Laney AOR Pro Tube 50

Great amp! not sure the year, but s.o. is 1181
never had any problems after the tubes were replaced
great for all kinds of play

Distortion is great, can sound pretty clean too

only problem i had were some bad tubes when i bought it, they have been replaced and not one problem since.

age obviously means nothing!

This is a follow up to my last follow up. There is no DC voltage to the preamp tube heaters. I was working from a barely readable schematic, and after verifying the schematic with the chassis, I found the DC rectification is for the reverb circuit. Ooops.

I just want to add from my previous review, stay away from the A50 Series II. They started making them around '89 and thats when they started going cheap. Smaller transformers, no DC voltage on the preamp heaters, and diode clipping in the preamp stage. These AOR 50 have no impedance and voltage selector switch.

Made in '87 I think. All tube (except reverb) The features have been described in previous comments. But the features I like are on the inside. Extremely well made. Massive transformers, quality orange drop capacitors. These give it a great sound. You don't see new amps under $2,000 made this well. The only thing I would like is to be able to channel switch between the clean (low input) and the high gain (high input). I wish the boost was more controllable.

I have one of the first original 50W plexi heads, and one of the first 50W jcm800 heads with the drake transformers, and I can honestly say this combo sounds just as good. Almost identical to the jcm800 but a little fuller with more gain! I made a few mods that improved the sound a lot. I put in JJ e34l tubes, and changed a bias resistor so I could bias it hotter( JJ e34l tubes have a 30Watt plate dissipation). I also bypassed the AOR master volume as it is in series after the Master volume and sucks the tone and gain. This change also strengthened the Gain/noise ratio, so I get less hiss. I also put in a Celestion Vintage 30 instead of the stock G12M-70 speaker which is horrible. With these changes its a 9, without its a 7. These amps are one of the cheapest, best built amps you can find. I don't like the reverb on the gain channel, but it sounds OK on the clean channel (low input).

Solid construction. This amp is 16 years old and will be working long after the newer Marshalls have burned out.

You can't get in touch with them.

I've been playing for 30 years, and have owned a lot of sought after amps. This would make a good gigging amp.

I think the amp was made in 1985 serial# 1098. This amp exactly fits the needs of a guitarist like myself. I only occasionally play with bands as I need to eat and playing guitar rarely puts food on the table. This is a two channel amp with channel switching and pre-amps on both channels. Also has switchable reverb. What sick bastard would headphone jacks on a tube amp like this?

Play a variety of guitars, the mildest pickup being a Seymour Duncan JB model, the most intense being a Seymour Duncan Invader. Guitars are American Strats and a B.C. Rich Mockingbird NTB made in 1977. Solid Mahogoney body and single pickup (the invader). With the strats, and humbuckers, sound is intense throughout the settings. Harmonics plow through you like a tractor trailer with a cow catcher.
The low end is monstrous with the bass boost on, and is an animal that should be used sparingly, it does tend to muddy things up.
With the invader pickup, you better not try to hit any harmonics unless you have earplugs in and the windows taped. You WILL die. The gain is unreal for such a small amp, and the volume is HUGE. No problems in a club against drums with this baby.

I LOOOooooove this amp, its my baby. I had one before that I killed, and that was out of pure ignorance of how to take care of a tube amp.
This amp I have now is almost twenty years old and still looks and plays great. No reliability problems here.

Lousy website, nobody that I know of in my area that even knows what they are. I had to ship it several thousand miles by UPS to get it here.

been playing for over 17 years. Own lotsa stuff, a few BCs a couple strats and an Ibanez I like to kick the hell out of. Several acoustics, lotsa pedals, butI tend to just go guitar, cord, wah, cord, amp at the most.
I sold my original amp over ten years ago, it took me another ten years to find one. I guess that answers that.
Only thing I hate is I dont have another cab so I can get some chorus goin on.
Overall, the Laney is the most bang for the buck, BAR NONE
Compared it to Marshalls (too expensive) Crates (bleh) Peaveys ( double bleh ) Soldanos ( Yeah, and if I could afford one, Id have platinums hanging on my wall )and Carvins (Not enough gain). The sound of this amp resembles the Marshall most closely, with a bit of the Soldano high gain bite.

