Laney LineBacker Bass 100

Duppy03

Has anyone ever played one these? I imagine they were pretty standard fare in practice rooms through the 80s and 90s.

Just scored one for £25, not sure what to expect just curious to know if anyone had any info or experience with them.

P.S not to be confused with the LP ‘Pro’ 100 which looked like an AOR.

ICBM

Not bad, but not great - a bit woolly-sounding and don't project all that well despite seeming quite loud and 'bassy'.

Pretty reliable, although the preamp out/power amp in jacks are a weak point - because they never get used, so the contacts corrode.

£25 is a good price if it's all working OK. Ideal as a practice room amp, a backup or a rough gig amp you don't mind lending out to other bands - quite hard to kill and not worth stealing!

Duppy03

It's pretty much ticked all the boxes I was hoping for in that respect, although punchy would have been a bonus, but hey that would be asking for too much at £25. I'm planning to use it with my Korg AX10B. Would I best if going straight in or using the effects loop they haven't corroded?

ICBM

Probably in through the front, since as far as I remember the loop is after all the controls including the final volume.

The issue with the jacks actually affects the straight-in sound, not using the loop - it's the switch contact that bypasses the loop which is the problem. Easy enough to fix anyway - cleaning the contacts almost always works first go, although sometimes it takes more than just squirting some cleaner in from the outside.

Duppy03

I'll give it a try tonight and see how it goes

Duppy03

Gave it a go at medium volume and am pretty impressed, sounds good. Nothing amazing but a good basic tone and with an effective EQ and plenty of volume on tap. Well chuffed. Still finding the controls a bit weird, which go:

PRESENCE>VOLUME>BASS>MIDDLE SWEEP>MIDDLE GAIN>TREBLE>GAIN

Then there's three toggles underneath the knobs:

LIMITER>EQ>PRE-SHAPE

I'm guessing the LIMITER is some kind of compressor that squashes frequencies down? The EQ bypasses the EQ section (quite like this, a direct route to a nice basic tone, no messing)? And I have no idea what PRE-SHAPE does. Any ideas?

The real test will be in a band situation to see how it fares at volume and wether it can be heard against other loud instruments. Will hopefully get to find out on Tuesday night. Then gigging it Thursday night

ICBM

The controls go in the opposite order - gain first, volume and presence last.

Limiter is just a sort of compressor that only kicks in at high volumes to stop the power section overdriving (potentially not good for it, or the speaker). At lower volume it probably won't seem to do anything.

Pre-shape is a low-mid cut and possibly upper-mid boost, I can't remember - Trace Elliot popularised this with their early amps, and Laney copied it. Later Laney bass amps got even more Trace-like, with a graphic EQ as well.

Duppy03

Ahh yeas, it's all backwards. I get it now! Thats a great help, thanks for the info