Laney GH50L Head

I got this about 2 or 3 years ago, mainly because I just wanted a really simple, relatively cheap valve head for gigging. I bought it with the intention of just using it as a basic sound to build on (I use a lot of effects pedals), however I found the extra gain switch quite useful for solos and the like. I like the single channel thing - it's all I really need. 50 watts is great - plenty of headroom for gigs. You can have it cooking without having to have it too loud. I put 5 because while I am happy with it, it's a really basic amp. If you want channels, reverb, effects or other features you'll want to look at something else.

I'm using it with a Marshall 1936 2x12 cab, a Gibson SG, and a variety of effects pedals. It sounds great! It's not perfect - the gain boost adds a significant volume boost (fine for solos, but not always what you want). The sound is quite 'clear' (i.e. not the Marshall sound), but it can be tailored to suit different guitars and sounds (within reason). It seems to respond well to effects pedals - some of the amps I've used really aren't keen on certain distortions and modulation effects (Vox AC-30s don't seem to like my E-H Small Clone or my Boss DS-1). The overdrive/distortion is great. I often use an overdrive or compression pedal to push it, but it sounds great on its own.

I've never had any trouble with it. It's been thrown around a van for 2 years and it's never missed a beat. Good strong construction.

Never had to deal with them.

I would definitely get another one if it was lost or stolen. I feel I can trust the sound of the amp - it's a great blank canvas, but with a reasonable amount of character and charm. It's pretty cheap but it's a shame that so few shops stock it (unlike Marshall for instance).

Not too many features. But has a foot switchable drive channel. Good effects loop, I don't really use it too much though, try an eq to have some earth-shattering lows. Back off the volume on your rhythm pickup, and you can get clean easy. Just wish it had two channels, but no biggy for me. Speaker outputs are very versatile. BUT, listen up. 2x8 ohm. That means two 16ohm cabs!!!! It won't hurt to use 8 ohms though. Tube amps can run for a while on the wrong ohmage, but you don't want to do that. The tone controls are good, resonance switch is cool. But fool around with the tone controls first before you rule this amp out if you didn't like the first sound you heard outta it.

This amp has plenty of distortion. I don't know who said it didn't. Maybe you need new tubes or something.(yes preamp tubes need to be replaced too!!!) But it has a lotta head room imo. You can turn the gain down, and turn master all the way up and be pretty clean, click the drive channel and your pretty chunky. But with gain and drive all the way up is where this shines. The distortion is just so thick and raw. I'm using it with a 70s Laney Cabinet(straight) with Celestion GT75s. Lotta highs and earth-shattering lows. Using two guitars, a Gibson Gothic Les Paul(stock), and a new Epiphone SG thats a cheapy. Believe it or not, less feedback with the SG. But the Gothic Les Paul has very very hot pickups. I play in Dropped C. With D'addario Jazz 12s. Amp is a bit noisy.

Flew across our van and still sounded amazing. This is the real tank of amps.

Never needed.

I love it, and if I can, I'd like to buy the GH100L so i can get a full stack. I could have probably had a mesa/boogie, but I'm not the biggest fan of conforming. Amp sounds great, and is a good price.

Well i'm not gonna go into to much detail cos i'm sure its all been said.But i will say that despite being a single channel head it is actually quite versatile , and there is a whole raft of sounds in there from clean through to heavy crunch and drive.The speaker ohm switch really does make a difference when changing between 8 to 16 ohms with a suitable cab.I also find that when using fx loop the different options on the switch(ie insert or side chain)make a noticeable difference , i am still not sure what setting i should ue but it works better for me in insert mode.And the resonance switch gives a nice fat sound when engaged.

There are plenty of sounds in here but you've got to work at it.I'll be honest ,straight out of the box i was a bit dissapointed it sounds a little bit dead & at the same time a bit bright (if that makes sense)the lack of reverb does'nt help .I would suggest shutting yourself in a room for at lest 8 hours and see what works for you.There is a good variety of sounds ,and yes it can do a reasonable clean sound .i'm using mainly les pauls a gibson classic and an old tokai love rock.The distortion is as good as anything i've heard including the boogie i owned & the peavey xxx efx 40 that i still own ,so how did i make it sound so good ? well to be fair it sounds awsome with the drive engaged regardless , its just without it on it sounds a bit wanting. My remedy a cheap eq pedal and a little delay (left on )and it sounds the business i gigged with it for the first time recently and it sounded monster ,power -definition-clarity & as someone else previously remarked it sounded so different out of the house and turned up in a gig situation , i did however have one little gripe and that was that we play quite heavy rock covers and i'd set up a great crunch tone with the eq pedal(behringer)but when i stood on the drive button for the solo yeah it sounded awsome and beautifully saturated with singing sustain (i can definately here some boogie in there)but it didnt quite cut through the mix loud enough, so i put a 17quid preamp booster through the fx loop ( a behringer again) and it sounds, well everthing i've wanted it now leaps out ,with no change to the sound (except for volume boost)and it does sound amazing, so basically you just need to experiment a little and i would recommend an eq pedal and i guess laney does have a sound all of its own as i said i can hear boogielike tones but it also has its own sound. I have not found this amp to be noisy , and i have changed the tubes to 6L6 which i prefer the sound of.I will give it 9 out of ten cos i had to mess around and experiment for the perfect tone but i got it and i love it.By the way its deafeningly loud.

