Laney is sounding very lacklustre..

[indysmith]

Have you tried running the HT5 preamp into the Laney power amp? That could be fun!

[hunter]

Well, just my opinion:

1. _tom_s Gh50L clips he made in the past all rule! That amp is great, and I played a GH100L recently and it's amazing!
2. SM57s are great. I have a SM57 and a Sennheiser E609 and a condenser mic, and the 57 is the best. Just very touchy about placement, but it rules for overdriven/distorted guitar

I would keep the GH50L, it's a great amp, and with no band will the HT5 have enough horsepower. Maybe the tubes are done or it needs a rebias. I think you've had those power tubes for a long time now, right?

[_tom_]

I think I'm just cr@p with mic position. Can never get it sounding right.

I will persist because I dont want to get rid of it (and I've liked it for most of the time I've had it), sounded quite good last time I played with a drummer as well. The HT5 should be loud enough for that though so next time I jam with him I'm going to try it.

The power tubes should be fine, they were replaced last August (I think) and havent really been pushed that hard since. I havent replaced the preamp ones (except V1) since I got it though (2-3 years now I think).

Annoying that I cant afford to replace the valves without going into my overdraft :(

[_tom_]

Ok after some more "testing" I think I still like the Laney, its just that as hamfist said, the Blackstar is shining as its at the volume its designed for. When the Laneys cranked more it sounds good, still a bit fizzy but not so bad.

What I dont like about the Blackstar now I've had more time with it is that it doesnt respond very well with varying guitar volumes, doesnt clean up as nicely or as well as the GH. I think I want to get a seperate 1x12 for the Blackstar when I get enough money (I have a car insurance refund coming around May time :)), any suggestions? Was thinking about just getting a cheap Marshall 1912 off ebay or something and sticking a Greenback in it.

[Twinfan]

What I dont like about the Blackstar now I've had more time with it is that it doesnt respond very well with varying guitar volumes, doesnt clean up as nicely or as well as the GH.

Sounds a bit like the HT Dual then.........

[_tom_]

Yeah thats the only real negative.

Another thing with my Laney, its really noisy, even with fairly low amounts of gain :( Is that a preamp tube problem or just the amp itself.

[m0jo]

Hey _tom_

I just wanted to chime in for a minute, I had this same problem with my VC100 for a while.
So I changed out the old sovtek tubes with JJ's which everyone was raving about .. and they made it worse! :?

Then I ordered a load of Electro Harmonix's and Shuguangs (good chinese high gain tubes, good for metal) and played around for a while with combo's of them and found tone nirvana :D

My point: Laneys seem to hate some types of tubes, try different ones :p EHX's are very good for me, but maybe slightly fizzy at low volume also.. at high volume that goes away though :)


About the noise: yeah Laneys tend to be slightly noisyish, a good V1 tube makes a lot of difference.
But this is also primarily at low volume with my VC100, at high volume it's not more than any other tube amp. :)

[_tom_]

Yeah I have some of the Svetlana Winged C EL34s which helped the fizz a lot. a Jan Philips 5751 in V1 helped as well. Amps still quite noisy though which is annoying. I dont think any of the tubes are microphonic as I dont get feedback, just background noise/hum. Sometimes sounds a bit "scratchy" as well if that makes sense

What preamp tubes are you using at the minute?

[Davey]

could anytihing cause electromagnetic interferrence? tube amps tend to not like that. also.. gain at what? do you turn the gain up with any pedals?
when i turn the gain past a certain stage, with or without pedals, it doesnt increase anything but noise.

[m0jo]

At the moment:
 
Clean: EHX 12AU7 -> EHX 12AX7
Gain:   Shuguang V1 -> EHX V1-> Shuguang
(all 12ax7, I use two V1's because my gain is mostly all the way up ;) )
Driver: a balanced EHX 12au7

I don't really have the money to go for any NOS tubes, but these are great. :)
Oh the poweramp tubes are TAD 6l6GC-STR, which are Philips/Sylvania style, nice bass response and a nice top end :)

I suggest you do try and change the pre-amp tubes though, just to see if it makes a difference noise-wise.. scratchy might be a microphonic V2 or something, it doesn't give that much feedback but it is noticeable.

Do you have anything like an adapter for effects or something in the back of the amp? I noticed that it tends to pick up some hum from that. Also you might look at the power for any effects in the effects-loops, I got a nasty squeek from there a while ago :(.