Laney LC15

Thats very simple all-tube amp. It has one channel, no footswitch, no FX loop, no reverb, no external cab output, speaker wired just with a cable, no speaker socket! Its some older unit. It has no grill to secure the speaker and valves. There are some pros though. It has Celestion Tube onboard and TAD tubes. The third tube in preamp is no-name. I suppose it was there since the amp left factory. The amp has line-out taken from output transformer.

I use it with Epi LP, humbuckers. It produces mostly dirty sound, there are is no crystal clean channel. Gain knob lets you make overdriven sound, very high gain. Unfortunetly it was something wrong with my output transformer. Those overdriven sounds were very sharp, they did hurt my ears. Thats why I give it only 5. RECENTLY I upgraded output transformer and now I have cool natural overdrive. If it was stock transformer, I'd give it 9 or 10... But the stock was really cheap. So I give only 5.

Output trafo is rubbish! After I replaced it, I think the amp is reliable. After trafo replacement, I could give it 7 points in this category. It has a big con. All the heat from tubes goes to chassis. Its dangerous because after few hours even the front panel is very warm :(

no experience

I love it since I've changed the trafo.

very simple valve amp... volume, treble, mid, bass and gain controls... and a bright switch (wahoo).
2 inputs hi and low... in all not particularly versatile

it can reach pretty high volumes (i've never pushed it right up) so not bad for small gigs, but mine hasn't often left my bedroom due to the lack of features (and my lack of effects pedals to sort it)

this thing seems to work best with humbucking pickups on a higher gain setting and is great for that fat classic rock tone, thanks to those valves in the back. the unit would however benefit form a reverb control, i play mainly a sort of rock/blues mixture (SRV/Hendrix style) so it would be nice, i've recently found out that the model up from this one has a reverb control, for an extra ??30!

seems to have a problem handling nice clean tones though
especially not good with fender style single coil pickups playing through it... which can sound sharp and occasionally brittle... as i've mentioned a good few effects pedals would help improve the amp a great deal.. but i don't have enough pocket money for that =[

i'm going to give this amp a 9 for reliability, i feel like i've been quite harsh so far... and this thing has never let me down performance wise, i've had it for over 2 years now and it seems to be built pretty well. the only problem could be the valves... i've always thought they look quite fragile and they wouldn't be easy to replace on the night of a gig (but hey valve amps are the way forwards)

i may have been a little harsh reviewing this amp, because i probably haven't experienced it's full potential without effects... but if you've got a fully loaded pedal board then it could work really nicely as a small gig/practice amp.

i personally found the tone on it's own to be a bit brittle when using a guitar with single coils but when you ramp up the gain a bit and plug in a les paul, you can get some really great beefy sounds... restricted... but great

Features for this amp are pretty nill
2 inputs, gain, bright switch (killer with germanium fuzz pedals!! Use this switch its like a presence booster!!), low, mid, treb, master volume..

..that being said I like simple amps becuase I like to use effects to get my tones, being a effect designer I have access to any sound I want in that department..

This amp can be unbeileiveable and I am going to tell you exactly what I did to make it killer...goto the "Sound quality" section for this info..

Ok to make this amp simpley OWN!!9 after mod 8 before..great for studio home use...great entry level tube amp and awesome unit if you ditch the enclosure!
Step 1)
Take the chasis out of the unit and put it in a enclosure that will handle at least a 12" speaker (this is a optional but its what I did)
I used a old standel 15" speaker combo enclosure that was from the 60's or 70's.. I stripped out the old chasis and put a new wood frame in it to except a 12" speaker.. I then ordered a HH invader speaker off ebay..I got 2 for 40$ !!!! These speakers people talk shit about but if you use them with low watt amps and break them in they are just as good as any 100-150$ speaker trust me..I have 1000's! in gear and speakers and build effects pedals for a living these speakers are not as bad as people say they just dont know how to use them whish is true with most gear that people flame...at any rate
Step 2)
Replace the power amp tubes with 7189's these are the EL84's that they used in the 60's so you have to find NOS ones or used ones..they are easy to find on ebay and are not to pricey. I recomend these old school EL84's in place of any EL84 for a warm beautiful clean tone..they also sound great overdriven but since this is a classA/B amp the preamp tubes make more of a difference in tone for these I used EH tubes but you can use whatever suits you
Step 3)Put protetive covering on the circuit board..Because you are putting this amp in a new enclosure if anything touches the board while it is on it will short and you will be spending 175 to fix it if you arent electricaly inclined I used buisness card stock and clear packing tape and it worked awesome as a anti-short shield.. I will post pictures of all mods soon.
The result was a amazing sounding amp with a loud clear clean side with tones of head room.. a blistering lead sound when the gain is cranked and this baby with do everything but the metal chunk thrash sound.. which it can easily get with pedals.. I also use the line out of this amp to go my 5watt modified class A Valve JUnior but thats another review..

Has treated me very well has very nice Transformers on my model!!
New models come with a ceramic 8" speaker I think but ditch the speaker and enclosure and use a 12" speaker for this baby!!

newver dealt with them

Over all nice tones for the money...amazing entry level amp I highly recomend this to anyone starting off on there tube journies.. You cant go wrong with this..and if you are machanicly inclined can mod this into a professional peice of gear!

This is an update to a previous review after having contacted Laney

I called Laney up, which if you try and get their number from a website is nigh-on impossible, but if you contact the dealer your purchased your amp from they'll more than likely be happy to put you in touch.

The person I spoke to was very helpful and gave me all the information I needed. Had a good long chat about the finer points of output tubes, and he helped me solve the problems I had and recommended good output tubes.

It's a shame that they're so hard to get in touch with initially, but all you have to do is ask your dealer, or any for that matter, and they'll put you in touch.

