Laney GC50A 112 Combo

1998
Yes it is quite versatile, with the Acoustic and elctric all in one amp. I play Rock, blues and jazz.
it has 3 channels , effects loop and headphone jack.
One feature i wish it had would be to turn off the tweeter with a footswitch...I have read where some one has.
I Use it for gigs. It has alot of power...very loud and clean.
Its solid State but has a warm tube like sound.

I Use a Les Paul standard with Burstbusters and a Fender Strat with Standard single coil Pickups and a Ovation celebrity.
It suits my style very much.
Not noisy at all.
The clean channel is not distorted at all.
The distortion Lacks alittle but is usable...I instead use a tube screamer.

When I bought the amp used it had several cold solder joints which would cause the amp to cut out....I resoldered all the joints
and problem solved.
I have used it many times since and no problems.

Never had any dealings with Laney.

I have been playing for 25years. I have a Fender tweed deluxe 65.
If i could find another one i would buy it.
I lve the fact i dont have to carry 2 seperate amps for my acoustics
and electrics. I cant find anything i hate about it.
No other combo amps compare to it that i know of.

* Do you know what year the amp was made in?
1994
* Is the amp versatile enough for you and the styles of music you play? What are those styles?
hell yeah!!
* How many channels? Does it have channel switching? Effects loops? Headphone jack?
3 including the drive channel
* What features do you wish it had? Why? Are there features you never use?
I really like the clean channel the drive channel is ok better than nothing
* Where do you use this amp? Does it have enough power for you?
I loop it up to the bbe then I loop the input to the mx300 and to the bee again then through the pedals. The sounds I'm getting is AWSOME
* Feel free to enter any other features (stereo, tube or solid state, etc.).
its solid state but LOUD really LOUD

* What guitar and pickup styles are you using it with?
I'm using a Godin SD and Godin Freeway
* How does it suit your music style (and what is that style)?
This amp is all about tone
* Is it noisy? On what settings, and in what environments?
NO its not noisy at all compare to the amps that I used to use
* What kind of sounds can the amp make? How much variety?
theres no variety I just want an amp that has a very nice clean channel, and this amp got it

* Can you depend on it? Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
its very dependable
* Has the amp ever broken down? Because of neglect of regular servicing (as in tubes), or just plain neglect?
NO it was made for tough

* How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
14 years, I own the lexicon 300 and a bbe and some vintage and rocktron pedals with it
* If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?
* what do you love about it?
its Laney its made from england not from China where they use the cheapest parts possible to screw you up.
* Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?
Yah this amp pretty much beats the other amps that I used to use.
* Anything you wish it had?
I wish it can transform into a robot so JK... no Im satisfied with it
* Anything else you'd like to share?
www.myspace.com/pussydivine THATS ALL!!

this is the 3rd amp that I've owned, and I must say this amp probably is the best clean sounding amp among the 3. The reverb on this amp sounds so sweet. Can't beat it

