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13K views 28 replies 18 participants last post by  Jaden 
#1 ·
What do you guys think of Laney amps? How's their tone compare with say Mesa or Fender or Marshall etc.?

I was thinking of upgrading my Marshall AVT20 to a Laney LC15 or VC15, not really sure what the difference is. They've got a Laney LC15 for $400 at my shop, which I think is a STEAL
 
#3 ·
I bought my VC15-110 more or less on a whim - went in to buy a far bigger Hughes and Kettner, left with the Lacey. I hasten to add there was nothing at all wrong with the H&K, it was just bigger than I was looking for.

I'm not at all experienced with valve amps, but this is very forgiving. Hi and lo inputs, effects loop, clean, drive, switched brightness and master tone on top of the EQ standards, extension speaker output with two dedicated cabs available from Laney. Very basic indeed.

Clean is VERY clean, not overly treble and particularly good with a Strat (haven't tried a Tele but I think it would be pretty good), drive is not dissimilar to Mesa. I wish I could find the setting again, but for just a moment I got THAT PRS tone out of an SE.

I'm not sure of the LC, but I don't think you can go wrong with the VC.
 
#6 ·
ive had a lot of amps... they always break down... eventually..
I tried out a Gh100l at the weekend.. very nice... couldnt tell really how much I rated it because I was using a shop RGA121 with a sticky nut and V7/V8 and it was running into ???? 4x12.
having said that im determined to return with my guitar and give it a good bashing...
I liked it quite a bit ;)
 
#8 ·
I have a VH100R (two channels, each with switchable drive) and in maybe 10 years the only problem I've had was caused by a dodgy power valve (fuse kept blowing). Very versatile, always use the valve pre-amp distortion/overdrive rather than pedals. Recommend it to anyone!
Jim
 
#9 ·
Great sound for the price!They're like best buy in their range.
Very Marshallesque sound and you can't miss that british vibe,but that's not anything suprising considering that Laney are british made amps,eh!:D
Excellent sounds,I have LC series combo and that thing really sings,cleans are very transparent and warm sounding while overdrive settings are kinda like marshall meets vox,very organic and british sounding and great in crunch settings but however,it's not really suited for heavier stuff like hard rock or metal where you would probably need to apply some OD pedal or booster in front of it.
But as I said,the foundations and the basic sounds are awesome!
A big downside,as plenty of people before stated is - reliability.
Mine kept blowing fuses all the time and once the output transformer totaly went down,but since I arranged it to be rewired by a pro - NO problems since then!
The bottom line would be:
Expect great sounds from Laney but be preppared for possible reliability problems...
 
#10 ·
well i bit the bullet and got a gh50l off **** for a pretty good price ($500). from what i've been able to research, that model is kind of like laney's version of a jcm800, but with more gain. single channel with footswitchable drive with the ability to easily rebias to switch between 6l6s and el34s. i'm anxious to try it out and hope that i don't have the reliability issues others have had.
 
#11 ·
further to my post above, I would like to add that I just bought a Laney VC50. it is without a doubt the best amp ive ever owned..
ive got a couple of issues but they are only because the tubes need replacing...
much better then my old marshall lead 100
 
#13 ·
Avoid the LC15 like the plague. The build quality isnt't that good. I know a few people who have bought them then they break.

The VC15 may be a better bet.

The differences are it's footswitchable, both sound good though. Be prepared to replace the output transformer at some point if you get the LC15.

Personally I'd try and find a used boogie studio22+, Subway rocket or Marshall DSL201
 
#18 ·
kiko is a monster.

agreed with the comment about the business model. i've heard very little about laney's before i started researching them. i just knew paul gilbert used to play them. i'm sure him leaving for marshall was a difficult one to swallow because he was one of the most notable endorsees they had.
 
#20 ·
headstock are distribtors in the UK - same distributor as ibanez, they are still widely regarded as an 'old mans' amp for the most part, they dont really have the 'look' of a hughes and kettner for example and are not really enjoying enough 'old man' status to be used by all the kids in their retro bands who seem to prefer orange or hiwatt.
 
#24 ·
Laney also lost Andy Timmons to Mesa as well as Paul Gilbert to Marshall. Although to be honest even though Im a huge Paul gilbert fan I've never really liked his tone, his best tone was (same as Nuno Bettencourt) with ADA Mp-1's
I saw Freak Kitchen play and Mattius's live tone was great though.

As for other endorsers Laney gained Herman Li who is massively popular so hopefully that will give them more visability. And they still have Mattius Ia Eklund and Toni Iommi. Opeth also use Laney I think

Gain isn't an issue with the GH or VH it's low end but that shouldn't really be an issue. I have both the GH100L and VH100R and they're fine amps. But in a band situation having an amp with the scooped tones of an Engl or Mesa you lose the guitar in the mix. You really want more mids to fill out the frequency spectrum. Amps like the Engl Powerball sound great playing alone but I've heard that you need to sort the mids out for playing live. I always use a Microamp in front of an amp as I just like the way it sounds so even a low gain amp like the Legacy can be made heavier.

The VH100R is a great amp very flexible but the footswitch can be a pain, I don't like foot switches where you have 1 switch to change channels then other switches that switch more gain in on 1 channel and another for the other channel.

