Laney AOR Pro Tube 100

Had mine new from 1985. Paid #400ish for it from Allbang & Strummit (great name, great staff, no longer in business :-(.Basically a two channel amp, on high input the gain is switchable from mild crunch to fairly hard driven lead with the gains on the two preamp controls about halfway.Wind 'em up higher and you go from filthy rhythm to steaming overdrive.Has an effects loop with levels that are a bit too high.Never had it modified as I tend to use pedals anyhow.Mostly used to play metal, only complaint I have with it is that at high gain on the rhythm channel there isnt much of a volume jump between channels but I've lived with that cos i love the sound.Cleans up quite nicely if you back the volume off a'la Tony Iommi. One of the reasons I went for it was the tone controls.Bass middle and treble have VERY effective pull boosts. The other was that no Marshalls I tried at the time had anything like the amount of gain without O/D pedals.It's plenty loud enough so long as I have a good set of valves in it. It runs 4 El34s and 4 Ecc83s.

My guitar is an Aria Urchin 100 which has built in preamps and active sounds fed by two coil tapped humbuckers.Very versatile guitar. Very good for metal, with preamps off very good for anything from blues to funk.The clean sound available via the low input jack is quite warm, not at all fendery. only used it a handful of times though. Via the high input jack you can go from mild crunch to quite nice edgy overdrive via the lead channel.With the gains wound up it and the boosts pulled it sounds HUGE. Not a huge volume difference between the channels when you bring in the extra preamp, but the gain difference is quite large.I run through a self built 4x10 with celestion G10s.Not as tight as something like a dual rec but very fat and solid. Used to use it while teaching, and three of my pupils went out and bought one shortly after they had lessons, so they must have liked it also.Did use the clean channel once at very high volume (7 on the master) never really distorted just got quite warm without breaking up. I love the distortion characteristics of this amp. If you're into Black Sabbath you'd love it too.Did try a pair of 'em once (nicked a pupil's head for a couple of gigs) in stereo.HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Conked out after two weeks.One of the power amp valves went in a big blue flash (at home not on a gig).The manager of Allbang and Strummit came to my house, picked it up and returned it to Laney for me.Came back biased correctly and with new set of output valves free of charge. Fitted medical equipment grade fan in one end of chassis to keep 'em cool. Never had any problems with it apart from when valves get old and a dodgy batch of fuses I bought once.pack of 10 all popped within 10 mins of powerup. Apart from that nothing major.Pots getting slightly noisy but after nearly 18 years of thrashing I can accept that.Never gigged with a backup Only let me down once this year due to shagged preamp valve (lack of money).

Excellent. Spoke to Laney's staff at various guitar shows in the '80s.Friendly, informed and very interested in my opinion of the amp, and I was no-one special.As mentioned they changed the power valves for me free of charge including shipping and sent a letter of apology as well

Been playing 31 years on and off. I own a Boss rocker wah and a Boss rocker volume pedal, Ibanez dcl digital stereo chorus pedal,Ibanez dfl digital flanger. Dunno If I could find another one now.They were very consistent in sound so I wouldnt worry about it not sounding the same if I had to replace it. At the time of purchase I tried pretty much everything available in the UK.For me nothing came close for tone, clarity and sheer filth.Will go for a (pair?) VH100r('s) as soon as I can afford it, though if I was gonna be silly and self indulgent I'd go for the GH100TI.Big fan!!

efx loop...two stage pre-map, low and high inputs....standby switch, 4,8,& 16 ohm switch....multiple voltages......sturdy old bird. Has what ya need....decent range of tones...but I dont stray to far away from its cleaner side. This one is covered with blonde tolex....marshall-like piping....LANEY name plate is on there, too.

Sounds like any good El-34 Marshall tube soak beast to me. I prefer to play it as clean as possible.....through a pair of Celestion
V-30's, set at 16ohms....nice....glassy tone.....pretty responsive to a players mood.....

built simple...and like a tank...has survived ten+ years of pretty heavy use and I think its good for another 10......just put new tubes in.....and off we go....

