NAD (Laney)

[Alex]

EDIT: I returned this amp for another one, which suits my taste more. You can read about it here:
https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=30591.0



So I finally got a new amp. Sold the Krank rev Jr (was sad to see it go), but this has a 1Watt input and footswitchable inputs.

I haven't had a chance to really play it a lot yet, but so far I am impressed by its versatility - not just metal, as some reviews made me believe.

Hopefully I'll soon get more time to actually play it.

[Telerocker]

Congrats! Looks like a sharp, compact set. I will have look into the Ironheart on YT.

[Lew]

Played through one recently and thought it was most excellent, had a great clean tone and tight rhythm tone. Congratz :-)

[JDC]

*thumbs up*

How's it sound compared to the Krank for the metalzzz?

[Gooby]

Is that the IRT-STUDIO?

So want one of those makes so much sense for recording if you can't afford an AXE-FX.
One of these plus an impulse in your DAW and rock.

Martin

[dave_mc]

nice :D

[Nadz1lla]

Congrats! I was looking into these too, as a home studio solution that you could also take live. Gets some clips in the players forum!   

[Alex]

Due my current work-life balance it will be a while till I get the time to record something, but it's definitely on the horizon.

The clean channel is very nice, very clean and clear, also notes are very accurate and response is quite hard (rather than a more squishy vintage response). I like it. The reverb is also good.
I'm still getting to grips with the two gain channels.
As I like brighter sounds, I've turned tone and both trebles to around 3-4, rather high (maximum 5). It is very nice now on the rhythm channel, but the amp does have a bit more background hiss than I expected. In general, though, I think the tonal quality leaves little to be desired.i I'm still getting to grips with the EQs; the Krank worked very differently in that respect and the Laney has really a lot of knobs and options, and interactions going on.
I got some incredible lead sounds out of the amp today - very impressive. On the rhythm side it has a lot to match with the Krank being great on that side (really the Krank's strongest suit), but I think I've got it 90% there. I also need more experimentation with the 15W vs the 1W input and the preamp boost vs preamp gain settings. I have a feeling the 1W input might be a bit darker than the 15W input.

One thing though that i wonder about: why has no other manufacturer thought of that preamp boost function before??? It is such a simple and great feature.

[Alex]

Some things I found odd:

Footswitch layout - 2 buttons for 3 channels, a bit weird; also, the boost is not by channel, but across all channels, so if you go bck to the clean channel it can be quite a volume boost. Similar the reverb stays on/off.
Footswitch plop when changing channels - no relay used?
Gain pots - there seems to be a gain stage starting between 7 and 8, which is a bit irritating, as there is a bit of jump in saturation there.
Pull knobs : the treble one is clearly audible, the mid one is subtle and the bass one doesn't seem to be doing anything.

[_tom_]

That looks really cool :) Loads of great options for recording etc. Would seriously consider getting one if the gain channel can sound anything like a GH50L!

[Telerocker]

Just listened a clip of the Ironheart 60. For the price I'm impressed. It has a good tone and can do way more than brutal stuff. Has a lot of features. I would take it over a JVM.

[Alex]

I've returned the amp and a new, different one is on its way. I just wasn't warming to the high-gain character, it was a bit too smooth and bland/generic, not enough "presence" and rawness for me. I was surprised a bit, and I'm suspecting that the 60 and 120 heads must sound different (tighter, drier and brighter) than the studio. The studio was good at getting sounds such as Petrucci on "Train of Thoughts" (the darker distortion sounds), or Amon Amarth on Thunder God. I'm more into guitar sounds such as Five Finger Death Punch, Hammerfall, George Lynch, Arch Enemy, Megadeth etc.

NAD coming up soon, again!

[richard]

Maybe it's a low powered amp thing. I've had good results with Laneys and gigged with both a VC50 and VC30 for years.  A few weeks back I did a little trio gig (no drums) and borrowed a friend's VC15. I was really looking forward to trying this amp but I hated it. The only small valve amp I've ever liked was the Marshall Studio 15 - great sound but very light on low end.

What are you getting now ?

[Dave Sloven]

A friend of mine loves his Lionheart.  The amp doesn't distort that much though, it goes up to '70s Thin Lizzy distortion, not much more (unless you put a Metal Muff in front of it or something).  But a truly beautiful amp.  Both guitarists in his band use the 20W head.

http://www.laney.co.uk/products/range/15

This is a poor quality video and you can't hear the guitar tone very clearly but you can tell from this that 20W manages pub gigs very well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53ZYG12bsRM

The Laney metal-oriented amps tend to be quite dark.  The Iommi signatures and the Ironheart especially.