Since the summer of 2021 Laney has moved all production of the Lionheart series from China back to the UK. I asked them why and they were straight up honest and said because of QC issues! Have no clue to the origin of your example but I think it would be nice to see any differences between the Chinese built and the newer UK built units...

I said when you started your channel you were rapidly becoming one of the best amp techs to watch and learn from and your videos have proved that. Thanks and keep them coming.

I own the Laney L20T-212 and L5T-112 made in the UK. In my experience they have performed well and are fantastic pedal platform amps. I would have liked to see you play a Strat single coil pickup loaded style guitar as well as guitars loaded with P90's and Humbuckers which would have showcased this amps true ability to produce some very versatile and rich tones it is capable of. I certainly have no issues dialing in the sounds I am looking for in a studio or live environment. I feel the Laney Lionheart line of amps are much more than you have given them credit of being.

I own a L20T-410 combo. It's an early uk made one, in the ser: 0400's. It has a real spring reverb and a totally different pcb and wiring setup. Everything is through-hole, tube sockets are handwired on the chassis, spring reverb is GREAT, and it has four lovely jensen speakers. Sounds astonishingly good, although I agree that the 'identity' of this amp is in the 'doesn't know who it is' category. It's a Mashal-y AC30, that's not as loud as either, but really is a great amp. WAY better than the AC30 reissues i've owned (I have had three, each from 90s, 2000's, 2010's, and this is bettter by FAR). Whichever version this is = looks like a totally different amp inside! My L20T-410 competes with my other handwired amps in the studio (Silvertone, Ledford, Trainwreck) and often wins its way on to tracks. Runs really quiet, doesn't overheat, and every issue you mention with the baord = solved on the (i suspect) original version pcb.

Really appreciate your ‘philosophy of good things.’ That IS a great feeling! keeps me coming back to the guitar again and again.

Very constructive and informative demonstration of normal amp behavior. We're not all born knowing this stuff, and nobody should be embarrassed to ask questions like this. No such thing as a dumb question, because they can all lead to enlightenment!

That last bit about gear and people's expectations, enjoyment, and sacrifice to afford gear speaks to me deeply. I hope to address that from a different angle such that people's discernment is more attuned to the reality of equipment and their own needs, regardless of how many antacids I may need to consume in the process.

Always look forward to seeing your videos and updates. Hello from Kankakee Illinois!

What a great opening shot

Great video Lyle I also remember those little Gorilla amps the first amp I played through was my Dads Gibson Skylark what a gem that was.

I also had a Gorilla, but the I graduated to a Crate, the one that looked like a crate. 😎 I thought that was the s**t ! Thanks for the thoughtful second half of this video, one of your best.

Thanks for answering those questions; very edifying.

Love ur philosophy on tone and what sounds good & what doesn't! 👌✌

I just bought it used. I like it. I am casual/home player and for my needs it is quite good. Thank you for the video :)

Thanks for elucidating so clearly why it is important to always approach each amp repair with the mind of a technician and an artist, because there definitely is an art to all this. That's been my mindset since I first opened an amp, that it's important to be aware that whatever I do is probably going to be seen by someone else, so I want it to be the best possible workmanship. I still goof a lot, but I'm not flipping my amps or even suggesting that I would ever perform a repair for anyone else; I got into this because it's very expensive to maintain a collection of vintage tube amps. Again, thanks for sharing your knowledge and your commitment to doing things correctly.

I have the LT5 , the single EL84 5 watts version of this amp, I loved his sound and bought it as soon as he was release 10 years ago. I have never opened it but I thought that the unique power tube was mounted directly on the chassis, that's what the seller said ;) ! I think that they are built in china now, mine was the first version , it says "handbuilt in UK" , I have a celestion speakers labeled "made in england" , I have also a spring reverb can.

