Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

[atf]

Hi guys,

Im looking to buy one of these heads to go with a G12 greenback 1x12 for small size gigs and I can't make up my mind.

I'm in a cover band and we play everything from old school rock n metal to modern stuff. I need something that can do clean, classic rock, and high gain.
I was initially leaning towards the Laney cause it has tone,dynamics, boost,and a reverb control, (so I don't need to carry many pedals) but I haven't heard any demos of its clean sound.

The jet city on YouTube demos seems to break up too early and doesn't seem to do high gain or old school metal. The vox doesn't have reverb but may pull off a grungier sort of sound in thick mode.

All three amps are EL84 based.Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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[Aceman]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

You need:

The amp with the most headroom
About three pedals, at least ONE of which must be very volume knob sensitive/responsive.
- OD for clean to mean
- Rock Pedal
- Metal pedal


I think I'm feeling a Sansamp pedal of some sort here…

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

You need:

The amp with the most headroom
About three pedals, at least ONE of which must be very volume knob sensitive/responsive.
- OD for clean to mean
- Rock Pedal
- Metal pedal

+1 to this

I will add: I love EL84's. I have them in my Laney Cub, great amp, great tone.

I have not tried any of those 3 amps the OP is comparing. My impression of the Night Train is a good one based on clips and word of mouth from my cousin who has played on them. I thought the Night Train was low wattage though so I am not sure if it is good for a band situation or not.

I love Laney amps. I have not tried the Irt 15 but Laney knows tone.

 

[Sleepy]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

Trying to get gigworthy cleans from a 15 watt high gain tube amp into a greenback 1x12 is going to be a challenge, depending on your definition of cleans and whether you're using single coils.

I've never played the Night Train.
I've played the Jet City and the Laney. Both are quite stiff, grainy modern tones. I didn't even try to get cleans.
& would worry about cranking these, especially the Jet City, into a single 25 watt speaker.

I agree with Aceman, get something with more headroom for cleans and crunch and just use a pedal for high gain.

If it for some reason has to be a 15 watter I would try Egnater Tweaker but again... I can only get "very modest studio volume" cleans from mine before it turns into crunch, and less with with humbuckers.

 

[Sleepy]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

I love Laney amps. I have not tried the Irt 15 but Laney knows tone.

The IRT is very different from the Cub, going for the modern downtuned metal crowd I think. I like the Cub more myself.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

You need:

The amp with the most headroom
About three pedals, at least ONE of which must be very volume knob sensitive/responsive.
- OD for clean to mean
- Rock Pedal
- Metal pedal


I think I'm feeling a Sansamp pedal of some sort here…

^This.

This is how I roll. I set the amp clean, then I process it through my pedalboard, where dirt can be added via a TS808 clone, a mid/high-gain overdrive (Shark Mr. Pig), and a RAT.

Sometimes, I keep the 808 always on and roll down the volume knob. Seems to sound more present that way.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

Haven't got any opinion on the amps, but if you're looking at the Night Train 1x12 cab with the Greenback, look elsewhere. I'd recommend to avoid it like the plague.

I have one. It looks really nice from a distance, but it's a really really **** cab. I removed the speaker because I was curious about trying it out in my Marshall cab. I didn't do anything too extreme other than unscrew the darned speaker, and two of the nuts pretty much destroyed the front baffle where they're mounted, and now I can't mount the speaker back up. The speaker is really really nice, but the cab itself is terrible quality particle board. The grill cloth is super thin as well and becomes loose and saggy VERY easily.

It's a pretty looking cab, and it comes with a great Vox-labeled Chinese Greenback which is slightly different from the standard Chinese ones, which are pretty nice too, but I'm sure there are better bang-for-the-buck cabs out there.

 

[atf]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

Thanks Rex rocker. Another option that came to my mind was to hook up my g12 to my blackstar ht 5. Two different cabs but matching ohms. It gets loud and has a lot of mids and bass. The clean channel gets loud too,just enough to stay on par with my drummer I think. I will still need pedals for grunge,and modulation but it may handle most rock numbers in a very small setting(50 -100).

A good idea?

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[Myaccount876]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

The Night Train 15 has very little headroom. It can work if you only need crunchy cleans, but not "clean" cleans for a gig. Otherwise the Night Train with a treble booster or tube screamer for the metal stuff could work. The new ones do have an effects loop, reverb, and more channel options. I really only have experience with the older 15 watt head.

 

[atf]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

Yeah actually a crunchy clean would work. Its more rock n roll cleans I need as opposed to jazz cleans. I didn't know night train could do metal. Thanks myaccount876


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[Myaccount876]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

No problem!