its worth the sweat

Many reviewers have stated that they wish that they could have a footswitch to control the tweeter (called HF Driver on the face of the amp) on this amp. I have done it, and I thought that I can post complete instructions here.
First off you will need the following:
1. A single channel footswitch that plugs into a 1/4" jack. (you may want to get one with an LED on it so you can tell if it is on or off.)
2.A 1/4" jack (you may have some lying around the type that are used in guitars will work as well as something out of a pedal.
3. Solder and soldering iron may need a desoldering bulb (you may or may not need any of these.)
4. A phillips head screwdriver.
5. A pair of pliers
6. Electrical tape
7. Possibly some thin plastic washers.
Here are the steps to do this.
Step 1: Unplug the amp and leave it unplugged for 24 hours or more. Devices like amplifiers can hold charge well after they have been unplugged. Just as a percaution you should leave it unplugged for this long.
Step2: Only after completing step one unscrew the four screws that hold the head to the amplifier cabinet. There is one in each corner on the top of the cabinet. These are not the screws that hold on the handle or corner guards. (Oh, yeah and heat up your soldering iron about now if you plan on using it.)
Step3: Slide the head out forward (because you will be working on the front part of the head) slide it enough to give you enough room to work with the HF driver switch.
Step4: Disconnect the solderless connectors that contact the leads of the HF Driver switch. The ones in my amp were solderless, if this is not your case you will need to bring out your trusty soldering iron and desoldering bulb.
Step5: Remove the switch. The switch in my amp was held on by these plastic tabs on the inside. I tried to squeeze them in and work it out, but one of them broke. I probably won't use this switch for anything else, so it wasn't a big deal.
Step6: Get our 1/4" jack and solder the wires to the leads on it. If you happen to be using a stereo jack that is okay, but just make sure that you solder the "tip" connector and not the "ring" connector lead. If you are lucky you might have a jack in which the leads will fit the solderless connectors in which case it is your call if you want to solder them or not.
Step7: Line the outer edges of the switch hole with electrical tape on both the front and the back sides. The reason for this is so that the jack does not ground out against the body or housing of the head. You can skip this step if you are going to use plastic washers.
Step8: Secure the jack to the old switch's hole. The hole should be much larger than the jack. You can just simply put it in a corner and screw it down tight or, get some rather large and thin plastic washers. Put one on the inside and one on the outside then screw the nut onto it and you are set.
Step9: Now that the jack is in place you just have to plug in your footswitch into it and you are ready to rock.
This mod is specific to this amp, but you can take the skills learned here and apply it towards other things for example if you have an amp with no footswitch jack for a distortion or something like that.

This mod allows you to switch between two different tones very easily. With the tweeter you have a nice blues/rock tone without the tweeter and with the right distortion pedal (or in my case combination of distortion pedals) it can make a great metal sound. This makes the amp even more versatile.

I should take this time to voice one concern. I used to own another Laney amp (a GC30) that thing was awesome. However, after I used the effects loop it didn't work properly for a while. This amp was even worse with the effects loop. I plugged a phaser into the effects loop and turned it on. Everything else was plugged in correctly including the phaser. I got this really weird phased high pitched squeal. After that the amp only worked intermittently. A friend of mine suggested to leave it unplugged to let the capacitors "cool" luckily that did the trick. Leason learned: DON'T USE THE EFFECTS LOOP ON LANEY AMPS EVER!

Same as before.

All in all this is an easy mod to do. It only took me not even an hour. I made my own homemade footswitch for it also and that didn't even take that long. I know that I posted earlier that I was going to make it a permanent fixture of the amp, but it was much easier to make it a footswitch jack. If you have any questions feel free to email me at pizza_man200@yahoo.com please realise that it is only checked once a week though (secondary personal e-mail)

This amp is loaded with tons of features. I mean it has a seperate acoustic channel with completley seperate eq and reverb. That alone is awesome. The acoustic channel also has a feedback reducer circuit. The electric side has two other channels clean(or normal) and overdrive. So technically it has 3 channels acoustic, electric clean, and electric overdrive. It does have and effects loop. You also have the ability to use both acoustic and electric channels at once for a stereo effect. This amp is solid state, but you would never be able to tell by the sound of it. The amp is able to be used with two different footswitches. One stereo footswitch can be used for both the reverb and overdrive circuits. Another mono switch can be used to switch between electric and acoustic channels. Alot of people on here wish that it had a footswitch for the tweeter. This would not be hard to wire up at all! I might to this some day. The only problem would be that you could not unplug the footswitch for the tweeter from the amp. I would make it a permanent attatchment. The fact that you can turn that tweeter horn on and off makes this amp more like 3 amps in one instead of just 2.