The TT with it's three independant channel EQ's should have been cool but for some reason the small knobs on the front always made it look too 'cheap' to me, kinda like a big LC15. I know that sounds dumb but there you go.

Laney will always be second to Marshall but here in Britain they are an awful lot cheaper, I picked up my VH100R new for £399 my GH100L was £380 or so yet a Marshall DSL50 is £499 . As for Orange well I've always stayed away from them as I always thought they were a cleaner Marshall

Marshalls have that classic rock sound though. All the bands from the 60's till the 80's used them, all the classic rock tunes have 90% been done with a Marshall. It's only with the Late 80's and 90's metal scene that more gain was wanted and so we seen the rise of the Dual Rectifier and 5150 XXX et.

Mesa are too expensive in Britain that's probably part of the popularity of the Peavey XXX and now JSX as well as sounding great plus the JSX has the Satch factor. But the 5150 has transcended the VH fanboys to be a popular choice for all gain fiends.

Part of eth success of an amp is visibility if it's in the store you can check it out but who's going to buy an amp untried in the hope it's successful ? Even here in Britain your hard pressed to find a place that stocks Laney and if you do it's more often than not the LC15 VC15 and VC30

One thing I don't understand with Laney is why they discontinued the VC50 as that is a monster of an amp.

phew that was quite a rant.

The original question was on the smaller amps though, I'd still say check out a used amp like teh Marshall DSL401 as an alternative to a LC15



P
 
#25 ·
As for other endorsers Laney gained Herman Li who is massively popular so hopefully that will give them more visability. And they still have Mattius Ia Eklund and Toni Iommi. Opeth also use Laney I think
Herman Li isn't with Laney anymore. Iommi is the only endorsee with a signature model, although its pretty much just a GH100l with a metal grill on the front.

IA's tone is AWESOME and I believe that it's down to his Laney as far as gear is concerned. Same goes for Mikael Akerfeldt - if you've ever heard his lead tone at a concert you'll know what I'm talking about.

Laney will always be second to Marshall, for no reason other than Marshall being a better established brand. There's really no difference in quality otherwise, in fact I trust Laney as a brand much more than I do Marshall.

But I say, long may it stay this way. Because in order for Laney to compete, their prices have to be lower than their Marshall equivalents. I have a very early GH50l, I don't know if they still make 'em like this, but it's the most solid amp I've ever used. Certainly no reliability issues in this case.
 
#27 ·
well i've had a good chance to play my gh50l in various situations, so i guess i can give a short review and a comparison vs. my other amp, the marshall vintage modern. the cool thing about this comparison is that they are both 'single channel' amps. and i put single channel in quotes because that's how they are marketed, although in reality, there are footswitchable gain stages or, in the case of the marshall, a high and low 'dynamic range'. dynamic range is really just clean and dirty, but i digress.

when i first got the gh50l, i took it home and fired it up at bedroom volumes. it amazingly sounded pretty decent. i only had the volume around 1.5, if even that. the tone is very dry, somewhat compressed and harmonically active. this is definitely a hard rock/metal amp. in comparison, the vintage/modern is more of a classic rock/rock amp. it does not sound nearly as good at low volumes (which is expected of most tube amps), is quite a bit brighter and more open and the bass is not as tight. after running through the laney for an hour or so, i was aching to crank it. band practice was the next day though.

in band practice, i hooked it up to all of my pedals (all 3 of them, lol). first thing i noticed is that this amp is loud for a 50 watter. the vintage modern is 50w as well and i can usually get it up to around 5 for practice. the gh50l was actually louder than the marshall at 3. maybe i'm hearing the natural difference in the eq's of the amps, i dunno. anyway, the laney of course sounded better when it was opened up volume-wise. it's very focused tone, very compressed. in fact, with my compressor on the same settings that i use with the marshall (tightens up the bass considerably), it did not sound significantly different. the gh50l also has high and low inputs, which the vm does not. cleans sound better overall on the vm (although they do sound decent on the gh50l, if you use the low input), but the gh50l's gain is more to my liking, at least for harder rock/metal. it's just less hairy. the compressor tames the hair down on the vm, but it's still a much more mellow sounding amp overall.

a couple of days later i gigged with laney and got it up to 5, lol. it was insane, but i loved the way it sounded. this amp has plenty of gain. if it wasn't for the fact that it wasn't a one channel amp and didn't have independent eq and volume control, i could probably eliminate my distortion pedal entirely. the gh50l is definitely a different beast than the marshall vm. more aggressive sounding, but i wouldn't call it better. just depends on the application and preference. one thing i can say, it's definitely one hell of a great value, especially used. no one knows about these amps. owning one is like being in a secret club, lol.
 
#29 ·
ive turned into a laney nut since I got mine.
I had a problem with it so I mailed laney and get a response a couple of days later that just said "give me a call on this number and we will talk about it"
I called the guy and chatted to him for nearly an hour, he was the laney/headstock marketing manager and owned 2 VC50's, he gave me some great tips on getting the best out of the amp and which tubes work well in it, setting it up for low volume practise etc.
customer service rules.
and yes, its like being in a secret club rasta !

I think the only thing I might consider doing apart from changing tubes is to put a set of celestion vintage 30's in it to see how it sounds, otherwise, I love the VC50 !

EDIT: and hard wiring that darn footswitch - plug at both ends = trouble.
 
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