@gerardoromano3436

Жыл бұрын

Hi, do you still have It? Still working OK ? The first UK version has a great speaker a Celestion G12H30 55HZ and a solid cabinet. I have a friend who has the 5w and the 20W version like this vid, Both of us prefer the 5W single EL84 tube both for drive and clean. Cheers

I think these type of videos are a great idea. I think the owner showed alot of courage to ask the questions he did. Because of all the demo videos and media of all sorts available in 2022. Alot of us think we know alot about products and gear. We can name and identify the brands and models , artists who play them and maybe we know an assortment of tube qualities , etc. But in reality alot of us havent owned or played many hours on most of them , and so we dont really know. My grandmother used to say theres no such thing as a stupid question, dont be afraid to ask. And i applaud psonic audio to have the grace and sensitivity to answer this guys concerns. Clearly he has alot more experience and understanding , and so, we are lucky to be able to access it here

Just found your channel. Have learnt so much from this video, thanks 😊

very well said at the end my friend

I have the precursor, the Laney VC30. I added a tone (cut) and I do some additional low-passing in post processing, and after all that I often find myself simply creating music and playing, rather than tweaking tone, which is VERY RARE for me. Laney also deserves a lot of praise for their support - they stand by their amps even after they've changed owners, which is commendable.

@mattgilbert7347

Жыл бұрын

I may look into a tone cut for one of my VC30s.

@lordgraga

Жыл бұрын

@@mattgilbert7347 It's super simple - a 250K potentiometer in series with a 4n7 cap, sitting across P34 an P34. I ended up tag soldering my mod to the resistor legs but it's been holding up OK.

@NoStringsAttached777

Ай бұрын

The VC15 and VC30 models have standard BMT pots but also a "Master Tone" (my wordage) pot that is placed after all of the preamp components and just before the power valves. Can't see how anyone could need more than that. Using the Bright switch will mean a whole different EQ setup is required but it is worth persevering with The chromed metal panel and pot layout is identical in the VC and Lionheart range - along with a bunch of other things.

I love to watch your videos I've aspired for sometime now to build-up my own amplifiers but the skill level that I see seems to be a bit beyond my expertise that's why I leave this kind of work to the experts. Thank you for all you do.

Well said sir. Cheers 🍻

I owned both the L20 half stack and the L5 combo, before I afforded a Hi-Tone Hiwatt DR504 style amp and a Victoria Tweed Deluxe. Then I understood that, although lovely sounding, Lionhearts are not great amplifiers. Sure, for their money they are pretty good and for some applications the right tool. Still, not great amps. I also experienced the problem of faulty components, which led to a replacement of the whole circuit board for the head. I totally agree with everything you've said in this video and with your philosophy, you 've talked about! Great content!

Most musicians dont know how to solder a wire. I dont expect them to know what is good or not regarding the build quality of an amp. Heck, some so called amp techs dont know either. Again thank you for pointing at the right direction.

That’s an awesome sounding amp.

@easye9-21

6 ай бұрын

Love mine.

Your channel has some interesting amplifiers.

I care very much about Laneys. Currently own 3 (a Cub12R w/Vintage 30, UK made VC30 210 w/stock Jensens, MIC VC30 112 w/"V-Lux", a Chinese 70/80 clone I think) and am currently looking at a UK made VC15. Been curious about the Lionheart series for years but in Australia, just for one of them - like the LT20 - they cost more than all my other Laneys combined.

I have the L200 top and cabinett 2x12, when it come New i emiditly Bought it and been playing ot for years, its an awesome amp, seldom been so satisfied with the sound and functions of the controls, Never need any distortion pedal to it! I have goose skin afterwards! Try it you will love it!

@bluesbagdelta399

2 жыл бұрын

It should be L20 of course....

those last 5-6 minutes..well-said.

I had a Gorilla too. When you're 15 it's pure rock and roll.

Nice review, Lyle - and I liked your candid commentary at the end on why you do what you do and love placing a great amp back in the hands of a player - or in this case recommending that the player sell this amp and buy something they can actually enjoy and make great music on. One thing I noticed in your video that I wanted to ask about was at 5:00. There was an upright cap - located at C5 on the board - that had some discoloration around the bottom. Any idea if that was from heat, leaking or something else?

@PsionicAudio

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks. That's adhesive, very common practice on radials/PCBs.

Also, my second practice amp was a Gorilla lol what a time it was with guitars that killed your fingers and amps like that. Would love to be a kid starting now with how far the industry has come.

@goodun2974

2 жыл бұрын

Think about all the old blues guys (and gals), the progenitors of modern rock and roll, whose first guitar, or perhaps many of the guitars they owned/borrowed and learned on or even played at gigs, likely had strings a half inch off the fretboard, the necks and tops warped from humidity and string tension.....they really had to want it bad in order to stick with it long enough to learn to play well.

Reminds me if a guy I sold a deluxe reverb reissue to in Reverb. He returned it for similar reasons as the Laney owner. I took it to a reputable amp tech and he went through it and found nothing wrong. Cost me time and money and was extremely frustrating because of buyers lack of knowledge...like buying a car and taking it back saying the exhaust smells bad

one of the bands I played with recently had one of these, I was impressed as I generally don't really like the british type amps, She was using an ES335 and a few peddles, but still, I kinda want one now.

@gerardoromano3436

Жыл бұрын

Hi you won´t regret It, they are great amps, I know guys that use them for gigs and most are UK made at least 10 years old. Never an issue. Very reliable amps despite whats said in this vid. I don´t work for Laney, I don´t even know who owns Laney nowadays. Can´t say the same for those made in China, but the UK Made ones are superb. Hope this helps

@northmanlogging2769

Жыл бұрын

@@gerardoromano3436 ironically, the Girl that I was mentioning performed at a show I hosted this last Sat... now shes got a speaker cab to go with that Laney... damned good stuff all around.

I too had a Gorilla when I was 16, I was delighted, Lol. Imagine how bad my previous amp was, Lol.

I've been running a Laney LC30 as my main amp for 15 years. Gets played _every_ day. I have repaired it twice, once due to poor component selection and once due to poor assembly. Still running its original tubes. Have found Laney's tech support, by email, to be excellent and their supply of spares to be prompt and reasonably priced. These aren't boutique hand-wired amps, but they are generally decent value. BTW, I would wind back the tone on the tele a bit (as I do) - it will sound a lot sweeter through this amp!

@MrakS

Жыл бұрын

I have an LC30, I bought it a few years ago as a backup and now I've discarded the other amps and use it for gigging. It's quite compact, loud as hell and sounds really clear in a band situation.

@watkinscopicat

Жыл бұрын

I have had my LC30 for 17 years and it’s been absolutely wonderful, definitely one of the best “affordable” amps. mine has cap/resistor upgrades and a larger Hammond AC30 transformer and it’s still going strong, only real problems seem to be with the surface mount components in the reverb and effect loops.

@steveburrows1679

Жыл бұрын

@@watkinscopicat Ace. I love the clean channel, it has a transparency I haven't been able to reproduce with other amps.

The Laney L20 is an unusual amp. The front end preamp is sort of Marshall and similar to VC30 but the power stage is single ended Class A with 4 EL84s in parallel. It's part of the Lionheart range. Top of the range was the Lionheart L50 with 5 single ended EL34s in parallel for 50 watts but its been dropped.

@mattgilbert7347

Жыл бұрын

I liked the discontinued LT40 with 4x10". A large combo, presumably going for a Bassman thing?

My Laney L20 has been good to me. I like the TAD EL84's and tung Sol pre's with it. An Alnico 12 or G12H RI Greenback These will eat power tubes if you use it a lot! Look out for the Cub12's Sound nice but had issues with every one. Thanks for sharing!

@j4wn

Жыл бұрын

I'm getting the head version, when you say "Will eat power tubes if you use it a lot". What is "a lot", genuine question, not being snarky! Do you mean 1 gig per week? 2 gigs and 1 rehearsal a week? 10 hours play per week? Thanks.