My setup is a cheap Lotus strat copy(read my review of it then buy one off of eBay for $20 they sound great!) to a dod overdrive preamp to a DOD hard rock distortion toa a DOD fuzz to a Morley PWA wah to this beautiful amp. I also have a DOD delay that I am fixing and a DOD phaser that I haven't got yet, but just won on eBay. My acoustic is a Fender DG-6 acoustic - very cheap it is now a Squire model. It is used mainly for slide and sounds great for that. I also play bass, but we won't go into that.
First speaking of the acoustic channel, this is the only acoustic amp that I have heard that just simply makes the sound of your acoustic louder. It doesn't change the sound at all. I have the eq set flat (bass, mid, and high controls all on 5) and that is exactly what I wanted. Very good unless you want to sound like the Goo Goo Dolls or something. The acoustic pickup that I use is one from Dean Markley. I forget what it is called. It is the one that just simply picks up the vibrations from the guitar. It is a little circular pickup.
The electric channel will blow you away. You could swear to God that there are tubes in there somewhere, but I have looked at the guts of the poweramp and nope. I play mostly something that I like to call hard funk rock. The clean channel can get down right funky. I just used the neck and middle pickups together and some perfect funk rythym. The middle pickup is great for single note funk rythyms.
The overdrive on the electric channel is great. The clean channel is great to use with all of my distortion pedals should I choose a tone different from the amp's distortion. The clean channel will also give you a good overdrive if you turn the channel volume up (just like a tube amp will). That makes it great. I never use this feature, but that is perfect for a little dirt. If you don't want to use it, it's okay you just have to use the master volume to get the right volume for you.
I don't know who, but I remember somebody said that it sounded like it would be good for industrial metal, well there must be something wrong with that guys amp. This is a great blues tone. I only keep the drive knob up to like 4 and it acts like a tube amp. The harder you play the more it overdrives. I just use the hard rock distortion for the little bit harder stuff that I do. If I use my fuzz pedal in combination with the overdrive it gives you some great lead tones. The DOD overdrive preamp sounds awesome through this thing too. You can also turn that sweet tweeter off. That would make it a good metal amp with the right metal distortion pedal. The fact that you can turn it on and off really makes this amp versatile. Awesome tone! My eq settings for the amp are bass on 6, mid all the way up (for some funky hitcha-inyochest punch) and treble on like 8.

Well I had a similar problem that another guy had. The input jacks would only get good contact if you held the cable in while you played (not very practical.) I was planning on putting some solder on the inside of the jack to help with contact, but I found out that this was just nearly impossible (you will see what I mean if you ever look at the inside of the amp.) I did what he recommended and put some hot glue there to make the contact point press harder against the cable. Works like a charm. Other than this I have not had the map for long, however I used to have a GC30 that I bought used and that was a great amp for the 7 or so years that I had it!

I have never really dealt with them, but I like that they finally changed their website. The manual was easily downloadable.

Perfect amp. A friend of mine told me that they had a used Laney in Guitar Center. At the time I was playing a Behringer Blue Devil amp. That amp had very crappy tone. I was missing my old Laney GC30. I took my Blue Devil up there and traded it plus gave them $40. It would have been a steal if I would have had to give them another $100. Yeah it doesn't have all the built in effects like the Blue Devil, but how could I live without this tone? Once I get my phaser in the mail, I might get a Whammy 2 and then that is it for effects for me, so I won't be missing that Blue Devil ever. I think that I still might buy another GC30 if I ever see one. I think that had great jazz tone, this amp does, but I think that the GC30 did Jazz better.

Well everyone pretty much already said it. This amp has a lot of useful features. The separation of channels without a switch can be a pain, and it could use a line out, but that is about it. I love the option to use the acoustic tweeter. The push pull overdrive option is incredible. You can go from crystal clean to raunchy tube like distortion with the pull of a knob. The feedback settings for acoustic instruments was another nice plus. You even get the option to turn the tweeter off, and a headphone jack. No complaints here.

