Laney Lionheart 5w blowout... Deal or no deal?

[Clifdawg]

Just stumbled on this on the GC website:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Laney/L...202135642-sku^1275776902759@ADL4GC-adType^PLA

This is apparently the newer Chinese run of amps with the Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary instead of the Heritage, but... Seriously. Everywhere else has it for no less than 800 bones. I figure even if I hate it I can get most of my money back out on it. Two-channel, 5w, EL84, Reverb... Everything I'd want. Don't have an opportunity to try one out (not in stock at the moment anyway), but I'm seriously thinking about pulling the trigger on a whim.

Good idea or bad idea?

EDIT: link keeps breaking for some reason, it's a Laney Lionheart 5W 112 combo for ~360 bucks.

EDIT #2: Disregard post. Good price is good. Good price is even better when MF had a 15% off coupon. Stole this thing at 305 dollars... I'll be back later with a review later this month when the amp comes in and my wife lets me sleep in the house again!

 

[ratsalad]

Just stumbled on this on the GC website:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Laney/L...202135642-sku^1275776902759@ADL4GC-adType^PLA

This is apparently the newer Chinese run of amps with the Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary instead of the Heritage, but... Seriously. Everywhere else has it for no less than 800 bones. I figure even if I hate it I can get most of my money back out on it. Two-channel, 5w, EL84, Reverb... Everything I'd want. Don't have an opportunity to try one out (not in stock at the moment anyway), but I'm seriously thinking about pulling the trigger on a whim.

Good idea or bad idea?

EDIT: link keeps breaking for some reason, it's a Laney Lionheart 5W 112 combo for ~360 bucks.

EDIT #2: Disregard post. Good price is good. Good price is even better when MF had a 15% off coupon. Stole this thing at 305 dollars... I'll be back later with a review later this month when the amp comes in and my wife lets me sleep in the house again!

Stole is right! These normally go for a grand

 

[Norton]

It's a cheap price for an incredibly over priced poorly built, nearly unserviceable amp.

Essentially these are surface mount wave soldered circuit boards that are as close to disposable as you can get. Surface mount components aren't necessarily a problem. But they sure are if they're not up to the task.

I had the 20 watt dual single ended head. I thought about rebuilding it. The only thing worth saving was the chassis. It went away.

 

[Clifdawg]

It's a cheap price for an incredibly over priced poorly built, nearly unserviceable amp.

Essentially these are surface mount wave soldered circuit boards that are as close to disposable as you can get. Surface mount components aren't necessarily a problem. But they sure are if they're not up to the task.

I had the 20 watt dual single ended head. I thought about rebuilding it. The only thing worth saving was the chassis. It went away.

Interesting perspective... Most of the opinions I've encountered through scouring forums have been quite positive. Thanks for the heads up that it may not be very reliable.

For the price I got it, if it went dead in two years, I could gut it and turn it into a speaker cab with that G12H Anniversary and I'd still have gotten a sweet cab for a good price.

 

[Norton]

Hopefully you get lucky

It's a complete bummer because the concept is great.

There is a reason you never see anyone using laney's production amps in clubs.

 

[ratsalad]

I've only heard good things about the Lionheart series, some rave reviews in fact... The Ironhearts and Cubs, not so much. I had a Cub for about a week before I boxed it up and returned it.

 

[Norton]

I wish it weren't true.

I'd very much like to still have that lion heart head. But it took a dive so quickly that it was shocking. I picked it up based on a close friend's rec... he gigs constantly. As in multiple times a week. He was loving the 5 watt combo. It did sound glorious. For a while.

His lasted a little longer than mine but died within a handful of months of use and wasn't able to be revived. Maybe we were unlucky. It's totally possible.

But after tearing into my head with plans for an overhaul....I doubt it.

I would steer clear of anything Laney sells that's not hand wired.

