Laney HCM160B 115 Combo

I bought the amp new about two years ago to play metal and punk through, iv taken it to a lot of gigs and lent it to a lot of people, and had a lot of people finding it easy to get a sound they want, and like. i don't know how good it would be for funk, maybe with some smaller cones added (there is an extra cab output)other than that i can't really think of anything else it wont passably play, and for the heavier kinds of music i play it's very very good. but not quite brilliant

The real appeal of the amp is the amount of volume you can get out of it, it rarely needs to go above 3/4 for the loudest gigs iv played, and people who've used it to play alongside BIG guitar amps have had no problems with volume. plus, even with gain and volume at full it still sounds very good.

the compression does it's job,i never really played with it a huge amount, theres a dial that lets you shape the tone to a degree and you can use it to always find a sweet spot to whatever tone you are using, thats probably my favourite feature of the amp.

Like i said, its been incredibly versatile both for sitting in my room and playing around with different styles (although i will add, i don't really have anything to compare it too outside heavy music, but it definately kept me happy whatever sound i was looking for)and for many different live sounds. due to how loud it is for it's size i tend to bring it too gigs and let all the other bands play it, so it's had upwards of 50 different basses and tones used in a live situation, and often had compliments on what it will do.

The gain isn't going to blow you away, i mainly play guitar, so it might be heavy for a bass amp, but if i wanted an actual dirty sound, i'd use an effects pedal (which i have, and the cone handles silly amounts of distortion with little to no problem)

the sound does tend to weaken if you set it too bassy or trebley, but for the price you pay, not too much, you can get a really nice dub sound from it, even if it's not going to shake you around. and like i said, because of the fact its a single 15" cone, the trebley side of things is probably the weakest aspect of the amp in my opinion.

it's been dropped, kicked, spilt on, and bumped around many car boots, the only problem i had from any of that was one of the plastice corner things cracking. but overall pretty damn solid.

the other problem i had with it was the passive input socket stopped working about two months after i brought it. for absolutely no reason that i could track down. iv never tried to make it work again, the active socket is fine for me, so i have no idea what it would cost or anything to fix

the only time i contacted customer support was about the broken passive input to ask if there was any precedent for things like this happening, and all i got in return was an email stating that there were no problems with the build or electronics of the amp. iv heard laney are really good, but i wasn't particularly impressed with that.

Iv played a couple of really nice bass amps in studios, and had a chance to play around with them. the laney isn't really in the same league as a big peavey stack or anything, but thats because they cost four times as much. i brought it on the strength of being a poor student and it was the only loud amp i could find in my price range, in retrospect, i'd spend another #200 before i started to expect the general quality to improve noticably.

Its a real bargin and i heartily recomend it to any one looking for anything in between the amp you buy before you know if you can play or not, and the amp you buy because you're a professional musician. i can't see there beng another amp in the same price that combines the volume, versatility and sound quality of this little beast.

I bought this about 6 months ago as my first bass amp to play small gigs with, it has:
High/Low inputs
Gain (very clear at high and low volumes)
Compressor (works ok...)
Enhance (nothing special, i think its 'the gimmick' its worth a quick fiddle, but seems a bit pointless)
Bass/Treble knobs/7 band E.Q. (Very versatile, hard to get a squishy/piercing sound, iv found it hard to settle on a favourite setting as theres so many nice tones{i play punk/metal, but dabble in slap, jazz and its all good})
Volume (Volume, Does the job)
D.I. (um, i dont have the manuel to habnd xlr or something, you know the one, feels a bit loose, but nothings fallen out yet)

Back:
Extra cab socket
FX loop
Tuner out
Power cable socket

I've used this amp at about 10 small gigs now, its better to have the D.I. and turn it down, but even close to max it still holds its tone, and has been loud enough to play a big pub without D.I. (my band has 2 marshall 100W valvestates, but the other band that used it had two mesa half stacks, and it still kept up without the D.I.)

I have an ibanez gsr200 and play through the P pick up (the j buzzes, but i think thats the bass) the sheer range of tones i can achieve with the amp really amazed me, iv played on an ampeg (dunno the model, but its a 300W cab w/2*10 and 1*15 inch and a 300W head) and although it had a better warmth and quality of tone to it, there is nothing like the range of decent tones to be found.

This amp can be VERY loud, as i said it easily holds up without P.A. in smaller venues, and at home (student area with no neighbours to worry about) i wudnt take it close to halfway for more than a few minutes, the gain is heavily relied on for the volume though, I havn't played enough other amps to compare, but with little gain, it is very quiet. without the gain it is too quiet to distort, with the gain, its a warm working its way into sludgy at highest levels, u need a pedal for dirty sounds
It is obviously a budget amp for its volume, but it sounds significantly better than i expected it too

10 Gigs, used by between 2 and 5 bands for each, never had any problems. seems very well built, only potential problem i could imagine is the D.I. being pulled out, not because its loose, but it feels a little iffy when you plug it in (basically it doesnt have the reassuring click) i haven't really used the FX loop or tuner socket, but they seemed fine when i have. The E.Q. bars feel a little cheap, but not to the point where u expect them to fall apart (keep in mind this is only 6 months of use)

Heard Laney are good, but never needed them

i can only really judge by guitar amps as bass is a second instrument, but i would pay another 50/75 pounds for an equivilent guitar amp. It IS a budget amp, but i cant imagine any way it could be beaten as such.It can be warm and friendly or cold and mean. If it was stolen i would have no problem with having another one, i would probably prefer (given the option, which as a student i dont have :/) to spend a bit more cash, but overall, for the money i spent on this amp, its the mutt's nut's.

Amp was released very recently. Ordered from http://gak.co.uk for an excellent price (fixed shipping rates and all). We play rock, only tried it out at practice but works well, had it at volume 4 at practice but there's no extension speaker or anything.

Has a high and low input which is useful. 160W into ? ohms. A D.I. output, 7 band eq, enhance, compression, limiter.

Pretty damn heavy though. Would be good for small gigs without an extension cabinet, may pass for medium sized gigs with an extension cabinet without putting it through the P.A.

It's reasonably loud. Using it with a fairly cheap Encore bass and it still has a pretty good tone. Not half as noisy as my old practice amp but it's only those 2 amps that I can judge on really

Pretty new - I'll get back to you

They were very helpful when I emailed them with some questions about the amp (there isn't very much information on the internet about it) and the amp is well documented

I haven't had it for long so can't say for certain. When I try it out at gigs it'll get the final verdict. I don't have much to compare it to (except a 20W practice amp) but I think it sounds good at practice and would recommend it.