Laney AOR 3012 Series II

I bought this amp in 93 I think.

It has 2 channels only one of which uses both preamps and the overdrive.

2 preamp gain and a master volume knob. Reverb and presence. The bass mid and treble are all pull boost allowing for some tonal variety. There is the AOR overdrive as well as the gain acheived from the preamps.

It's got an effects loop, a stereo footswitch(reverb and AOR overdrive)jack and a line out to a monitor/mixing desk.

This is a tube (or valve if your american) amp. 30 watts. The speaker is ok, 12inches. I don't know what make it is looks like there is some discrepency on the subject in the other reviews on here.

I'm going to give this a 9 for features. If it had come with chorus and a footswitch it would of been a perfect 10 for features.

I use a 96 Gibson Les Paul Special with P100's. It's a good match. On the clean channel it is warm and bassy good for blues/jazz/reggae that sort of thing.

The overdrive channel is bright, not the same sort of bass response as on clean. Without gain and overdrive I imagine a telecaster would sound really jangly through there, good for country and lap steel twangers.

With the gain cranked up you get fat distortion. It does become very noisy though with both preamps turned up and the overdrive on. I use a bluesy distortion level either with a pinch of gain and the overdrive or moderate/high gain and no overdrive. I think that metalheads and grungers will enjoy the distortion you can achieve. There is probably a effects solution for the noise. I have never changed the tubes on this amp and it wasn't this noisy 15 years ago. I don't use any effects, just a wah pedal which responds well. Mobile phones will make this amp produce sounds like R2-D2 so keep them away.

I don't like reverb so I never use it. The presence on the other hand I like, in fact I wouldn't buy an amp anymore unless it has presence or something similar on it. The pull boost EQ's are also useful, I tend to crank them up all the way at lower volumes. At higher volumes the pull EQ's help you balance out too much high or low.

I'm giving this an 8 its good but not the best.

This amp has been abused alot during its career. I was in a punk band I painted the front grill orange and used green ink to turn the white lettering green. I regret this now.

A couple of the knobs are missing and the overdrive knob has snapped clean off, I use pliers to change the overdrive volume and a footswitch to activate it.

The volume cuts out on the clean channel every now and again. This used to happen on the high channel but not anymore. I have done nothing to fix this amp and it is no good for gigging anymore. All of this damage is down to neglect though if it was in good condition I see no reason why it would have broken, but I'm going to put no opinion because I was the cause of this unreliability.

As I said earlier the tubes might be giving up on me. I might get them replaced and maybe put a better speaker in it. It would be very hot if that happened.

Never dealt with Laney.

Apart from my les paul I have a squier bass, a dreadnought, a spanish, a uke, and a mandolin. So nothing else passes through this amp except my Gibson.

I've been playing almost 17 years now, since I was 10. This was my first amp and only amp. I have got through 4 cheap electric guitars before I finally bought my les paul whereas the amp has always been good to me.

To be honest it is a hard act to follow, purely because of the level of features. After 15 years it has done me proud. I was lucky to have a tube amp as my first one, thanks dad. I'm in the market for a new amp, Probably a VoxAC15 or 30, comparable in terms of features and better sounding.

All in all I'll give it an 8 its not superhot but it is pretty damn good.

I believe the amp was made around 1989-1990. I am using this amp mainly for pratice instead of lugging around my Marshall head (JCM600) and a 2 x 12 cabinet. We play mostly classic rock and a some punk but our sound is quite varied ranging from Judas Priest to The Cult to Greenday. This amp does a pretty good job emulating the sounds I want without pedals. Plenty of power even for 30 watts. I do notice lately that after jamming for a couple of hours the sound gets very muddy. I believe the Preamp tubes may need changing. Mine has a Celestion speaker which may have been a prior owners upgrade. The two gain channels, only one is operative if you are using the low impedance input, offer quite an array of sounds combined with the AOR "boost knob". I also like the boost features on the 3 tone controls. Not sure why necessary though...just something extra to go wrong. It could have been one knob with a wider range.

