Laney LC15R

Described fully elsewhere

Good but not great. The clean sound is really quite disappointing - through any speaker. It is definitely muddy compared with the clean channel on my Marshall 9001 pre-amp. The problem is the pre-amp section of the Laney which has clearly be designed to a very modest price point. Once you turn the gain up and let things get a little dirty it sounds like a valve amp going into overdrive. Very bluesy. Push too far and it just becomes a mess. So there is a sweet spot in terms of the gain control that merits a '9' but it all degenerates to about a '5' either side of this. I would agree with others that a better speaker (I swapped for a Celestion Vintage 10) does improve things but its not world changing experience. The stock speaker is perfectly OK

I can't relate to the problems others have had. I have used it long and hard with no problems. Dangling the valves upside down has got to a be a bad idea long term so I'll give it 9

N/A

For the money this is hard (if not impossible to beat) but spend more and you'll get a better clean sound very easily

My amp was bought used from a local band who was closing shop. Apparently the guitarist had the Laney modified and it now sports electro-harmonix tubes all the way through. Not sure which year this amp was made, but it does look beat. It has a nice mechanical reverb unit which does really sound great. The only thing I miss is a headphone out socket like my solid state amp, but I didn't buy this to play soft.

I replaced the speaker with a Jensen, and it did make quite a significant difference. The stock speaker will do, but the replacement is better. This amp is made to be played loud. Playing it soft, with low gain makes it sound no different from any solid state 15w amp. Crank up the gain and master volume and it sounds huge and awesome. Slowly crank up the gain, and it starts overdriving so sweetly till you hit max gain, and it is all out brutal distortion.

I've never had a problem with noise, it is quite silent. This amp is ideal for the stuff I play which is hard rock, blues rock, etc.

Not sure how the stock amp sounds, but the one I have is highly modified, I see a big fat box screwed on to the inside of the chassis which I am told by the previous owner, is a couple of transformers to drive the new electro harmonix tubes. The amp really is loud, and can do a small gig / pub session at a pinch.

Not had a problem with this one. Of course, like all tube amps the tubes need to be replaced when the time comes, so I am prepared for that.

Never contacted them. Anyway my amp is nothing like the stock laney, so the company will probably scratch their collective heads while they wonder what to do with me.

I was torn between this Laney, a Fender blues jr, and a used Marshall which was offered to me by a local musician. In the end I bought this with no regrets. The Fender blues jr is heavy shit at 31 lbs, this is almost 10 lbs lighter and delivers even better sound and tone and actually sounds louder than the fender. The marshall was way out of my price range.

I've been playing with this Laney for a while now and I like it more and more every day. I find myself using the bright switch only occasionally these days, as I'd rather hear the raw tones from the guitar.

It's got good features - everything i would ever use! Only 1 channel, but u can just turn down the volume on ure guitar and play clean, then turn up and hit hard for dirt. I actually use a switchablu volume pot in a foot pedal to clean things up so i have something to stomp on! huge range of tones, will do most things really well from blues to metal. jazz tones are merely passable. Reverb footswitch does'nt come with it but i made one mysulf out of a switch, a bit of wood and some metal plate for like 90p, so im not complaining!

I'm playing 2 modified strats, one with 2 P90s (!), both wired so i can have pickups in series for humbucker sounds, both with heavy-ish strings. Sounded absolutely amazing straight off the shelf, it was nearly as loud as my friends 50 watt Marshall combo and sounded sweet. great sustain on full gain without being hars, but the best are the breakup tones - this amp sings!

Er, well after about two months it blew up...! No smoke, just explosion noises from it when i played a note. Well to be absolutely fair it sounded like a grand piano falling down a very long flight of concrete stairs. it was still under warranty, so the dealer packed it off to Laney. It came back, but now it sounded like a massively amplified bumblebee was numming along to all the low notes. On the low e string below the5th fret the guitar tone disappears completely!. so back to Laney it went. They still have it 5 weeks later.

well i havent been charged anything, and they did fix the first problem, but they kind of broke something else and cant fix it. It's still under warranty (a year is normally long enough to thrash it to make sure anything weedy blows and is replaced) but i'm kinda worried that it's gonna keep dying on me.

Amazing value for the tone, would be the best amp ever if it didnt blow up. If it were stolen, i would probably get another one bcos its the cheapest all valve amp (with reverb) out there and it sounds sublime, and I reckon i was a bit unlucky eith the one ive got. The chances of 2 blowing up...!