so far cant fault it the amp seems superbly made.

sorry guys but i,ve emailed a couple of times for some info and i've not heard a reply so thats a bit poor ,but it does'nt affect the aound right.

Have been playing 20 years had a boogie ,various peaveys ,and a marhall jubilee to name a few.I am very pleased with this amp and would definately get another ,it is a marshall slayer and i hope to keep this set up now.I do wish it had reverb (why has'nt it?)but a little delay (or a holy grail) cures this , i love its simplicity and its versatility and there is nothing i hate about it.

I play in a power pop band and we do extensive touring and it works perfect for our style of music. I standardly use the first gain stage. The second gain is a little too much for my taste, but it is still very usable for those it applies to, probablly more metal type style...if it had a master volume, I'd probablly use it. I like the FX loop although I never use it, it's still nice to know it's there. It is a very loud amp as well...I typically run the master vol somewhere between 4-6 with the volume on 8!

I've owned several amps including a Marshall JCM 800 2203 100w. I guess i can say I enjoy this amp more than my Marshall. I'm still kinda on the fence about it. The distortion on this amp can go from light crunch to metal by the twist of a knob. Not too noisy at all. I play a fender esquire, '69 thinline tele, gibson LP, gibson flying V. Each guitar has it's own sound thru the amp. it also has a very good clean sound too! I wouldn't go as far as to say it sounds like a twin or anything, but it's still very good!

It's been a very reliable amp...i've had no problems at all with it. the only thing...you better buy a road case...the tolex will come off easy!!! but hey...that's character...right?

never dealt with them

give it a solid 8. I've been playing 13 years...been playing full time/ professional for a year. If it were stolen...i'd try to find another for a reasonable price, but I doubt I'd just look to buy another one...if i got another good deal on it...heck yea...i only paid $600 for the head and 4/12 cab. I'll be honest tho..i took the name plates off of it b/c it wasn't getting any respect that way, but now, after a show ppl want to know what kind of amp it is...haha. losers!

I had laney linebacker for years and I liked the tone but it just didn't cut through when playing with more than one guitarist, so I got the gl50 and all is good! When I first got it I turned all the eq's up the way I would if I were playing through any other amp.. this thing has a ton of tone control. I had to back them all down and sweep around to find the sound I liked. you can really get any tone you want, but you have to look for it. It may take a while to get used to it. It has an extra gain stage that I haven't used much.. it does get a little noisy if you use it all, but it really is not needed. one feature I really like is the speaker output. It has seperate outputs for cabinet impedance. I guess it could be a little confusing to someone unfamiliar with it, but it is a really nice feature. I have an old Laney 16ohm cabinet and it sounds awesome! I realy like the simplicity of the single channel design, it makes it very simple to use and it has a lot more versitily than most. If you don't like dealing with a ton of knobs and seperate channels and eq sliders and a bunch of bells and whistles that don't really seem to make much difference, this is the amp for you. There is nothing here that doesn't serve a purpose. I play in bars and small venues in a 4 piece "rock" band and this thing is perfect. 50 watts of tube power provides just the right balance of drive and volume.

This amp really does sound amazing! get one - put new strings on your guitar - plug it in - crank it up.. it'll put a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye!!! I play an asat and a strat through it and it does anything I want it to. with the volume on the guitar I can go from almost perfectly clean to monster overdrive without being too quiet on the clean side. It does tend to get a little too bright when I really hammer away on fender style guitars, but this is easily fixed by using the tone control on the guitar. There is NO NOISE coming from this thing, unless you use the extra stage of gain.. I can stand right in front of it with my guitar and amp cranked and hear nothing until I hit a note. (I have been playing in bands for 20 years and my hearing isn't the best, but I hear nothing!!) I did not like the way it handled the Gibsons I plugged into it though. It gets pretty noisy with the PAFs and the gain gets a little unruly. It will feedback between every stroke with both gains up. I don't think you can get any more distortion than that.. turn the gains down a little and everything will be ok. but just ok. BUT i never have played the Gibson style guitars so I really don't know how to handle them... I would recommend using a distortion pedal for the really all out stuff.. I use a boss overdrive/distortion pedal and it works great. Maybe if I had the footswitch for the extra drive stage I wouldn't need it, but I like the pedal.

haven't had any problems yet.. been gigging it for almost a year.