I have tried the amp with various guitars (I have +10) and found the best sound (my opinion) is with humbuckers vs single coils. My strats do not have noiseless PU's. Many of my axes have been customized and those with Dimarzio super distortions really growl with the Laney. The amp has some humming but not an abnormal amount for valve amplification. This thing can get downright nasty with the AOR cranked and the gains maxed. I do not need a distortion pedal with this (only use an Overdrive) unless I need to get a metal sound. The clean is decent but muddies up at higher volumes.

As I only have had the amp for a few months, and put in 2 new power tubes when I got it, I can't comment too much on reliability. The only issue I have is, as I mentionned earlier, the more distorted it gets as it heats up after a couple of continuous hours play. I am hoping the preamp swap will correct that.

With the exception of looking at their website and downloading a 4 page user manual, no contact.

I traded my Fender Priceton Chorus (solid state) amp straight up for this. One of my better music transactions. I am not sure if I would get this exact amp again if it blows up or gets stolen, but I sure as hell am sticking with tubes. I wish it had 2 channels that you could set your sounds with independantly but it is kind of close.

This is an update to my first review (bottom of the page). I sold the amp 4 years ago and bought it back 2 month ago, cause I missed it so much.

In the last couple of weeks I've changed a couple of things. First of all I replaced the first 10 resistors of the wiring with metal film resistors and replaced all the old pots with new ones. This improved the noise-ratio a lot. Then I changed the preamp tubes, now there are JJ ECC803S in V1 and V2, a Electro Harmonix 12AX7EH in V3 and a Sovtek 12AX7PL (not LPS!!) in V4. I swapped out the Electro Harmonix 6V6GT Power Tubes for JJ 6V6s tubes.

With this tube setup, the sound is warmer with more saturation and bottom end and it's louder than with the original power tubes, which I still own. In the next couple of months I will try some other speakers. This amp sounds awesome as it is, but maybe there will be an emprovement with another speaker. But I think, the original HH 1017H is of good quality.

As an electronic engineer AND guitar player, I would like to open this review by saying that this is a GREAT CLASS A amp both from a musical and technical point of view.
Features: 30 Watts, its got LO&HI inputs, two gain knobs + the AOR volume know. Master/treble/mid/bass...all these you can pull to boost its effect. Spring reverb, prescense, FX loops, Line OUT and speaker OUT. Only one channel though.

The preamp consists of 4 ECC83 (12AX7) and NO...the power tubes are not EL34, but the good old 6V6GT tubes (Get ready to revalve with the king in this field: NOS RCA matched valves...if you can find them).

AOR stands for "Advanced Overdrive Response", and it consists of a preamp gain stage (2 IC operational amplifier TL071) that can really give you that extra OD to rock hard without using a distortion pedal. This amp was made in 1990.
The speaker is NOT Celestion, but an HH invader. The cabinet is really heavy and (great news) the back is closed wich helps a lot with the bass response...but this amp deserves a better speaker.

Laney emailed me the schematic and it is impressive!!, lots of functionality and versatility, the preamp is almost exact in all the AOR II family and the designers certainly knew their thing quite well.

I play mainly heavy stuff, which is what this is aimed for, but I believe this amp can do most of the other styles...not sure about jazz.

You can play this thing at all volumes, even crank the preamp valves to get distorion at low volume...but only pushing the output stage above 5 Watts or so will place you in good old tube/speaker interaction & armonics zone. This is of course too much volume for a flat, reason why I am adding also a 1 Watt output stage to play at home based on the AX84 project.

The speaker, as I said, it not great: lacks a lot of bottom end...reason why I am buying a Celestion G12H 30. A good alternative is to remove the chassis to use as a head, and use an external 2x12 cab wich would certainly get the most of the amp. Valve V1 also has a lot of influence in the bass response...you will need to experiment.

One word of advice...revalving the preamp will change drastically the tone...I couldn't find the sweetness of the stock chinese tubes in JJs or EH tubes...and obviously expensive NOS Mullard's I cannot afford...

The clean is not cristal clean as in a Fender, but this was conceived to play great distorted sounds ...and its sooo good at it, its dynamics are so responsive that you can go from clean to nasty distortion by pressing hard with your pick...you cannot do that with digital shxt...can you?

It is built like a tank, I am adding a fan to it, as the tubes are mounted upside down, heating the chassis. The idea to chrome the grid covering the speaker is great, also the speaker is not well protected just with that.

Its built to last...the Output Transformer does not have that much iron though...this worries me and obviously may affect adversely the bass response.

The customer support was very responsive (less than 24 hs).

If you decide to revalve the output tubes, get the schematics from customer support and be sure to bias your amp properly!

Been playing 25 yrs...if it were stolen I dont think I could find another, so the LC15R or VC15 would be my option...but these are different beasts not tailored for heavy rock.

I love the complexity of this amp...which gives it a lot of versatility.

This amp made me realize that NOTHING beat tubes...I've been so wrong for so long in my quest for tone looking into digital and solid state crap. We've been sold into transistors, as they dont require an expensive output transformer...but the classic electric guitar NEEDS output valves interacting back and forth with the speaker though an output transformer to create the sweet harmonics.

My best advice for you is this: A) If you see one of this...act quick and buy it. B) If you like electric guitars...stay away from digital sh*t...
Life is to short for bad tone...you've been warned.

The amp is an all valve 30 watt combo. It has 2 EL34 power valves and 4 ECC83 preamp valves. The preamp valves appear to be Mullards - a much sought after valve but are probably not original.

From a sticker I found n one of the transformers it appears to have been made about 1989 - 1990 which sounds about right.

The features are many and include 2 preamp gain knobs (not seen 2 on an amp before) and AOR which I think means something like Active Overdrive Resource. This is in effect the boost channel for the amp. There are also push pull boosts on the bass, middle and treble as well as separate knobs for precence and reverb. As you can see there are more tone control possibilities than you will find on most amps.
Other features on the rear panel are footswitch,effects loop, DI out and a speaker connection.
These amps apparently use a Celestion 12 inch speaker hopefully a greenback but I don't know as I have nt removed the rear panel yet.

I would have given it a 10 for features if it had had a standby switch , something i may get put in. The only thing I do not really like is the metal grill cvering the speaker. It lets all manner of dust onto the speaker and looks rather dated.I am having the grill chrome plated for looks and fabric atached to the back of the grill to stop dust getting onto the speaker

I play a Fender Strat loaded with Seymour Duncan vintage pickups and a Dimarzio switch to give more pickup combinations. I play traditional and modern rock as well as blues. I originally bought the amp as a stop gap measure for a few months till I bought a new Carvin Vintage 50watt twin.I am absolutely rapt in how this amp sounds and will probably keep it now. The clean is pretty good but it is the overdrive and distortion areas that this amp is truly awesome. Can't believe how god it sounds !Perfect Blues overdrive is there with the turn of a gain knob. You can overdo the gain and the bass will let you know to back it off a tad. The overdive boost is also gret for blues or full on rock. Iused to have a 100 watt Trace Elliot 2 x12 which was louder but unusable above 7. With this amp you can crank everything up and it still sounds great - artculate and very musical - everything I envisaged in an amp.

It is around 15 years old and is still going strong so that's got to tell you smething. Very well made, like a brick outhouse and as a result rather heavy for it's size.It is quiet when at rest - a slight buzz but normal for an amp.No bad crackles or anything else to mention

Have not had to contact them but their website is good. Got the amp's user guide from ther which was good. Have heard they arte very good to Deal with.

i HAVE BEEN PLAYING FOR ABOUT 5 YEARS AND HAVE HAD 4 OTHER AMPS BUT THIS IS MY FIRST VALVE ONE.
I RATE THIS AMP VERY HIGHLY AND RECOMMEND READER BUY ONE IF POSSIBLE. AS FOR BEING "ONLY 30 WATTS" DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. THEY ARE VALVE AMPS AND WHEN CRANKED ARE VERY LOUD AND WILL ALSO TROUNCE OTHER AMPS FOR SOUND QUALITY AT ALL LEVELS.
tHE ONLY THING i WISH IT HAD WAS A STANDBY SWITCH TO SAVE VALVE WEAR BUT i MAY GET ONE PUT IN ANYWAY.
THESE AMPS ARES SURE TO INCREASE IN VALUE AND BECMOE MORE SOUGHT AFTER IN THE FUTURE.

