Laney LA STUDIO 3W Tube Guitar Amp Head Black

[iplayLouD]

Never chased the Tony sound, an interesting quest in itself... Wonder how close a Plexi can get...

Congrats on the amp!

[Dinosaur David B]

Wonder how close a Plexi can get...

 

Sabbath through Marshalls sounds great. But not as authentic.

The Supergroup was Laney's "Plexi." They're definitely EL34 cousins (along with early HiWatts and Oranges). They all had similar designs (I believe), so there is a family resemblance, if you will, but the voicings are definitely different. Those old Laneys truly had their own sound you can't quite get from the others (without some dedicated EQ sculpting). 

Once guys started playing them with different boost pedals and through different speakers, those differences became more pronounced. 

[Stitsel]

DDave, so what was the Klipp.....comparison wise I mean. I admit I don't know too much about these old Laney amps, but I saw many a band use their standard, more late 70s , early 80s head...I can't even remember what it was called. AOR, or something...? Just a basic 800 type of head that delivered a perfect crunchy metal tone. All black, with the white Laney logo on front. Seems lots of metal guys swore by them too. 

@Tatosh : I believe Tony went Marshall on H&H, at Birch's request; however I could be wrong. I know live pics from that era showed a full Marshall stack backline, they looked like Plexi's to me. I always loved how Tony didn't fuck around, it was always like, 4 stacks lined up behind him at least, whatever the brand. Mob Rules I believe he was still in an experimental phase, and playing the Boogie MII Coliseum heads...again, I could be wrong, I just can't remember.I'm pretty sure we talked about this exact thing, in another thread here in the past. The cool thing is, regardless....Tony always sounds like Tony. 

[Dinosaur David B]

DDave, so what was the Klipp.....comparison wise I mean. I admit I don't know too much about these old Laney amps, but I saw many a band use their standard, more late 70s , early 80s head...I can't even remember what it was called. AOR, or something...? Just a basic 800 type of head that delivered a perfect crunchy metal tone. All black, with the white Laney logo on front. Seems lots of metal guys swore by them too.
 

I don't know the history, but the Klipp was a Laney offshoot -- of sorts. Maybe it was made by a guy who left Laney? Now I'll have to look it up.   The Klip was before the 800 style multi-gain stage thing.  Here's Beato using a Klip to get the early Sabbath sound.



You had these things like Hiwatt creator Dave Reeves putting out amps under the Sound City name before founding Hiwatt. (see Townshend in the Stones Rock n Roll circus doing A Quick One).  Mat-Amp was related to Orange. Park was related to Marshall. 

By the time Tony goes to Marshall, his sound (still great) becomes less distinctive, and more inline with everyone else using Marshalls and Celestions. 

A lot of the difference between these early, Brit EL34-based, plexi style amps was the speaker choices each brand used. Celestions, Fanes, Goodmans, etc. Then add in a Solasound Fuzz, or a Mayer Fuzz, or a Treble booster at the front end and you're creating new, distinctive tones. 
 

[Stitsel]

For sure.....so many combinations to utilize huh. It's what makes it fun. 

I googled the Laney, here's what I was talking about...I saw these played a lot, back in the day, and they always sounded great....

https://reverb.com/item/75661673-laney- ... -lead-80-s

I wouldn't mind snagging one of these, fairly decent price & they look cool & sound better....
 

[merlo_zeppelin]

Didn't Iommi used to slam the amps with a treble booster? Like Brian May? He was certainly getting a lot of gain for early 70s non master amps.

[merlo_zeppelin]

For sure.....so many combinations to utilize huh. It's what makes it fun. 

I googled the Laney, here's what I was talking about...I saw these played a lot, back in the day, and they always sounded great....

https://reverb.com/item/75661673-laney- ... -lead-80-s

I wouldn't mind snagging one of these, fairly decent price & they look cool & sound better....
 

 

Those AOR sound amazing, played through one once at a studio, it was heaven. Many shredders used it, including Vinnie Moore, who's always had great tone IMO.

[merlo_zeppelin]

For sure.....so many combinations to utilize huh. It's what makes it fun. 

I googled the Laney, here's what I was talking about...I saw these played a lot, back in the day, and they always sounded great....

https://reverb.com/item/75661673-laney- ... -lead-80-s

I wouldn't mind snagging one of these, fairly decent price & they look cool & sound better....
 


 

Those AOR sound amazing, played through one once at a studio, it was heaven. Many shredders used it, including Vinnie Moore, who's always had great tone IMO.
 

[Dinosaur David B]

Didn't Iommi used to slam the amps with a treble booster? Like Brian May? He was certainly getting a lot of gain for early 70s non master amps.

 

Yep. They both used the long defunct Dallas Arbiter treble booster.  Now there's this (also made by Laney):



I have a used one on the way.