Laney AOR 3012

Made in mid 80's I believe.
This amp suits most of my needs as a rock, pop blues player.
I have made some important alterations though that have taken it from a good sounding tube amp, to one of the most warmest and beautifully sounding amps I have ever owned in 40+ years of playing.
More on this below.

Original sound was a little disappointing, remembering I bought it second hand and somewhat abused.
So I replaced the input tubes with new Mullards and purchased a THD Yellow Jacket 6V6 conversion tube kit that came with two EL38's. You must insure you get the correct model Yellow Jacket kit for the stock 6V6 output tubes. This has the advantage of turning the amp into a pure class A amp with no need to set bias. This saves you a lot of bother and expense adjusting the bias which was causing my amp to previously fluctuate in output.

I also replaced the original Fane speaker with a red vintage Marshall Celestion 12" apeaker rated at 50 watts, also really worth doing as the Fane is nothing special. The sound now is one to die for!
Judge for yourself about the sound. A student recorded me on the finally assembly and you can hear the first tones here:( about 1 minute into the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60nBIcWXTFQ&feature=PlayList&p=8CB51CCBDDE9DD2E&index=0&playnext=1

No problems. This is over 20 years old and still going strong.

Never needed it

With the suggested modifications, this amp gets a thumbs up 10 out of 10. I use it at rehearsals and small gigs. I have used the DI out for recording with excellent results as well as putting it into a PA for larger gigs. I use a high end Peavey guitar with Dave Gilmore EMG strat pickups, a custom Fender Tele with James Burton pickups, a custom strat with Hendrix Voltage pickups, a Les Paul Custom and a Gibson 335. They all sing in this amp.

I'm pretty sure its an 80's product but so am I. It can really play pretty much anything that I throw at it, I was reading a little from the manual and it told me to just replace any tube that malfunctioned!!!What! Yeah so I replaced the power tubes without rebiasing, I either lucked out with a suitable replacement pair or it has a fixed bias. Well it took some time to find the right pre amp tube configuration but once I found it, the amp really began to tickle me, really. Basically a two channel amp with a variety of push/pull boosts that if you get to know this awesome little critter can make you get that giddy feeling like before a show. Has an effects loop that I run a dod eq followed by a zoom 503 for some reverb. I switch channels with a peavey footswitch(rewired). Two inputs for gain or not. Have practiced with it, and recently started gigging with it, I usually run a Korg AX1500G right into the board but now I run it into the Laney and oh my god... anywho easily fills up our practice area, blows my buddies bandit away, 30 freakin watts!

With this amp I am running a Yamaha RGX121 with Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge everything else just stock, a B.C. Rico Mockingbird with peavey pickup in the bridge. Very little noise at moderate volume but as with any tube amp being pushed into overdrive it will develope a hiss when not in use. The clean channel is only clean for so long then you turn the amp up and get rid of it HaHa it does indeed sound nice to a certain point, I have learned how to use this tube amp and it can really kick some serious a** with a mic in front of it.

I haven't gigged without a backup but I think I could with this amp, it gives me that feeling of solid backing, perhaps I just love this little amp.

Easily. Just emailed the company and I now have schematics for it, nice to see overnight response at the very least cause I was out of town.

I really like this amp it has helped me hear me betterer...yeah that's what I said.

Its a mid eighties amp. It handles any thing I can throw at it. I play late sixties English blues, and Metal, and a whole bunch of other things. This amp has, in my opinon, the BEST sound I have EVER heard-its the holy grail of tone as far as Im concerned.

I use a epi LP with dimarzio SD pickups- My dream guitar. As I said before, this amp is versatile. It can get a little noisy when you're not playing, but all in all its not a bad trade off. As far as sounds go, it can reproduce ANYTHING youve ever heard-the clean channel breaks up at high volume-Im not sure if this is b/c of my pickups or not-Ive never used the low gain inputs- I like it crunchy.
The OD circuit is really intense. I rarely crank it all the way. If you had a death metal band, youd definitely love it.

