Overall Rating: A great amp for the buck and one of the best I've played. It gave me a very different look on Laney amps and I will check some other models out in the future. If you are in to heavy music or just want a heavy rock tone, check this hea...
Overall Rating: A great amp for the buck and one of the best I've played. It gave me a very different look on Laney amps and I will check some other models out in the future. If you are in to heavy music or just want a heavy rock tone, check this head out, you won't regret it.
Features: i bought this amp a year ago, so this isn't a honeymoon-review. First i didn't know anything about laney but when i tried one in the local music store, i bought it straight away. Features are as followed:
- 6x ECC83 pre-amp tubes
- 4x 6l6 (or EL34) tubes. Mine came with 6l6's
- 2 (read: 4) footswitchable channels
- 100 watt output
- a hell lotta fx-loops: Channel A, Channel B, Channel A + B, Global Insert/Side Chain with Return level
so, it's an amp with all the features you could think of except, i miss a half-power switch because this amp sounds best at very high volumes, it should be nice for bedroom-playing. And, maybe footswitchable fx-loops would be nice too. therefore, I give it a nine instead of a 10
Sound Quality: Lets get to the fun part. I play this thing straight trough an Orange PPC412 with v30 speakers. No stomp boxes or rack effects in my signal path. Guitars used are an LTD EC 500 w/ EMG 81/60 and an Ibanez SA260. My mainly play technical metalcore and deathmetal. These are played with the LTD but we metal guys are sensitive too, so I play post-rock in the likes of Explosions in the Sky and Isis (with the SA).
Channel 1 (clean): don't use this that much, i prefer a little distortion on my clean sound. It's definitely clean and with the bright switch on it's over-the-top. It has a really piercing trebly sound when you play on your plain strings with the bright switch on so I keep it off.
Channel 1 (gain-added): I like this channel. With gain maxed it has a real sludgy-sound to it. Think of the sound of an extreme loose string. Great for rock and for guitarists who want a different sound.
Channel 2 (Overdrive): Also, i don't use this channel that much. I prefer the channel 1 distortion over this one. I usually switch between channel 1 distorted and channel 2 with drive. There's also a huge volume difference between this channel and channel 2 with drive witch makes this channel even more un-usable for me. You sure have to make a choice between channel 2 with or without drive or only use the drive for soloing.
Channel 2 (with drive). This is the main reason for witch i bought this amp. I keep my drive knob low at 6 and my gain on channel 2 is on 7. This channel soars and rages like no other amp. With my LTD, it adds a huge 'chug' to my sound witch makes it a very brutal amp. Think of a cleared-up Peavey 5150 and you've got a sound of this channel. If you're into heavy music, don't overlook laney's because they have a killer-tone.
Overall, it sounds nice, but you have to take your time to get the right settings because it can sound muddy without some tweaking. Also, you tone with this amp is highly guitar-dependable. My LTD sounded absolutely crazy and the SA sounded more mainstream and a lot less agressive.
Reliability/Durability: It has never broken down on me but I've blown some fuses in the past year so always keep some of them with you when you're on the road. Also, it tends to make some weird clicking noises when you transport it. I think it's the reverb thank or something but I don't think it will break because of that.
Customer Support: Never dealed with them
Purchased From: Jacky Claes Genk
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