Back from a 4-5 month guitar hiatus..with a NAD..

[Phantasmagoria]

Hello all! I have'nt touched my guitars or been on here in months. Been busy with a lot of other stuff and just have'nt had the time or inclination. I guess I needed something to inspire me to get going again... hence the NAD.

I'd been on quite a modeler kick for a while ..they're quick and easy to set up & the tones are there/easy to record but I guess all along I missed the in-the-room presence and kick of a nice big fat tube amp!

So I got myself one

A nice new Laney Ironheart 120

And a quick sloppy video (have'nt touched my guitar's in months, my finger's feel like they have bricks tied to them :lmao completely dry using the amp's onboard reverb & DI out..this was with the rhythm channel..

Now this is an amp I've been on the fence about since they first came out. Been fascinated (they look ungodly!) but not really convinced about them. But yeah, then about 2 weeks ago I suddenly developed a ton of GAS for one...just like that out of the blue.

Started checking out YT video's/reviews and stuff and they always sounded great. The legato/shred tones started getting to me bigtime and last week I had to pull the trigger on one It came in a couple of days ago though I only unpacked it and plugged in yesterday. So far so good. Love the tones..it covers just about everything. .the rhythm channel is more Marshally/british sounding and the lead is more modern/brutal, maybe leaning moretowards Mesa/Peavey, but it does it's own thing and is thick meaty and mean.

​​​​​​​The cleans are actually pretty awesome as is the crunch. I just need to get my wrists and fingers moving again which is a bit frustrating...cuz they are refusing to right now

But yeah more to come as I explore further and life/enthusiasm returns to the old digits.. :laugh2:

 

[Securb]

Great tone. I love Laneys I played one for a while back in the day.

 

[Mincer]

That looks like a fireplace! Congrats, and welcome back!

 

[Artie]

Nice amp. Love that cab too. Looks solid as a rock. (No pun intended.)

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Thanks dudes! It's been a lot of fun so far. A lot's been happening these past few months that just made playing impossible (getting my elder son off to university abroad, my mom passing from cancer etc..) and I just haven't had the time (or mood) to play guitar. But now that things are behind me I'd like to get back to it. There's been some talk with my bandmates about getting the band up and running again w/ a new drummer so I'm hoping that works out too. Yeah..I just suck so bad at playing right now.....it's shocking (no wisecracks please ) lol.

So yeah ...I had to do something to get myself back in the saddle! Let's hope this works :laugh2:

@ Securb: This amp is a tone machine. It sounds seriously great right out of the box w/ the stock tubes and everything. I often need to experiment/roll tubes when I get a new amp but this one already sounds awesome/perfect w/ the set of TAD's that are in there (4x 6L6 STR red bases..not sure if those are made by JJ or they're chinese) not sure about the preamp tubes either since they have shields around them. But the whole thing just smokes!

@ Mincer: Thanks, It's more like a furnace of hell when you're looking at it up close :laugh2:

@Artie: Thanks, I've had the cab for a few years now and recently swapped the stock HH's out for a a pair of "Pulse PM125" speakers and they definitely sound a lot better than the HH's. The thing sounds like a beast cranked up through the cab.... .

The amp was manufactured this year (2022) ..it's actually the only one I've seen w/ this logo on the faceplate. I specifically asked for a newer one 'cause I wanted the XLR/DI out which makes this as handy as the smaller "IRT studio" for recording but with 6l6's and 120 watts (ie..bigger balls!) \m/. It's switchable between "preamp out" & a clean power amp output for re-amping" ...which is a useful thing to have imo.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Here it is when I switch the DI to "after power amp" (for reamping)..

I should read up on this whole re-amping buisiness.. I think I need to pass the signal again through the amp or another amp or modeler. Will give that a try later too.. :bigthumb:

 

[Phantasmagoria]

.Rhythm channel again with my Ibanez SA (single coil neck pup)..

This amp is a dream for shred...the tones are ever so sweet! And it feels great to play.. a real joy. There's something about the gain here that makes it fluid as hell, you don't even have to turn it up much.. :bigthumb:

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Good choice!

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Haha thanks.. when I was reading up reviews and stuff I saw this interview with Iommi & they asked him if the Ironheart was based on his signature TI100 Laney amp (cause of the obvious similarity in layout & looks) and he said no it was actually the other way around..The TI 100 was actually a tweaked Ironheart..but made in the UK with some changes he wanted.

One thing is for certain, Sabbath tones (especially Dio era and beyond) abound in this thing.. :bigthumb:

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Well I played around a whole lot with it yesterday...some of my nimbleness has thankfully returned t my fingers but as a result I have really sore/cut fingertips and I'm going to have to give things a break on the playing front, at least for a day or two... sucks

Triple-tracked the above solo (Panned L-R-Center...Vashu the human Typhoon here on SD used to do that and its a neat trick) just out of boredom..no other processing..just the DI out-> Mooer Radar IR (Mesa 4x12) -> interface ..it sounds massive/awesome in the mix.

 

[DankStar]

cool! yeah I usually need a NAD or new pedal to jump start me. I wish I didn't but it's always been like that, and it works like a charm every time, haha!

