be that the tubes are mounted underneath the circuitboard, thus making the heat of the tubes fry the circuits. I'm a bit worried about this because i would use it with a OD-2 to push the signal and hit the amp harder (it doesn't seem to have enough gain by itself) and fear that this arrangement could blow the amp away.... Perhaps it's not the right amp to play high gain stuff a la Vai and Gilbert..... it seems to be more of a blues, or rock amp. Any opinions?

[7 Dying Trees]

I have owned one for about 5 years now. It's been my practice amp all the way through college, and still sits in my bedroom. If you are detuning or playing 7string it'll get very muddy quickly, but otherwise it's OK. Get the reverb model, mine predates that, and it would have been nice to have, but oh well...

It's nice as a practice amp, definetly, and can get quite loud as well. I just used it with a clean setting with an effects board in front of it, and this has always worked fine...

Don't orry about overloading the input of any amp, all you are doing is pushing more signal in == more distortion. I used to use a boss hyper fuzz on the gain setting to get a nicer smoother distortion out of a JCM900, it has no adverse effect at all. By all means use a distortion pedal to boost the gain, or just even some kind of gain stage before the amp...(hyper fuzz works nicelly, or an EQ pedal with the overall gain boosted). And pushing more signal through isn't going to make the tubes hotter, the heat comes from the heaters inside the tube, which are not connected to the signal path in any way.

Just as long as you don't want a heavier than heavy sound it's good.

The power switch is the only thing that's ever died on it in 5 years, and it's still alive, even after having moved more than several times. So I think it is pretty reliable. And quite nice tone as well!

So yeah, it is a good little amp.

James

(Edited by 7 Dying Trees at 1:21 pm on Aug. 14, 2001)

[keith]

I own the LC15-R's big brother, the LC30.

The blown fuses issue is quite overblown. I've blown about 4 HT current level fuses and all it means is that the preamp valves need to be changed...nothing to worry about.

The sound of these valve-tanks is great, however you need to play around a bit with valves. I currently have sovteks inside it which aren't very to my liking.

Just a couple of bastard sidenotes:

The tone is VERY *[read as "sickeningly excessively"] dependant on the temperature of the valves. It [the tone] will change immensely during operation, so my advice would be that of switching it on for an hour or so before you actually use it, unless you dont care.

I'm not sure the LC15 has 2 channels, but the channel switching of the LC30 is a pain in the A$$. I would be using the distortion channel, then switch to clean and back to distortion again. The problem is that when switched to clean...out of the 3 preamp valves only 1 is used, thus leaving the other 2 to cool down. And then, the distortion channel sounds like mud as in cold valves again, since 2 out of the 3 valves have cooled down to start-up levels.

Anyway, it has it's ups and downs, but it's a great amp. If only they did an LC15-R with a closed back 1x12 speaker.

[7 Dying Trees]

the LC15 only has one channel, and the sound does change a bit, but I assume that this'll be a practice amp, so it won't really matter that much...

[yuza]

So you guys think i won't have problems with this amp...?