@Kozmo260

Жыл бұрын

@@j4wn I used the amp a lot for jams 1 to 2 night a week on avg for the better part of a year or so. EL 84 tubes transport well, in car over bumps, amp basically lived in my trunk on a pillow most of the summer. Hope this helps some it's also subjective

@j4wn

Жыл бұрын

@@Kozmo260 Thanks, but did the same set of EL84'S get you through that year?

At 8:40, this type of Molex or Amphenol connector do not belong in high voltage or hot-running circuits! I have some similar vintage connectors in original packages and the maximum voltage rating is stated as 250 Volts. Magnatone used these in the M-series amps to connect the bottom-mount power-supply to the top-mount amplifier; the plastic housing turns tan or brown with age and heat, and the pins turn green with corrosion, likely due to some kind of outgassing from the plastic as it ages (many plastics are actually chlorine-containing compounds, such as PVC, and chlorine loves to react with copper). Unless those connector housings are actually made of Teflon you can probably expect to have to replace them at some point. I also noticed brown caps on the PCB. These fail from heat, or even sometimes leak while they're in storage in your parts bin. To paraphrase Frank Zappa, "Brown Caps Don't Make It".

I would be curious to know if you were testing the Chinese made version or the orignal British built version. I have a British built L20T and bought it new when they 1st came out. It is serial number 495. I have used it almost daily for many years without any problems. The Chinese version are both over priced and maybe not as well made.Mine also has a British made Celestion G12m. That too makes a difference in the ultimate tone.

Well. Psionic. You're going to be upset. Laney Lionhearted sell for $1000 plus. I will say this I've owned and gigged with the older VC-15 (AB powered overseas model) for years (10+) . Had to change V2 preamp. That's it. The digital reverb is ok. It ain't fender spring reverb. It don't surf. The reverb is on par, as good as, peavey classic series long spring tank. Been loving your videos! Thanks for all the observations and advice! Keep going!

While I appreciate your concern about how people may have reacted to the 6G6B build video, the truth is, what you said hit close to home for me. At present, I've built more than a dozen amps over the last eight or nine years - but I haven't sold any - yet. The longer term plan is to build amps as part of a hobby/retirement source of income. Having listened and thought over what you've said, there's a few comments I'd like to add. First, and most importantly, you're absolutely correct. Tube amps are dangerous and capable of killing someone in any number of ways. At the same time, countless thousands of people have bought and built kits. Perhaps the best we can hope for is resources to be made available outlining what the best practices of amp building require. Rob Robinette has built a massive site with Uncle Doug and yourself sharing videos. Documenting these best practices, especially with regards to safety, has nothing to do with how you voice your amps or reduce noise. To that end, you are here educating all of us. Most of us do listen to and respect what you're saying. I don't think any of the mass producing, focused-on-profit, entities care either way. From my perspective, we're not your competition, the particle board, mass produced, cheap overseas manufacturers are your direct competition. The amps I build have little in common with what you are offering. I build what I like to hear. This is not to suggest it is better, this is subjective, as you well know. When you publicly take apart and criticize a a poorly-built amp, especially when you see unsafe conditions, you do us all an invaluable service. There's a world of difference between insulting people for being incompetent and speaking out forcefully when you see potentially lethal equipment being sold to an unsuspecting public. As a suggestion, maybe you could offer to evaluate privately built amps, for a fee, and educate a new group of people who seem intent on becoming part of the industry. We're never going to make it into the guild but as the guild gets older, the need for younger people to be correctly trained to fill the ranks seems apparent.

Lyle, have you ever worked on Laney LC30 and LC15 amps? If so, what's your opinion on them?

I bought a Laney L20 Lionheart Head 15 years ago. Shortly after for various reasons it ended up in storage. Not been switched on since. If I can find it again [and hopefully it's not covered in mildew] do you think it will work ok, or need to be inspected by a good technician before trying to switch it back on ??? I've heard differing opinions about whether electrical gear perishes if it's not used regularly.