I contacted Laney about a concern I had with my cabinet when I first got the gl50 head, and they were prompt and very helpful.

I've been playing for over 20 years.. I had a laney linebacker solid state for more than 15 of those years and never had a problem with it.. that's why I bought this to replace it. I would be very pissed if it got stolen, not an easy thing to come by, and I would definitely replace it with the same!! a friend has the GL100 but it's a little too much.. I would get the 50 again. I compared this to a lot of different amps, and for the money... you get a lot more than you will with other amps.. It smokes a $1000 Marshall for a little more than half.

Manufactured in 2006.
Extremely versatile head. Works well for blues and rock and with the addition of a good distortion pedal, perfect for metal.
This is a single channel amp with an extra gain stage through the drive switch and level. Kind of acts like a second channel, though the drive is on the noisy side.
The only feature it lacked is reverb, a Holy Grail fixed that.
I use this primarily at home now but will be using it live in the next few months. This amp is more than loud enough for medium to large venues, especially through my 4x12 cabinet.

This head is basically a Marshall on steroids. Same basic sound, same responsiveness and same level of raw power but at a price tag mear mortals can afford.
Clean channel/dirty channel are one in the same. Alter your guitars volume and tone controls and your pick attack and you can get everything from rockabilly spank to Zakk Wylde squeals.
I use 3 guitars with this amp. #1, Les Paul Classic with dual humbuckers, #2, Fender Fat Strat with a bridge humbucker and dual single coils and #3, a DeArmond M72 with EMG81 and EMG85 active humbuckers.
The head is noisy. With no signal, there is a very noticible hiss at anything above 2 on the master and gain settings. Turn on the drive and that hiss increases with each step up. Prescense also adds to the hiss. Once you start to play though, the hiss vanishes.

I've never gigged with this amp so it's hard to say. So far, it seems to be reliable but until it's been on the road with me for a while I won't know for sure. I would never gig without a backup, no matter what the amp or who made it.

Customer support is slow, very slow. I emailed them about the hissing and they emailed back 3 days later asking if I had bought the head new? Duh! My local guitar shop, where I bought it, looked it over for free and no questions asked. They found nothing wrong so I guess this head is just hissy... Finding authorized anything is difficult as this amp is made in England and their website only lists distributors.
The warranty is for 1 year but they extend it to 3 if you mail in the warranty card within the first 90 days.

I've been playing for nearly 30 years, own Fender and Marshall amps both solid state, tube and tube/solid hybrids.
If this head were stolen, I'd probably go to jail for what I'd do to the thief. I would definitely replace it but would likely go with the GH100L next time.
I love the simplicity of the head, the overall sound and the build quality most. My main dislike is the hiss.
Honestly, this head sounds better to my ears than the Marshall JCM800 or the Super Lead.
I wish it had reverb built in, don't use it often but it's nice to have. Still, I bought a Holy Grail so that's not really a problem.

This amp is fitted with all important features i like. One chanel with boost-option (foot-switchable), resonance switch (nice sounding), effect loop (serial/parallel, but I don't need it), 50 watts power amp with EL-34 tubes, bias-switch on the rearside enables the amp to use either 6L6 or EL-34 tubes!!! That's all - but perfect for me.

Dieser Amp hat fur mich personlich alle wichtigen Features vereint: einkanalig mit Boost-Funktion (Fu?schaltbar), Resonance-Schalter ("luftigere", direktere Basswiedergabe), schaltbarer Einschleifweg (seriell/parallel), 50 Watt Endstufenleistung aus EL-34 Rohren, Bias-Schalter auf der Ruckseite zum einfachen Rohrenwechsel auf 6L6!!! Das ist schon alles - fur mich die perfekte Ausstattung.

I'm playing bluesrock / "roots"-rock.
The gear i'm using is a signature Strat (Robert Cray), an American Vintage 1962 Strat and a Classic Tex-Mex-Tele (all with original pickups). The signal goes through the follwoing pedals: Xotic RC-Booster, Onerr Fat Boy 2 Wah-Wah, Barber Direct Drive, Marshall Chorus SV-1, Marshall Delay EH-1, Korg DT-10 Pedal-tuner (all in front of the amp, all pedals are true bypass!!!). There's only one pedal in the effect-loop: a "Seagate" Solo swith for more switchable solo-volume (also true-bypass).