 

[Clifdawg]

I play at home primarily through my Blackstar ID:Core 10 in the living room. This will be used primarily at church 1-3 songs per week at well below max volume, at a stable temp and humidity, and maybe occasionally at home when the wife and baby are away and I can open it up a bit. That's about as good a life as a tube amp can hope for, so maybe I can make mine last for a while.

 

[Norton]

You can do it!

 

[Clifdawg]

Did some digging on these and haven't really run into too many reports of problems. A couple of folks reported microphonic tubes pretty early on, but that can happen to any amp. One report of an op-amp frying, with one guy claiming horrible customer service at a Laney repair center in NJ, but no word on whether it was actually resolved under warranty.

Other than those, Norton, you're the only one to say anything negative about these. Not saying you're wrong - just saying it sounds like you and your friend were massively unlucky... Little comfort, I know. It sucks, like the time in college I had a hugely problematic Macintosh laptop after drinking the "Macs don't crash" kool-aid. Thing never ran quite right until I installed Windows on it.

 

[Norton]

Maybe so. But like I said.

I took a look under the hood. Not an inspired set of components....but hey. I hope it doesn't happen to the OP.

And totally buy one if you want. They look cool. My recommendation Would be: buy any non custom hand wired laney with extreme caution. Poorly put together, poor parts selection, zero service help and they keep their schematics locked down like NSA secrets.

 

[LDS]

It did sound glorious. For a while.

His lasted a little longer than mine but died within a handful of months of use and wasn't able to be revived. Maybe we were unlucky. It's totally possible.

But after tearing into my head with plans for an overhaul....I doubt it.

I would steer clear of anything Laney sells that's not hand wired.

If he's willing to part with it cheaply, I may be interested...

Sounds like a good platform to play around with to make a vintage Fender-styled point to point wiring type board for.

 

[Clifdawg]

Well, no deal after all. Laney cancelled all shipments to accommodate backorders on the sale, so I lost out. MF discounted some other amps like it, so I'm either good for a VHT Special 6 Ultra combo or a Boss Katana 100 at a reduced price. Not the same kinda deal, but my luck's never been good enough for me to get my hopes up that much to begin with.

 

[ratsalad]

Ouch... That isn't even right!

 

[Clifdawg]

VHT Special 6 Ultra combo shipping to my house now for 317. It's a happy ending. Not quite as happy in terms of discount percentage, but this is one I'd been eyeing for a while too, so hey, all's well that ends well.

 

[Dave]

I had a Laney LC50 that I got cheap off craigslist. Sounded GREAT. Gain channel was like a JCM800. Clean channel was one of the best I've ever played thru.
Took it to my tech to have it looked over and he gave it a clean bill of health BUT told me that anything ever went wrong with it he probably would be able to work on it.
Said it had the most complicated rats nest of wiring that he had ever seen.
Sold it for a profit not too much later.

 

[ratsalad]

VHT Special 6 Ultra combo shipping to my house now for 317. It's a happy ending. Not quite as happy in terms of discount percentage, but this is one I'd been eyeing for a while too, so hey, all's well that ends well.

Those seem like they would be really nice pedal platforms!

 

[Clifdawg]

Those seem like they would be really nice pedal platforms!

I'm pretty stoked to run my OCD into the front of it. No reverb is usually a bit of a deal breaker, but I think I'll substitute with an inexpensive delay... I usually keep either reverb or delay subtle on my cleans just to negate the dryness of the clean tone. However, I've played several times with nothing more than a single channel amp and an overdrive, and the simplicity is rather freeing.

 

[ratsalad]

I'm pretty stoked to run my OCD into the front of it. No reverb is usually a bit of a deal breaker, but I think I'll substitute with an inexpensive delay... I usually keep either reverb or delay subtle on my cleans just to negate the dryness of the clean tone. However, I've played several times with nothing more than a single channel amp and an overdrive, and the simplicity is rather freeing.

Get a TC Hall of Fame mini for reverb, all you need and pretty cheap Personally I like to layer a reverb AND a delay in a way that gives depth that's nice to keep both engaged all the time.