It really depends on what type of metal and what cabinet you run it through, and a greenback loaded cabinet goes well with the Night Train. If you want classic Judas Priest or Black Sabbath metal sounds, it'll kick ass and take names when you crank it. If you want it to do Metallica, you can maybe get away with Kill Em All and Ride the Lightning sounds, but probably not Master of Puppets and definitely not ...And Justice For All. The amp is bright and mid heavy. Classic heavy metal sounds a la Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate, a bit of Iron Maiden to doomier heavy metal stuff like Alice In Chains, Black Sabbath, Ghost, it can get you by just fine if you don't focus too much on the gear and listen with your ears. If you want anything really scooped or modern sounding, the Night Train won't do that. For those metal sounds out of the stock Night Train, I'd definitely recommend some type of treble booster, tube screamer, or EQ to tighten/shape the sound. Honestly, the amp is a bit less of the traditional Vox AC sound and has a 18W Marshall type of thing going. Not exactly a 18W Marshall sound, but it is a "boutique-lunchbox" amp at heart.

I modified to actually lower the preamp gain, tame the treble, and be more midrange focused (leaning closer to the higher midrange). I mainly did the Lyle Caldwell mods, but made a few of my own changes (mainly changes to some of the RC filters he put in to get the amp more where I personally wanted it). Again, this is all with the older Vox Night Train that looks like a chrome toaster. I haven't looked inside the new black Night Trains, so I don't know exactly how similar they are to the older models. From what little bit of time I've had with them, they seem to be pretty similar with the added features. If you're in doubt, you could score the original Night Trains for pretty darn cheap. You can probably find old 15W heads for $200-$250 on eBay/Reverb/craigslist etc. If you end up not liking it, you could also probably flip it for what you paid. I even got mine from Sam Ash like two years back for $250 and it was "new" (not really - floor model that sat for quite a while, but not many people in my area play Vox. At the guitar stores near me, Vox stuff sits for a while, because most of the clientele are greasy kids with Megadeth t-shirts who don't know what a shower is that play on Line 6 spiders/insane channel/max gain/10-0-10 BMT). Man I rambled quite a bit. Anyways good luck on your amp search!

 

[atf]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

Lol. Thanks again. I may just go with the nt cause I have played ac15s, pathfinders in the past.hey if it can do sabbath and old school metallica, and do the chimney vox thing, its a done deal.

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[Myaccount876]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

Awesome! This is also a pretty good demo of the amp:

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

I didn't even know the Night Train was 15 watts. I find my 15 watt Laney Cub to have awesome cleans for recording but there is just no way it can do cleans with a full band. It can do cleans at a gig with a mic obviously but for rehearsal it's a no-go. With a good boost pedal and a slightly louder speaker? Maybe, but I'd probably be better off looking at the Bugera V22 at that point if I really want clean headroom for rehearsal and gigs.

 

[Wormhelmet]

Re: Night Train vs Jet City 20 vs Laney Irt 15

Laney IRT Studio has beautiful cleans. It is also geared for recording so has a few options for output to a larger amp like a tech 21 60 watt 1/12 power amp. There is also the 44 magnum power amp pedal. Either of those would give you power amps that you could plug any smaller amp into. Also a simple full range powered monitor would extend the volume to get the headroom needed. A 12" or 10" powered monitor running 50-200 watts and a cab simulated output will get you some great sounds without having to turn up the amp much and just turn up the powered monitor instead. Take it instead of a 1/12 cab to a gig.

I do this with my Alesis Transactive Wireless Bluetooth speaker. It has 25 watts RMS, 50 watts peak, single 8" woofer, 1" tweeter in a ported enclosure with three inputs (1/4"/xlr balanced w/level control, 1/4" unbalanced w/level control, 3.5mm stereo w/level control, one master volume). I can run my MSDI cab simulated output from my VK II micro head, cab sim out from D2 preamp, cab sim out from SS-20 preamp, ipad running bias amp to 3.5mm stereo in, Digitech RP360XP 3.5mm stereo out, or anything really that final output is meant to go to full range powered speaker. Of course I can't run all those at once, but can run two preamps with cab sim out in 1/4" and something that has stereo 3.5mm out at the same time. The Alesis has inset handles on the side, telescoping handle like a suitcase, two roller wheels on the bottom, 50 hour battery, ipad dock, bluetooth.

Just brought it to jam with a drummer and another guitar player on Friday and it worked beautifully for its purpose. Enough volume to keep up with drums and did not have to turn up output on preamp stuff and kill my clean sounds.

A similar powered monitor will do the trick and can be bought for same price or lower than a 1/12 extension cabinet. Get a 200 watt powered monitor and never have to worry about clean headroom with your amp and a cab simulated output much like the Laney has and quite a few other smaller amps have.