Thank you for this. I had the 5 watt version (my first tube amp). I thought it was a good amp and that I had gone my homework. I found out that it was not easy to service. Although I did find the company schematic online. My amp tech said it reminded him of a bassman

So this amp is not great for serviceability, but I'm curious on some of the other stuff you said. Tone-wise you said it's not great. Is this a subjective matter or price point related? I've only ever played relatively cheap amps, so I might not know what I'm missing. I gather you appreciate Voxs and Marshalls, but would DSL40 be inherently better than this Laney, or would one need to pay more for decent tone?

I hate SMD components. I used to make a nice piece of extra change modding $39-$49 Boss SD-1’s and DS-1 pedals to sound really good changing out a handful of parts. Then they went all SMD and jacked the price so that put an end to that side business. I hate working with a microscope and a hot air soldering station. Invested in that stuff to keep up but give me an old Fender or Marshall and I’ll be smiling. Even older SS stereo stuff I’ve been digging lately. The age of throw it in the trash instead of fixing it. SAD

LOL, $700. A Chinese champ clone costs about that much down here. I just googled and a single speaker Laney L20 combo is over $2000 AUD, the 2 speaker one is $2500 AUD. The south pacific peso, plus insane freight costs, means we basically can't afford anything anymore.

Is the L20 the Laney Lionheart amp mate? I've had the Laney Lionheart L5 Studio for the last 4 or 5 years and have been more than happy with it, I think it's a nice amp for home/studio use, and the loudness of a 5 watt valve amp isn't to be underestimated - most of the time when playing in the living room I use the 0.5 watt input and that's still fairly loud but perfect for turning the volume up past about 6 and getting that edge of breakup sound that a lot of us look for in a valve amp but can't get with bigger wattages because you can't turn it up past 2 or 3 without deafening the neighbours 😆 It's funny, but I've never found my amp to be too bright, but then again, mine has just 1 x el84 and 3 x 12AX7's, plus I mainly use humbucker guitars, apart from my Gretsch which has Dynasonics in it, but it's a hollow body guitar anyway, and they're always going to sound a bit darker than something like a Tele 👍

@PsionicAudio

2 жыл бұрын

I don't know. I haven't had a lot of Laneys come in, and the ones I've had here have been on the crappy side.

@JammyGit

2 жыл бұрын

@@PsionicAudio - Well I appreciate your opinion which is more learned than I about amplifiers. Have you ever had any Marshall Origin 20 heads through your workshop? If so, what do you think of those, are they crappy too?

@Ari_Calamari

Жыл бұрын

@@JammyGit Pretty sure he has some videos on it now. IIRC I don’t think he’s impressed.

@ Lyle have you ever ran across an amp that sounds way better than it should and is a rather cheap kind of a crappy or "affordable" build? Haha! Im sure these things happen once in awhile. Im very curious.

@PsionicAudio

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, the Crate Vintage Club series is surprisingly good.

@HiHello-ku1fl

2 жыл бұрын

@@PsionicAudio Exactly the amp I was thinking of. I used to be in a band with another guitarist who used one and I was always like damn how is he getting such good tone out of that thing. He used a tele mostly and more cleaner tones. I always though maybe the Peavey classic 30 too but dont have as much experience on those.

this amp reminds me the Laney VC30

@notplaying2379

2 жыл бұрын

Well spotted.

Have you ever heard the phrase "I am but a voice crying in the wilderness"?

I wish amps weren't made so complicated. It seems like there's too many features. Too many channels. Too many buttons. And then some of them use cheap parts. Like IC caps. The silicone that holds them in place will last longer than the caps themselves.

I’m a long time Laney user, but I didn’t get on with the L20, I didn’t like the clean tone.

the 1x12 L20 is $1379 😮

@PsionicAudio

2 жыл бұрын

Well then. That's crazy.

I just checked and Laney's asking $1449 for these things! Too much for me.

$1400 >> $700

I get a lot out of your directness when you talk about issues you have with amps. No sense beating around the bush.

Yuck amp.