I always dug that DIY head you did, that thing was sick

 

[Phantasmagoria]

haha..yeah, sadly that's how things work....nothing can be done about it except to get yourself a NAD/NGD or w/e and move on :laugh2:

The DIY amp came to a sad end unfortunately. Had the innards spread out on newspaper and was working on it when my cats discovered it and pee'd on it ..repeatedly No attempts to resuscitate were successful) ..so that's that..at least for the present. Can't think of going through the whole thing again

This Laney can get pretty spongy/juicy with a hint of tubey sag which was a pleasant surprise. I remember thinking the 60 watter I tried many moons ago seemed really dry & overly tight/rigid ..not so with this one. Don't know if they've tweaked things a bit since then or if there's a difference between the 60 & 120W as far as tone/feel go but this one ticks all the right boxes for me..a bit of sag, soft compression that let's you "dig in" for solo's and which makes tappping/legate kind of stuff pretty liquid & effortless & it's really punchy, meaty, thick and juicy for rhythm too, without ever getting flubby or too spongy at all. It's got just enough of all that to make it feel alive and at the risk of sounding cliched.. really "organic"

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Also ..it's really hard to get a bad/unusable tone out of this thing...sounds great whereever I have the knobs at. So no endless tweaking for tones. That's a huge plus for me...

 

[Phantasmagoria]

This is on the lead channel....kept it slow & easy cause my fingertips are still pretty sore I cranked the master wide open and then brought things down to conversation levels with the power-soak. It really had that hot/cranked feeling under my fingers when I was playing..

After that I played some Sabbath riffs and stuff (too sloppy to record ). but the sound was blistering... sounded nut's in the room.. and all at very reasonable/neighbour-friendly volumes. Something tells me I'm going to have a LOT of fun with this amp :bigthumb:

 

[DankStar]

Sorry to hear about the DIY amp…RIP

glad you’re diggin your new amp tho! Very cool

 

[misterwhizzy]

I'm glad the power soak is working for you. I bought my Marshall Origin in hopes of doing lower-volume cranked Plexi tones. Turns out I just need the punch of higher power and higher volume to start to feel inspired by the amp. I know it's not apples-to-apples, and I was seriously eying a Lionheart 60 for a while, but I'm not convinced it would work for me.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Sorry to hear about the DIY amp…RIP

glad you’re diggin your new amp tho! Very cool

Yeah, It sucks that it came to the end that it did. I had a lot of fun building and playing that thing. The headshell is still fine though ...maybe one day I'll get back to it..who knows? I now cover all my amp's and cabs with plastic/waterproof "Washing machine covers" though. I'm not taking chances.. just got one for the Laney too :laugh2:

This was a great NAD..it's been ages since I had a new 100+ watt bad boy to play around with & I'm loving every minute!

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I'm glad the power soak is working for you. I bought my Marshall Origin in hopes of doing lower-volume cranked Plexi tones. Turns out I just need the punch of higher power and higher volume to start to feel inspired by the amp. I know it's not apples-to-apples, and I was seriously eying a Lionheart 60 for a while, but I'm not convinced it would work for me.

Thanks! The power soak has really been a revelation. I did'nt think it would work as well as it did, I was gettung some great tones out of this amp out of the box but the power soak just took things to another level tone/feel-wise once I stated experimenting with it. It really does make a big difference and makes things all nice & blistery-hot :laugh2:

As I mentioned before thanks to my previous experience playing one of these years ago ( I was very taken by them when they firts came out) I was pretty underwhelmed. But I'm glad I pulled the trigger on mine based on owner reviews and YT video's because it sounds and feels NOTHING like I remember that other one sounding (which is what I suspected based on those reviews/demo's). This one is thick and meaty and juicy and that one was'nt any of those things. I've read that they tend to come biased way too cold from the factory & re-biasing them yourself open is up & makes it literally a new amp, maybe Laney took note of & rectified that...or maybe it was the stock tubes in that one I tried earlier had in it. Either case this one plays and sounds nothing like i remember that one playing/sounding...

I was actually considering a DSL 100 before I bought this but I have to say...I'm super-glad this is the way i went..no regrets!

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I'm glad the power soak is working for you. I bought my Marshall Origin in hopes of doing lower-volume cranked Plexi tones. Turns out I just need the punch of higher power and higher volume to start to feel inspired by the amp. I know it's not apples-to-apples, and I was seriously eying a Lionheart 60 for a while, but I'm not convinced it would work for me.

Oh, I just realized the Origin series apparently has some sort of power reduction built in as well. I take it it does'nt deliver?

All I can say is the Ironheart's really does > i mean, I was even able to get those 70's live guitar-breaking/amp toppling crazy overdriven/almost humming/on-the-verge of-farting-out kind of tones like old Sabbath/The Who/ELP onstage ...and leads were really singing/going into harmonic feedback/infinite sustain....

Christopher Godin demonstrates that here in this video.. (@ about 5:20)..it pretty much happens on demand...

EDIT: Oops ..forgot to post the video..

Anyway..,what I'm trying to say is it really works well with this Laney once you have it set up right. I have my master between 12-1-2 o'clock & the power soak knob @ about 9' o'clock and it sounds magical while not being overloud in the room. :bigthumb:

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Here's the Ironheart video that first gave me the GAS two weeks ago...after that I checked out more..& then some more ..and it just kind of snowballed from there. Hutchings has the Ironheart and is going absolutely bat-**** crazy

.

Now I know there's folks that will throw around stuff like "tasteless" "too fast" NO feel (really ?..lol!) etc...but if you know me, this is precisely the sort of thing I find irresistable :lmao: One of the best collabs/jams I've seen on YT..just super tones, playing. chemistry, FUN ..everything all round :bigthumb: