Laney LC30 MkII Reviews 
5 / 5 based on 1 reviewsDenmark Street, London, I paid 330 pounds.
I'm one of 2 guitarists in a band and we always had trouble until I got the Laney down. Instantly, all the parts we'd spent hours working out we're suddenly gelling. I've played most of the real expensive amps and the Laney is a clear cut above the rest, at least for my style of playing. The only amp I prefer is the Fender Vibroverb which is clearly better, but it's also 4 times the price. The Laney is fantastic value for money. It's a big sound for a 1x12", yet it's powerful enough for the sound to remain clean even at high volumes, thus, you get to keep your juicy valve tone and nothing gets lost. I've got an SG, a strat and a tele and the amp is well suited to all of them.
Just minor gripes which shouldn't put you off giving it a serious look in... the distortion doesn't quite have the same presence as the clean channel. It's still good, but I bought a Big Muff which I run through the clean channel and it sounds amazing.
At 22kgs, it's pretty heavy for a combo but that's what groupies are for.
The reverb is not up to the standard of the rest of the amp. It buzzes and it's just not clean enough to be audible in a live environment.
Final gripe isn't actually gripe because I like it, but this amp might have a little too much presence for some players.
I had reliability issues with the MkI, in fact, I ended up hating it so much I took it back to the shop a whole year and a half after I bought it and stamped my feet for an hour 'till they gave me my money back! This one is great though, dropped it, scratched it, someone even tipped a pint in it for me and it's never even hinted at breaking down. The MkII looks a lot meatier than the MkI, too.
Whatever your style, and even if money is no object, the Laney LC30 definitely needs to be seriously checked the out.
Andy Eggrock rated this unit
on
2003-04-26.
