Tried a Laney Ironheart and...

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Tried a Laney Ironheart and...

I love the regular short plate JJ 12ax7's. Think I've got them in all my tube heads except for my Brutus which came stock with Sovtek's (sound great in that amp). I know a few guy's in other bands rocking Ironheart's & they all switched their stock tubes to JJ's straight away..

 

[Diego]

Re: Tried a Laney Ironheart and...

Definitely not thin, tinny or overbright with JJ's..

Well, that sounds NOTHING like my buddy's Ironheart did. That's way better, man.
A few years later I used his Ironheart cab with my Tweaker and thought it sounded kinda flat and lifeless, maybe that had something to do with it?

Anyway, he sold it and bought a Katana, and he's getting much better tones out of it.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Tried a Laney Ironheart and...

Every Ironheart I've heard/played sounded like that ^^ & they'd all been re-tubed with JJ's (at least the pre's). That's the trick :laugh2:

My Ironheart 2x12 could'nt be livelier/punchier. The HH driver's need to be dialed in differently to sound good (ie dialed in with your ears) ..but sound good they do

I have a 4x12 & a 2x12 with HH's & they give me comparable tones to the 1960b cab at the venue where we play a lot of our gigs. I've often A/B'ed them with the Marshall..dial them in right & they're not world's apart.

One thing I did notice was that they do need a good while to be played in when they're new (longer than you might think) ..when I first got mine they sounded thin & reedy ...not anymore :bigthumb:

 

[LLL]

Re: Tried a Laney Ironheart and...

Earlier post someone mentioned something to the likes of "Laney = Iommi"

The amps Iommi used during the heyday of Sabbath were Laney Supergroups.

Which were, perhaps not surprisingly, circuits that were incredibly close to the typical Marshall plexi of the day.

I'd venture to say there's not one iota of the old Laney DNA in any of their current products.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Tried a Laney Ironheart and...

Well they're still building Iommi sig's The GH100TI from about 20 years ago(sounds excellent) & then the (comparitively) more recent T1100 (also sounds excellent).

The thing with Laney's are they're good amp's (love the GH100/VH100R..wicked for hard rock/80's metal & shred & I'm pretty keen on the IRT 60-120's) ..but they've always lacked their own distinctive sonic identity, unlike Marshall's, Vox's, Hiwatt's etc...