It is a 2004 class A/B full valve guitar amplifier with one chanell, with master, reverb, gain controls + 3 band equalizer. It has 5 valves, and it has a Celestion Tube 10 speaker. And it has 2 inputs(Hi/Lo) and a bright switch.

Im playing a custom Stratocaster with one piece mahogany body and Kinmans Woodstock plus pickups, and this boy sings great! I was a little suspicious abaout the lowest price in the class, but I'm satisfied as much as a baby when she gets her new toy. The amp is very versitale, but for a single coiled guitar for some hi-gain sounds i reccomend you to get some overdrive/distortion effect, I'm using a Marshall DriveMaster trough it and I can get tones from blues to trash metal.

I have it for 6 months, no problems, no services. I'll probably install a standby switch.

Never had job with these guys, hope i won't ever.

A great amp. This is a really big suprise cause you can crank him up to get the valves sing!

See other reviews or the Laney website for full specs. Has everything I need except the channel switching, that's why the 9. For the price it's still unbeatable.

Features that I use:

Hi/Lo input -> Match the pickup and the desirable gain level nicely.

3 band eq -> Doesn't make big difference, just fine-tuning as needed

Footswitchable reverb -> I'm using reverb with medium setting so it's nice to be able to switch it off remotely for the funk riffs etc.

Volume & gain & size -> The best features! A tube amp small and quiet enough for the home usage, yet an amp with the real tube sound and power.

I have a strat with single coil pickups. The amp is used at home with relative low volumes without additional effects. It surely sounds like a tube amplifier and offers immediately nice clean or overdriven sounds without any messing. Reverb is surprisingly good with low and medium settings. I was prepared to buy a separate reverb pedal, but there's no need for that.

No experiences on this. For being a budget tube amp I would expect problems if it's not treated tenderly.

Don't know.

Been playing 20 years. I wanted a decent small Tube Guitar Amplifier for the home usage so I could just sit down and relax and play when there's a change to do it. I got one!

I considered of buying Flextone III, but I'm glad I didn't. Instead of playing I would have been tweaking the 32 amp models, 12 effect and 16 cabinet options it offers. With the 16 months old daughter there's no time for tweaking, cause there's hardly time for playing!

Silver anniversary edition (silver finish, telecaster style knobs)
single channel, reverb, efx loop, speaker ext, bright switch
15watt all tube, 10" HH speaker.

Using a gibson LP standard & parker fly. play rock, metal, pop, a little jazz. also use zoom gfx4 with it. sounds very warm and vibrant, sparkling clean to very crunchy. doesnt have quite enough gain for very heavy styles, but takes distortion devices well and warms them. very loud for 15w!
sounds better since tube change to GT EL84s.

reliable for a tube amp. never broken down, but amp chassis seems a little rattley at high volumes

not needed, but website has improved a lot recentley. (downloadable manuals etc.)

The features are pretty well described in the other reviews. Channel-switching would be helpful, but the right overdrive or distortion pedal could fill that void for gigs. It gets relatively loud, but haven't jammed with a drummer to know if it's really loud enough. The FX loop and reverb makes the LC15R a better choice than the LC15. I mainly use this for a practice amp and a little bit on home recording projects. The size, weight and tone make it nearly perfect. I have the stock speaker in my amp, but I could see where changing the speaker could be worthwile and give the tone even more definition.

I'm tempted to rate this high; the tube characteristics are undeniable. The amp has a very, very warm sound and can be driven easily through playing style alone to give it some edge or growl. Tweaking the gain and master volume will give different levels of overdrive between a real clean jazzy sound to blues to hard rock. Different pedals can be used to further define those characteristics or push it up to heavy metal sounds. The gain loses some clarity when turned up, especially at low volume. Turning up the master will clean it up, but I prefer not to play at loud volumes at home. I mainly play a Squier Telecaster and Les Paul Standard through this amp and get great sounds with both guitars. The bottom line is almost always being able to find a tone that just makes you want to play for long periods of time. The reverb is excellent and gives the sound much more depth.

The amp gets a little hot, but so far no problems over the last six months. It's a pretty basic, but solidly built amp. Modifications would be relatively easy for do-it-yourselfers.