This amp sounds really amazing. Nice crunch and distortion tones, very transparent, great punch! The clean sound is also very usable, but not so good as a great Fender clean-tone. With a boost-pedal between your guitar and the amp, you have a fantastic volume/overdrive-control with your guitar volume-knob, from clean to crunch to distortion. On higher drive settings the amp makes a little noise - but not more as each other amp! Also the resonance-switch is a nice sound option! AND: the GH50L can be very loud!!!

Ich bin im Bluesrock u.a. Richtungen zuhause. Als "Fender"-Player kommen bei mir eine Signature-Strat (Robert Cray), eine American Vintage 1962-Strat und eine Tex-Mex-Tele Classic '60 zum Einsatz. Das Gitarrensignal durchlauft -vor den Amp geschaltet- folgende Pedale: Xotic RC-Booster, Onerr Fat Boy 2 Wah-Wah, Marshall Chorus SV-1, Marshall Delay EH-1, Korg DT-10 Pedal-Tuner. Alle Pedale sind "true bypass" - Pedale, so dass ich keinen Signalverlust durch die Bodentreter erleiden mu?. Im Einschleifweg befindet sich lediglich ein "Seagate" Solo-Switch zur (regelbaren) Anhebung der Lautstarke (ebenfalls "true bypass".

Der Amp kingt wirklich unglaublich gut - und das zu dem Preis! Wunderschone Crunch- und Zerrsounds, sehr transparent und harmonisch - nie nervig sagend. Der Cleansound ist auch vollkommen ok, obwohl das ein Fender-Amp m.E. besser kann. Aber ich denke, das ist auch nicht das Tatigkeitsfeld des Laney. Er produziert wunderschone Blues- und Rocksounds die sich in der Band sehr gut durchsetzen. Mit dem vorgeschalteten Booster lasst sich der Verzerrungsgrad wunderbar mit dem Volumenpoti der Gitarre regeln! Bei zu viel Gain fangt der Laney schon ein bisschen an zu rauschen, aber es ist noch im grunen Bereich und vor allem nicht mehr als bei vergleichbaren Amps. Interessant ist auch der Resonance-Schalter - klingt gut. UND: der GH50L ist verdammt laut, macht machtig Druck. Und den braucht er auch um richtig atmen zu konnen - wobei er auch leiser gespielt schon recht gut klingt!

No problems in the short time (4 weeks) i owned this amp.

Set dem Kauf vor 4 Wochen gab es keinerlei Probleme! Ich hoffe, es bleibt so!

Nice amp - nice price - nice sounding! When i have to compare - I think the Laney sounds much better than Marshalls - because of the transparent and harmonic distortion sounds. But the GH50L (i think all the Laney's) has it's own note in sounding.
Try it and buy it!!!

Klasse Amp - klasse Preis - klasse Sound! Wenn ich vergleichen musste - der Laney klingt m.E. besser als Marshall, weil seine Zerrsounds harmonischer und transparenter klingen. Obwohl man auch sagen mu?, dass der GH50L (wie alle Laney's) schon ihren eigenen Klang haben - und der ist sehr gut!
Also: antesten und kaufen!!!

2005 head. Features:not much, which is refreshing. I know this is a single channel amp but the volume jump when hitting the drive switch is not OK on stage so it could definately use a 2nd master volume. There is a workaround that I use. I use a small midi-switched rack in the loop. I simply knock off some volume by switching to my effexts processor to a program with lower patch output volume. The drive is switched on/off by midi as well, so 1 button does it all, and also can switch in a a couple of pedals in front of the amp.