Early 80's British tube head. Mine only has one channel. (No second preamp boost knob like most of the others reviewed) With no preamp boost, the model I have is almost an exact copy of a JCM800. It has the standard Hi and Low input jacks preamp gain, master volume, 3 band EQ, and presence. The 3 EQ knobs have push pull for extra punch. I bought this thing used off ebay for $250. The preamp tubes went about a week after I bought it so i swapped in some electro harminox tubes which sound amazing.

This amp has some awesome classic rock tones. It hits AC/DC perfectly. Very Marshall sounding, almost identical. It can even do some Greenday kind of punk distortion. The clean is pretty sad at lower volumes, but when you crank it up it really shines. It doesn't break up even at hight volumes. You really have to crank the amp to get the real distortion it was made to do, but even at lower volumes the distortion was descent. As far as cranking the amp, this baby is freakin LOUD. Going into the high input with the preamp all the way up I only had the master about 1/4 of the way up and I was almost going deaf. I don't know what the other reviews were talking about when they said it could do metal. This thing doesn't have nearly the gain needed for metal. Maybe its because mine doesn't have the second gain boost. But since metal is mostly what I play, I run a metal zone and an Ibanez SM7 smashbox in front of it to get the gain I need. The metal zone through the low input sounds absolutely amazing when cranked. Sound very close to modern Marshall hi gain(JCM2000)

The amp completely stopped making any sound when the preamp tubes went. After I replaced them the volume would go up and down at random times. After playing around for a little while I found that the problem was in the effects loop. The switch that bypasses the loop when nothing is plugged in is bad. So I just run a patch cable from the out to the in all the time. This actually worked out really nice cause I found this gives the amp a huge gain boost too. Other than that I havent had any problems. This amp is freakin old. Probly early 80s. Its still kicking for now.

Never dealt with

I really like this amp even though its not really quite what I wanted in an amp. I just couldn't pass up a descent tube amp for $250. I really want to go with a modern marshall or boogie but I just can't afford it right now. I think even if do end up getting a higher end amp I will hold on to this thing. Start a collection maybe. If you are looking for old school JCM800 sound. Take a look at these. They float around on ebay all the time for under $300. The tone is almost right on with a Marshall too. All around a great low cost little amp.

4 band eq with master volume and 3 stage preamp section. Pull boost on eq and one preamp knob. 2 inputs and a power and standby switches.

Played with an Ibanez Les Paul its very classic rock. All the guys that said it a metal amp must of had theres biased up and had the risistor replaced. But good sound. Try using a BBE 264 with it. It'll step up the gain a bit.

I bought mine used and its seen better days, but still works.

Good amp but it get dirty to quick for me in the gain stages. you cant really get a loud clean. It was made to be cranked.

This is a mid-80's tube set up, with two channels that are footswitchable, one clean, one real hot! No reverb, which is ok. Effects loop that has a pretty big db boost. It would be nice if the loop had a adjustment so you could get rid of all the boost if you don't need it but is not a big deal. You can crank a lot of sounds out of this amp. When I first got it I got some pretty great SVR warm tones out of it without a lot of fooling around. But it does take a little time playing with it to get every sound that it owns in it's tubes cleaner than metal. I wish you could go from the HOT #1 channel to the 2nd channel and get the second channel to sound a little less overdriven without messing around with the #2 level. I want to switch from METAL to clean that only gets gritty by pick attack. I rate the features a 9, only because of the lack of the switching from hot to clean. You get "Metallica" if all the pre-amp volumes and crap are cranked up on channel 1 to "ZZ Top" overdrive on #2 if you don't stop and chill some of the gain. Very nice tone boosts. Treble pulled on 8, mid pushed on three and bass pulled on 8 and everthing else maxed out is crazy good for metal.

I use three different guitars through this a Jackson Dinky with Duncans, a Washburn "A" series with Armstrongs and a Fender Strat that is stock. Amp is plugged into a Jackson 4 X 12 cab. Boss 7 band eg and a boss reverb/delay pedal through the loop. The reverb/Delay is stereoed into a Crate G-212. Just a speck of reverb, eq set high treble, mids on middle and bass pretty close to max is my common sound set up. I kinda play everthing and this amp can do! Very clean to very Distorted. The clean stays crystal even loud. Very little hiss on any channel. Channel 2# overdrive sound is like "Deep purple ", "Cream" sound. #1 Smokes. Without the eq and reverb the amps sounds a little hollow until you get the master up to around 3, but this is pretty common for a tube amp. You have to stress the tubes a little if you want performance. If you need more quality sound than this trade in your tube sreamer for some hearing aids. I hate the trebly distortion over distortion sound that you get from over use of a disort pedal. No real band has that type of sound. Don't think that this 50 rms is pansey. If you crank up the gains and put the master on 3 while standing in front of it you may be going to the hospital. It'll shake the crap out of your speakers.