N/A

Overall, it's a great practice amp. It's a real tube amp with real tube tone that shouldn't disappoint anyone except very discriminating players (but then they'd being buying big stacks and not little practice amps or maybe a high-priced boutique amp). The LC15R is very lightweight and portable, reasonably loud and very versatile. I played a Peavey Classic 30 which sounded somewhat brittle and a Peavey Delta Blues 2-10 which was very nice and very warm, but too big for my needs. I have a Tech 21 Trademark-10 which emulates the tube sound, but lacks the warmth and response that a real tube amp delivers. I also have an Electar Tube 10, which is okay for a low-budget tube amp, but it's not even close in sound quality or versatility to the Laney. I have also played through some different digital amp modelers and nothing beats the real thing. I bought the Laney used on Ebay based only on the reviews I've read and have not been disappointed. There are bigger Laney amps that would probably be great choices, but for a small, versatile practice amp, the LC15R is a killer. These are hard to find, but are definitely worth the effort.

Brand new, came with german power lead. One channel with hi and lo input and bright switch. Gain, bass, middle, treble, volume and reverb at the front, external speaker, line out, footswitch, effects out and effects in jacks at the back, 10" celestion speaker, open back combo. Wish it had a headphone jack socket.

I use it plugged into a closed back Traynor 2x12 vertical cabinet: I don't particularly like the Celestion tone as my ideal tone is British amp with American speakers. It's LOUD and very versatile. Great clarity even at high distortion, decent reverb (I don't know if it's any good as I normally use just a touch). With gain at 5, volume at 2, you get a good Malcolm Young tone, reverse the gain and volume and you get a reasonable SRV. Gain full on and with the neck pick-up you get Santana and early Black Sabbath. Not particularly noisy, unless I use my p90-equipped guitar in front of my computer monitor. The best amp I've owned so far (but then I normally buy at the low end...)

Seems sturdy... survived a few weeks playing with a single power tube (because i felt like experimenting!) Then, again, it's a tube amp, so it's not a good idea to drop it!

Don't care: it works.

I don't think I could ask for more. I'd say that I could use a compressor when I play clean to give more attack to the single note picks and I'd like this amp with a 15" jensen speaker in a closed back cabinet, but if I'd bought this amp first I would have probably never gone through 5 guitars and 5 amps in 3 years. The only way up is custom for me now. It's THAT good... and comparatively cheap. Also: good quality tubes inside.

holy crap a tube amp!
only costs 195! I don'T care if it was made my a dog in Korea, wow 191!
Now i can get rid of the fairy lights in the back of my customised solid states!
A tube amp. sounds great. who needs 2 channels? who needs distortion when you have a tube amp!?

a tube amp sounds amazing. I should know i have been playing since i was 2, that's 50 years. Back in the day when my balls wern't shrivled and old i had a vox, i think this sounds just like it, i can't really remember wahat it sounded like but i know this is better, ive been playing for 70 years and i've played everything i should knowm, this is the best british sound you'll get even though it was made in korea. A tube awsome. many people have been replaceing the speakers, but I Know much more than you, so I made my own speaker out of a sheet of paper a colander, paperclips and a micky mouse fridge magnet, and Boy, but i am much better than you and know much more, so i'm not going to tell you how to do it as, woo 500 volts is dangerous!
with my custom speaker i get all the bass i need, sometimes my wife likes to sit nakid ontop of my amp whilst i play, on account of the fact i play so much that we haven't had relations for years.

wow the guy who did this really did a good job, especially as he was only paid 2 cents to do it! sounds awsome!
I can see exactly how he stapled on the grate, and he even did a custom job giveing a textured effect to the side pannels and circit bord by dripping glue allover it, that means each one is individual and sounds diffrent. I should know i've been playing for 90 years!
it gets a bit hot, from time to time, thats why i installed a tosheba air conditionar in the back! But woha there sunny, better not touch the amp if you don't know what your doing 200 volts!!! I'm a full time musician, electrition and gigilo!

hay these guys arn't nice at all, i keep calling mr laney for a chat, but he's just rude! keeps saying something about violation of a restraining order. at least he's british!

well i've been playing since i was 1, i can't remember how old i am, so thats about 92 years to the day, so I know everything. Its a tube, sounds great! though not for those freaks who dress in black and say they want to kill them selves yet they never do, you may want to just kill your self and then you don't have to worry about makeing music to try and get others to be like you. Its a great british chinese amp, I don't think any one could steel it as i never leave the house, I just like to sit here and write reviews on HC. Now i have this amp i am happier then a prick in a whore house with a wallet full of cash and a packet of viagra!

15 Watts valve guitar amplifier bought in early 2005, mine is the 2004 model. I think Laney make improvements to this amplifier each year judging by the other reviews. Mine has a Celestion Tube 10 speaker. It seems all of the 5 valves are made by TAD (Tube Amp Doctor?). I think TAD supply valves to a lot of guitar amp makers. anyway, the first gain stage valve is a 'TAD 12AX7/ECC83 Selected', the second gain stage and the phase splitter contain I assume cheaper unbranded (but still TAD I think) 12AX7/ECC83 valves, and for the output valves, two 'TAD EL84-STR Selected' valves.

It has both high and low input sockets, ..gain, bass, middle, treble, volume and reverb knobs, as well as a bright on/off switch. Sockets on the back of the amp are fx send/return, reverb footswitch, line out, and external speaker 8-16 ohms. It doesnt feature a headphone socket. I have changed both the speaker and some of the valves so later I will tell you the difference in sound depending on what valves/speaker you are using. Anyway, even without any speaker or valve upgrades, this is a great amplifier compared to all the digital amps i've used.

Sounds superb. I dont play it clean so can't really comment on its clean sounds, but with the gain/volume pushed the sounds it makes are those 'nasty' (in a good way) snarling growling overdrive tones associated with so many great old rock bands like The Who for example!

I am using a TOKAI SG guitar (decent Gibson SG copy) and I use a Gibson Classic '57 humbucker in it. Im a fan of vintage AC/DC and this amp gets me to that classic type of valve overdriven guitar rock sound, much more so than your typical digital amp.

I upgraded the speaker from the Celestion Tube 10 to a Jensen C10Q as recommended by many others who have reviewed this amp. Im really glad I did too as the main difference is now the bass, middle, and treble controls on the amplifier affect the sound much more. The C10Q speaker sounds better than the Celestion Tube 10 overall, but you get what you pay for at the end of the day. That said though, I dont think the Tube 10 speaker is too bad, I wouldn't say a speaker upgrade is absolutely essential, I'm just fussy that's all. And, it's a pain putting in a new speaker too.. you'll see what I mean if you try it!

As for the valves, the TAD valves which come with the amplifier only have one issue I dont like, and that is if the gain is pushed too hard on the amplifier, the sound just becomes all 'mushy', but this isnt the end of the world, you can always just turn the gain down a bit of course. the TAD valves are quite 'harsh' sounding, but personally I dont think that's necessarily a bad thing. I tried some different preamp valves (2AX7/ECC83) which are called 'electro harmonix 12AX7 EH', and the difference is now I have less of the harsh sound than before, it's more warmer now, and now the sound does not become all mushy when I crank the gain up high. I dont think I will change the output valves, as changing some or all of the preamp valves seemed to work well enough, without the need to start messing around with the output valves too!

The reverb effect sounds good, no complaints here. I don't really use it though so sometimes wish I bought the cheaper LC15 amp instead.

The bright switch doesnt do anything for me because I use a lot of distortion. I think the bright switch is more for people who play the amp clean.

Another good thing I didnt mention about the sound which must be a related to valve amps in general, is if you push the gain up, but hit the guitar strings softly, you still get a cleanish sound, but hit the strings harder and you get the overdrive/distortion sound. This gives you a lot of range with your guitar playing. Messing around with the volume and tone controls on my guitar has a lot more effect too as opposed to using digital amps.

Although it is a 15 watt amp, it doesnt mean it's not loud. I'd think if you are in a band you would have no problem using this for band practice. It's probably ok for small gigs or pubs etc. 15 watts of valve sound is very loud. It's much louder than a 30W digital amp I used to own.

The amp is too new to comment on reliability. It doesnt seem as sturdy as digital amps I've owned, but then I'd much rather have this valve amp than any digital amp out there so I dont care. plus, I imagine if anything does wrong it would be valve related, and they are easily and cheaply replaced. The top of the amp where the valves are gets really hot, but that's normal apparantly.

Almost full marks here as I had some minor problems and issues I wanted to sort out so emailed Laney quite a few times. The response always came back very quick, and friendly etc. The only reason I wouldnt give full marks here is because when I emailed them with annoying questions like "is the amp better with a speaker upgrade?" or "will it sound better with different valves?" I would get reponses like "we like the speaker it uses already" or "our valves go through a lot of testing and we are happy with these". I'd rather they were more honest and said something like "If you buy some Mullard NOS valves on ebay and put them in the amp, you'll be in heaven mate!"

Great support overall.

This is my first valve amp I have owned and I definately wont go back to digital amps again. Not that digital amps are all bad, especially perhaps if you like more modern sounds. but, I wanted a more authentic rock tone like something from the sixties or seventies, and this amplifier being all valve gives me that.