Laney VC 30
As of yet I have no pictures that I can post. If you are interested let me know and I will email you a picture.
This month I tested Laney's VC 30 combo amp. I tested the 2x10 model. There is also a 1x12 model and a few different kinds of extension cabs in case you need more speakers for some reason. The idea behind the VC 30 is supposed to be an economical replica of the class A combos of yesteryear. It uses four EL84's for power and for preamp 12AX7's. The wattage is 30 class A watts of power.
To illustrate the differences between class a and class AB you should know the amps that make the differences famous. A good example of a class A amp is a Vox AC 30 (the model this amp attempts to emulate) and a distinguished amp that uses class AB circuitry is any Marshall tube amp. These shaw the differences rather well. They are both well made British tube amps, but the Marshall's have a harsher sound with a biting distortion and the Vox's have a clean sparkley sound with a mellower distortion.
Getting back to the amp at hand, the VC30's aesthetics are rather simple. A grey and black tweed grillcloth with white vinyl trim and black tolex covering. The control panel is chrome (like the vents) with black lettering and retro knobs (the knobs remind me of an old ampeg's knobs). Honestly, I never get that interested in the aesthetics of amps, there is usually no real way to make them distinct, you can use different color tolex or different knobs, but they all end up being big wooden boxes. There are only three amps that I think of as appealing visually and one of them was part of a $50,000 Fender Custom Shop set. The second is anything made out of hardwood with a nice stain.The other was pure Hollywood, three inch pink shag carpeting instead of tolex, totally cool.
Ok, now we get to the important parts :sound, reliability, cost effectiveness and usefulness. The sound of the VC 30 is not remotely like the sound of an old AC 30. The letters VC in the model name are supposed to stand for vintage combo and remind you of the AC's from Vox. So, seeing that they were supposed to emulate the greatest amps in the world (in my opinion) I was psyched to get it. Unfortunately I was disappointed. Another large let down with the amp was the clean channel. There is none basically. You turn on the amp, turn on the clean side,and anything over three comes out distorted after about 20 minutes. A very light distortion, but still enough to change your sound noticeably when your playing a song that requires clean guitar. There are a few things that are great about this amp. One :a southern rock sound that will beat any other amp hands down. Two: great distortion. The reason it has such a great distortion is that with class A amps the tube is on all the time the amp is on. Meaning that when a note goes through the tubes it gets the full amount of gain and warmth that the tube has to give. With class AB amps the tubes switch on and off meaning that when you start a run or a solo the tubes have to warm up to the amount of gain and warmth that they are going to put forth. Hence the difference between the sound of a Marshall and a Vox or a Laney in this case.
As far as reliability goes I had one small problem a few weeks after I got the amp. I turned it on, tried to switch channels and nothing happened. It was stuck on the clean channel. I brought it to my local shop and asked them to check it out and give me an estimate. It ended up being what my shop guy calls Peavey Disease. That means a bad transistor. The name Peavey Disease came from that fact that Peavey for some odd reason has the tendency to put amps out that have a bad transistor or two. Nothing too expensive or hard to get fixed, just annoying.
This amp is kind of middle of the road for cost. I am not sure what it lists for, but every where I have seen it listed it is around $450.00 to $550.00. So as far as combo's go it is not cheap, but definitely not expensive either. Especially when you consider a Real AC 30 goes for any where between $1000 to $5000 depending on whether it it vintage or new and it's condition. Another plus is that it is a rather well known company and parts should be relatively easy to find and inexpensive in the event that some moron drops your amp off the back of the van when your setting up for the show. Also your tubes don't have to be biased when you buy a new pair, extremely handy for those of us who may not be able to cough up the money to bring it into a shop just when it needs new tubes.
Although the amp only has a relatively clean channel instead of a clean channel it is quite a decent little amp. I find that it can be used for a great rhythmic sound. It has allot of power too. I lent it to a friend for a club gig and the amp wailed. It, set on four, out powered a Hughes&Kettner half stack on seven. That is testimony to the greatness of class A circuitry.
The amp itself can get a great southern fried rock sound. I can imagine it's use by bands like Leonard Skynard or Seven Mary Three. It would be a great amp for you rhythm guitarists out there. Lots of gain, lots of tone, a little distortion all the time and tons when you need it. Overall I think this amp is worth the investment for a person looking for a lot of power and creamy distortion. On the other hand don't even bother to look at this amp if you need an amp with at least the clean sound of a Marshall clean channel. It won't deliver.
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