This is a pretty new amp for me but Laney has a damn good track record for road use. It's going to do a little gigging but I always take a back up. Playing a electric through a mike and a P.A. is pretty embarassing and they ain't going to be asking you back unless you change your name. I'm gonna replace the tubes before it goes on the road. I had a Laney Pro tube 30 combo for years and it was rock solid. Turned it on and up. That simple.

Never messed with them but were told they didn't have any old manuals for my amp by some music store.

I've been playing for 20 years. I've owned/or owned: Laney pro tube 30 combo, Crate G-212, a beat up SUNN 1/2 stack, a little Peavey practice amp, a Gorilla Practice amp and a Vox 1 X 12 that I bought in England and my wife sold in a gargage sale. ( if you who bought that off my wife is reading this, come forward and let me beat the tar out of you!) I do spend a little time on some other amps, A M-80 fender 1/2 stack and a couple vintage Marshall 1/2's my buds own. Maybe all of the other amps out there I haven't spent a lot of time on really are better than I think they are but I DON'T THINK SO! These Laney's are so good I am really bummed for my brother in law just spent his cash on a Marshall combo. If someone took this amp from me I would buy another one right now. Matter-o-fact I'm looking for another one right now so if I dump a brew on it and somehow kill it I'll still have one. Go to a shop that has a few different amps including Laney and spend a little time with them. I highly recommend asking if you can eq all the diferent amps you try, it will help you understand what the particular amp/cabinet can do. Sure some little solid state may sound really sweet at a low volume but crank it up and it gets all muddy. Add a eq and get those cones shaking and it really sound bad. A good amp will sound it's best cranked up and the speakers are flexing. If you buy a cheap amp you'll be buying every effects pedal in the world trying to get THE LANEY SOUND and it's not going to happen.

This is a late 80s British 50-watt head. Controls include presence, treble/mid/bass (with pull-boost), master volume, preamp 1 volume, preamp 1 gain, preamp 2 volume and preamp 2 gain. Single channel amp with footswitchable preamp boost. Speaker impedance and voltage selectors. Effects loop (unusable on this particular head, crackling noises). Two EL-34 power tubes and four preamp tubes.

Many reviews of this amp have said it's good for metal, and the over the top sound is there, but it's one of the quietest 50-watt tube heads I've ever heard. Valves seemed a little dodgy so I replaced the Chinese jobs with a couple Svetlanas. Still quiet.

Other than the volume factor, it has a nice high gain tone. Lots of quality distortion until the preamp is completely cranked, then it gets a little tinny. Clean sound with a high output pickup is very flat, but with a Strat on the neck pickup it's adequate. Overall, a good punk or hard rock head, but not enough chutzpah for xtreme-thrash-emocore-deth-metal-blah-blah-blah.

Haven't owned the amp for long, but the box is solid, transformers are British-style big, and it has a handy aluminum bar across the back to prevent the valves from being smashed by your drunken buddies on the load-out. On the other hand, the knobs and pots feel a little puny.

Never have dealt with Laney, but I doubt that they're the same people that made this amp.

I've been playing for 15 odd years and this amp has the thump-n-gain that I needed. It complements my '67 Princeton well. Love the gain, hate the flat clean tone, but that's what the Princeton is for. This head is comparable to a Peavey tube head, and sometimes when you get the gain tweaked right it has some Soldano Atomic/Hot Rod type squeal. I went to the shop looking for an old Bassman to hot rod, but at this price I couldn't pass it up. Good for recording, but not a great main gigging amp. Might buy the 100-watt version if this one kicked, but would probably go down to Division Street and have Ian from Specimen Products build me an amp (pardon the digression).

I use a 1979 fender straight through it and it sounds great.Clean or distortion is really good on this amp,in fact i dont use any pedals at all.

Although i had one problem with it i would say its pretty tough amp.

When i had to deal with them they were out of business.

Basically a Marshall with a little different tone but overall id buy another one.