N/A If it breaks it on its own.....I'll put decent new tubes in it...but not a dime more.

been playing since 1968.....had a wide range of amps....fender to Marshall, and back.....this one is a decent workhorse....but nothing spectacular...good stand-in for an old marshall.

made in early 90's i think, it does say on the inside but i cant be bothered to open it up. it is the series II version, with the standby switch. has two channels sharing one eq with the oh so cool push-pull knobs, take your house down if you arent careful with 'em. also shared is the prescence knob. seperated are the two sets of volume and pre amp volume (gain) knobs, known as the clean channl and the aor channel. this thing has two inputs, high and low sensitivity, i stick to high whatever i'm playing. on the back it has a socket for a footswitch which is an extra, but are very simple to make. i made mine out of an old baccy tin and rugged switch, it looks really cool :-) also on the back is the effects loop, i dont use this as i'm rather simple, a line out and 5 speaker outs which will cope with all types of cab, but will only go up to two of em. if you want more you're compensating for something.i do wish it had a headphone jack although with a little thought this would be daft, it's meant to be heard and it would destroy headphones :-) i use this amp at home and practise/gigs, so pretty much everywhere. one thing about it is a home if you want a nice sound you will have to turn it up to the point of people shouting at you, and you not hearing them. that's the only way, baby!but when it sounds good, it sounds very, very good.

i play it with my home made strat o like, a squier strat, and a hofner galaxie. sometimes run it thru a rocktek distortion pedal(#1!) and a morley wah, but most of the time i cant be bothered. i'm a purist. it sounds brilliant with all of them, as long as you've got the housemates for it, as mentioned above. i play a variety of music, from simon and garfunkel to operation ivy, to black sab, and it copes with all of them no problem! the clean sound is absolutely fantastic, and stays like that pretty much all the way up! the overdrive (overdrive, not distortion, they're different) is huge if ya want it, and you will not be dissapointed if you want something dirtyer than the next door neighbours wife. it can be noisy, but when you turn it up it is so insignificant to be not worth writing about.and then i have never really bothered shelling out for expensive pickups.overall it is a brilliant all rounder, like a marshall but better ;-)

its only ever not worked because of my own stupididty, and then it was just things like fuses not screwed in properly etc. i would gig this witout a backup, maintly because i dont have a backup, but i dont believe it would let me down on purpose!

never dealt with them on this amp, but i had another laney which i contacted them about, and they were really cool. the website sucks majorly, but it is very pretty and has some manuals including the one for this on it. if you do manage to get hold of them, for example email, phone etc, they cant help enough (patriotic pride) also ive heard if u take your broken amp to the factory, they'll fix it for ya, giver u a tour etc. cant say nicer than that! unless they have biscuits lol. give it a 7 cos of the website(grrr, goddamn microchip)

i havent been playing long, say 3 years or so, but ive been playing a lot and ive been through some amps in my short time. this is honestly the biggest, loudest, most versitile (exc. modelling amps) and most fun amp ive tried. i use it with 2 laney 2x12s and the head it just too big for it, it it bloody ugly, but its the best ampo ive tried s far and for tat i will gv it a nine, thank you very much.

This amp is about 15 yrs old i think.It has two inputs(high and low)
an effects loop,2 channels (clean and "AOR" distorted). It also has push/pull knobs on the bass and mid-range and you can pull out the volume knob for brightness. The only feature thats missing is a reverb knob, which kinda annoyyed me.

This amp has balls. big ones. I play alot of heavy stuff and this amp cuts the mustard.The on board distortion is great, but not that great.
But with a bit of assistance from a distortion pedal this amp will kick you in the teeth.The clean channel is good too, and stays clear at high volumes.I've played quite a few crap guitars through this amp and it still sounds awesome.

i think this amp is pretty solid. I bought it second hand and its about 15 years old, but i expect it to last for a long time still.

havent dealt with them.

Ive been playing for 7 years and i think this amp sounds just as good as any marshall ive played.it has killer tone at an affordable price.
I really love this amp and i would probably buy another if it was stolen.

This is a late 80's amp. The AOR-100 was apparantely produced in at least (2) series. The only way I've been able to tell them apart is that the earlier series (not sure what years produced - most of them appear to be mid-80's) have a chrome toggle switch for power and no standby switch. The 2nd series (the one I have) has a lighted rocker switch for power, and a black rocker switch for standby.

(2) channels - unfortunately, they are not controlled by a foot controller. There is a high input (excellent distortion) and a low input (crystal clean). If you switch at all from distortion to clean, you'll definitely want to build your own foot switch to use with this amp. I built a very cheap very basic foot switch for about $20 using radio shack parts and a broken no name metal foot switch. It works great!! (email me if you want schematics - eyebooger@houston.rr.com) Has an effects loop that is, well, what you would expect from a product mass produced in the 80's. I absolutely love the pull-out pots on this thing. Low, mid and high can all be 'boosted' and sound great. Switchable input voltages (for when you get famous and play in different countries I guess??) Ohms selectable between 4 and 16. (4) EL34's for power, (4) 12AX7's for the pre.

I've had this amp for many years (my father purchased it new sometime in the 80's) and there has been used in over 200 different setups (it attended NAMM 6 years in a row and played numerous live gigs between then and now). I'm not sure what he paid for it new. I have, however, seen them go for CHEAP on ebay.

As I stated, this thing has been played with a barrage of different guitars and cabinets. It absolutely rocks.

in the 15 years it's been in my possession, I've only replaced the tubes 3 times in it. The original set of tubes burned out due to the amp being almost dropped (I think an element broke on an EL34, but I replaced the whole set). Set #2 went when I blew a speaker cabinet on tour, and had to use borrow a cabinet. Gotta watch that resistance. For some reason that 16OHM cabinet didn't work well with my amp set at 8OHMs. Had to do the fuse on that one too, Oops ;). But in this amp's defense, it was totally my fault because I didn't pay attention, and it held together WELL considering. The only thing I lost were the tubes and the fuses. Peanuts in my opinion. Set #3 was a crappy unmatched set that I slapped in because I had them laying around. What can I say, I needed tubes. The amp didn't like them, got 2 shows out of them, and one burned out. Never will I do that again.

Who cares about the customer support on a 20+ year old amp. I'm sure it's out of warranty anyway.

I'm not going to go into an 'I have this' paragraph. This amp is bad ass. If you seen one, pick it up for next to nothing. You won't be dissapointed. :)

2 channels, FX loop, has original footswitch, 100 Watts all-tube, made in the late 80's I think. Versatile enough for what I use it for, bass is on about 8, mids are set to 4-6, and highs are around 6-8. Gain is cranked between 8 and 10, like I said, versatile enough for what I need.

A clean channel is useless to me so the clean on this amp more or less is like a lower gain overdrive channel. Both channels sound good to me. I've never used the FX loop so it might not even work for all I know. I run a Jackson RR V into a ProCo Turbo Rat, a delay, and a chorus, all rammed right into the pre-amp. The amp in turn drives 2 Peavey 5150 4x12's. I play lead in probably the most brutal death metal band I've ever heard and this amp is worth every bit of it's weight in blood. Extremely noisy but nothing a little volume knob can't contain (a lot is due to the fact I run extreme gain settings on the amp and the pedals). I'm not sure there are many guitarists who run a clean channel with the gain dimed which I guess sets me apart from the crowd, always a good thing. The distortion...well, let's just say that there aren't many amps that can produce the distortion I need for my style and this amp makes good on the trust I put into it.

Has yet to bite the big one live though a tube went out in practice. Just like any other tube amp. I eat tubes like they were a nice bloody steak with mashed potatoes. It's my fault though because I have the gain and volumes up so high.

I have no idea but I know a few bands using these and they say the support is excellent.

I was using the 5150 Peavey head for a while and it sounded fine but after playing a few shows with another band I grew envious of their sound. It was almost a trade because the guitarist in that band was looking for something with a little less gain and I was looking for more. I've been playing since 1994 and even got in on that new metal crap. I converted after 2 years of that to something close to NY death metal which has worked out great for me. The Milwaukee scene is starting to flourish more and my band's finally getting some recognition (check out Bloodborne if you're in town). Anyway, I recommend this amp for all out brutality, I can't comment on much else.

More than I`ll need...three gain stages, pull tone pots for bass mid and treble, effects loop, voltage selector, Ohm selector, footswitch jack to activate extra tube for `over the top` gain.
100 watt with 4 EL34s amp and 4 12ax7`s.

This amp sounds surprisingly good for what I paid for it, I found it in a Music shop for $165, yes a Music store folks,(you know those people that tag on a 50% - 100% of the price) the store owner said some kid brought it in, thinking it`s not a Marshall it can`t be any good...the owner must have only paid him $80-$100 for it, and the kid was happy from what I hear...and so was the shop owner, and hence now so am I...what a wonderful world when all three us leave each others presence and walk away with a smile on our face...Anyway the amp sounds better than any JCM 800 0r JCM 900 that Ive had,and I`ve had too many of them over the years to keep count.The AOR has that English tone(well, what were you expecting),they are similar to modern high Marshalls but thicker.They do have their own signature tone to a degree, but they are based on the same idea as Marshalls.
They also have less of that annoying Marshall high gain treble however.

I`ve had some great hand wired amps like Wizard, Garnet, Old Plexi`s, and even some good early Fenders, so I can`t give it any higher than 6 in the this category...I guess I`m a little spoiled here.
But what I did find out with this amp, is the line out(from the effects loop)is very cool, it is really usefull when using it to run a good high grade amp with some delay and chorusing from this out into a second amp.

Had it only a week, so far so good...it had a 1 amp fuse taped to the back...could indicate it likes to use `em up.

Have not delt with them...

This is a great bang for buck. If you see one at a good, price grab it, people may catch on soon.
This amp really is quite good and very versitile, and is often over looked...everyone plays Marshalls, it`s nice to be different...
Using a good pedal like a Fulldrive or Barber Tone Pump may be a good investment to make the amp really sound like you paid more for it.
A cheap pedal will thin it out a lot, I found the two pedals I have mentioned above will really help this (or any other printed circuit amps like newer Marshalls etc.) sound like a more expensive.
I fiquire if Mr Iommi has been using Laney`s for years, there must be something in it, also Ace Frehley as well has used Laney`s... that`s says a lot to me.
(The secret may be NOT using that extra gain stage...using a good pedal instead in the cleaner channel)

UPDATE: I posted the original review for this head in '98. It's 2002, and I'm still using it. It is a no frills 100w all tube amp that is about the closest thing you'll find to a JCM800 without the price tag. Yes, it even has the big, heavy output transformers, which make it even more Marshall-like. But anything that's missing from the inside can easily be replaced with outboard equipment. Even though it doesn't have many built in features, it does what it does VERY well.

My rig is '72 Guild Bluesbird (called an MG-75 in the 70's)w/ PRS Mccarty pickups or an Ibanez RG7 with Dimarzios through an old Japanese made Boss DS-1 (much warmer then the new stuff made in Taiwan) through various other Boss pedals, with the amp at the end of the chain, powering an old Crate 4x12 with celestions. I don't bother with the effects loop, even though I probably should, but it sounds great like this, so I can't argue with results.

As the rest of my rig has gotten better, I've found that this amp just sounds better and better with the right accompanying gear. And I absolutely LOVE the bass and midrange boost push/pull pots. There's nothing quite like having the floor rumble underneath your feet at a show. I found that the major weak point was the speakers that I was using. I upgraded to some Celestion Vintage 30's, and the head sounded better. Then I upgraded the tubes from those crappy Mesas (Chinese)to some... damn.. I can't remember. Mine came with mesa tubes that sounded good for about 4 years. After the tube change, it sounds great. Very Marshall-like tone, but with some extra "ass" on it. The tone that I get from it can really only be described in two words. Muchos Juevos

Actually, for a few shows, I borrowed a friend's JCM900 head and cabinet, and even though it did sound good, I found it to be a bit thin when compared to my Laney.

I'm gonna give it a 9 simply because I'm still curious. I'd really like to play a show or two with a Mesa or a JCM800 and see how I like it before I can give it a full out 10.

