So if Marshall won't do, what about Laney?

spacecadet

So in response to the recent thread about Marshall, although I'm still of the opinion they are going to make a huge comeback, what if someone from Laney is looking and thinks "hang on, thats what they want, thats what they'll get"? 

Another British company with great heritage, some already great products and masters of their own destiny. Laney isn't a brand that I've ever had much experience with but I know a lot of you guys love em. I used to love the GH100L but haven't tried any of the new stuff. They could just as easily and possibly a lot quicker produce the products that may take Marshall another year or so to come out with. Big ships take longer to turn and all that. 

If there was a Laney amp that offered the stuff that we want to see from Marshall, would it sell if marketed right? Just curious more than anything. 

PolarityMan

I've heard good things about them since but I haven't been able to bring myself to consider them since my 2nd amp which was a linebacker...my god what a piece of shit.

samzadgan

i Love Laney...i dont like their ss stuff that much, but their valve stuff is amazing across the board.

EricTheWeary

Like what? They have a new 5w head with USB, The Ironheart valve pre amp which has a lot of interest. Laney seem to be going through a resurgence at present.

ICBM

Those of us who have to fix them seem to have a somewhat lower opinion of them than those who just use them...

digitalscream

I have nothing bad to say about Laney amps - they're all bloody good. The only annoyance is that they only do one 3-channel high-gain amp (well, a range of them, but they're more or less identical) but it has the most unfriendly channel switching arrangement imaginable. Not quite as bad as if Zoom designed it, but close.

guitarfishbay

digitalscream said:

I have nothing bad to say about Laney amps - they're all bloody good. The only annoyance is that they only do one 3-channel high-gain amp (well, a range of them, but they're more or less identical) but it has the most unfriendly channel switching arrangement imaginable. Not quite as bad as if Zoom designed it, but close.

It really isn't difficult in practice though I appreciate it is far from elegant. The bigger issue is that the switch is yet another designed by the small feet Mafia. No company should be allowed to release a Footswitch unless they get someone with at least a size 10 shoe to test it first.

digitalscream

guitarfishbay said:

It really isn't difficult in practice though I appreciate it is far from elegant. The bigger issue is that the switch is yet another designed by the small feet Mafia. No company should be allowed to release a Footswitch unless they get someone with at least a size 10 shoe to test it first.

The physical gap is actually part of what I don't like. The other bit, of course, is the button combinations. What's so bloody difficult about having one switch per channel?

samzadgan

To be honest when i had the ironheart, it took me about 1 session to get use to the footswitch and didnt really have issues with it afterwards. Its not very intuitive, but easily used once you adjust to it.

guitarfishbay

digitalscream;572309" said:

guitarfishbay said:



It really isn't difficult in practice though I appreciate it is far from elegant.



The bigger issue is that the switch is yet another designed by the small feet Mafia. No company should be allowed to release a Footswitch unless they get someone with at least a size 10 shoe to test it first.





The physical gap is actually part of what I don't like. The other bit, of course, is the button combinations. What's so bloody difficult about having one switch per channel?

Allegedly the clean channel was an afterthought and it was originally just going to be two gain channels (like the Iommi).

The combinations are simple. Lead defeats everything else, and rhythm/clean is a really a mode switch but at least the clean channel has its own independent volume control.

I liked the tones I got from mine but the build wasn't the best, it was noisy until some issues got sorted. I took it for a service and the tech absolutely slated it. However the same tech told me he refuses to work on certain Laney models because he's seen too many poor ones, so there may be bias there too.

Hertz32

How did you cut some of the noise out? My IRT Studio is pretty hiss prone on occasion.

stickyfiddle

I loved my VC15 and love my 5W Lionheart. Not necessarily the most reliable of amps, but still better than a Marshall TSL

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM;572296" said:

Those of us who have to fix them seem to have a somewhat lower opinion of them than those who just use them...

How is build on the lionheart amps?

I bloody LOVE the gh50 - proper great single channel tones. The lh50 was great especially clean, and didn't go wrong for me but I'm well aware of Laney corner cutting in places. The lh5) is portable, two channels, great sounding and lightish (toroidal?).

shaunm

ThePrettyDamned;572432" said:

[quote="ICBM;572296"]Those of us who have to fix them seem to have a somewhat lower opinion of them than those who just use them...

How is build on the lionheart amps?

I bloody LOVE the gh50 - proper great single channel tones. The lh50 was great especially clean, and didn't go wrong for me but I'm well aware of Laney corner cutting in places. The lh5) is portable, two channels, great sounding and lightish (toroidal?). [/quote]

I took a Laney Lionheart out gigging weekly for 6 years and other than fuses I had no issues.

ICBM

The Lionhearts are among the better ones.

That said I came across one with an un-soldered connection which left two of the power valves working intermittently. Laney are not exactly unique for that sort of fault though.

They just have a bit of a tendency to cut corners in a lot of areas really.

One thing that drives most techs nuts is the poor quality of the vinyl and glue, which almost always leads to the chassis snagging and tearing it, and can make getting them apart frustrating and time-consuming. It sounds like a trivial issue but it becomes very annoying when you've had to work on dozens of them...

StefB

Shameless plug for anyone looking for an awesome sounding 'Marshall', but with a great clean channel, two MVs, spring reverb and MIDI to boot ;-)

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/37443/fs-laney-tt50-head#latest

Cirrus

Hertz32;572370" said:

How did you cut some of the noise out? My IRT Studio is pretty hiss prone on occasion.

He took a fuse out - hiss gone.

Tuscan777

I had a Laney Linebacker Head back in the late 80s, it was ok but nothing special. In recent years I've been tempted to go back to Laney, and borrowed a TT100 head from a local shop for a gig (when my Cornford went pop) which seemed to sound pretty good, although I remember it did have a lot of knobs!

The Lionheart series seems to get good reviews, and is a good looking thing.

guitarfishbay

Hertz32 said:

How did you cut some of the noise out? My IRT Studio is pretty hiss prone on occasion.

Mine had an actual fault.  It was related to the reverb.  When the reverb was on but not full wet it  gave out quite a bit of hum.  When run on full, or bypassed (when the footswitch was plugged in) it was ok from what I remember.  I'm not 100% sure what the tech did to fix it off the top of my head.

Cirrus

Sounds like a grounding issue of some kind? I had a similar thing when I modded (read: broke) an AC30.

jpfamps

ICBM said:

Those of us who have to fix them seem to have a somewhat lower opinion of them than those who just use them...

Indeed.