I am a slide player and run a variety of different guitars including a Fishman equipped Fender Resonator through the amp and they all sound good. I play an Oscar Schmidt Les Paul copy with Dimarzio/Seymour Duncan PAFs,a Fender Deluxe Super Strat, and an 80s Gibson Explorer with Dirty Finger Humbuckers. All of these sound killer through this combo. It is very LOUD for a solid state 50 watter. I never get it passed 2 or 3 in my house. I can't imagine it on 10.

I run the amp through a Sonic 2x12 cab with Celestion speakers. The Laney speaker was fine, but I'am a Celestion junky. They make the overdrive sound even better.

I am extremely impressed with the variety of sounds this thing can produce. It handles anything from acoustic/blues/classic rock/to a solid metal crunch. Kind of noisy with single coils, but that is a given. Great crunch at low volume as well.

I can't really rate it much for reliability. It looked brand new when I bought it used and it is obviously a couple of years old. The metal grill is solid. I prefer them over cloth. Laney has great customer service from what I understand. This combo is a tank.

I don't think the amp is under warranty anymore, I bought it used. I have emailed questions to Laney about the amp, and they were really helpful.

I have been playing guitar on and off for about 5 years. I started playing more seriously the last year, and I am never going to stop again. I bought this amp on a whim. I went to the store to pickup strings because I hadn't played in months. I saw it sitting there for $185 and talked the guy down. Along with the amp I made a promise to myself that I would play at least 2 hours a day. This amp has helped me find my music again. I would buy another in a minute if it were lost or stolen. It is versatile, it is loud, and it is a Laney...enough said.

I have a Sovtek Midget Mig 50 tube amp, a Carvin Belair, a Crate 30w vintage tube, and I have owned Fender and Marshall Valvestate amps. The Laney sounds just as well, or better then all of them. It sounds like a tube, and has the power to contend. Add a couple Celestions, and you can't beat this amp.

I bought this amp used at guitar center in portland OR for only $150.00 and it was a two channel amp,one for acoustic and one for electric. I will not get into the techincals of this amp since other reviewers have. I wanted a acoustic guitar amp and the fact that this was also a electric guitar amp was just a bonus. It does not have channel switching between acoustic and electric but it does have switching from normal electric to distortion. I wish it had a foot switch to turn off the piezo horn but then I have enough time to do that manually. I use this amp every week at my church. I use it as a monitor and I run the line out into the board. One thing I would like to state is that this amp is plently loud. I run a A/B footswitch and run my acoustic(Kramer Ferrington)or a Strat hybrid with duncin livewires or a Les Paul. All I do is switch giutars and A goes to acoustic and B goes to electric so if I have enough time to switch guitars than I guess I have enough time to turn the piezo horn on or off.

I use this mainly as a monitor but as a acoustic amp this gets the job done nicely,this is not as sweet sounding as a trace elliot but the price also reflects that. This is a very quite amp on both acoustic and electric settings. On electric I use only the clean channel because the distortion channel sounds too solid state for me. For distorted sounds I use either a rat distortion pedal or a tube screamer. This is the type of amp where you make compramises. If I am with my other bands I might either use my bedrock or my legend rock 50 or my 66'fender super with stock JBL's but I do not have the room on stage to do this. One thing I will say is that for the industrial rock sound the distortion channel is more than enough.

I bought this amp used and after using this amp for 4 years onstage I have never had any problem with this amp. I would happily buy this amp again if it was lost or stolen.

I bought this used so NA.

I have been playing Guitar and bass for 30 years,I have about 30 assorted guitars and basses and about a dozen amps. One thing I know is tone and if something sucks it sucks period. This is not the best acoustic amp or the best electric amp but for one that does both it is certainly worth a look.

