Laney Amplification
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laney Amplification is a British brand of guitar/bass guitar amplifiers and cabinets, and also public address systems.
[edit] History
Laney Amplification officially began its career on September 1st, 1967.
As a bassist playing the local circuits with the likes of Robert Plant and John Bonham, Lyndon Laney decided to turn his hand to building amplifiers for friends in his parent's garden shed. Some of Lyndon's first customers were local Birmingham-based guitar players such as Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath who remains loyal to Laney to this day. Many of the first Laney amplifiers ever built are still around and in use, slowly becoming as revered as other vintage amplifiers by Marshall and Fender for their pure valve-driven tone.
The late 1960s/early 1970s range consisted of a small but dedicated amount of amplifiers, with the original LA100BL all-valve model being the choice of many players wanting a more 'heavy metal' guitar sound than other popular manufacturers were offering, and Laney also created a series of amplifiers known as KLIPP, which featured a built-in treble booster similar to the Dallas Rangemaster. KLIPP amps are sought after especially by collectors in the USA vintage market, offering excellent versatility and durability.
The quest for getting more gain while still retaining a natural all-valve tone became the driving force behind Laney's 1980s range of amplification. Laney was at the forefront of amp design when it came to this 'Hot Rodded' sound. A line called "AOR", short for Advanced Overdrive Response, introduced an extra stage of preamp gain while still retaining a pure signal path. Where amplifiers from other competitors like Marshall were being modified after purchase, Laney offered this feature from new.
Throughout the 1990s Laney continued to build on its reputation for innovation: by the middle of the decade products such as the VC30 were released (a retro-style Class A valve combo reminiscent of the famous Vox AC30, but with more features), the VC50/VC100 combos with two channels, each with a separate boost for adding more gain and volume effectively offering a player four different sounds, and the single channel GH50L/GH100L stacks which are among the best-selling models ever made by the company. Also introduced in this period was the Tube Fusion series - combining solid state power amplification with valve pre-amplication and also incorporating DSP elements to add modulation/delay effects in one package.
[edit] Notable users
Notable users of Laney Amplification products include Tony Iommi, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Steve Rothery of Marillion, Opeth, DragonForce, Mattias Eklundh of Freak Kitchen, Robert Plant, George Lynch, Ace Frehley, Mastodon, Mige Amour and Mikko Lindström of HIM, Liz Buckingham (13/Sourvien/ Electric Wizard), The Sword and Andy Timmons. The now defunct stoner rock band Sleep were also well-known for their use; the video clip to "Dragonaut" begins with a shot of a Laney amp. Matt Pike (formerly of Sleep) and Jeff Matz from High On Fire both use Laney amps. Scott Lucas of the alternative rock band Local H uses a variety of Laney amps in addition to appearing in ads for the Hardcore line. Advertisements during the 90s also feature Joe Satriani.
Laney's popularity continues to increase with an ever-expanding range of artists added to the roster; so far though, Tony Iommi is the only endorsee with his own signature model.