I reached them on 01215-086-666, start with +44 if you're calling from outside the UK. Top guys to talk to.

this is a fairly new combo. not sure exactly as i bought it used. i play all kinds of music as a semi-pro player. single channel but with quick knob turnings can be nice and clean to nice and dirty. oh yeah it's tube. 3x12ax7 and 2xel84. no reverb or extension speaker or fx loop. the lc15r has those. it has all ineed for features. i lean towards single channel amps with simple functions. it does have a bright switch which i don't use. otherwise gain bass mid treble and volume knobs. it does have a line out which is useful. i use it for practice, recording and a live project where my sovtek mig 100h is too much.

i use ahumbucker equipped guitar and a p-90 guitar and get excellent results from both. i'm building a tele and i can't wait to hear it as i'm sure it'll be stirling. it sounds killer with all my styles although i do have a wasabi over drive to boost for more heaviness.i have little buzz going on at some frequencies especially on higher gain settings so i took it apart and tightened everything up but the buzz remained and now i'm sure it's one or both of the power tubes. i bought another pair to see if that helps. other wise no real noise even at high gain with the p-90's. on it's own with knob tweaking there is quite a range of tones and with my setup,guitar into wasabi od-snarling dogs blues bawl-small stone phase shifter-boss delay machine 100 into amp i have a really versatile sound setup. clean setting has quite abit of headroom and the bright switch can get quite bright. the distortion settings have quite a range from crunchy to quite saturated. not metal or numetal tho but i really don't go there. great for hard rock though and this little fellow can get really loud.

don't know about that. simple circuit. easy fix.

even though it was used laney answered my emails right away and sent me a manual. laney dealer where i live. no warranty of course but laney is really approachable.

i've been playing for years and years and years. i've owned alot of stuff including some digital modelling stuff. amps and fx. now i am simplified and i think my tone is the best ever. i love it's tones and portability and simplicity. i was leery of el84's as i had a peavey delta blues and a peavey classic 50 but was never happy with the tones.this amp is different tho. i guess i'd have to say it's more of a british tone than the peaveys which suits me better

This amp is so new that it wasn't finished when I ordered it (March 2005).

It's got gain, bass, middle, treble and master volume controls, high and low inputs, a line out, and a 10" version of the Celestion V30. It runs on two EL84s and 3 ECC83s. There's also a nifty lil bright switch on there, good package.

It's a single channel amp as you probably know and works well for anything that uses a sound anywhere between jazzy cleans to hard rock drive.

It has a point off for no standby, and a couple off for chasis design (more on this later).

I'm currently using an SG with PAF style humbuckers. I'm quite eclectic in what I play, but this amp works well for jazz, blues, rock, funk, reggae, surf(with reverb added externally), metal would need a pedal to drive it, but it snarls nicely on its own.

There's some background noise, but it's a valve amp and my bedroom is an EMI nightmare, what you gonna do? You can hear hiss at the start of "Voodoo Chile slight return" on Electric Ladyland, you can hear a phone ringing in "20th Century Boy" by T-Rex, so I think I can handle a tincy bit of background noise that's only audible in moments of silence.

I can get a variety of sounds, I got a pretty good woman tone out of it, somehow dragged Angus Young out of there, and I got this fantastic sound like Link Wray had on "Rumble", that was almost exact. Between the different controls and your pick attack you can get a lot of sounds.

The amp is more versatile than it's single channel nature would suggest, if you set it right you can go from sparkling clean to rock & roll grind just by digging in harder with the pick.

The sound is slightly boxy and stiff, but this is down to the speaker needing to be broken in, and the Celestion speaker is a fantastic improvement. I was willing to pay money for this with the HH Invader in it, but my one with a Celestion beats that hands down before I've even broken it in.

Well, I've not had it long, but as with all valve amps some things are bound to go wrong, prehaps moreso because the design of this amp though.

The EL84s have a pointy bit to dissipate heat, heat rises. So what do Laney do? They mount the EL84s upside down so not only is the pointy bit no longer doing anything but the heat rises up into the chasis and into the PCB which the valves are mounted on. Not very smart, but since it was cheap (like the budgie) I won't moan on and on about it.

I won't rate this section since it would be unfair to, but there is an inherant design flaw in how the heat is dissipated and this could lead to reliablity issues. Aside from that, it's quite sturdy.

No idea, never tried them. But their website's shit. There is absolutely no way for me to find out how to contact them through it, in fact, there is no direct link between Laney and the musician buying their product which I find a bit worrying.

Flying Pig Music on the other hand were very helpful in tracking down where the hell my amp had gotten to (apparently Laney were waiting for bloody handles!) and happily answered all my stupid questions. Top fellas. Since that good support was Flying Pig and not Laney however, I will keep the rating neutral.

I've been playing for 3 or 4 years now, my other gear consists of an SG, half a telecaster (work in progress), a Korg AX-1500G(cheap & cheerful multi-FX) and rather a lot of planet waves cable (it lives forever...apparently.)

I love that Laney created a cheap valve amp with an excellent tone. If this amp caught more publicity Marshall would never sell one of their "budget" amps again. I hate the silly design flaw in it though. Silly, silly flaw...

I tried several other amps before settling on this. The Peavey Classic 30 was a good amp, but more bits than I needed and was a bit loud to be useable at home. I tried a Line 6, good for what it is, but sounded artificial when trying to replicate valve tone (if you want valve tone, buy valve amps, it's not rocket science). And I tried the other version of this which is the Laney LC-15R. It was essentially the same amp, but with the addition of a speaker out, FX loop and reverb. Had the reverb been valve, not SS and the FX loop been absent I'd have gone for it, but I don't want a valve amp with non-valve parts in the circuit and an FX loop I'd never use.

I think if Laney redesigned the cab, they'd solve all it's short comings in one go. If they mounted the chasis to the "back wall" of the cab like on a Vox AC-30 the valves being horizontal would have a far greater top surfce area and no chasis above them which would vastly improve ventilation.The front would have no panel on, and the controls would be more accessable from when you're standing over it. When I thought this was going to come with an HH speaker I planned on making a cab like this and upgrading to a 12" speaker. The change in spec has made me reconsider this though, but it'd be a cool project anyhow.

In conclusion: Laney have made good valve tone accessible to the gigging musician on a budget. Good tone does not cost the Earth when you no where to look and don't need it to say "Vox" or "Marshall" on the front. If Laney had designed this thing how I said, it'd be an 11.

For a small combo, I give it a higher rating because of the addition of the master volume knob. 3 band eq is nice, but I don't think the eq is as versatile as I'd like it to be. Cuts and boosts are not as dramatic as in other small tube amps I've owned (including a few Fenders and an Orange). The presence boost button is good if you're playing at low volumes.

I'm playing a Fender Nashville Tele modded with a Seymour Duncan 59 mini-humbucker in the middle position. No pedals.

Let me say from the start that I love this amp. I found the stock sovtek tubes a little bland, so I replaced the 12ax7's with JJ Tesla tubes and heard a huge improvement. Cranked gain is now more dynamic and harmonically rich. Even at lower volumes, there is still a nice warmth and some tube compression. I rarely play without some tube overdrive, but clean, this amp does fine - maybe it's not as woody as an AC15, but it reminds me of that. Having the gain around 5 or 6 is what I like best. Later today I am going to replace the Sovtek el34's with a pair of Svetlana tubes. I actually like the stock HH speaker, though it can be a bit too mid-rangey. The bass is somewhat spongey, but it's not a bad speaker. I've tried a Jensen MOD speaker in it, and while that speaker is nice for clean stuff, it sounds absolutely horrible when overdriven.
My rating is based simply on sound - not on price-performance.

Never had a problem with any modern Laney amp I've owned, though an old AOR 30 watt combo eventually died on me.

I've thought about selling this amp and getting something more boutique, but every time I do, I go home and play it and realize that I love the LC15. I've owned other amps - some boutique - and this one is right up there with the rest. As a studio amp, you can't go wrong, especially considering the price.

I bought this new in around '97.
I bought it for home/practice. It sounds better if you turn up the volume and get the el84's working a bit. Its really a bit too loud for home use at higher volume settings. It came with chinese 12AX7's and russian EL84's. I liked the chinese tubes in this amp.

I used it mainly with a strat.
The amp has nice cleans and good overdriven sounds. Has that tube warmth too.
It has lots of gain, enough for whatever style you like, I think.

I gave this a 10 because I have never had a problem with it.
I don't use this for gigs, but if I were to, I would take along a backup. This amp seems to be cheaply made, with the tube sockets mounted directly on the PCB.
I have never really looked after this amp, because it was very cheap. (easy come, easy go) It has had a rough life and plenty of use, and its always worked fine. 10/10 for that.

N/A~never had to contact customer support.

This gets a 9/10 for being a cheap tube amp with 'proper' tube tone.
The best value for money amp I ever bought.

I bought this little amp used early 2004 from a college kid in TN without seeing and listening to it first. I believe it is an early model, according to Laney's tech support, probably made in mid/late 90s. This amp has a single channel, 15W tube power, regular EQ (bass/mid/high), two inputs (hi/low), bright switch, line out and a 10" internal HH invader speaker.

This is absolutely my main amp, I am using it regularly at club gigs, our band plays blues and west coast swing. The features of the amp suit me 100%, it is well powerful enough even for larger venues too.

Nothing is perfect -- the internal 10" speaker in an open back cab does not project those low frequencies from 11 or 12 gauge strings I use so I needed to built into the box two external speaker connetors: One that activates just an external speaker cab and another one that uses both the internal and external ones in series. At gigs I mainly use the amp with just an external closed back cab with 12" Celestion 70/80, cab made by Traynor in Canada. And, by the way, having two 8 ohm speakers in series DOES NOT DROP VOLUME INTO HALF!

Two ideas for Laney to lower manufacturing costs: Remove the Bright switch and the Low input Jack.

I use this amp mainly with semihollow and hollow body blues/jazz boxes with humbuckers (neck pu only) strung with 11s or 12s, typically with wound 3rd. The amp is not noisy at all, the sound is great (through external cab), tubes respond exactly the the way they should -- play harder and you'll get more sweet bluesy distortion. Keep front end gain low and power tubes hot, you'll get absolutely a great sound for blues & jazz that your audience will thank you for after the set!!

Have had the amp just over 6 months, bought used. I play it upside down, thanks to the info on this site. So far everything is OK with original (5 yr or older) tubes. However, the previous owner had played the amp in "correct position" and tubes are now really GLUED to the clips and sockets with hot glue from the main circuit board holding the caps etc. According to Laney, I can use a sharp knife to remove the glue for being able to remove and replace tubes.

Chassis, speaker, connectors, cables etc. perfect!

So far so good.

No longer under warranty -- I emailed to Laney support in the UK once for some technical advice -- received reply immediately. Great service. However, I do not know if they have a distributor with service in the US. However, due to fast response, my rating reflects to it.

Played for a long time (decades) -- and, as said this is my main amp now. I love it and it has more power and features than any true guitarist playing blues or swing ever needs. If you happen to use effect pedals you may want to look for something else -- this is a pure blues machine.

This is an update to my review just below.

I added the Jensen C10Q speaker and it is a HUGE improvement. much more clarity and control. also, a good way to run the amp is with the volume up pretty high (past half-way), then start with the gain all the way off and slowly bring it up to the desired level. roll back your volume knob a little too.

still going strong except for the input jacks. they are working but not very well. need to get them replaced.fixed soon.

Not much in the feature dept. one channel. HI and LO inputs, knobs for gain, low, mid, hi, and volume. bright switch, and a line out for recording. i'd say its best feature is the tone this beast can create, but we'll get to that later. 15 all tube watts, more than enough power for me. i use it at home only.

Using a Fat Telecaster (humbucker neck). i changed the stock tubes to JJ's from Bob at www.eurotubes.com and it made a world of difference. i also have a Jensen C10Q 10" speaker on way to replace the stock piece of shit, i think it is called "the invader". Suits my blues/rock style just fine. This little beast is what i wish my old Peavey Classic 30 could have been. Tone, tone, tone... i am hesitant to even buy a fuzz/distortion stomp box because this amp has the best range and quality of distortion i have ever witnessed. goes from pretty clean to raunchy dirty (not hi-gain nu-metal sounds, go somewhere else for that shit.) can do early zeppelin easily. kind of noisy when the gain knob is turned up but it could be the single coil pickup on my tele since i haven't shielded it yet. basically, this is a poor man's Orange amp.

here in lies the problem. i heard all the tales of overheating, so i picked up a little 6" clip-on fan and it has worked wonders keeping this baby cool. i have heard if you turn the amp upside and play it, that will help keep the heat off the goods if you dont have a fan. ALSO, the input jacks for HI and LO do not work properly. i have to plug in, then pull the cable out of the HI jack just a little for it to work. and the LO jack doesn't work at all.

haven't used this yet but i probably will end up taking it in to get those jacks fixed.

i wish i would have known about this amp before i went and spent $$$ on a Peavey Classic 30 and upgraded the hell out of it. this is THE amp for practice/recording or small gigs. highly recommended.