I use Ibanez and Carvin guitars with hummers, but they both can do split coils or parallel single coils to cop the sounds of a strat.
Although my usual fare is heavy Prog Rock/Metal, I bought this amp as a departure from my 20-sp rack rig and my Diezel Vh4 and H&K Triamp heads. I'm playing just for fun in a band doing classic rock including a bunch of Zeppelin tunes. I finally found time to spend the afternoon running all these heads against each other into one of 2 2x12's. One is a Bogner with V30's, the other is a Mojotone with a Hellatone 60 and Celestion H30. As is often the case the cab makes all the difference in the world and for Zeppelin the Mojotone cab has the...well, Mojo. I can say without any hesitation here that Diezel is not the amp for classic crunch tones. The Triamp can them on channel 2A. The GH50L though absolutely NAILS it! It also seems to cut through the mix (lod drummer) much better than the Triamp does. And it is a loud mutherfugger, it can hurt you! Now, the problem with any single channel head, unless you are doing a Grateful Dead jam for a bunch of 50-something stoners, is when you want to go clean you need to get the gain below 4 and jack up the master, without missing a beat or 2. I've got enough to worry about on stage, so I use a Fender combo for cleans, but this means hauling more gear.... It never ends. So I though, if the GH50L is this good, I should try the TT50H (2 chan). Well I'm here to tell you that it has nowhere near the same beautiful organic crunchiness.
Now, can it do the higher gain scooped mids crunch. Yes, not bad at all though I definately switch to the Bogner cab with V30's for that. Of course I am spoiled by the other 2 heads mentioned above, which just SPANK the GH50L for metal, but then they cost 3-5x as much too. Can you boost the mids and do nice singing leads with the Laney? Not so much. Certainly can make do in clubs playing David Gilmour leads, but there are better amps for that. There is a certain brittleness I find when the gain is up past 6. And I would never put the drive past 3-4. Beyond that it adds a buzz that just blurs your technique and makes you sound like a 14 y/o dickhead.

I think it's got little to worry over. No channel switching, no midi, 2 tubes, I mean, c'mon. I've used it for 6 mos now without a hitch.

As I said, for that classic British rock tone, without resorting to new Marshalls (crap quality and reliability -- and I'm speaking from experience), or old Marshalls (see problem with new Marshalls), the Laney GH's are killer. The tone is definately there. If you can work around a single channel amp, it's a great value. If you are short of budget, and wondering if the amp will cover SRV to Hatebreed, well, no. But the clean tone is sweet, the amp loves pedals (lots of possibilities there), and with the right cab you can do Metallica covers too.

Hallo!
Mine got the Serial - Number 1558.Brand New By Thomann 625,- Euro.
I'am a Jazz and Rock - player. I am playing still and forever Strat's and Les Paul - Clones. Piss on names!!!

One Channel Monster.

As i said before: Clone types.
Not noisy at low volumes - bedroom!
But!!! With Drive at around " 7 " and Gain " 6 ",
( you have to switch the drive channel on )it's
also perfect ).
Monster Tone when you use the MASTER up ... and away!!!
Hard Rock; Jazz; not like the clean Fender - tone.

Yes, this is my third Amp from Laney.
1'st Amp - Laney TF 200. Second - My " Giftzwerg " - a
Laney LC-15R. Finally the GH 50 L.
No problems with tubes or broken downs.

No problems with my dealer.
If I have a problem with my Laney Amps,
i call my body at my music - station.
So far no problems with my Laney's.
I am not directly involved, yet.

30 years of playing the guitar. Gibson and Fender 1980-84.
Vox, Peavey, Mar...
Compare to other products this it is.
As i said: don't look for names.

Ordered this on 9th November, arrived this morning which was a surprise as I was told it'd be out of stock until the end of the month, not complaining though! I was very surprised when I powered this beast up as to it's versatility. I usually play straight up metal so this amp is perfect for that but occsaionally like to stray into blues and clean territory and it also does this perfectly, heavenly clean sound. I've found that having the one channel isn't much of a problem as the boost switch does effectively give it two channels and is a very usuable function. I've got it running with EL34 tubes at the moment and it sounds very nice indeed, although I'm planning to try 6L6's in the near future. For the money I paid for it, I think it is a complete bargain and it has more than enough power for gigs. The only downside is the lack of reverb and only the one channel but I don't find this to be a problem at all.

My main guitar at the moment is a ESP Ltd H-100 (old series, the better quality ones) and I mostly play metal (Arch Enemy, Metallica, Pantera etc etc) and this amp suits this style perfectly. It has more than enough gain and isn't at all noisy even at the highest gain settings you can dial in. The sounds on this amp range from jazzy clean right through to Nile-style balls to the wall mayhem. Absolutely perfect for me. This amp also works very well with single coils. The only downside is i'd say it was a little too bassy.

Only just got it, can't really comment as of yet. Built like a tank though!

Not been in touch with them yet.

I've been playing for 4 and a half years and this is my first tube amp and the nicest bit of kit I own. If it were stolen, I'd buy another straight away and hunt down the person that stole it!!! The thing I love about it is the simplicity to dial in stunning tones in a matter of seconds! Before I bought this, I tried an Ashdown Fallen Angel, Hiwatt Maxwatt and a Marshall DSL50 and this was by far the best amp of the lot!