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Guitar amplifiers:
Laney VH100R
I finally started to look for a replacement for my guitar amplifier, Hiwatt Custom 100 (1982). It is a great amplifier, it has enormous power and it just kicks ass. But it needs service. I mean, for now it's dead. I'd guess it wouldn't be that hard to get it going again, but I wanted a new amp instead. There had been too many times my Hiwatt had let me down when on stage. At home it usually always worked just fine but... I wanted an amplifier that sounds like Hiwatt but it's new and therefore more reliable. And I wanted a channel switch.
I was lucky. I found a new marvelous amp almost right away. I had read somewhere that Laney's new tube amp sounded much like Hiwatt. I wanted to try it. The 100-watt top with two separate channels and footswitch (both channels plus drive plus reverb) seemed to be the model.
A guy in Stockholm announced in a paper that he wanted to sell his Laney VH100R. A couple of years old, half the price of a new one. Sounded fair. But I really didn't know how the amplifier sounded and I didn't want to bother the guy if I didn't like the amp. So we (Pelle and I) looked for the same kind of amplifier in stores and also found one. Well, off we went, plugged it in in a vintage Marshall cabinet and - Hallelujah! It didn't take many seconds to realize that this is an amplifier I'm going to love. I particularly liked the clean sound of the Laney. There was so much POWER, and the sound was so beautiful! Incredible. How about the distorted sound then? It didn't surprise that much but it sounded kinda like Hiwatt to me.
I was sold. If I didn't know that there was a guy that wanted to sell his Laney for half the price, I would have bought the amplifier from the store.
The Laney I finally bought, was in great shape. I'd guess the seller had never really heard what the amplifier was capable of. The guy had plugged it in a 80's JCM 800 garbage cabinet. I think no amplifier can sound great when connected to that kind of lame cabinet. There may be many great loudspeakers, but I'm only familiar with one kind: Celestion Greenbacks. 25 watt G12M (M stands for Medium) for that beautiful, warm sound or Celestion Greenback. 30 watt G12H (H stands for Heavy) for more attack and more distortion. I have connected my Laney to a Marshall 4 X 12" cabinet with G12Hs (round 70's, I bought it 1980 in Finland). I used to have another cabinet connected to it as well, but Pelle is borrowing it. It's a Swedish-built Malmberg 4 X 12" cabinet with G12M's. The cabinets do sound different, Marshall sounds brighter, nastier and the Malmberg has warmer, more gentler tone. Together they give it all. I love it!
I'm very pleased with my Laney. It's the best guitar amplifier I've ever played with and it sounds really great connected to my Yamaha guitar.
Sorry, no picture available yet.
- Some technical data...
- Laney VH100R
- 100W guitar amplifier head (more effect that I probably ever need, it's very LOUD)
- 5 X 12AX7 preamp tubes
- 4 X 5881 power amp tubes
- (alternative: EL34 tubes, there's a switch to adjust the bias between the different type of tubes)
- Two separate channels with clean on channel a and overdrive on channel b, although the clean can be overdriven for a very nice blues tone
- Channel switching, effects loop, Accutronics reverb, line-out etc etc.
28/4 1998 Jarmo Haapamäki
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