De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

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toneseeker74

New member
The overdriven sound of my Laney AOR 50 is blurry / fuzzy / undefined. I guess this is typical of these Laney amps. Is there a way to get this clipping to be more defined, more like a Marshall 2204? I want to get rid of the cold & smeared overdrive into a hotter & more crackling sound? Does this make sense?
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

Swapping out tubes will probably change something... Try some various preamp tubes and listen to their impact on your tone.

Could just be the nature of the amp. The doom & sludge crowd loves those amps BECAUSE they have fuzzy gain. You might just have to live with it while you save up for a Marshall...
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

The suggestion above ^^^^^ to try tubes is always a good idea...and easy.
Also, plug into whatever different speakers you can get your hands on.
Hopefully from:
Weber
Eminence
Celestion
WGA
ASW
etc
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

Oh man the cab is such a good recommendation. I used the same 4x12 for years... Then I heard how drastically the tone can change from one cab to another and I've acquired two more 4x12 and a 2x12.
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

toneseeker74 said:
The overdriven sound of my Laney AOR 50 is blurry / fuzzy / undefined. I guess this is typical of these Laney amps. Is there a way to get this clipping to be more defined, more like a Marshall 2204? I want to get rid of the cold & smeared overdrive into a hotter & more crackling sound? Does this make sense?
Click to expand...
I owned one for 7 years and it's an impossible task. I wanted a Marshall on steroids but I got a big, fuzzy bag of wet farts. Honestly I do not get the cult appeal? There's a reason why people use it for stoner and drone music, because you have to be baked to think it sounds good.

Other endearing qualities of the #### that I owned was:
You couldn't change the preamp drive settings without ####ing the EQ you already dialed in.
The longer you play it the darker and mushier it gets.
The longer you play it the less responsive the tone and drive settings are.
The reverb is harsh and metallic with very little depth.
It weighs twice what anything else weighs.
 
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Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

idsnowdog said:
I owned one for 7 years and it's an impossible task. I wanted a Marshall on steroids but I got a big, fuzzy bag of wet farts. Honestly I do not get the cult appeal? There's a reason why people use it for stoner and drone music, because you have to be baked to think it sounds good.

Other endearing qualities of the #### that I owned was:
You couldn't change the preamp drive settings without ####ing the EQ you already dialed in.
The longer you play it the darker and mushier it gets.
The longer you play it the less responsive the tone and drive settings are.
The reverb is harsh and metallic with very little depth.
It weighs twice what anything else weighs.
Click to expand...

I'm using a 4x12 with G12-65's so that can cut some of the brightness. I redial the EQ depending on the preamp & master settings. I like the upper mid cut that I can get with the right settings, but the fuzziness is always there. Doesn't clean up well with the guitar's volume rolled back. I can enjoy it sometimes, but as soon as I plug into my Traynor YBA-1 I realize the shortcomings of the Laney. I'll try tube swapping and maybe recapping the filters, maybe tweak the treble peaking circuit.

You know, something I have never heard anybody mention is bypassing the extra gain stage, after the tone stack but before the phase inverter. Wouldn't this bring the amp closer to Marshall 2204 specs? Maybe lose some of the mushy clipping in the process?
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

Assuming you have fresh, strong and well biased tubes, there are a few other things you can do which will cost about 50 cents in parts.

1.Replace the clipping diodes with LED's. This will raise the preamp's headroom and give you a smoother less buzzy sound. They will still "crunch" but at a higher setting on your gain knob.
2. Remove the clipping diodes altogether. This will raise the headroom even further and give you an attendant increase in harmonic presence and clarity, but bear in mind that you will have less "crunch". No worries - you can always use a pedal.
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

idsnowdog said:
I owned one for 7 years and it's an impossible task. I wanted a Marshall on steroids but I got a big, fuzzy bag of wet farts. Honestly I do not get the cult appeal? There's a reason why people use it for stoner and drone music, because you have to be baked to think it sounds good.

