Laney VH100R: redundant if I have a hot rodded Marshall?

F

Faldoe

Member
I have a two channel Ceriatone King Kong I built. Great amp and I’ve been modding it a bunch. I have the chance to get the Laney at a pretty good price.

I can get by with the Ceriatone; it’s my only 100w head currently but I’ve always been curious about the Laney and had heard Opeth used them for a bit.

Is there too much similarity in tones? I’d red the gain channel is like a JCM 800 and that has intrigued me.

Talk me in or out of it.
 
A VH100R was my main amp for a couple years. I can say they're different enough that they wouldn't be redundant. The Laney overdrive is fatter and a bit more low-mid focused than a modded Marshall, plus it has a great clean channel. There's a resonance switch that takes it into more modern territory. You can run it with 6L6s to make it even more distinct from Marshalls. It's incredibly loud.

This demo is representative of the amp's heavier overdrive:



Mastodon used one on the Ozzfest tour and the Blood Mountain album, and Matt Pike used one live with High on Fire for a while. It's likely that Mikael Åkerfeldt just used his as a power section for his Boss GT-8 modeler.
 
Loved the vh100r. I had one about 20 years ago almost, absolutely loved it. It died on me unfortunately, got it from music123 or somebody like that. But it roared with the best of them live. Snave nailed it, more low mids, more girth etc.
 
Snave said:
A VH100R was my main amp for a couple years. I can say they're different enough that they wouldn't be redundant. The Laney overdrive is fatter and a bit more low-mid focused than a modded Marshall, plus it has a great clean channel. There's a resonance switch that takes it into more modern territory. You can run it with 6L6s to make it even more distinct from Marshalls. It's incredibly loud.

This demo is representative of the amp's heavier overdrive:



Mastodon used one on the Ozzfest tour and the Blood Mountain album, and Matt Pike used one live with High on Fire for a while. It's likely that Mikael Åkerfeldt just used his as a power section for his Boss GT-8 modeler.
Click to expand...

Mikael used a Laney GH100L, Peter used the VH100R. I believe they both used Boss units.

I wouldn't pass up a good deal on either Laney. I've owned the GH50 & 100L several times. They're killer amps. Can get pretty nasty.
 
VH100R and GH100L are my two favourites from Laney.

800 on roids. Basically. But the good kind not the overly saturated stuff from today.

VH100R



 
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Oceanborn, wow, that takes me back to high school!

But yeah, the VH100R is a very good amp and not terribly similar to what a "modded Marshall" is these days. More like a typical 90s refined Marshall, when everyone wanted them fatter for rock and heavy rock styles rather than straight up chug or 80s styles.
 
My first tube amp was a Laney AOR Pro tube 100 with the G12K-85 4x12 back in the mid 1980's. It was the shiznit, at the time, for me.
 
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