NAD: Laney GH50L

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napalmdeath

napalmdeath

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Picked a used Laney GH50L. Needed new tubes, but I had some Tungsol EL34Bs that wouldn't bias up in the Smallbox, do to it's narrow sweep, but biased right up in the Laney. A great cocktail of new preamp tubes, and this thing's a total fire-breather! With the resonance switch and gain boost, and an MXR M-77 in front, it's an animal. Like a Peavey 5150 and a JCM800 offspring.

Such an underrated beast. It'll hang with amps 3x the price, and not break a sweat. Loud as fuck, but manageable.
 
Yep - my Laney GH100S is a marshall in disguise. They are insanely overbuilt and loud as hell. They just get the job done. Not a lot of features so you either dig it or you don't. Personally, I love what they bring to the table - it's a player's amp for sure.

My only gripe is that the effects loop is SS/Tube hybrid in mine, so it sucks a fair bit of tone. Regardless for the price it simply cannot be beaten!

Happy new Laney day!! Mine isn't going anywhere - it took me ages to find one :rock:
 
glpg80 said:
Yep - my Laney GH100S is a marshall in disguise. They are insanely overbuilt and loud as hell. They just get the job done. Not a lot of features so you either dig it or you don't. Personally, I love what they bring to the table - it's a player's amp for sure.

My only gripe is that the effects loop is SS/Tube hybrid in mine, so it sucks a fair bit of tone. Regardless for the price it simply cannot be beaten!

Happy new Laney day!! Mine isn't going anywhere - it took me ages to find one :rock:
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I love this amp. It's beefy, aggressive, and in your face. It's got a Marshall vibe, but an angrier, hairier set of balls!

I had one back in 2005 I'll never forget. I've had a few since, but always had other amps, and they were neglected.. Now that I have one to focus 100% on, it's like home. They kick so much ass! Not having all the features is it's best feature.
 
napalmdeath said:
I love this amp. It's beefy, aggressive, and in your face. It's got a Marshall vibe, but an angrier, hairier set of balls!

I had one back in 2005 I'll never forget. I've had a few since, but always had other amps, and they were neglected.. Now that I have one to focus 100% on, it's like home. They kick so much ass! Not having all the features is it's best feature.
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Yep they aren't feature-loaded - they're really dependent on speakers/hands and your ability to control a guitar volume knob. I find mine absolutely loves greenbacks even though I know it was voiced with the original H|H speakers in old Laney cabinets.

Same exposure here - I filled in for another guitarist in another band that had a family emergency and I borrowed his GH100TI rig with matching laney cabinets at his drummer's band practice so that I didn't have to haul my 5150 II. This was around 2008 or so.

I absolutely loved it and swore I'd hunt one down. I don't plan on letting it go. Like you said it's just like an angry marshall. They absolutely need volume to sound their best - they aren't bedroom friendly AT ALL.
 
Yeah my 100s needs more volume than any amp I have. I’d like to get a HH laney cab at some point to go with it
 
RaceU4her said:
Yeah my 100s needs more volume than any amp I have. I’d like to get a HH laney cab at some point to go with it
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Rare as hell these days. I think I've only seen one H|H loaded cabinet for sale on guitar center of all places in the past 20 years. There aren't a lot in the USA.
 
glpg80 said:
Rare as hell these days. I think I've only seen one H|H loaded cabinet for sale on guitar center of all places in the past 20 years. There aren't a lot in the USA.
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My experience with the cabs have been mixed. They're great quality, but the H|H speakers are extremely bright.
 
They add a creamy vibe to your tone. Hard to explain otherwise. I don’t like them more than Greenbacks but they can take a beating. If you grab one do a recording - not much exists out there for those speakers in this modern world.
 
glpg80 said:
Rare as hell these days. I think I've only seen one H|H loaded cabinet for sale on guitar center of all places in the past 20 years. There aren't a lot in the USA.
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Didn't those come with the 90s version H30 anniversary speakers? They have a rep similar to the 6402 cone M25....killer speakers.
 
What are the “good” HH’s, or I guess what would have come with the matching GH/VH cabs?
 
You've got me looking at these. I too believe you don't have to spend a ton to get the goods but here I am trying my best to get past thinking I need to try a JJ or Butterslax first.
 
This is a good clip. Nothing really over the top, gain-wise, but a good representation nonetheless.

 
Not many know this, but a GH100TI / GH100S is just the first 3 stages to a JCM800 with an added 4th gain stage and cathode follower like the hot mod’s everyone’s adding to their 2203s. They were doing it ages ago. The amps are seriously underrated.
 
glpg80 said:
Not many know this, but a GH100TI / GH100S is just the first 3 stages to a JCM800 with an added 4th gain stage and cathode follower like the hot mod’s everyone’s adding to their 2203s. They were doing it ages ago. The amps are seriously underrated.
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someone posted this on another forum when i asked what was difference was between my S and the regular ones, seems helpful

hsb7tlql.png


So here is a real quick rundown of the differences between the GH100L and TI models. They are surprisingly different. I've marked the schematics with a few numbers to make things easier to explain, but first the more general stuff:

The first big difference is that the topologies are basically two different amps! The Hi/Low inputs on the L just adds a pad, where as the Low input on the TI bypasses the first stage and then the amp is similar to the JCM800 Hi input 3 stages + CF.

Next the L has a switchable boost stage (inserted AFTER the 1st stage!) and the TI doesn't. This also means it has two gain controls (gain and drive) whereas the TI only has one

The shaping of the clipping/bias is different. Both amps start with a classic JCM800 2k7//680n followed by:
L - 2k7//680n > 10k> 820R. center-cold > cold > warm
TI - 10k > 820R > 2k7. cold > warm > center-cold
Notably here the TI doesn't add any tone shaping/boosts with bypass caps. The L has another 680n which is the classic Marshall upper mid bite. Alternating between cold>warm>cold tends to enhance asymmetric clipping due to each stages output being inverted with the respect to the input.

1) TI has much more bass (22n coupling cap) compared to L (4n7+4n7 in series ~ 2n2) for a girthier tone
2) TI has bright caps and L doesn't. This I guess compensates for the lack of additional cathode bypass cap boosting.
3) 2n2 can be added in series with the 22n coupling cap to cut bass/tighten.

Additionally the TI has a bright cap on the 2nd to 3rd stage attenuation network to boost some upper mids.
The 3rd to 4th stage attenuation network pushes approx double the signal to the 4th stage than the one in the L, so that stage will clip harder.

There is way more nuance that what I've put here. In many ways the L is numerically gainier than the TI but the TI's clipping is more aggressive, thus sounds like it has more gain.
 
These are great on their own or as mod platforms. You can get them for no money these days and they are really close to a JCM 800 but has variable negative feedback and an extra gain stage and gain knob. I got one for around 350 dollars and modded it into a high gain monster with lots of voicing options. They are easy to work on too!

 
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