Bought mine about 5 years ago and paid about $300. As others have said, this is a versitle amp, with some reservations. If it was perfect, it would have separate reverb levels for the acoustic and electric side. Mind you, it has separate reverb level controls, but once you dial in some on one channel you automatically get the same amount on the other channel if both are on. This may sound picky, but it has gotten in the way from time to time. I usually have both channels turned on, and use a separate Korg multi-effect pedal in the effects loop on the amp now. I play mostly praise and worship music, and use both electric and acoustic guitars. I use the foot pedal to choose the flavoring and leave the amp reverb turned off. There have been times I wished there was a footpedal jack to kick the tweeter in and out. Again, picky, picky, picky. Other than these issues, I'm very pleased with the versatility. I use it on stage at church, and seldom turn the channel gain and master volume past 2-1/2 (except during practices, heh heh). Plenty of power for my gigs. See next category for related comments.

I use a Goya (by Martin) acoustic six, a Washburn acoustic 12, a Fender strat, and a mandolin. The Goya has a Fishman piezo pickup, but I usually use a Dean Markley magnetic soudhole pickup. Washburn gets the Markly also. My Strat has single, single, humbucker pickup arrangement. Very quiet when idling, except for the turn-on thump. I replaced the original reverb tank in the amp with a better one from Accutronics (mostly just because I could and wanted to try it, not because the first one sounded bad). I also got out the soldering iron and made a mod to tame down the distortion, which came on too much too soon for my taste. This gave me a very useable distortion that didn't sound bad at all (but a Blues Driver sounds better). Finally, I had replaced the original Eminence speaker in my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp with a Celestion Vintage 30 based on user suggestions here. The Eminence subsequently replaced the original Laney speaker in the GC50A. WOW!!!! I mean WOW!!! The Laney sounds absolutely terrific now. And LOUD. This Eminence speaker has a very high db per watt sensitivity. Rating for sounds as manufactured, 6. Rating now with the mods, 9.

After about 3 years I started having trouble with the jacks, both front and back. The contacts inside didn't press against the guitar cord plugs very hard. I fixed this by carefully putting some hot glue between the contact arms and the jack bodies. Now when a plug goes in the arms have to sandwich between the plug and the glue, which makes them press harder against the plug. this fixed the problem. Other than this the amp works great.

Never dealt with Laney.

I've been live gigging for 30 years. As it is now with the mods if this amp were stolen or lost I'd been very unhappy. It's built very solidly and looks great. I love its versatility and bang for the buck. I'd buy another one if the price was right, considering that I'd want to replace the Laney speaker. Speaking of bang for the buck, I'd want to play through a Behringer amp if I could for comparison. I've never heard one, but I own several other pieces of Behringer gear and they all get a rating of 10 in every regard.

See previous reviews for details about features. This is a very versatile amp, especially if you own a guitar equipped with magnetic and piezo pickups (eg: Parker Fly).

The electric channel sounds very nice. Clean tones are bright and detailed. The overdrive channel sounds fantastic, especially at lower gain settings. I get a very smooth, tube-like sound that works well for rhythm and leads. Especially good with humbuckers. The acoustic channel is pretty good. Its a little more mechanical sounding than the Fender acoustic amps I've tried, but still gets the job done. I run my Parker Nitefly's piezo pickups through the acoustic channel and the magnetic pickups through the electric channel. With both channels activated, I get a great combination of electric and acoustic tones. Its nice not having to use seperate amps for each pickup. The high frequency piezo tweeter really sounds cool with the electric channel too. For clean tones, it functions as a bright switch and extends the guitar's frequency response. If you add some overdrive, you get a nasty crunch tone that is actually quite musical and useful. The sound of that little tweeter breaking up is awesome! The only thing I don't care for is this amp's reverb curcuit. It just sounds way to clanky and artificial to my ears. The decay is not smooth at all. I usually turn the reverb off and run an Alesis Nanoverb through the effects loop for reverb. This sounds much better to me. Yes, this amp is LOUD for 50 watts.

Forgive the cliche, but this amp is really built like a tank. I've giged with it on many occasions and its never given me any problems what so ever. Laney might have trouble with its quality control because I've read about relability problems with some of their amps, including this model. For the record, I also own a LC15 15 Watt tube combo and it has performed flawlessly, as well. Laney might have a quality control issue, but they don't build cheap amps.