Mine was made in 2004. This all-valve 15 watt combo has 1 channel, two inputs, a gain control, 3 way passive EQ, a volume control and a bright switch. Also features a line out which I never tried. It has a 10 inch Celestion Tube 10 driver built in. The cabinet is made of 1/2 inch ply I think, and is quite small. The tubes used are 2x Ruby Tubes ECC83, an unlabeled ECC83, and 2x Sovtek EL84.

This amp isn't really versatile (like say a modeling amp), but it has some tones which are really good. It resembles me of a VOX AC15 when run clean, and a Plexi from the 70's era when the power valves are driven hard.

I only use it for practicing, but always crank it up.

I use an Ibanez GSA60 (HSS) directly plugged into it. I also tried an Epiphone LP. I mainly use the bridge pickup, which sounds more lively on the Ibanez.
I play mersey beat (Beatles, and some Hungarian bands you don't know I guess), classic rock (AC/DC, Hendrix), and also like playing blues.
I think this amp is very suitable for these styles. I always turn up the master to full, and play with the preamp volume to get the power amp overdriven.
I'm simply in love with the middley, and treblish (chimey) clean sounds. It's like a VOX. When pushed a little bit into clipping, it produces a well defined, pleasing overdriven tone which I like too.
The overdriven sounds aren't fair though. Preamp distortion is OK, but you have to keep the bass on 0, or it gets really bassy. When the treble knob is turned past 1-2, and the distortion is beyond 7-8 you can hear a very harsh trebly sound like a crisping paper bag.
Unfortunately you can't get a dynamic overdrive with preamp distortion, so you have to crank the master up. In this case the EQ is also very inresponsive, and above all you don't have enough clean preamp headroom to 'cean boost' your power valves. The power amp has to be pushed really hard to get good (I mean infinite) sustain, but in that case it lacks middle frequencies. At least it is really responsive, and compresses well.
One more thing. The speaker has a 11oz ceramic magnet. It's bad. It has too much bite, and when driven hard it goes muddy and harsh, it becomes very agressive at pick attack.

The amp is barebly loud when crancked, but much above bedroom levels.

Even though there are several throwbacks of this amp, I find the circuit design basically good, so tweaking it a bit might sophisticate the sound a lot. I am gonna try the following modifications in two weeks:
-gonna change the preamp tubes to JJ/Tesla ECC83, the phase splitter to ECC81.
-change the power tubes to Sovtek EL84M, or NOS Tungsram EL84s.
-change the voltage divider before V2a tube to 1:3 ratio (which will present more gain, but I will then be able to 'clean boost' the power amp.
-make an 1x12 pine speaker cab with an Eminence Red Fang speaker (a replica for the Celestion Alnico Blue).

After all this is done I post a Sound Quality Rating too.

I haven't owned it for so long yet (about 6 months), but it seems to be reliable. Quite hot, but never broke down, even when playing at full volume for hours.

Haven't dealt with Laney yet. And after the mods I not likely to do so too:)

I've been playing for 4 years. I owned a solid state amp. This sounds heaven compared to that.
If it was stolen I would finish my homemade amp:) Or I would buy another one, it's well worth the price.
Overally it's quite good, I LOVE the clean sound. I also wrote about my dislikes.
I tried several other amps too in the studio I play (Laney TF350, Laney Klipp, Fender Princeton, Marshall Valvestate), and it sounds quite OK compared to them, without the features. I choose this one because it was the cheapest all-valve combo I could find.

I submitted an earlier LC15 review on 03/28/1997 (scroll down to find it). I thought I'd add a fresh set of comments based on the more recent reviews.

See 03/28/1997 review

Alot of people seem to have been having reliability problems with this amp. For what it's worth I have two of them, both bought 1997. I use one at a time for practice (most days an hour or so)and both for playing live via a splitter box. I've averaged 60-70 gigs a year since 1997 - not major venues (apart from the largest folk music festival in Europe) but local halls, clubs, pubs etc. Live I set the master on each amp to over 7 (it needs to be this high to get good power amp overdrive and compression with input gains between 3 and 5.

One amp is fitted with JAN Phillips valves throughout, the other with Phillips in the preamp with its power amp retaining the stock Sovteks.

I have had no reliability problems whatsoever. Each amp has required one revalving of the power stage (and I guess I'll need to redo the reamps before too long). For a valve amp in regular use for 7 years that's not bad at all. Other than that one pot's had a dose of cleaner and I can't remember needing to do anything else other than re-gluing a bit of the cover on one and replacing a damaged power lead (it got trapped between bits of staging - no lead would have survived - luckily the amp was off when it happened).

The valve bases on both my amps are not plastic - they are good quality ceramic components. The PCB around them is a little darkened by the heat from the EL84s but is in no way damaged. The speakers are still fine.

One thought - this is a Class A power amp (not A/B) and they do run hot, so decent ventilation around the amp is a good idea. If you revalve the poweramp you *must* rebias to avoid all kinds of problems. The bias voltage is -11.5V cathode-ground (according to Laney technicians) and the bias pot is easy to spot on the PCB.

I've always found Laney very helpful, though I used to work a couple of miles down the road from them and I live about 15 miles away so contacting them is no problem (the company name is BLT Electronics by the way). Last year we took an ancient (mid 80s) PA head in for repair (buzzing a bit - new capacitors needed). They stripped it, ran all the boards through their quality control system as used on new amps, replaced the faulty board, decided to replace 2 pots they considered marginal, replaced the cooling fan which had been noisy for a while, cleaned everything, reassembled and tested as per a new product. Total cost was about 50UKP and took under a week. Not bad at all.

Years ago Laney fitted into many people's "it ain't very good but at least it's cheap" category. Over the last few years they've done much better than their previous reputation would lead you to expect. The valve guitar amps introduced in the 90s played a very large role in this.

See 03/28/1997 review.

#160 bought new 2003. one channel, bass, middle and treble controls, bright switch, hi and low input,the stock speaker is a celestion V10 silver series. sometimes i wish i had got the reverb version, but to be honest it sounds so sweet that i don't really miss it now. a headphone socket would be nice as i often get the urge to play late at night and have two young children. by the way i think that the amp is really nice looking, particularly like the mini chicken-head control knobs. play a bit of everything,veering towards rock, probably use 50/50 clean to dirty sounds.i use the amp at home and to be honest it's almost too loud for what i need. i can only really crank up it when the girlfriend/kids/neighbours are all out.

i play a brian moore mc1 composite, one piece neck/body, H/S/H, this guitar has a wide range sounds and they all sound good through the laney. because i generally don't play it very loud i can get a sound which is nice and clean without any problems. as you start to wind the gain up things start to get bluesey, then everything starts to get nice and crunchy and by the time you've got the gain at full, there's more than i would normally ever want. it is a little noisy when cranked up but as soon as you're playing all you hear is that rich valve tone. i've had only had transistor amps in the past and the laney has been a revelation to me. my guitar being composite and hollow it quite bright so i don't tend to use the bright switch too often. sometimes i'll plug into the low imput as my SD pickups are very hot and sometimes it can be a bit much in a small room. only effects i use through it are a marshall guv'nor distortion, dunlop wah and boss chorus. i got given the guv'nor just before i bought the amp and to be honest hardly use it, the amp just doesn't need it and i don't like to muddle it's sound. my wah-wah sounds lovely through it especially clean. this amp has all the sounds i need.

i've read all the reviews here and know about the poorly mounted valves and heat issues i've had it for eight months and it has worked perfectly, however it has only been out of my house a couple of times. my kids have knocked it over a few times. i guess i would'nt trust it if i was a working musician. it does run very hot. but then again it is primarily a practise amp, so it was probably not designed with prolongued periods of full volume/gain levelsin mind

n/a

been playing for 18 years, had an early japanese squire strat for years which i played through a small vox then a 50w peavey. just sold the peavey and strat to buy the laney and my beautiful simon and patrick accoustic. if it got nicked i'd be well pissed off and buy another, probably with the reverb, maybe. i love it's crunchy overdrive and the fact that it's nice and compact but packs a serious punch. i tried a few other amps vox, crate, marshall, peavey, but for me the laney stood out a mile in terms of tone, plus i like to buy british. i nearly bought the little vox with one valve and 8" bulldog speaker. but they're now manufactured a million miles away and it didn't sound half as good as the laney. i love it. it could be better in terms of finish and manufacture(vavle mounting and retainers) but then you couln't buy it for so little money. a class A valve amp for 160 quid is a serious bargain especially when it sounds this good.

Just your basic features here, nothing special. All tube, single channel, hi and lo inputs, gain, lo, mid, hi, and master. There's a line output jack that is taken off the speaker output so it's a true line out vs. a preamp out jack as found on many other small tube combos... The amp isn't incredibly versatile, but it is very good at what it does, so long as you've got the right tubes in it. It has plenty of power to cut through in small club and rehearsal settings. Of course, you can always utilize the line out and slave another amp onto it or mic it if you need more volume. Small amps have never presented much of a limitation to me...

Okay, here's the deal. The stock speaker is pathetic--think pure mississippi swamp goo here... I exchanged the stock 10 incher for an 8 inch speaker I had lying around (I built a new baffle for it). That improved the tone greatly in itself. I also swapped out the 12AX7 in the phase splitter position for a 12AT7 (a tube with moderately less gain than the 12AX7). I tried a 7247 NOS in the first tube position, and it sounded great, but was microphonic so the stock tube got put back in. I plan on trying a 12DW7 in that spot (that's a tube that is like a 12AX7 in the first triode, more like a 12AU7 in the second one). The reason for all the changes is that the amp's stock distortion was kind of splatty. I surmised that there was just too much gain getting back to the power tubes and swapped out some tubes to compensate. I still haven't replaced the Sovtek EL84s, but plan on dropping some JJs in soon (along with the 12DW7). In it's stock condition, the master began to break up at around 3 and the gain would just push it too far too soon. With the tube changes I can run both channels on around 5-7 and get a nice early breakup, AC-15 type sound. engage the bright switch and you've got the top boost thing going on...very cool. I use a MIM Fender Strat (with upgraded pickups) and it mates to the LC-15 very well. It's easy to get a bluesy grind going on, as well as a sparkly jangle on the lower gain settings. I play straight ahead songwritten rock (think Black Crowes) and this amp suits that style perfectly. It's not overly noisy when you get a decent tube in the first postition. There's not tons of headroom available, but c'mon man, it's only 15 watts...what do you expect. If you want tons of clean headroom get a Twin! If I'm recording and don't want the hiss, I will just jumper a 12V dome lamp (like you find in a car) across the speaker leads--a cheap noise reducer for all you DIYers out there. The stock sound gets a 5 while the modded sound gets an 8. More tube changeouts would probably increase this rating to a 9 (with 10 being reserved for the rare, vintage glory amp you wish you could afford).

This amp is only somewhat reliable. I've never had it completely kick the bucket on me, but I've had some annoying pops, whirrs, and intermittent power losses due to the tube sockets not making good contact. Contact cleaner helps, but doesn't completely alleviate the problem. I also worry about the board mounted tube sockets. I've owned other amps that had the tubes mounted in this way, but they were all heads, not combos, and the heat was allowed to dissipate and rise out of the circuitry instead of up into it. I wish more of the small amp manufacturers would use chassis-mounted sockets wired to the circuit boards...but that would drive the cost up and the volume of sales down...oh well, I'll cross my fingers...

Never had to deal with them so I don't know.

Overall, it's a fairly decent amp for the money. I have been playing for nearly 20 years and have dealt with a fairly advanced stage of G.A.S. for most of that time. I've had better amps, and I've definitely had worse. As with most cheap tube amps, there is need for plenty of little upgrades, but then again it goes with the territory (e.g. MIM strat and stock p'ups...) I would like to see chassis-mounted tube sockets at least on the power tubes--it would make me feel better. Also the tube retainers are kind of cheesy, but you can update those for yourself if you're so inclined. Overall not too bad.

This is an update on my previous review.
Very basic amp, absolutely no frills, one channel; one high and one low gain input; bass, middle, and treble controls; volume and gain controls witha bright switch and a line out jack. 3 12AX7 (ECC83) preamp tubes and 2 EL84 power tubes on a printed circuit board.

I recently purchased a strat with Rio Grande Halfbreed pickups and it sounds wonderful through this amp, though I may soon replace the HH speaker. My '59 Les Paul Standard doesn't sound that good using this amp as the pickups seem to be too hot and distorts very early on into the power span of this amp. This sucker is an extremely loud 15 watts and sounds even louder through a decent speaker cab loaded with a couple of 12" Celestion V30's. With the gain turned up this little booger turns into a nasty chainsaw that cuts through pretty well in a small club situation. Recently I've been experimenting using the Laney's line out jack into my '66 blackface Fender Band-Master with fairly pleasing results. The Laney makes the Band-Master break up pretty well and adds some sustain to that extremely clean Fender sound. I use an A-B switch to jump between the Fender set clean and the Laney driven Fender. It's almost like an overdrive pedal, but a little smoother. I also replaced the Sovtec EL84s with some JJs and the Chinese 12AX7s with some Electro Harmonix tubes and it smoothed out the harshness of the amp somewhat. I may try some lower gain tubes in the preamp at a later date as the amp developes much more gain than I find necessary.

This is where my problem with the Laney has been... it hasn't proven itself as a reliable amp. After sending it in to Laney twice to have an output transformer replaced with the amp not lasting more than a month between repairs, I relegated the beast to a nice place in my closet for several years. I finally dug it out and decided to repair it myself (it needed yet another output transformer), had a VERY difficult time locating a US distributor from which to order the part (no local dealers in my area anymore). Laney's website was absolutely no help in this matter and I finally found an address in a discussion group. After getting the part in and taking the thing apart I found out why I was having so much trouble. The circuit board and ALL the wired connections were rife with cold solder joints. There were also big globs of some kind of glue that had dripped down onto the board from the heat of the tubes that needed cleaning off. After spending considerable time cleaning up the mess and resoldering the bad connections, I installed the beast's third output transformer and put the thing back together. It has been working fine for the last 9 months, though had Laney's quality control been better, I wouldn't have rated the amp so low in this area. I'm giving it a 3 because of that. After I fixed it myself (though that souldn't have been necessary), I'd give it at least an 8 since it's been working for the last 9 months with no problems, no even a fuse that it used to eat regularly.

Another poor area for Laney... they'd love to sell you one, but they don't have much use for customer support it appears. Their east coast distributor was very helpful after I finally got an address and phone number to contact him, but getting that information wasn't as easy as it should have been. The warranty period was a year... I had the amp for about 2 months of that period and it was in Laney's shop for the other 10 months.

I have been playing for 35 years. My other gear is a '66 Fender Band-Master head with an Avatar cab loaded with Celestion V30's. I only hope the Laney is more reliable now, God knows that 38 year old Fender has been. If the Laney were stolen, I'm not sure I'd buy another. I'm having trouble developing much trust in it, though since I repaired it myself, it has worked flawlessly and really sounds good now. I would give it a better overall rating had I not had to fix all the sloppy work that Laney did on this amp.

Very basic amp... completely no-frills.

I've played for 30 years and use a '59 Les Paul Standard and mainly bouth this beast as a practice amp., however it was very loud.

This is where the problem begins... I had the amp for a short month and the output transformer went out. My dealer wasn't very helpful in repairing it and the beast had to be returned to Laney for service. They kept it for 5 months before they returned it and it lasted another 2 weeks before the same problem occured. Repeat of the prevouis scenario except it took only 4 months for Laney to return it this time and by this time the warranty period was out. A short month later it suffered another output tranformer failure and I gave up the ghost. I wouldn't consider gigging without a truckload of the bastards handy...

Absolutely none to speak of... Laney was a real pain in the ass to deal with and of course all the amp's problems were deemed my fault.

Sounded real nice the 3 months that I had it working, but I really wish someone would steal it so I could collect some insurance on it. A complete piece of crap!!

Hi/Lo input. Gain, Treb, Mid, Bass and Volume. All you need.
Cost me #149. Have changed the valves for Harmas from Watford Valves - brilliant company and excellent advice to help you choose the right valves to help get the sound you are after. Use it at home in the dining room. Bags of volume.

I use a USA 57 vintrage re-issue strat and a Boss GT5. This set up gives me everything I need from Hank Marvin through to Gilmour (clean and dirty), Santana, Gary Moore, Satriani and Jeff Beck type tones as well as my own sounds. Wish my playing could match the sounds. I love the amp and it flatters my playing. Sounds really good with wah wah. Tend to keep gain around 4 and volume maybe up to 5. Hurts my ears any louder! Nice and quiet providing I use noise gate to tame the effects.

Never let me down.

Been playing since 1973. Had a crappy Zenta, then a crappy none-trem 1974 Fender Strat and a Yamaha B212 100 watt combo. Had a strat plus in 89 which I never liked and a Peavey Bandit.
Wish I had an Ibanez Jem and a Univibe.

Basic but enough. Hi/Lo input. Gain, Treb, Mid, Bass and Volume. Line out at the back. What there is, does the job!

Bloody great right out of the box. I gig this amp. Have it as a monitor and mike it thru the PA. Just using a standard USA Strat and a JD Wah. That's it. Keep it simple. You need to crank it but that's why you've got it??? Can't beat a cranked class A amp! This one lets you keep your hearing too. I wind the volume full on then use the gain to control things. At gain 3 or 4 it's plenty driving for classic rock. Back the gain off and the volume and you can get some nice clean tones (not fender) but powerful, maybe a bit darker than a Fender amp (e.g. my Fender Rivera Concert 2x10). Overdrive sound is way way better than Fender and better than a TSL601 I tried for one night (then returned it...usual sounded good in the shop...) More like JTM 45 sounds.

Been OK so far. Just ordered some JJ's and Harmas from WatfordValves.com and keep the Sovs in reserve. Derek at watty vales reckons Sovs last 3 months with regular use (working!) and the Harmas (ref Brian May) about 8. Going to also try a different speaker (Jensen C10Q) but the stock HH package sounds excellent. Most people need to understand how hard this thing drives the power amp valves. The amp does get hot but blow a fan at it or allow air to get to it.

Never dealt with Laney. Their website is a bit pants but plenty of reviews of their gear else where. For once people in the UK get a good deal.

