I played through a Laney......... and I liked it!

[BoomTing]

I had this for years, really liked it

[TheGreek]

On 08/03/2021 at 22:02, Killed_by_Death said:

 

 

Laurence LLewelyn Bowen???

KBD, you'll probably need to Google this...

[Marvin]

I've borrowed Laney bass combos on a couple of occasions, The first time was an abused Laney Linebacker. I think it must have been broken somewhere because it sounded a bit weedy. The last time was the last time I played in room with other 'musicians'. I borrowed a Laney R500 115. I quite liked it. It kept up well with 2 guitars and drummer. Easy to use, decent sound, not that heavy. A good combo for doing the pubs around my way.

[SumOne]

I've been looking for relatively cheap but dependable fairly light/small 500w Amp head with FX loop, DI, aux in, headphone out, tuner out. The main contenders seemed to be:

• Markbass Big Bang £520
• Ashdown RM 500 £460
• Ampeg PF500 £380
• Laney R500H £360

At that price the Laney seemed like a reasonable option but then I noticed it's only £202 from DV247 which looks like a bargain - so it's ordered and I'll hopefully be able to say how good it is in a few days.

It doesn't look perfect though, it's limitations seem to be: Compressor is just on/off (but has a light to show when it's compressing- and the amount is linked to the gain control),  I'm not sure of it's tone until I use it and it's not obvious if the gain adds any particular type of overdrive tones or if it's pretty much clean,  no aux in volume control, the DI is only pre EQ and doesn't seem to have a ground lift. None of those things particularly bother me though, just as long as it can do a good reliable, loud, clean output - I have pedals that can go in the FX loop and deal with those other things. 

Edited March 15, 2021 by SumOne

[SumOne]

The R500H arrived very quickly from DV247, slight concern that although their website all looks UK based and there's a Romford store the tracking showed the parcel coming from Germany- so thought I could be stung with customs + VAT but that didn't happen.

First impressions are that you'd find it hard to find another new Amp Head for £202 with all the features:

• 500w @ 4 Ohm (it powers a 300w 8 Ohm 112 Cab about as far as I'd want to push it)
• 4.1kg
• Compressor (seems to work quite well- unobtrusive)
• FX loop
• Tuner out
• Speakon connector
• DI (pre only)
• 10 band EQ, footswitchable ( they do themselves a bit of a dis-service in the product photos, the three highest are actually 4.2Khz, 7.5KHz, 12Khz which I think are better than the product photos that show 3, 5, 8). 
• Aux in
• Headphone out

Downsides being it can get a bit hissy at high gain and volume  (that might not all be down to the Amp though), the DI could do with being pre and post EQ (solvable by putting a DI pedal in the Post EQ FX loop), and it's just clean amplification-  doesn't add overdrive (fine with me as I have spent a long time getting the pedals I want for that). 

Edited March 19, 2021 by SumOne

[nilebodgers]

16 minutes ago, SumOne said:

The R500H arrived very quickly from DV247, slight concern that although their website all looks UK based and there's a Romford store the tracking showed the parcel coming from Germany- so thought I could be stung with customs + VAT but that didn't happen.

First impressions are that you'd find it hard to find another new Amp Head for £202 with all the features:

• 500w @ 4 Ohm (it powers a 300w 8 Ohm 112 Cab about as far as I'd want to push it)
• 4.1kg
• Compressor (seems to work quite well- unobtrusive)
• FX loop
• Tuner out
• Speakon connector
• DI (pre only)
• 10 band EQ, footswitchable ( they do themselves a bit of a dis-service in the product photos, the three highest are actually 4.2Khz, 7.5KHz, 12Khz which I think are better than the product photos that show 3, 5, 8). 
• Aux in
• Headphone out

Downsides being it can get a bit hissy at high gain and volume  (that might not all be down to the Amp though), the DI could do with being pre and post EQ (solvable by putting a DI pedal in the Post EQ FX loop), and it's just clean amplification-  doesn't add overdrive (fine with me as I have spent a long time getting the pedals I want for that). 

What is the power module in it, another icepower 125asx2?

[SumOne]

10 minutes ago, nilebodgers said:

What is the power module in it, another icepower 125asx2?

I'm not sure about that - the manual doesn't say anything about it.

[nilebodgers]

7 minutes ago, SumOne said:

I'm not sure about that - the manual doesn't say anything about it.

Enquiring minds want you to take the case lid off and post some pics....👍 (only if you are a curious tinkerer like some of us are of course!)

Edited March 19, 2021 by nilebodgers

[SumOne]

10 minutes ago, nilebodgers said:

Enquiring minds want you to take the case lid off and post some pics....👍 (only if you are a curious tinkerer like some of us are of course!)

Yeah, I like taking things apart, I'll give it a go at the weekend

[Beedster]

A lot of cheaper bass gear sounds better than we expect. It's often the expectations that are at fault

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

Compressor (seems to work quite well- unobtrusive)

My old Pro-Bass used a compander chip to provide fixed 4:1 dynamic range compression.

The chip was one Maplin used to sell that was 'lo-fi' intended for 'telecoms use only'!

Worked well enough that I sold (foolishly) my old Arion stereo compressor 😞

[BassmanPaul]

I played through a Laney......... and I liked it!

Pervert!!