My amp has only broken down once. The primary transformer died on me.I used it as my only amp gigging, and it probably broke down because I never replaced the tubes-so needless to say I got an expensive education.

I bought it used(from daddy junkies in NYC) so I really didnt expect to get to much of a response from Laney. But they were wonderful. Schematics, Parts, Info, even a owners manual! I really felt like they went beyond the call of duty. Only thing, if you ever do need to contact them, dont do it from the website. The best way to get them is at www.headstockguitars.com- I dealt with a gentleman named Roger, and as I said great support

Ive had it for about 12 years. I used to have other amps, but I sold every one of them-they just couldnt compete. The only effect I use is a wah. If it were stolen(you couldnt "lose" this mother) I would hunt the responsible party down, and kill their firstborn- and then get my amp back. I would buy another one in a heartbeat-working or not. Its kinda of a hard amp to find where I live. I love absolutely everything about it. The only complaint is the weight, but Ive learned to live with it.
IF YOU HAVE ONE TO SELL CONTACT ME!!!

i only count features if they don't made the sound harsh and transistor radio-like. this is a tube amp basically. more on that later. the boost channel, aka the poop channel, adds transistor and op amps to circuit as well as the first tube to the circuit. this is a feature but ruins the sound. the effect loop adds serious noise even when these amps were new, i'm not casting dark shadows on a neglected amp. this amp was n.o.s. mint and i've played a few new in the showroom in the late 80's. nice compact size but since them cheap particle board tea sipping sacks used 100% particle board it is as heavy as a 2x12 marshall combo! gives the false impression that if it's heavy it must be built right. has pots handwired to control panel a sign of craftsmanship, but plastic shafts can break off on the slightest impact.

les paul, hamer artist and another les paul. had stock fane speaker and a decent sound could be had if no reverb, pull-boost or the horrible tone pull-boosts were used. all tone boosts are using cheap op amps and honestly listen and ask yourself is this improving the tone? no it's degrading it. dry and lifeless clean sounds can be had here. good sounds? 1 semi distorted. will require a budda phatman pedal to sound good and this pedal is the cost of this amps value $150-$200 max! i bought amp for a song and tried several brands of new pre-amp tubes with little improvement. new 6v6 electro harmonix matched duet biased with o-scope and given the 1st class treatment and little improvement. next new filter cap and no improvement and still had a little 60 hz hum. last resort it must be the speaker right? i hooked it up to half of my 4x12 hiwatt cab at 8-ohms and still sounded lifeless. dam this turd won't polish and this amp has been sold along with my laney 50 watt combo and 100w aor head. buy only if you get it cheap and aren't tired of lame sounds. after this amp i decided life is too short for bad tone and i'd never consider buying a laney amp again. i know this amp looks like a little rocker with all the cool features and even has chassis mounted front pots but if it sounds this bad after all the work that was put into it then no wonder these are'nt made anymore. oh yea i also upgraded the coupling caps to orange drops. i've been through 100's of different amps to get good sounds and they are not inside this amp.

tone is everything to me so how could i depend on it? pull the lightweight chassis out and it's a lightweight unit, tiny transformer and cheap components = lightweight cheap sound.

the laney company that made this is no longer with us so that could tell you something about your customer support.

been playing 22 years and i'm not interested in bargain basement laneys anymore. people that compare this amp to a marshall jcm 800 and say the laney smokes the marshall are tone-deaf and should not be allowed to play music in public. i like the cheap price and compact size. i hate the thin tone and the heavy weight of this 100% particle board pos. i wish it had tone. currently my main amp is a marshall 2204 head and the tone is way better than the 3 laneys that i've owned. if you're in tone heaven with this aor 30 then your easily satisfied. bottom line: try it before you buy it and crank master to 10 and you'll know that this amp is'nt taking you on a trip to sonic extacy.

I don't know what year my amp was manufactured, it says Laney Pro Tube AOR on the front, has a 2 x 6v6 output stage and 4 ECC83's on the preamp, there are opamps on the board probably to drive the spring reverb .. Has lots of tone & control options, with the tone & preamp 1 knobs having a pull option to go into boost mode. Tone on clean is brilliant, distortion not bad either ... in the middle I haven't found a satisfactory combination yet.

I play with a black metal band, on keyboards though. As reguards guitar I'm still a beginner. With a DeArmond M75 guitar with dual humbucking pickups it generally sounds very nice & tuneful. Picks up a slight amount of hum, but that's to to be expected. The reverb is good, distortion quite brutal but still melodic. Doesn't get that harsh transistor overdrive associated with modern heavymetal.

Reliability ... my amp was unused for something like 15 years ... seems to work fine, however when playing clean has a sort of gating effect which I seem to have traced down to one of the ECC83's. What I have noticed is that 1. this ECC83 is different from the other 3 so probably has been replaced 2. the probable problem is the valve socket & not the valve itself ... i'm off to buy contact cleaner & try and solve it ... otherwise seems built to last.

I haven't called the local dealer yet, however the mother company offer no form of email support and the support links offering manuals do not work. Webpage seems very poorly maintained. Can't even find info about the amp on their webpage.

I haven't been playing long so I can't give you a very indepth opinion on this, however all my friends are drooling (especially since I got it so cheap). I love the looks, I love the sound, and I love the tubes :) compares fine to most other similar sized amps i've seen & surely a lot more classy than transistors.

look i dont have much to say i bought one in 1984 and i sold it in 87 dammmit i wish i never got rid of that amp!!!!!!

i went on the corn flake tour mich to minn to sd to neb blabla bla this amp worked period

never broke down i dropped it in mitchell sd took it in the bar fired it up it smoked!!!!

never it was the last of the best

I BOUGHT THE DAM THING BRAND SPANKIN NEW THAT FANE SPEAKER ROCKED CLP;OSED BACK CAB THAT LITTLE SHIT BLEW OFF A MARSHALL 2 12 JCM80050WATT PLEASE ANY ONE THAT HAS THE COMBO OR HEAD ILL LEAVE THE INFO

Laney AOR 3012 PROTUBE series. I think this was made about 1985-86. I've had it since 1987. True Tube tone! I play Rock/Metal, but occasionally play blues and It suits all 3 style just fine. Nice reverb. The controls are a bit too much, it has pull boosts on treble, mid, bass controls which can be too many non practical variables. I would prefer not having the boosts. I think It is very powerful for a small combo. You do have to spend a little time twisting knobs to get a good sound, but once you got it, its great!!!It has a clean channel for blues and rock and a "heavy" channel which is great for metal. I having been using it mostly now as a amp to drive my Heil Talk box and it works VERY well for that. If you play with the controls a little you can get a very hollow sounding wah wah-like talk box sound. The gain controls have a great effect on the tone out of the talk box. I have hade the opportunity to play a Laney AOR 100 pro tube head/ 4x12 cab and this little 30watt tube combo actually has more character and personality. Oh yea,Its heavy too(not the sound, it weighs lots).

As mentioned above, I use it primarily for a Talk box amp now. and It works very well for that. set the treble at about 7 and the mid & bass at 0 and mess wiht the gain control and youve got a great talk box sound. True tube tone. Once you get a sound dialed in its great.

VERY DEPENDABLE!!!! Well built!! never let me down yet.

Been playing 14 years and I would definetly buy another if it were lost or stolen. Its a nice asset to a home studio or stage setup.

I use a strat & it's perfect for me - clean if I want it, but loads of smooth overdrive.

I've had it 6 years with 1 breakdown (the outpu transformer went)

I wouldn't swap this for any other, in fact I'm looking for a second mdoel to go stereo. I had a preamp bypass fitted (1 wire, 1 resistor)so I could feed it from my MArshall JMP1.

2 channels, complicated 4-pot volume controls push-pull boost on bass, mid and treb good reverb

Good for rock and warm cleanish sounds really about 15W, very good for home use

I've got 2, and both have noisy preamps (rustling), probably because of PCB overheating

incredibly helpful, you can even talk to the amp designer if you're polite

playing 17 years, got lots of other kit