I've never had to deal with them.

Pros:
Nice tones
Well built
Versatile
Great value

Cons:
Reverb curcuit

Beautiful little ear splitter for the price. Two sides, one straight ahead electric, the other accoustic. Both sides have reverb and gain controls and low-mid-high controls. Accoustic side has frequency and depth control. Electric side has two overdrive controls which activate by pulling one of the knobs forward. Only one master volume knob though. HH loaded...(Whatever that is...) With switch to turn it off. Four high-low input jacks, two for each side. Headphones and foot pedal and line out jacks. Not a tube amp but sounds real close to the lesser Marshalls when the knobs are set right. Steel grill...very heavy...nearly indestructable. I also have a 50 watt Ampeg bass amp, I know what indestructable and heavy is! The only reason we don't get a 10 is due to the lack of a footswitch being included. My only real complaint on the design is the on-off switch being on the back. The beast has to be out in the open to get to it.

It has sound! And tone! And VOLUME!! This thing is LOUD! You'd never guess that it was only 50 watts. It drowns out my 50 watt Ampeg R50 Bass amp like it wasn't even there. My Strat will scream through it, and punch like a mad drunk. With the gain opened up, my SG howls in such a filthy blue tone, that I've had several guys ask me when I got a Les Paul. "A Paul, Hell! That was just that little Gibson SG Special and THAT amp..." I bought the amp when I bought my 360 Rickenbacker. I was going to get an HC50, but the dealer didn't have any in stock at the moment. He said..."I think I have a Laney you'll like even more...will go a lot better with the RIC...it has an accoustic side." He wasn't just selling...this amp is a terrific combo. I play my Seagull Cedar 12 string through the accoustic side using a Schaffier sound hole pickup...almost sounds like a true electric 12 banger. Magnificent sound with a 12 string. Even at wide open this particular unit stays clean. Very little distortion if any. Gain at 3 and volume at 5 it will run you out of the house with ears bleeding. The overdrive is a little touchy...tends to either crunch or just turn totally into destorted noise. I seem to get better control by just running the gain wide open and using the volume control to adjust. I don't think this amp would please many hardcore heavy metal freaks. I play mostly Beatles, classic rock, down into the Eagles and Honky Tonk Country...the amp is great for these sounds. I use an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger quite a lot. My Dave Gilmore licks are getting better all the time...this amp has the sound. With my Fender Strat it will also duplicate the whinning Telecaster sound that was Waylon Jennings' trademark Honky Tonk sound. Again, this amp covers it...the vibe is perfect. My Beatles...well...it ain't a Vox...but with the RIC and the Seagull, it's close enough. The lead lines of Daytripper on the SG through it are right on the money however. One small bitch...if there's a lot of humidity in the air, the amp will hiss a little. The steel grill got noisey on occassion...I took the four screws holding it on out, replaced them with rubber washers attached...problem solved. This is a lot of amp for the price. We lack a 10 here simply because...well, again, it's not a Vox or a Marshall. The names mean a lot if you trade gear in or sell it off....the unit itself deserves a 10 for what it is, but in the big picture it has it's place in the pecking order of things. (Sad, isn't it?)

Built like a tank...a bitch to carry around...I've had it 3 years now, and I play every night at least a hour or so. Sometimes I'll spend an entire weekend plugged in...it hasn't failed yet...but who knows? I baby my equipment and I don't "gig" in the usual sense of the word...I can't say anything about road worthyness...I have to plead the fifth on this one.

I think it had a 5 year warranty...so did my Ampeg...never had a problem with either...really can't say.

