Laney HCM120R/H

i got this amp in november of 2000. i play a very heavy "harcore" style of music.music like skinlab sevendust mudvayne etc.... its not a good amp if ya like a nice clean sound for like blues or classic rock. its a very dirty amp. powerful, but dirty. it has 2 channels clean and distorted. and a lead boost button.(sucks, just adds bass)it has an effect loop, and a headphone jack. (dont use it, not crazy enough to put 120 watts through headphones.)you can get a pedal to switch for the clean and dirty, and the max button. but ya gotta pay 40 bucks. this is a solid state amp.

i use an ibanez roadster 2 series guitar and a fender strat. both have invader pickups in them (very loud) this amp is the best for the music i play but it still isnt right. the thing is just crap. it has a noise gate on it. but it doesnt give you a setting for it. basically its a noisey amp but with the button pushed in it settles down a bit. still get killer feedback with it on tough. you can get a clean sound out of everything if ya just go out and buy a metal zone pedal. sounds decent then. it just doesnt have the sweetness of a tubed head. and they claim they can make heads that sound just like a tubed head that arent, but not this one. this head is very powerful. thats one good thing goin for it. another is that it sounds better as you get to the half way mark ( 4 or 5) i didnt have a chance to crank it up to 8 or 9 yet cause my tony iommi cab (also laney) blew. this shit sucks! as for the distortion end of the head. that sucks too. all i can say is that the e.q. on this thing is terrible. way too much on the low end.

as far as reliability goes, not bad at all. never cut out or smoked or anything like that. its durable in that sence. if i liked the way it sounded i would use it on a gig with out back-up. no tubes so no worries there. that the only thing nice about solid state heads.

this company sucks. i didnt need to put my head up for service. but my 4x12 cab i did. i purposly bought the tony iommi series cab for 2 reasons. and thats cause it had better speakers in it and more power well they suck. i blew them 4 months after i had the thing. anyway i took it in to get a new cab and i still havnt got them back yet and its been a month. when they said it would be 1 week at the most.

ive been playing for about 3 years steadily now and ive seen it all. i know alot of people in bands and seen and heard all the equiptment. i have a combo amp from gibson, its a 1967 vintage model and fixed up and can growl like anything on the market now. it just a 50 watt combo with 2 10's in it. but it packs a punch just not loud enough to over come drums. but if i were you id stick with marshall,fender, messa boogie or hughes and kettner. you'll pay the big money but it will pay off in the end. they will last for years and years. i like the big tube sound its got from the 2 6L6's it has in it, dont hate a thing about it. i wish i had a messa boogie dual rectified head, or a hughes and kettner duotone head. nice and i trust the german made stuff over anything.