Wow. It's been a year now with this amp. I think I can declare the honeymoon period officially over.
I bought this amp after selling the Cornell Romany Plus I'd been playing and gigging with for several years. I wanted something that I could dial in a fatter, dirtier base tone from since I'd been using the Cornell with an overdrive pedal pretty much constantly engaged. I did some homework and found that the Lionhearts came highly recommended for a modern take on vintage-y lower gain "British" sounds.
So, what you get is:
2 channels with shared EQ- treble, middle, bass, bright switch, overall tone control
Spring reverb
Celestion G12H Heritage
4x EL84 parallel single ended power amp
How does it sound?
Pretty bloody marvellous if old-school Vox/Marshall tones are what you're after. It doesn't quite have that slashing treble cut that you get from an AC30 or a Marshall JMP (although I tend to avoid turning the master tone control all the way up, so it'll get nastier than I generally set it) but what it loses in politeness it more than makes up for in practical considerations like not weighing a metric shit ton or needing to be trouser-flappingly loud to sound any good. EQ is effective, although it's never going to get you outside a certain realm of guitar tone. Still, it's loud enough to hang with an enthusiastic drummer and has a lovely clear voice that lets the detail of the guitar sound through. It cleans up when you play softly and barks when you hit it hard just like it's supposed to. It's more forgiving than the Fender amps I've had in the past but still needs you to work if you want to get it to sing and won't let you off every duff note.
I saw another forum member describe the two channels as being kind of like master volume and non-master volume versions of the same amp- the clean channel will clip a little as you turn up the volume (so I'm told) whereas the gain channel allows you to dial some dirt in at any level. I've set mine up with a slightly dirty tone on the gain channel (normally around 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock) and basically use it like a single channel amp except for a few places in the set where I need it clean. It won't give you convincing high gain sounds with the gain turned up, but it's not really an amp you'd look to if that's what you wanted. It'll get you to the dirtier end of the classic rock spectrum- AD/DC, classic era Thin Lizzy etc.- but no further than that without some outboard assistance.
For reference, my band rig is:
PRS Starla X -> Polytune mini -> BYOC 5-Knob Compressor -> BYOC Divided Octave (Mu-Tron Octave Divider) -> BYOC Stereo Analogue Flanger -> BYOC Mighty Mouse (RAT) -> Behringer RV-600 reverb (Verbzilla) -> Vox Delaylab -> Mosky XP Booster (EP Booster)
The Delaylab and XP Booster are in the loop, everything else goes in the front end.
I've also used the Lionheart with my CIJ JD Telecaster (w/ Wilde Keystone pickups) and my G&L S-500- it sounds ace with both. It takes pedals well- it'll compress and drive harder rather than getting very much louder when you hit the front end with a boost or an OD set above unity, which is why the XP booster went in the loop for solos and suchlike.
It comes with a dust cover, which will protect the amp from dust and not a lot else. I got a couple of "it's funny because it's true" laughs in my NAD thread by describing it as a "bag for life". If you want actual protection, you'll need to fork out for a proper cover or case.
It has a tilt-back mechanism on the underside for pointing the amp at your knees rather than your ankles when placed on the floor, which is a step in the right direction. It feels like it's balanced somewhat precariously compared to, say, a Fender Twin's tilt arrangement, so I'd be very wary of putting it anywhere off the ground with the tilt-back thing on. I try to have the amp on a chair or something else to elevate it a bit when I play, so I tend not to bother with the tilt-back legs unless there's really no other way to go. To be fair I've used them a few times now without the amp deciding to keel over backwards, so maybe I'm worrying unnecessarily.
It's a one-hand carry on the flat if you're reasonably fit, but you won't want anything very heavy in the other hand.
Comments
UPDATE: No you don't need to plug in a patch cable. If you put jumper wires between the switched contacts on the send and return jacks the amp will work without a cable in the loop.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
There's a Laney demo of the combo on YouTube where the chap goes up into metal levels of gain. It is just wrong sounding for that, whoever does their videos needs shooting.
The tilt back thing is OK but in a pub with wobbly floorboards our drummer walked past mine and the amp ended up flat on it's back.
The L5T definitely has digital reverb but I'm almost certain I found a reverb tank inside my amp when I opened it up to mod the effects loop.
EDIT: Yes, I did. It's mounted at the top of the front panel, behind where the name badge is, not in the bottom of the cabinet where you'd usually find it.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Yep, the master tone control is very useful for "tuning the room", or for adjusting from a humbucker guitar to a single coil one.It doesn't sound exactly like just turning up the treble either- IMO the master tone makes the top end more cutting and aggressive than the treble control does.
FYI, it has a fairly even sweep through most of its travel, but just before it hits full clockwise it makes a noticeable jump in brightness. Not un-useable, probably pretty good for getting closer to bright, scooped Blackface-y sort of sounds. I'll have to fiddle with it more to see if it can get you there.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
I second all the comments regarding the down sides to the amp and will add that the 4x10 was heavy to shit around.
All said and done though, I thought it was great and id be happy to still be playing one.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Cracked open the amp last night to discover that 2015 me had decided only to jumper the sleeve contacts on the send and return jacks and not the tips. 2017 me rolled his eyes, added another jumper wire and found that the amp now works fine without the patch cable.
If you're relatively competent with a screwdriver(!) and a soldering iron the mod will take you about an hour to do, not two years like this numpty
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
If the design is unchanged (I don't know for sure that it isn't...) there's no reason why the amp shouldn't sound just as good regardless of where it was made, but it seems pretty well agreed that UK made Celestions sound better than the cheaper Chinese ones.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
I tend to use them on the "dirty" channel but with the gain only on around 3-4 at most and with the "master" volume turned up around 6 or so; that gives are great "warm" crunch tone that you can clean up on the guitar volume knob, or knock into lead overdrive with some mild o/d from a pedal. The 20w is my "turn up, switch on and go" gigging amp. The 5T is for rehearsal and home use Yes, I agree you need to crank the reverb control way up to get anything "wet" and the tone circuit is very "middly" unless you crank the master tone knob all the way up...but what a great warm sound!! Easy to tweak, as the tone controls and volumes actually work over the full range of the pots. Definitively not a surfers amp or metal amp, but does everything else in between with aplomb! Won't be selling either of these in a hurry!!!
I can't comment on the Chinese ones,but I highly recommend getting yourself an early UK model.
(Cant say I've ever had any real issues with the send/return loops, but I mainly run straight into the front and of the amp with just an overdrive and clean boost. Used a NOVA system thro the send/return for maybe 2 gigs and a few rehearsal without any obvious problems, but I just found multi-fx's and more cables a hassle and went back to going in thro the front end )