Been at it for over 20 years. Besides the axes mentioned above I also have a 300 series Yamaha P bass, bought new, back when they were near identical copies of the Fender P basses. Also have a Fender Gemini III 6 string. Would love to get a Martin D28. The wife would kill me. Besides the amps mentioned above I also have a Fender 25 watt Frontman which in my opinion isn't much of an amp...I bought it used for the knock-around role. It rides in the truck and goes to picnics and to break time at work...for this sort of thing it is satisfactory. Also have 2 small Crate amps, 1 for accoustics, the other a B10 Bass amp. Crate's just Ampeg's lower end product...they're nothing special in my opinion but they too are good little amps for the price. I have found them to be just as tough as thier more expensive and better sounding big brothers. I also have a Little Smokey 9 volt...the "cigarette pack" pocket amplifier...terrific little gadgit! I use the hell outta mine. Sounds shittier and shittier as the battery winds down...but keeps this real 60ish crunchy tone that reminds me of the tone true garage bands always seem to have. The Laney GC50A is a fine amplifier. It was worth every penny and then some. I still want a 30 watt Vox, and a Marshall. If the Laney was somehow lost I would propably get one of the two to replace it...but if there happened to be extra cash afterwards I'd get another GC50A. I would miss it if it were gone.

I've had this amp for about 7 years. Very versatile amp for the price I paid (less than $300). The stomp switch will change from acoustic to electric channel, or turn overdrive and reverb on or off. Sometimes I've wished I could turn the tweeter on or off remotely, but you can't. A switch on the cabinet does this. Both channels can be used at the same time, and both have their own EQ. However, in this mode if you dial in reverb on one channel you get it on the other like it or not. Whichever reverb knob is set higher is what you'll get on both channels. I play at church and home, usually channel gain is at 2-3 and master volume at 2-3; in other words, plenty of reserve power for small venues.

The acoustic channel with tweeter turned on has plenty of sparkle, though I've wondered if swapping out the factory supplied piezo with a higher quality dome unit would make the highs a little less brittle. Depends on your taste; I've been mostly very happy with it. I use a Dean Markley Pro Mag or a Fishman under saddle pickup with a higher-end Goya rosewood acoustic. I've been very happy with this amp/axe combination. The electric channel is "useable". The overdrive was way too razzy even at very low settings for my taste. I opened up the amp and did a mod to tame this somewhat. Now it's more controllable, and sounds pretty darn good. I still prefer playing my electrics through a Fender tube amp. With this amp, if you use compression on the ingoing signal and set the EQ just right, you can get some nice tones with the overdrive. Clean, this channel is somewhere between "OK" and "nice", but not good or great, IMHO. I play an Elektra Working Man with dual humbuckers or a Gibson SG custom with same.

I have hauled this amp around for seven years and had no problems at all, until last night. All of a sudden I got no sound at all on either channel. Lights are on but nobody's home. Must be in the power amp stage. I'll try to trouble shoot myself, but I don't have a schematic.

N/A

Very happy with it for acoustic; sometimes happy with it for electric with reservations. For an inexpensive amp that trys to cover both worlds, it's definately worth its price.

EQ, Acoustic/Electric Channels, Overdrive, Feedback adjuster for Acoustic guitar, Hi-frequency Tweeter.

Has an excellent sound - distorted or clean. I'm using a Fender Deluxe Super Strat with Vintage Noiseless Pickups with a Boss DS-1 Distortion. Ibanez CS9 Chorus (an oldie!) and a DOD FX-75C Flanger. I'm also running a Squier II Fat strat (another oldie) through an Ibanez SM-7 Smash Box, and Chorus and Flange optional.

My band bought this about two or three years ago. It worked for about one and a half years. I had to use a Rogue CG40RC to use it instead. It still put out sound, but it sounded like it was coming through a staticky AM Radio. It's a 95 model, so it's only six years old. I have a Crate G600 that's from around 1986 (I don't know the exact year), and it works great besides a little bit of dust in the pots.
I took the Laney apart to look for a burnt wire or a melted circuit in the circuit board, but I didn't see one.

Never dealt with them.

It's a great amp if it works. If anybody has any information on how this can be fixed, let me know.