Laney Klipp 100 Watt Head

A Laney Klipp, 100 w head, made between 1970-75 theres no reverb wich I can miss sometimes, otherwise its good enough for any kind of music (especially rock music) but its louder than any amp Ive ever heard. I play in a band with a classic rock line up, and we play rock inspired mostly rock ala' 75-82 style, and all I use is a VOX Valve boost, and occationaly a Fuzz, mostly because its not handy switching channels to the klipp during a song (theres no foot switch). But its lovely too look at, at least I think so, but its heavy as it was made out of solid heavy metal.

I use a Gibson SG with Gibson pickups and/or a Vantage with one Gibson P-59 custom+ and a unclassified humbucker.
The Klipp has got a beautifull ringing clear tone, but shouldnt be turned up over 3 on the master volume due to the risk of damageing anything that cant take the noise of a jet-plane lifting. If you do turn it up louder youll find a nice round tube overdrive. The klipp channel is a bit coarser, more like a fuzz too my ears anyway, but I highly suspect that every amp has its own unique Klipp sound.

I feel I can depend on it, if given time too warm up properly otherwise it has got this ability to blow fuses. I always have a pack handy but never had a problem when playing live.
But having said that I do think it can be a little delicate at times, you need to have a certain touch to avoid problems. I had used my amp without changing tubes or anything for about two years when I decided to give it a servicing and a tube change, two weeks later the resistors (Im from sweden soo I dont know the correct english word) burnt, every single one in the pre amp, now its been in to be repaired for Quite some time and they say they cant find the shemas for the right settings of the resistors (resistance) so Im not sure when Ill get it back.

Ive been playing now for about 14 years and have owned a few amps and played a lot of different amps and I must say that when I bought this one and tried it for the first rehearsal I knew this was it, the amp I always wanted. Its got a charm, sound and looks and its LOUD! If you want to contest with any other amp Ill promise that Laney Klipp will win, not only loudness but by clarity in sound at those volumes!

This all-valve hand-wired 100w amp was only made between 1970 and 1975. It appears to be an early attempt at a master volume type twin channel amp (though not footswitchable without modification). See the last review for technical and internal electrical detail. I didn't understand a lot of it, but it sure sounded impressive!
With regard to versatility, I have to say that I don't much like the sound of its distortion channel -- it's harsh and fuzzy, not smooth and creamy. I haven't been able to get that infinite sustain that the other reviewers mentioned. I use a series of pedals and a multi-effect unit to get my sound. Mind you, the previous owner blew transformers regularly, so that might have something to do with it. I got the amp checked out and returned to its original specs (schematic courtesy of Laney via the last reviewer) but the Klipp channel still doesn't do it for me. Very early 70s though. An amp with a nicer -- to my ears -- distortion would be preferable, but with the effects, it does the job. I go into the high volume input on the Klipp channel, but with the Klipp circuit off. I don't use the bright switch -- it's a bit too much, and hisses considerably.

I use a Gibson Les Paul Standard and/or a Pearl Les Paul copy (great guitar!). Stock pickups in the Gibson, God knows in the Pearl. My style is bluesy heavy rock, like Free, Skynyrd, mixed with heavier moments along early Sabbath and AC/DC style riffage. My band has been compared to Rainbow -- in style, not in sound. Personally, I don't know if that's a compliment or not...
In my opinion, the clean channel is the amps best feature: it rings and chimes with the best of them. Unfortunately, this only comes across when I plug in directly -- my effects chain, as they say, "sucks tone". Still, with some EQ adjustments I can nearly get there. Nonetheless, with the effects, the amp produces a great sound -- I am regularly complimented on my tone (but I think that's more because nobody's playing my sort of stuff in Ireland anymore. "Guitar solo? What's that..."). I'm happy with my sound, but I'd only give it a B+, with a "could do better" rider.
The clean channel will give natural valve distortion when cranked -- very AC/DC -- but nobody could seriously play that loud. It's ridiculously loud. In rehearsals, with 300w bass amp, full kit, 600w PA on verge of feedback, I only need to set the volume at about 2. It's a real pre-sound-reinforcement outdoor festival loud.
I've mentioned the distortion above: It is brutal but harsh, and not to my taste, though the other reviewers seemed to love it. But remembering the previous owner's penchant for replacing transformers, I'm prepared to believe that I've just got a duff one.
Controls and switches: Standby, run, presence, bass, mid, treble, bright switch (clean channel), volume (clean), inputs 1 & 2 (clean channel), Klipp switch, Klipp level, Klipp channel volume, Bright switch (Klipp channel), two more inputs. Around the back, speaker outs (2), speaker resistance selector (4, 8, or 16 ohms), slave output. No reverb.

I think it's a rather fragile baby. It'll need a service soon. Sounds like one of the power valves is loose. I'm a technical idiot, so I'm not looking in there! Can be a bit temperamental as to whether it wants to work or not. Maybe three times in the last 18 months (being used usually about twice a week in rehearsals) it has refused to work for no apparent reason. But after I turned it off and cursed at it a bit, then tried it again, it would invariably work. I'd use it without a backup if I had to (I sold my other amp, so all I have now is the Laney and a Pignose), but worry a lot. I wouldn't let support bands use it, so there's always a backup anyway. As it happens, I haven't had to gig it since I got it (about 18 months ago) -- mainly due to a combination of our band's laziness (only 8 gigs in that period)and the fact that for most of those gigs the venue supplied backline. I have used it for recording 3 times in the last year, with no problems.

For a company that was dealing with a product that's been out of their product line for about 26 years, they were great, at least in terms of their willingness to help. They couldn't tell me anything about the serial number, but they were able to dig out schematics (for the previous reviewer, who passed them on to me after an unsolicited email!). The customer support guy, James Boyle, was very helpful, given their lack of records. Here's what he told me, before I'd even bought the amp:
"Sorry for my late response, however, here goes...

Klipp amps were made between 1970 and 1975, hence their absence from our website! They were a two channel amp, one clean, the other with more gain, each channel equipped with its own volume control and bright switch for more top end response. There was a master volume and a master 3-band EQ and an overall presence control, which affected the entire output of the amp. You're absolutely right, however; the amp doesn't come fitted with reverb!

The only common faults were poor quality output tube sockets at the
time, so it would be worth changing these for ceramic ones, if that has not already been done. It would be worth checking out the mains and output transformers, however, due to their old age, we don't have any remaining spares for these amps, except for the tubes, of course.
Another point to make is that the HT current runs at about 600V, so I'd be very cautious about working inside the amp!

I hope that this answers some of your questions about the amps, however, if you have any remaining queries, please don't hesitate to get back in touch.

Best Regards,"

Bought it used for #200 Irish (about $215 US), including a crappy H/H cab with various badly wired speakers. Sold the cab for #90, so real cost #110. Not too bad for a vintage (does vintage apply only to age or to legendary status?) 25-30 year-old all-valve hand-wired amp. I use two 2x12" speaker cabs with it, one fitted with Celestion Vintage 30s, the other with Celestion GT-75s. That way I can use each cab seperately with the amp, or mike up each cab in a recording situation.

I play a Gibson LP Std as my main guitar into: pre-Dunlop Crybaby wah; Visual Sound Route 66 OD/compressor, into Marshall Guv'nor, into ancient "Grant" distortion (MXR style), into Korg A5 multi-effect, into Marshall Vibratrem, into Alesis Nanoverb on the top of the amp, just set for reverb. I've been playing for 13 years, "semi-pro" or "ambitious amateur" for the last six.
If this was stolen -- inconceivable, it's too bloody heavy, and quite ugly looking -- or lost, or burst into flames, I'd never be able to find another one. A rare beastie, I think... I'd be tempted by a Marshall JMP45 reissue head, having got used to using the Laney as a non-master-volume. Having said that, I'd not turn down a Boogie if some generous person wanted to buy one for me...
I'm very fond of this amp. It is about as close to unique in terms of looks as you can get these days. Great clean sound (I just need to clean up the mud in my signal chain). Distortion sound not for me, though. Wonder if a good amp tech could do something with it. It'd be nice if it had reverb, so I could get the Nanoverb out of the chain...