I can honestly say that this amp has never failed on me. Word to the wise: Don't let your friends hook up your rig when they have no idea how your speaker cabinet is wired. I noticed that a tube was toast. It still worked. Didn't sound as good, but still worked. And if it wasn't for the fact that I was afraid to blow my output tranny, it would've kept running on 2 tubes. When I brought it in to the shop to get the output tubes replaced, my amp tech found coke or pepsi in one of the preamp tube sockets. I never knew it was there, and he mentioned that he was surprised that it still worked. After 5 or so years of ownership, that was the only time it's ever seen the inside of an amp shop, and honestly, I don't expect it to be inside of one for a long time to come, except for maybe tube changes, depending on use. One more note, when I got this thing, it wasn't pretty. It seems to have been neglected at some point in it's life, (not by me, though), but it just keeps going. I would definately gig without a backup, and have more times than I care to remember. It's a beautiful example of reliability through simplicity. Less features, less things than can break.

I e-mailed laney about getting a schematic for the head. They did their research, and found that they didn't have it in Adobe .pdf format for download, so they mailed me (as in regular post office mail) a schematic from England for free. And yes, I live in the U.S. I was impressed. I don't know if they regurarly do these kinds of things, but in that one expierence I had with them, I was surprised. And I don't know if most amp companies will do that, but I thought it was nice.

If it were lost or stolen, although I doubt anyone would want to steal it, it's NOT pretty, I'd look at getting one before trying other options. Regardless, they're pretty cheap, so I'd probably get another one, anyway. I find that it's a bit warmer in tone then most other amps that I've tried. I prefer a rounder tone: Bass 10+boost, Mid 10+boost, treble around 5, and cranked to hell. I've never heard any complaints from any audience members about my sound, not that I would care, anyway. Actually, most of the time, the guitar players in other bands will ask me "what the hell is that thing?" And then I respond that it's a Laney, they usually just kinda have a question mark over their heads. Most people like the sound of a Gibson through a Marshall, but if you're on a budget, an old Guild through a Laney is a very viable option. Actually, there are two things I wish it had. First would be true stereo operation (I can dream, can't I?) 'cause I like using stereo effects, but I refuse to drag 2 stacks to a show. Secondly would be a rack mountable option. The design prevents it from being mounted into a standard 19" rack, and honestly, that's probably gonna be the only reason that I'll stop using it. But, for the prices these things are going for, I really can't comlain.

I found it to have minimal features. It is basically an amp with an effects loop, which I can't seem to opperate, pull knobs to boost eqs, and two imputs, on clean, one distorted. A foot pedal for channel switching would be appreciated. However, the pull knobs offer an awesome gain and volume boost, and the output ohms is changeable for different cab configuration, and you can change for different imput voltages. This amp has awesome power, and unique tone, but it could use some extra features.

This amp is very loud. Mine is equiped with 4 MESA tubes, and coincidently im running it through a MESA 4X12 380 watt cab. It has killer distortion, and has great clarity.

Mine hasn't broken down yet, but it does need new tubes already

There is no info at all on thier website and only one authorized dealer in western canada, 12 hours away from me.

I wish it had more features to make playing it easier, but its killer sound is worth the inconvienience

Late 80's amp, with tons of gain. I have had several Marshalls and I had to mod them so I could get enough gain, but this head has enough gain on its own. I have the single channel 100watt version. I pulled out the 2 center power tube and cut the impedance in half, so I am running at 50 watts, BUT!! I can turn it up all the way and get that power tube overdrive without destroying my hearing on stage- plus sound guys love it!!

I use a tele and strat both loaded up with Duncan Hot-Rails. I have to run the preamp volume at about 8 because these pickups are super hot. When you back off the volume on your guitar the amp has a great semi-clean Marshall type breakup with a little more bass response than the Marshall.

I have played over 20 gigs with this amp and have had people (not me!!) drop it a few times- still works! I put new tubes in it when I got it and they still are fine.

I don't know anything about customer support. Never used it.

This amp gives you the Marshall Modified sound without having to do the mods. Plus since everyone has Marshalls you can get that same sound with a different product- in case you like to use something different than the rest of the people.