Other endearing qualities of the #### that I owned was:
You couldn't change the preamp drive settings without ####ing the EQ you already dialed in.
The longer you play it the darker and mushier it gets.
The longer you play it the less responsive the tone and drive settings are.
The reverb is harsh and metallic with very little depth.
It weighs twice what anything else weighs.
Click to expand...

Lol. Funny, but true IMO. I had a 50W, and a 30w combo BITD, and hated them both. I replaced it with a Jackson 50w amp. Which was better but still in the same not very good ballpark. I eventually got back to my Marshalls. It was about 15 years later I realized Laney built those amps for Jackson.

I think some of the current Laney tube amps sound much better than those old amps.
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

175 -
Is that a pretty noticeable Change/Improvement.....the LED that is.
Something you change and kind of say....."Wow, that is a lot nicer".?
If you know what I mean
Thanks
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

For me the breakthrough moment was when I plugged into a pre-valvestate 30w solid state Marshall combo after owning the Laney for 3 years. By that time I had already owned the Governor pedal for a few years and I was surprised that the amp and the pedal weren't that different. I spent hours dicking with the controls on the Laney and I couldn't get a consistent tone. With the Marshall all I had to do was put a tube screamer in front of it and it did everything I wanted for as long as I could play. So my advice is don't fall for the Iommi hype and choose something that works, rather than try to fix a marginal amp with Swiss Army knife features.
 
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Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

Mix a 12at7 into the preamp tubes. Off the input jacks, remove the 470K resistor and 470pf cap tied into it, replace with a 68K resistor and no cap. If you want more grunt, put a .68 cap on the presence in place of the .1 I would also check the filter caps, I have owned many and still have a great sounding 50, fresh filter caps, and dialing in preamp tubes are key with the amp. I run mine through a Weber Mass, dime the master volume, and roll off the pre volume. Killer sounding amps when set up right. The tweaks are very simple.
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

Does turning the preamp gain down and use of a TS style OD tighten things up?
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

For me, I always prefer to push the master and roll the pre off a bit ( with all my MV amps), if volume is an issue to do that, rolling the pre back for a cleaner tone and then pushing it with a pedal can be workable. Tighter? That is very subjective to cabs, speakers, and ears. It will have a lot more clarity. The resistor and cap off of the input jacks add so much upper mid snarl, that it gets in the way of the tone. The PV VTM/Butcher are the same way, you tame those amps off the inputs and then they can breathe.
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

zzmoore said:
175 -
Is that a pretty noticeable Change/Improvement.....the LED that is.
Something you change and kind of say....."Wow, that is a lot nicer".?
If you know what I mean
Thanks
Click to expand...

yep. its been good in the two amps ive done it to (a musicman and a jcm900).
Its also been really nice in every stompbox ive tried it in too (many different ones).
So, assuming your laney uses clipping diodes in the preamp (same as channel switching jcm800s, and every marshall after that) then it should make a noticeable improvement in terms of what you initially were asking about. Try replacing the original diodes with sockets, so you can experiment many different types of diodes without any further soldering.
Definitely worth trying the sound with no clippers at all too!

...dont do any of this until you are sure to have fresh, strong and well biased tubes in your amp tho...
 
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Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

gibson175 said:
yep. its been good in the two amps ive done it to (a musicman and a jcm900).
Its also been really nice in every stompbox ive tried it in too (many different ones).
So, assuming your laney uses clipping diodes in the preamp (same as channel switching jcm800s, and every marshall after that) then it should make a noticeable improvement in terms of what you initially were asking about. Try replacing the original diodes with sockets, so you can experiment many different types of diodes without any further soldering.
Definitely worth trying the sound with no clippers at all too!

...dont do any of this until you are sure to have fresh, strong and well biased tubes in your amp tho...
Click to expand...
Man...I don't know.
I am not the OP...but this seems well worth a try, and not too expensive. :cool:
Thanks Again for the info.....
best
 
Re: De-fuzzing Laney AOR 50

Wait, this amp has a clipping diode circuit? Bridge it. Its the same thing people do to Carvin MTS and Vintage amps. Look up hasserl mods on YouTube and see if it fits the bill. Sounds just like what people complain about though.
 
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