Laney VC30 212 vs Hot Rod Deluxe vs Bugera V22

alexmitchell17

Hi 

I started a discussion on here a few days ago about best valve amps under £500 my budget has changed to more like £400 and I think I've got it between these. I've only ever played a hot rod deluxe which I would be happy with but I found a Laney VC30 212 for £200 which is a good £150 cheaper than I could get a HRD for. I also found a lot of love for the Bugera V22 which you can get new for £349, I'm guessing this is a lesser amp but I like the fact it'll have a warranty and I shouldn't have to replace any valves etc any time soon.. 
The amp will be used in a wedding band with pedals for drive so I'll probably just need a decent clean platform. I'll also have it micced (miked miced? cant spell!) so the volume doesn't have to be crazy loud, I was wandering if the laney maybe too loud if anyone has any experience with them it'd be good to know. 

Thanks

TheMarlin

They're all differently flavoured.  One Fender Blackface, another emulating AC30, another Marshall.  

Different gain structures.  As a pedal platform with a great clean basic tone, I'd still go HRD. 

simonk

Any reason you're not considering Jet City? I'd take one over a Bugera any day of the week. If it has to be a combo, there's this:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/jet_city_amplification_jca2212_guitar_combo.htm

ICBM

I haven't owned any of them personally, but I have worked on all of them if that helps. (The Bugera only once I think.)

They're actually all quite similar in terms of build quality and reliability, including the Bugera - in fact in some ways it may be the best of the three! The Fender is marginally better than the Laney, but there's not really enough difference in it to be important.

In terms of sounds the Fender has the best clean sound if you like clarity or big deep reverby sounds, but the Laney is good if you like a 'hairier' Vox/Marshall type of sound - it's not distorted as such, but it's more 'complex' if that makes sense. Both take pedals well. If you were going to use the dirty channels the Fender's is more Marmite - some people like its more ragged bluesy sound - whereas the Laney's is more a traditional classic rock crunch and closer to what more people like I think. The Bugera I'm least familiar with but I seem to remember it was a bit more 'neutral' and less obviously either 'British' or 'American'.

The Fender and the Laney will easily be loud enough, but contrary to popular belief they can be turned down too! With the Fender some people find the controls tricky to adjust finely, but in my opinion it isn't a problem unless you're trying to get true whisper volume. The Laney is slightly more forgiving, I think - I don't find the Fender a problem though, so I may not be the right person to ask. The Bugera *may* struggle for clean headroom in a large space, but probably not that much. Certainy none of them are 'too loud' for a normal gig.

Both the Bugera and the Laney are self-biasing so you can change valves yourself easily; the Fender in theory needs to be adjusted, although in practice they're biased fairly conservatively and if you use the same Fender-branded Groove Tubes valves it probably isn't really necessary. The Fender is not particularly hard on valves and they should last a long time - the other two probably need changing more often (but still not as often as some people will tell you… mostly valve sellers ).

The Laney is the biggest and heaviest obviously, and the Bugera the smallest and lightest, if that makes a difference.

If it was me I'd still buy the Fender, unless you do definitely prefer the 'British' tone over the 'American'. It's a better buy second hand than almost any other amp of a comparable new price… but the Laney at only £200 is an unusually good deal.

Does that help?

siraxeman

My pick is easily the vc30....i've had 2 in the past - 2x12 and 2x10. The 2x12 was as loud as you'd ever really need and was a brilliant pedal platform. I didn't like the fuzzy quality of the drive channel so never used it. But I found out that must be down to the speakers (mine had the 70/80s) the 2x10 had Jensen speakers which seemed to make for a much smoother creamier dirt channel from what I believe is the very same preamp circuit. The 2x12 was considerably louder tho. I'm a big fan though of 2x12 combos they just sound bigger and spread way better.

Closest I've owned to the hot rod was the blues deluxe....seemed very similar tho. Was also a great pedal platform but if I was to own and gig one of those again I would go vc30.

DJH83004

I think as IC pretty much paints a fair picture, as always, I personally haven't owned any but repaired them all - particularly the HRD, but just simply because the volumes in which they are sold, and a number of common faults on the earlier ones, which are well documented. The only comment I would make is that the Bugera amps are very underrated IMHO, I appreciate they are Chinese, but designed in Germany and built to a good standard and the transformers look like they are up for the job - you could do a lot worse. The HRDs are too loud and brash for my personal tastes, but hey-ho, I haven't gigged in years and just fix them, but generally glad to switch them off  
The Laneys are well put together, but they are quite heavy beasts, but as IC says a good deal, if it is pretty tidy and been looked after.  

timmysoft

I've owned all three of those (well a v55 rather than a v22) heres my opinions:

 Laney VC30 212 - the stock speakers are shit, doesn't matter if they're the HH or the Celestion 70/80's, they're both really shit speakers that really restrict the amps tonal capabilities. The clean on the VC is exceptional, its bold, mid heavy and really gobbles up drive pedals. I used mine with both a RAT2 and a Mesa Throttlebox, both sounded devastatingly good. I upgraded the speakers to greenbacks, which made a massive difference and really turns the VC into a top quality amp. I toured this one for a year, it didn't miss a beat, i kind of wish i still had it now, the VC and the Mesa TB rig was probably the best sound i've ever had.

Bugera V - I had the v55 head, i picked it up for just over £100 and was expecting it to be fucking shitty. It wasn't, its a bloody good amp, even better when you consider that v22's can be picked up used for well under £120! Cleans are again bold, a little scooped in the mid range but the EQ has plenty of adjustment. Sounded great with p90's with an OCD in front. Drive channel was also great, better than the Laneys drive channel, i dialled it in to sound pretty much identical to my JCM900 combo.

Fender HRD - i briefly had a HRD(2) Deville 2x12. The volume control seemed very sensitive and i thought the cleans were a little "hard" in comparison to both the Laney & Bugera. Its great as a clean pedal platform, although i could never find a high gain distortion pedal that sat really well with it, it made all my favourite drive pedals sound a bit shit. I sold it because it was heavy and had a few faults that i couldn't be arsed to fix. I bought the Blues Deville 410 afterwards which is a better amp in every single way, so if you're going Fender i'd go Blues Deluxe rather than HRD. I did try the newer HRD 3, with the dark panel the Bassbreakers came out, IMO the Bassbreakers shit all over the HRD's

 Out of the 3, i'd say the Laney was the best, followed by the Bugera then the Fender. they're all good amps, but theres better bargains to be had on both the Laney & Bugera.

Dave_Mc

I haven't tried the Bugera, but I just wanted to point out that, as far as I'm aware, the warranty normally doesn't cover valves- the valves usually have a much shorter warranty (90 days I think usually).

zepp76

I had the Bugera V22 for a few years without a single problem, I have now given it to my nephew for his first real valve amp and he is well chuffed with it. All in all it is a very reliable amp and also sounds great with a variety of guitars as can be seen in this clip:

Voxman

Dave_Mc said:

I haven't tried the Bugera, but I just wanted to point out that, as far as I'm aware, the warranty normally doesn't cover valves- the valves usually have a much shorter warranty (90 days I think usually).

I think thats pretty typical of most valve amp warranties. 

Dave_Mc

^ Oh yeah absolutely, that's what I meant. Reading my post back I can see it was a bit ambiguous.