Members fastboy Posted April 27, 2012 Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 So after some conversations with the brilliant people at Laney Amplification, today was the day that Jon (our bassist) and I got the invite to visit the Laney factory and play through Tony's new live rig What started as a 320 mile round trip armed with my Jaydee custom shop Iommi guitar and Jon with his trusty ESP turned into a brilliant day and a total privilege to spend the afternoon with some of the most knowledge, friendly guys you'll meet who are massively passionate about their products. So, we arrived around lunchtime and the first thing you see in reception is lots of rock memorabilia and pics of the various artists and products which was a really cool place to have a look round as we waited for Chris in artist relations. After we hooked up with Chris, we had a chat about how I was finding the new Iommi head as he showed us around the building. We took a stroll through the artist room which had the full compliment of all the bass and guitar gear in the Headstock distribution line which included everything Ibanez and Laney from guitars to amps to pedals. Next, the most important thing of the day, order lunch! Anyway, with lunch on order, time for the main event, Mr Iommi's rig. As we went into the warehouse, there was mr Iommi's rig in gig ready format in it's rack's running eight 4x12's and 6 heads. We then met Dave the amp's chief designer who had been dying to hear some Sabbath played through this rig at volume at I was more then happy to oblige. We talked about the prototyping and design for ages and I gave him some feedback on the things I really liked about the amp and how I was finding it compared to the GH100TI. I had asked Laney earlier in the week as I couldn't tell you on my first review what speakers where in the cab but I can now tell you, the new Iommi rigs is running British made G12H 75's. So onto the playing part.... As this was a Friday afternoon and there were obviously lots of employees around, we didn't run all 6 heads and we didn't need to either to get the same level of volume as we ran a master head, linked to another 2 heads acting as slave amps to power all 8 cabs. In terms of starting, we started with the volume on about 4 through the master head which when you're running through a couple of slaves and 8 cabs would probably volume wise like running your full stack absolutely flat out. The first thing that strikes you about this amp despite all the bottom end and gain which I'll come on to, is how ridiculously quiet and controlled this amp is despite the massive setup we were running. There was no unwanted feedback at all which was a very pleasant surprise coming from the GH100 TI which gets lots of feedback at high gain. I ran through a few tracks to start with like Voodoo and I before the official lunch hour at Laney arrived.. Anyhow, with the warehouse becoming devoid of staff, now was the time to crank this thing up. We then pulled up the master to 7 and trust me when I say this was stadium LOUD but oh my, what a sound !!! Sitting behind 8 cabs at this sort of volume, believe me is quite something. Given that this was the hardest these amps had been driven volume wise at Laney HQ, there was lots of interest from Dave and Chris to see what these could do and there was certainly no disappointment anywhere. None of us could quite get over the sheer punch, bottom end and smoothness the TI100 delivers at these volumes. We did a couple of non scientific tests / made some observations at this stage. I was stood 15 yards from the cabs with my back to them and I could feel my jeans flapping particularly on the low chuggy stuff. Jon then stood about 25 yards from the amp and held a fag rollie paper in the air and lets just say it was flapping a round a fair bit !! Amyway, lunch. Being a southener, it was the first time I had tried gravy on chips but, it seems to work well We sat in the rest room with a load of the guys from the office and just hung out for about an hour, exchanged gigging / artist stories and generally had a brilliant laugh. What a really top bunch of guys. At the end of lunch, it was just Jon, Chris and Dave left chatting at which point, we decided it was time to crack a bass rig out and do a bit of recording. On Chris and Dave's advice, Jon decided to give the Laney Nexus a go. Dave thought it would be best to run it through an 8x10 and that they had some back in the warehouse up on one of the racks. Lets just say, it was the first time I've seen someone have to move a rig with a forklift truck (ok, it was up quite high). I don't know much about bass amps but the nexus was a beast and sounded awesome. The head was running something like 10 KT88's ! We managed to dial it in really easily to a sound that Jon was happy with no problems and what struck me the most is that this bass amp had more sustain then most guitar amps have !!!!!!!!! Anyway, Chris wanted to get some video footage so I plugged back in and went back down to about 4 on the volume. Jon and I then proceeded to jam some classics for Chris to record and if you keep an eye on the Laney website / facebook, you'll see a new just play it video appearing very soon featuring.... Well us. At this point, it was nearly home time and time to start the 160 mile trip home. We chatted with Chris and Dave for a while longer and we then had a look at the TI100 prototypes and some new very, very cool products Laney will be launching in the next few months. My lips are sealed as I promised the guys I wouldn't say a thing but keep your eyes on their website. So at the end of the day a massive thank you to Chris and Dave and to coin a Laney phrase, I am most definitely saying about Laney - Just Play It !!! Enjoy the pics.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastboy Posted April 27, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Johnny'sGotTheBlues Posted April 27, 2012 Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 Lucky {censored}er! Sounds like a great day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timmyfirst Posted April 27, 2012 Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 I'm back to Laney again on May 8th, i love going there. Chris and the chaps there are all awesome dudes, great sense of humour and really chilled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastboy Posted April 27, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 Awesome day indeed. Couldn't agree with you more Timmy about Chris and the boys, first time we've met them and what a brilliant bunch of guys. Looking forward to the next trip already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Warhorse Posted April 27, 2012 Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 Damn, that is one bad ass looking rig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ManofWar55 Posted April 27, 2012 Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 Wow I'm mega jealous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JerEvil Posted April 27, 2012 Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 Wow I'm mega jealous! Right??? To bad no one had a Zoom Q3 handy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members solarburn Posted April 27, 2012 Members Share Posted April 27, 2012 {censored}'n awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members madDdog67 Posted April 28, 2012 Members Share Posted April 28, 2012 Cool! Sounds like quite an adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastboy Posted April 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 28, 2012 To bad no one had a Zoom Q3 handy! Err, Laney had a video camera to hand.... Watch their website / Facebook page and you will hear next week what Tony's new live rig sounds like Warhorse, it doesn't just look badass, it sounds seriously badass as well and I think you might find it will scare some 5150 / dual rectifier owners who might suddenly want one of these quite badly instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mesa/Kramer Posted April 28, 2012 Members Share Posted April 28, 2012 Very cool!How did you get to do this? Your Jaydee Guitar looks awesome too. The guy leaning up against the Bass rig could pull of Iommi in a Sabbath tribute band looks wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastboy Posted April 30, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 30, 2012 Very cool!How did you get to do this?Your Jaydee Guitar looks awesome too.The guy leaning up against the Bass rig could pull of Iommi in a Sabbath tribute band looks wise. Jon does look like Tony but he's one of the only players you'll meet who can genuine,y play bass the same was as Geezer Butler. We were filming a teaser video for the new TI100. Should hopefully be on the Laney website and / or Facebook pages later today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oops-A-Paisley Posted April 30, 2012 Members Share Posted April 30, 2012 awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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