Laney HC25

I'd guess this amp was made in the mid- to late-90's.
It's a 2-channel solid state combo, with 'clean' and 'crunch' channels - there's a footswitch socket, which works with a 1/4inch jack 'on/off toggle' footswitch. There's also an external speaker output, and a headphone out (both also 1/4inch).

Hi and Lo inputs - only one can be used at a time.

Controls as follows: Clean Volume, push/toggle Channel Selector Switch, Crunch Level (Gain), Master Volume (badly named - this only affects the Crunch channel), Bass, Mid, High EQ.

Also on front panel are the Power Switch, a red Power LED, and a green LED by the channel selector to show when 'crunch' channel is engaged.

It has a single 10inch speaker behind a metal grill, and the cabinet is open at the back.

Generally good features (for the cost) - although the naming of the 'Master Volume' control is a little confusing at first.

I've mainly tested this with my 1989 Jap 60's reissue Strat, with a Dimarzio Fast Track II in the bridge. I play rocky blues mainly - trying to get similar sounds to Clapton/Robert Cray/BB King etc.. with some Pink Floyd etc.. thrown in.

For this purpose, the amp is not bad. The clean channel us quite respectable until you go too far beyond half volume - when it starts to disort in a bad way. It's loud enough for most practice at 6ish - but I wouldn't like to try and play with a drummer and keep a clean sound (mind you that's hard sometimes with much louder and more expensive kit than this!). I really miss some reverb on this channel though.

The crunch channel is a little strange - I have no idea why they call this amp 'HardCore', as I wouldn't really describe the distortion like that! On lower gain settings, it produces an okay 'fuzz'-type distortion, and between - say - 4 and 7 there's a fairly respectable growl. Much beyond this and I'm afraid it gets into real 'bee in a jam jar' territory - with very little 'character', just noise. Maybe that's what you're after - but I can't say I think it's a very 'useable' distortion on the higher settings.

In general the tone of the amp is quite treble-heavy (bear in mind this is with a strat). On the clean channel, I think the sound is much nicer on the neck pickup, although on other amps I'd usually favour the middle/bridge position. I set the EQ to Bass=8, Mid=6.5, Hi=5, and this takes some of the shrillness out of the sound - the EQ seems to be very effective actually, as with all 3 EQ's down to zero, the amp is silent; that shows they're doing something!

The amp is a little noisy on the crunch channel - producing a hum when you're not playing - but most amps do with single coils if you put the gain up. It's not a bad problem on this amp for practising, but it would be annoying if you were trying to record.

Overall I think the sound is not bad - I wasn't expecting this to sound like a Soldano that cost as much as a half-decent car! For practice, I'd say it's fine. You can get usable overdrive sounds for lead and rythmn with a little tweaking, and the clean channel is fine.

When used with some FX, the amp does well - running a Zoom 505II through the clean channel, the amp sounds very good; adding some warmth with the right EQ settings on the amp.

I don't know if I would think about this as a 'gigging amp'. To be honest, it's probably loud enough to compete with a live drummer, but I think it sounds better when it's not all dialled up to 11!

It seems very sturdily built though - and a metal grill infront of the speaker is a bonus for a small amp that might get knocked around.

N/A

I've been playing for 15 years or so, and I have my own amp (Scottish Carlton Combo) which is in a different league to this one. However, it must have cost at least two or three times as much as this little practice amp.

The main point of this review is to help anyone who sees one of these amps second hand decide if it's the right amp for them to buy.

As a sturdy practice amp, I think it's pretty good. Without using any external effects, I miss reverb on it, and the distortion's not brilliant - but then what do you expect? There's no point comparing these amps to ones that cost many many times more. The clean channel has a nice bright sound to it, and you can get some useable sounds from the crunch channel. It helps to take some time to set the EQ on the amp to suit the sound you want, and to remember that you've got volume (and usually tone) control on your guitar too!

The footswitch option (you can get a toggle on/off footswitch for about GB#6 from Maplin in the UK - product code DU98G) is a really good feature, which is quite unusual on an amp like this.

As someone else said in one of these reviews, a lot of the tone you get from an electric guitar comes from your technique, and 'touch', and of course your guitar. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the reviews which say "XYZ-amp suxxxx.. you need to get a MESA-BOOGIE.. by-the-way I've been playing for 3 weeks."

The name of this amp 'HardCore' may be a little misleading; I think it's a very respectable practice amp with quite a versatile range of useable sounds. As a budget amp, I would say it's ideal for someone interested in learning to play a variety of styles of music, and a good tool for learning how to get different sounds out of the guitar.

limited features (as it should be in this price range)
I was however pleasantly surprised to find a footswitch input

The only reason I am writing this it to tell you not listen to the people who tell you this amp is crap. I went with a friend of mine (a beginner) to help her pick out an amp at a pawn shop. This was by far the nicest one in the under $100 range when compare to the cheap marshalls, fenders and peaveys. Only an old yamaha come close for clean tone. Anyway she bought it and every time I played through her's I wanted one as a second amp for practicing in my bedroom. (I have a Fender Pro Junior in my living room.) Yesterday I found one in a pawn shop and bought it on the spot for $70. It is the BEST small solid state amp I have heard. I bought it mainly for the clean tone, but the distortion is very good, too. EQ is quite versatile for getting different tones out of the distortion. I think any high quality guitar would sound great through this amp. I suspect those who don't like it are using less than stellar guitars. (I play a G&L ASAT and a Japan-made Fender Heavy Metal Tele.)

"high" input jack is screwed up, but i plan to open it up and try to fix it. Otherwise seems very well made.

no info

I was impressed enough to recommend it for a friend and then buy one for myself. Keep in mind I am a tube amp owner. Good balanced sounds. I would love to check out some of their more expensive amps, having heard on of their "cheap" models.

This gives you pretty nead sounds...

...until you put the sounds loud enough!
the sound is totally awful if its too loud!!!!!!
if you play it with not much volume, then it works pretty well, though. (i use an ibanez sr-406)

not very good.
the inputs for plugs dont work good.
otherwise, its ok!

if you want to play loud and with a very crappy distorting sound, then its your choice (this amp)
however, this works pretty good as an practise amp when not too loud... but there are lots of cheaper practise amps around...

I believe my amp was made in 1997. It is a very simple amp, 2 chanels no reverb. I really wasn't looking for versatility when I bought this amp I just wanted a cheap preactice amp.

I play an Ibanez rg550 w/seymore duncan jb and a peavy tracer lt custom with stock pickups. This little amp suprised me with its heavy distortin and loud sound. I didn't buy this amp to use as a main amp but when my peavy bandit finnaly pooped I found out that it could hold it's own against a drummer and bass player. When gigging I could get some super heavy sounds using it as a preamp into a peavy PA head and 4x12. Oh by the way I play similar to Korn,Bizkit,etc. Drop A tuning.

THis amp was a real workhorse until a voltage spike killed it. All it does now is hum, REALLY LOUD.

no idea, its past warranty and probably just as expensive to fix as to buy a new one.

I've been playing for 8 years and loved this amp. It was perfect for small practices because of its distortion and high volume to size ratio. Since its death I'm seriosly thinking about its 100w big brother.

This amp is very basic - it has a clean channel and a "crunch" channel, which sounds horrible. It has no reverb, although it is available on the HC25R.

This amp is pretty useless. I actually have a good time with the clean channel - I often use it to play bass solos with my Washburn. It distorts like crazy, but I guess that doesn't really count, due to the fact that it is a rather unorthodox use for it. The distortion is rather ugly. I have an Ibanez with humbuckers and rarely find a decent setting - when I do, it is usually on the guitar.

It may sound horrible, but it always works. That is a lot more than I can say for my other amp. I don't think that the HC25 has ever cut out on me, and that is good, because I usually wire it in parallel with another amp, a peavey, running the peavey clean and full out and the distortion on the laney at a reasonable level. I find myself hitting the footswitch for the clean Laney channel quite a lot, because the other amp dies.

I have never dealt with the company.

Like I said, I hate the sound of the distortion. I don't think that I would buy another one, but it is very reliable. If you have a really nice sounding guitar, it probably sounds decent. But if you have a really nice guitar, why would you but this amp?

This amp was actually made in England. I play mainly blues and rock but I try to play everything else in between (except country, which makes me sick). It has basic features and no reverb. The amp has a lot of power though and I haven't tried it past the 7 mark.

This is a piece of crap. I play through an IbanexRG470. The amp is all power and no sound. The built in distortion is a joke. I guess if you are a punk rocker, its a pretty good amp but if you like to play MUSIC, this amp isn't for you.

You can't break this thing. I kick it regularly. Anyways, who cares if you break it. Turn it to the 10 mark and maybe it will explode.

I don't want to talk to them.

Once again, if you like punk the amp is awesome. You can probably break the neighbhors windows with this amp. If someone stole it I would laugh. I cannot seem to get a good sound out of this amp with any instrument, but everyone has their own opinion.