Been playing about 20 years and gigging 10. I've put this in as my main amp. Left my disto pedals behind and come home being able to hear!! Even our loud drummer can hear this thing (as I have it in a monitor/side fill situation pointing back at me and mike it up for out front).
You can't beat working valves!!
Excellent price (even new). It's tiny and weighs nothing (compared to a 2x12 combo or 4x12 + head etc etc). Buy two, think I will if I see another one.
Email me if you have any questions about this amp or other guitar stuff.

I bought my amp this year second-hand for #160.00.
My amp has been upgraded somewhat. The valves were replaced with harmas from watford valves. And the speaker was replaced with a fane 10" (as used by hi-watt) Also the valve holders have been replaced with a better heat conducting solution.
I mostly play metal and hard rock and find it is great for this.
It is of course valve and that makes one hell of a difference. the distortion is just lovely.
It only has 1 channel though, which isn't a problem with me because if i want a clean sound i'll just back of the volume on the guitar.

I use a gibson gothich explorer with original high output gibson pickups (which I love btw). It really suits my style well, it's clear, lovely harmonics beautifull tone.. exceptional.
It's VERY LOUD. do not be put off by the low ouput rating, I had an 80watt 2x12 amp (solid-state) and this blows it away for sheer power and volume).
I can't give an accurate description of the clean sounds because I havn't much need of a clean sound and have nothing to compare it to, but I think it's nice and does a job. Distortion wise, I think it's very very good. Even at low volumes (around 1 or 2) in the bedroom it still has a nice tone, but when you crank it.. oh boy !!
This is very versatile for distortion, can go from lovely warm bluesbreaker type overdrive to black sabbath fatness through to metallica type crunch. I love this amp !

I havn't had it long so can't really comment. It seems sturdy though, maybe there should be a standby switch to help the valves but i havn't had any problems.

Not had to deal with with as yet. Although I'm from the UK and know all about laney's great reputation for service and loyalty.

I have owened a laney linebacker, trace elliot supertramp twin, boss metal zone, od2 and various other pedals, gibson sg's, explorers, bc-rich warlock and a westbury double cutaway and a jackson kelly ke-1. I can say that this amp has been my best ever purchase, I just wish I bought before all the other stuff and I would have saved a fortune. Is this the best kept secret in the amp world?

I love the tone, I love the distortion, I love the volume, this is the perfect amp for me (except for maybe a low watt power duel rectifier with custom 2x12 cab) If i lost it or it got stolen, I would definitly without doubt get this one.. or maybe it's big brother for the other channel.

Single channel, 3 band EQ, LO and HI gain input, Gain and Volume control, Line-out. Simple and straightforward.

It's the model with Sovtek endtubes. The pre-amp 12AX7 tubes don't carry any identification.

I build a STBY switch in it immidiately.

Only a 7, because it's got all you need, except a STBY switch.

Just home practice rock-style. nice sound, suits me well.

It's not very noisy, but could be quiter. New 12AX7 of higher quality will fix that. But that's just to make it really perfect.

Have it for a week now, still going :-). Had a good look at the PCB and componenets. It seems very well build. Build to last so to speak.

Drilling holes in it and resoldering the wires makes warranty no longer an issue for me :-)

Playing for 2 years now, this is an excellent home Amp. I will never use the enormous soundpressure it can produce. Luckily it sounds excellent at low sound levels.

The Amp itself is a very good one, cooling holes at the back should allow the hot air from the tubes to flow outside. Not perfect (the PCB will get hot) but it should do. A STBY switch would be nice but is an easy job to do yourself, just put a proper (250 volt!!) switch in series with the HI Tension fuse).

A big (7mm) slot above the speaker panel makes you loose some soundquality due to "acoustic short". I filled it up with a bit of wood and you can hear the difference. A definetely advisable "upgrade" with more noticable effect than an expensive new speaker (this one is quite good).

The "wallpaper" finish really sucks and is going loose everywhere. Typical English ... build a very good thing and sr*w up the finishing touch.

Having fixed the little flaws this one is "not for sale". Anybody wants a nice Crate homepractise Amp???

I was actually looking for a cheap 15 Watt practise amp when I read an ad in which this baby was being sold (laney amp, new tubes...). I had tried out all amps I could afford and was about to settle for a Vox Pathfinder even though I didn't like the way it sounded. I thought that there just wasn't an amp sounding like I wanted it to for the price I could pay. Oh boy, was I wrong...
I visited the Laney website to check its features which are few. Pots for gain, bass, mids, treble and volume. And a bright switch. No reverb or anything. Still curious I went to this guy and gave it a try. It took me about 20 seconds to decide that this was THE amp.

I rate it a 7 because I kinda miss the reverb and maybe an FX loop.

I play it with an Epi Les Paul and a Squier Bullet (80's and sounding a whole lot better than the crap they make now).The sound of this amp really surprised me. It sounds very sweet clean and with the gain at 3 o'clock it tears off my wallpaper. Most of the time the gain is at 11 o'clock and then it gives me a nice warm blues sound. This was the sound I've been looking for for a long time.
I tried a tubescreamer for more gain at lower volume settings but that sounded really disappointing. It worked perfectly on my old amp but that was no tube amp. The speaker on this Laney sounds good enough.
The amp sounds very big, much bigger than it looks. It is louder than any other 15 Watt amp I tested which all were solid states. Actually it is louder than I wanted it to be, but when an amp sounds as good as this one does, let it be loud...

Don't know yet.

Don't know

I've been playing for about 18 years now. I was never really serious until a few months ago. I'm not a good guitar player, but I know what sounds good and what does not. This amp sounds good. No, this amp sounds great!! Warm tones, perfect for the blues sound that I love. Over the years I gathered quite a collection of pedals which should have given me the tone I was looking for. All those endless hours of tweaking pedals and amp settings were a complete waste of time. I should have bought this amp years ago.
If it were lost I would buy one again in a second. After testing Vox, Marshall, Fender, Peavey, Ibanez and Crate I'm sure that I have the best sound my bucks could buy.

I'LL TRY AND MAKE THIS SHORT AND SWEET, SEEING AS THERE'S ALREADY A LOT OF REVIEWS.

Mine is an LC-15, no reverb. 1x10 combo. 3 12AX-7's, and 2 EL-84's. 15W.