Single channel amp with foot switchable AOR gain stage,push pull eq knobs,reverb,single 12' Celestion speaker,fx loop and direct output jack.30 watts,6v6 power tubes.Great little amp.I only wish it was 2 channel.

I use this amp with my Gibson Les Paul Standard and it sings. It suits my style great i'm into rock/metal.Plenty of gain no need for a distortion pedal here.Nice clean sound,its no Fender but it holds its own.Tends to be noisy with effects,but I dont use any anyways.I use this amp in the bedroom for practicing.You can get good blues and rock tones out of it.I love this amp for the overdrive. Nothing Ive had in this price range comes close.

I have 2 other laney's and have never had a problem.I have a GH50L head and an AOR Pro Tube 50 head no problems with either.This little thing is built like a tank.I would always have some sort of backup with any amp.

When I got this amp I wanted a manual.I e-mailed Laney and recieved within a week.They are always happy to answer any questions.Very good support.This amp is about 11 years old so there is no warranty.I have never with a company that responds like they do(thank's James).

I've been playing 15 years.I own 2 other Laney's love them both. I have a Gipson lp,2 Epi Ace Frehley LP's,2 Paul Stanley guitars,and a Washburn EC36.Can ya tell I like KISS?If it was lost or stolen I would cry then beat someones ass.Then I would try to hunt down another.If you see one of these somewhere pick one up,for the price of a crate you can get a real amp.M overall rating is a 9 only because its imited to one channel I wish it had two.

Made in 1990 with all the features I personally want in an amp: channel switching and reverb both foot-switchable, effects loop, direct out, and more gain controls than I really know what to do with. The 3 EQ controls have pull-pots for a boost as well. Really packed as far as potential to play with tone.

Playing with a G&L Legacy and a freaky-custom-bastard guitar with EMGs it sounds really nice. The clean sounds are warm and smooth and the overdrive channel can be set up for just a hint of edge that can be controlled by how you hit the strings. With pregain set at about 2:00 and the EMG 60 humbucker selected it gets a huge sound. Volume is about what you'd expect from 30 watts and one 12-incher. I think the closed back contributes a lot to the beefy, Marshall-ish.

Works fine so far. The construction seems very stout. Mine was recently re-tubed with GrooveTubes.

They don't really have a US presence, which could be a problem, but when I was having trouble finding a footswitch I just called the factory and they were very helpful.

I've been playing with various levels of seriousness for 15 years, but mostly bass. I think if I lost this amp I'd look for another Laney or try to fns something that sounded a lot like this one.

30 watts, all tube combo, effects-loop, reverb, 2 gain knobs for both channels

well, you need some time to find the right setting. the two gainknobs are for both channels, so they influence each ohter. but sound is great. i play a 1983 fender usa strat witj kinman blues pus (great!!)i use this amp for clean- and rocksounds. for heavier sounds i use the clean sound with a proco rat in front.
but the amp also amplifies noise from fxunits very strong. that's the reason why i sell my boss gt-3.
this amp only has 30 watts, but it's damn loud. really enough power for stage.

this amp is about 12 years old. i own it for 2 years now and everything is allright. the whole construction seems to be very robust

at least they've a homepage too. took a long time. was very difficult to get information before that.

i've been plying for 10 years and play in 2 bands now. one is a coverband where we pay mostly songs which were in the charts when we were growing up (U2, RHCP, Clapton, Cohen, etc) and a band where we play a mixture of punk, funk and rock.
this amp suits all styles (jazz too). i prefer it against all stacks because it doesn't need much space, isn't that heavy and is really loud enough for stage.