Opinions on Laney VC50 amps?

stonevibe

I'm picking one of these up hopefully later on today.

Local deal and its been re-valved recently.

When I worked at GAK my mate that worked there bought one as they were brand new at the time and rated it really highly, as he used it live with his band and played Les Pauls predominately. 

 So wondered if they have held up since the '90s?

I know the footswitch on the one I'm getting may be 'borked' and that this is a common issue. But I went into the deal knowing all this and have factored in making a new one for it if need be.

Just I've fancied a Laney amp for ages and these look to be fairly versatile (at least on paper).

Any opinions greatly appreciated as ever.

timmysoft

The best combo ive ever owned. Toured one all over europe for two years with no problems.id have another one if I had the space!

stonevibe

That is pretty good to hear.

I'm buying it for live work and wanted something that could take a knock. So if you managed to tour Europe with one I should be okay.

paulads

i picked one up for £250 a couple of years back...it sounded really good and was very reliable...though the H/H speakers aren't the cat's knackers. A great amp for very little money.

ps

It was strangely awkward to carry. 

Kebabkid

stevepage bought along his one to the SE Gearfest and it sounded great. Strong cleans and a great overdrive channel. You barely need to use any external stuff for this to sound great.
A seriously impressive amp that really shone and that's something considering it was in the company of a Carr, Lazy J, Suhr Badger & H&K.

meltedbuzzbox

I used a VC30 for 6 months and it was really dependable. 

The dirt channel volume control was on a hair trigger and I wouldn't say the clean channel was great but it did a job.

If you are feeding pedals into it I wouldn't worry about the cleans too much

Kebabkid

That's interesting to note from an owner @meltedbuzzbox as I thought the cleans sounded pretty spanky and had a Fender-flavour to them and came across really well, but it was just one afternoon's worth of listening.

stonevibe

£150 + a tenner for him to deliver it.

Footswitch is 'borked', however it has a new set of EH preamp tubes and a set of 6L6 Groove Tubes in the power section which all look brand new and sound great.

Just need to find a diagram for the switch and get it fixed.

timmysoft

stonevibe;399110" said:

That is pretty good to hear.

I'm buying it for live work and wanted something that could take a knock. So if you managed to tour Europe with one I should be okay.

Yeah, did it all with just a thin slip cover too. Featured in two music videos, 5 uk tours and a two week jaunt accross eastern europe, mine was maintained by laney themselves but I only visited the factory twice in that time. One of thetop guys at laney has three of the vc50s in a wet dry wet rig, incredible. I also had the vc30 212 which was a better pedal platform but the drive tones werent nearly as strong as the vc50.

meltedbuzzbox

Kebabkid said:

That's interesting to note from an owner @meltedbuzzbox as I thought the cleans sounded pretty spanky and had a Fender-flavour to them and came across really well, but it was just one afternoon's worth of listening.

To me it sounded very marshall-esque. It might have been the tubes though

I have a Laney head and that sounds fender like after a tube change

stonevibe

Anyone know somewhere I can get a better footswitch for these?

The one I have looks like its been hacked and one of the switches looks knackered.

stickyfiddle

Excellent amps, especially at that price. The VCs are intended to cover vox/plexi type stuff, with the 50 leaning more to the Marshall thing. Highly underrated range imo

stonevibe

It is a great sounding amp and the build quality is excellent as well. This one I just got is a bit 'dog eared', but it all works fine.

Needs a good clean!

W ould look great if it was re-tolexed, but I'll probably leave it as it is, as its just going to be gigged anyway.

Deijavoo

I had a Laney Chrome O Zone and while it sounded ace, I had loads of reliability issues before I sold it on eBay for about £70.

:x

stonevibe

I've never seen one of those. Looks similar to the VC50, I suppose they are related somehow.

meltedbuzzbox

cant you use any old Fender/marshall 2 button switch on the laney?

stonevibe

Its a 4 button job that uses a 5 pin DIN plug.

I think I have a 5 pin MIDI / DIN cable somewhere, so I will try and find 4 heavy duty switches and re-wire it all myself. I have a bunch of different coloured LEDs as well...

Just hate wiring switches and was looking for a neater heavy duty solution than my ham fisted attempt!

monquixote

A few companies do DIN to jack cables for amps with stupid switches. I had one for my Supersonic. 

stonevibe

Well the switch is a bit bodged. I've opened it and have got the channel switching, boost and drive switches to work. 

Only the reverb doesn't work. So could be a dodgy cable or not attached to the DIN plug end maybe...

Voxman

paulads;399213" said:

i picked one up for £250 a couple of years back...it sounded really good and was very reliable...though the H/H speakers aren't the cat's knackers. A great amp for very little money.

ps

It was strangely awkward to carry. 

The old HH Invaders were dreadful speakers. The vc50 is a really nice amp that deserves better and a speaker change transforms the amp. Ditto for the older vc30s.

Voxman

stonevibe;399264" said:

£150 + a tenner for him to deliver it.

Footswitch is 'borked', however it has a new set of EH preamp tubes and a set of 6L6 Groove Tubes in the power section which all look brand new and sound great.

Just need to find a diagram for the switch and get it fixed.

I thought the vc50 had two EL84s and 6 ECC83s?