Gain, Bright switch, Bass, Mid, Treble, Volume. High and low gain inputs. I use it as a practice amp, and this is all I need for that. It also has a line out that I use sometimes for bedroom recordings.

Not a whole lot of features, but plenty for my purposes.

I use a Gibson SG '61 Re-issue straight into this amp, and I only use it as a practice amp at home (low volumes). So you know what this amp is up against, my gigging amps are a 64' Vox AC-50 head (tube rectified) and an Orange OR-80 head (early 90's RI). I use them with matching Hiwatt 4x12's loaded with Fanes.

First off, this amp is pretty damn loud for 15W. Way louder than I expected it to be. The distortion is where this amp really shines. Sounds a lot like my JCM800, but a tad smoother when the Marshall can be raspy at times. I wish it had a little more midrange on tap. But then again, i'm sure part of that is due to the fact that I play it so damn quiet. A TAD more treble wouldn't hurt either, but again...with the volume on 1...

The clean is a little bit disappointing...not so much the clean tone that it's capable of. But i'm used to rolling back on a volume pedal for clean, or even my guitar's volume. The Laney won't clean up. To get a decent clean I have to use the low gain input with the gain almost all the way down. And even then, it breaks up early. I like the high gain for distortion, so i'm kinda stuck compromising. The clean is nice, not my Vox, but nice...

At any rate...i'm kinda being picky. For $185, this is a damn sweet sounding amp. I'm considering using it the next time I go into the studio. Considering the other amps I have to use (Vox, Orange, JCM800, Sovtek MIG100), I think that tells you where this amp stands. The speaker is a piece of junk. Plug it into a decent speaker and it turns into a new amp. I ordered a Weber Ceramic 10" for it that should be here soon.

Bottom line...great sounding amp for the money. Destroys the Peavey Classic 30 (which I also own), Fender Blues Jr, and any other small tube amp in it's price range. And heck, my Laney was half the price of those other ones.

Hasn't let me down yet...although it does get pretty hot. I found some glue on one of the pre-tubes that dripped down off the circuit board or something...so I guess it gets pretty hot after it's been on for a while. Points off because this makes me think twice about trusting it as a gigging amp ever.

never dealt with them.

Great tone for a great value. Sure, it's got some flaws. Tube sockets on the board, heat issues, crappy speaker. But, the components are good quality, the tone is great, and the price is amazing. I would definitely recommend one to a friend.

Looking for Marshall-like overdrive in a small package? Looking for a nice buttery EL-84 clean tone? This is probably your amp. For some reason, noone has really caught on to how good these amps are. I have a friend with an AOR50, and that amp sounds great too. Sooner or later people will catch on, and the prices will go through the roof...like what happened with Sovteks. But until then, i'm happy to have one of the best kept secrets in the tube amp world.

Buy new, 2002. from left to right on panel:
hi/lo inputs, gain, bright switch, bass, mid, treble, volume, reverb. no standby switch. 15W. 10 in HH Invader spkr. 3 pre amp tubes and 2 EL84s. speaker and line out, effect send/return. single channel. not the most versatile amp out there but good enough for me.

I use std start, stock PUs. play some rock and blues.
this is a sweet little monster. Most of the time I play in my bedroom and it sounds prettydecent. It definitely sounds better as I crank it up (so are most other tube amps) but bedroom level is not bad.
EQ is not as sensitive as I want it to be.
reverb is good, not noisy at all.
The distortion in this little amp is very good, can play any rock lead with no problem.
it is definitely a LOUD 15W amp. shouldn't have any problem if ur drummer is not super loud. again, 15W means u won't be deaf if u want to drive the power tubes hard.
one thing about the speaker. the amp can get a little muddy if bass is dialed up since the speaker can't really handle that much bass. replacing the speaker should fix this problem (I haven't done that yet, so can't comment).
btw, the bright switch is useful, gives u very a different (and good) tone.

only have it for 2 months... so far so good.
there were known problems with transformer in earlier models but are fixed in new ones. so watch out if u are buying it used, make sure the transformer is the good one (I don't know how to tell...). if u buy it new, I won't worry about its reliability.

have only deal with my local dealer (when ordering the amp). 3 yrs warranty.

before I bought my LC15R, my checklist is:
- tube amp! (C'mon, it is not a hype, tube amps really sound better)
- low watt (man, u know tube amps, most of them, sounds better when cranked)
- good tone (try before u buy!)
- effect loop and reverb
- size (this amp is small. ok, u only get a 10in speaker)
- $ (to me, this amp is very affordable)

channel switching 'was' one of the items on my list, but after I tried the amp in store, I just can't resist to buy it coz of the sweet tone.
in this price range/configurations, I think Blues Jr is another candidate. However, I am not impressed with its distorted tone at all and LC15R is a little bit more versitile.
spend some time on the knobs and you should get a lot of different good tones from this amp.

Pretty basic. Just 2 inputs, gain, 3 band eq, master volume and a line out which I had rewired as an external speaker socket coz
'line-out' sux. This one's got no reverb which is great coz that
means it doesn't have the solid state spring circuit in the signal
path, it's 100% tube!!

It only makes one sound and that sounds is oh so sweet! Man, this
little baby rocks and is loud enough to break your windows. It's
loud enough to keep up with a drum kit at rehersals or in a small
gig. It's great in the studio. But then I tried it it with a 4x12
at a gig plugged into the converted line out socket. HOLY SMOKE!!!
This little amp is awsome through a 4x12. People, if you have one
of these amps, get the line out changed to external speaker. You
won't be sorry! Some folks on the guitar forum suggested changing
the speaker to a Fane Hiwatt which has a big cast frame but I don't know where to get one of these. Maybe I'll put in jensen or a
celestion in instead. The HH speaker is a bit harsh just as well I
got my 4x12 or it would be a 9!!!!

Heard some horror stories about early versions and I've been told
to get the power tube bases changed to ceramic coz they can get
hot and melt the plastic ones fitted if cranked to the max, but
mines has been great. Maybe I'll get it done l8r.

Never used them. I hear its pretty bad in the US

This is a great little amp. If it was stolen, I'd definitely get another. It's portable and it rocks. Maybe it should come with a
better speaker the HH one sucks a bit. One great little amp.