Langner amps opinions

[braintheory]

Can any of guys tell what Langner's are like? How would they compare to stuff like friedman, cameron, gower, fortin, etc. ? I heard they're more on the compressed side?

 

[JTyson]

I'm not sure if we are talking his actual amps, or Marshall mods, or pre/pwr amps, but his preamps and his Marshall mods are quite compressed, but in a very good way. They are still tight and very fat. They are more compressed than Friedmans or Fortins Mods, but they are fatter and slightly brighter at the same time than the Friedmans if that makes any sense. Still very percussive and dynamic, but dont roll off well at all, at least not the 5 stage mods he did. Not as versitile as either Friedmans or Fortins mods. Todd's tube effects loop is one of the better loops I've ever heard, but I havent heard everything out there. If you listen to the Viscous Rumors albums, its that tone exactly if we are talking about his 5 stage mods. Todd had different things he would do for different people, depending on what they were after.
They are kinda one trick ponies, but its an amazing one trick that they do
The dual channel pre's have a pretty dam good clean channel if you need one, I would assume the heads have the same clean channel, but I've never played one of the heads. They are more similar to Camerons than Fortins or Friedmans, but still different than any of them.
I've got some of his stuff, and I would never part with it... Never

 

[thegame]

JTyson nailed it. Exodus's Force of Habit and Tempo of the Damned are probably the best recorded examples of Langner modded Marshalls, to give you a good idea.

 

[rottingcorpse]

Yep, jtyson got it spot on as far as my langner 800. Lots of gain, compresses in a good way as the gain increases. It's the best Marshall tone I have come across so far for thrashy metal. Super tight and aggressive. More gain than any Marshall I have ever tried, I run the pre at noon and it's off the hook badass. No boost, just Marshall madness at its best IMO. Cuts like a razor, with great roar.

And like jtyson, I won't part with it. Perfect mate to my 2203KK. They sound great together.

Man, I need to pull that amp out and fire it up. Thanks for the inspiration to plug it up again.

 

[JTyson]

I been back on a Langner roll with mine lately too. They are mind-numbingly badass
I run my gain in the same spot, 12 noon and it sounds like its gonna cause the earth to split in half
It has more for sure, but I'm afraid the V1 tube will explode past 2 o clock
Its amazing that his work was 30+ years ago, but still holds its own against anything out there today, and kills a lot of current stuff as far as high gain tones go.

 

[braintheory]

How do his preamps compare to his mods on Marshalls?

 

[JTyson]

They sound very close to the same, but the tone controls on the preamps are infinately better than the tone controls on a Marshall. The midrange especially, it will put rip your face off midrange at your disposal, which I like (I'm a midrange lover) and the clean channel is very usable. Its not fender cleans, but its very usable. Some of the preamps have the Hyper mods, which is a more aggressive gain and more gain. Not a ton more of either, but a smidge more. The bass control and Lo-Contour are the least effective controls on the unit, but its already fat for days, Never found it to be a problem
I'm running one through a Marshall Dual Monoblock 100/100 watt output section.... Its massive with an old REV7 on a Room reference setting at about 35% mix.
There was a DCP1 in the classifieds, not sure if its still there, or if it had the Hyper mods done to it

 

[braintheory]

So I just bought a a DCP1 preamp and am waiting for the step down transformer to come so I can finally try it. In the meantime can any of you guys tell me what some of the knobs such as the limit and contour knobs do? And what the 2 knobs on the back do that are unlabeled? Also, how would I go about hooking it up to one of my heads and cab? Would I just have a cable from it's output jack into the head's return in the fx loop?

 

[braintheory]

Also, would I plug the guitar into the preamp's input or the head's input. I've never owned a preamp unit before

 

[JTyson]

Limit is channel volume, not sure why he called it that
contour affects the tone it is assigned to (bass/treble)
It sounds like you may have a model that has the Hyper gain mod on the back, it adds gain and more aggression to the gain channel. Yes, you can just plug it into the loop return and use your Marshall output section. You would plug your guitar into the (DCP1) preamp input. I would not run the preamp into the intsrument input on the amp, it will sound like ass
Congrats, let us know what you think

 

[braintheory]

Limit is channel volume, not sure why he called it that
contour affects the tone it is assigned to (bass/treble)
It sounds like you may have a model that has the Hyper gain mod on the back, it adds gain and more aggression to the gain channel. Yes, you can just plug it into the loop return and use your Marshall output section. You would plug your guitar into the (DCP1) preamp input. I would not run the preamp into the intsrument input on the amp, it will sound like ass
Congrats, let us know what you think

Thanks for the help. So I plug from the Marshall's fx return to either output jack on the Langner? Also, would the level controls act as the gain knobs then? I would've guessed that to be the limit control

 

[JTyson]

Yes, Either jack on the Langner to the return of the Marshall, and level is gain level.
Todd never labeled his controls the way everyone else did, I had to turn some of them for a bit to figure them out