Got this from the Guitarsite discussion board. Ihought it'd be of use.


Posted by Ian Bennett (from: ppp-2-38.cvx3.telinco.net) on September 17, 1999 at 14:05:16:

In Reply to: Laney Klipp posted by Anders on August 16, 1999 at 15:17:09:

I have owned a 100 watt Laney Klipp amplifier for twenty-five years, during which time it has been my main stage, studio, and practice
amp, running into a 4x12 and a Laney 1x18 bass cabinet. I was initially attracted to this outstanding British amplifier by Laney's claim
of endless sustain, then by hearing Russ Ballard (of Argent) using one.
The Laney Klipp amplifier was available as an all-valve (with silicon rectifier) guitar head, in two versions; 60W and 100W. They had
identical pre-amp sections, and their power amps were taken from the Laney PA amplifiers of similar output. The 60W version used two
EL34 pentode valves in the output stage, and the 100W version used four. The preamp was a two-channel design, with two inputs to
each channel, and comprised four ECC83 (equivalent to the 12AX7) dual-triode valves. One valve was the input amp for the two
channels (one section each), one served as a mixer and cathode-follower (one section for each function), one was configured as a
floating paraphase phase splitter (which requires two triode sections), and the remaining valve formed the basis of the "Klipp" circuit.
This was actually a very clever bit of design centred around what was fundamentally a very simple concept. The Klipp channel, after
initial amplification, fed the first half of the Klipp valve. This was arranged as a straightforward voltage amplifier, but its anode load
provided the anode voltage of the second section, and its grid was DC-coupled to the grid of the second section, via a voltage divider
from the commoned cathodes to circuit earth. Careful choice of component values meant that the Klipp control could be adjusted to
provide virtually infinite sustain without the harsh sound normally associated with feedback. Each channel had its own volume control
(with a "bright" switch) feeding a common three-band tone stack of orthodox design, which had an output for a slave amp. The power
amplifier was a standard push-pull design, not ultra-linear, with fixed biasing, and the power supply was simple and robust with the
valve heaters fed straight from a centre-tapped winding on the mains transformer, bias voltage taken (on the 100W version) from a -70V
winding (dropped to -53V through a silicon diode), and HT coming from a bridge of four series pairs of silicon rectifiers (just four on the
60W version), a bank of huge smoothing capacitors, and a 20H choke.
With the bass control set to zero, the middle at half-way, and treble, presence and Klipp on full, the amp delivers a snarl that can
blister paint at forty paces, yet with more sensible adjustments gives a rounded, mellow tone reminiscent of Carlos Santana. I added
foot-switchable channel selection to my amp, along with the ability to select zero, half, or full positions on the Klipp control, and half or
full on the treble and presence. If you want details of this modification, which can be adapted to any other amplifier, e-mail me.

It is all tube 100W head made in 1970, Partridge transformers,
4 channels: clean low + high, klipp channel low + high.Klipp feature is a lamp distortion. No channel switching, no effect loop, no headphone jack, no reverb.It has outpu for slave amp.

I use it with Gibson Les Paul Custom, very good clean and the best tube distortion i ever heard-very good Black Sabbath sound. With less gain on klipp channel you can get Carlos Santana sound. It's no noisy at all. With klipp on full, trebble on full, bass and midds on 0 you can get very huge and brutal distortion (my Marshal jcm600 sounds like a bee in comparison with Laney.I play punk-rock,alternative,rock,some metal-Iron Maiden and it suits all styles very well. Never ending sustain.

30 years old,in mint condition, I only have to change lamps and capacitors - first time in 30 years.I can depend on it.

I have been playing for 15 years. I owned Feneder Vibrolux,Twin,Super Reverb,Hot Rod De Luxe,Kettners,Marshalls...I would certainly try to get another one it it were stolen, but this heads are very rare.I compare it with Fenders,Marshalls jcm600,900.Clean is as good as Fender's, distortion is much better then Marshall's. It's a professional piece of gear.