Opinions on Laney GH50L??

[Joel]

I am going trying one out today but as always want to know your experiences/opinions of these...
I want quite a versatile head; one that can do Metal but also Jazz an all the stuff inbetween...
It would be going through an orange cab...

But also, if you have any other suggestions within the same price range then please share them

Thanks

[Ishan]

A used JSX?

[thedonutman]

I've got one, and so do a few other guys here.

If you run a tubescreamer into it then you can get clean and distorted sounds without having to turn any knobs on the amp. It can do a lot of different sounds, just not switch between them (since it's only one channel)

[Demeyes]

I've got one. It does have a nice range of sounds but you really have to work with it, it's pretty responsive to changing your volume on the guitar to clean up. It's a single channel amp with footswitchable gain, so you have to share eq between clean and dirty sounds. If your going to be changing sounds a lot live then this probably isn't the best amp. But for messing with at home it will cover most bases pretty well.

[Alex-D33]

Hi there ! Fellow future Laney owner ....
And I say that because when you have tried one will be very pleased by the sound and versatility of this beast .

I have one and Toshiro on this Board. Nothing short of AWESOME tube tone for the price you pay. I recently changed all the tubes and it screams !

Go for it you won't regret it trust me. I'v been playing for 19 years and owned many types of tube amps ( Marshall / mesa / ampeg / fender ) try it out and let your ears be the judge.

[Toshiro]

Tone wise they're very versatile. Depending on setting it can do almost anything. Throw in a boost and an EQ and you can get some damn brutal tones.

Switching wise, not so much. To get a lot of gain out of it, you sacrifice the clean with the 'boost' turned off. If you run totally clean with the boost off, you can't get much gain. etc.etc. If you're looking to switch between raging metal gain and jazz clean, I would go for a VH100R instead, as the gain channels are 99% the same, but the VH has a dedicated clean.

Also, I would run the treble very low, or off, and use the presence as a high knob. The amp sounds, and responds, better this way for many people.

[Ze Kink]

I owned one, didn't really like it. I got some nice tones out of it, but still, it wasn't my cup of tea. I sold it and got a Tiny Terror, which I thought did the same thing, only better.

It NEEDS a boost, I couldn't get any usable tones using just its own distortion. Something I recorded with it once (very badly mixed with SHIT mic placement, but you get the idea): http://www.kolumbus.fi/lassi.salo/ze...testibiisi.mp3

[Emperoff]

I have a VH100R and I love it. The cleans are absolutely gorgeous, and the lead tones on it are just jaw-dropping. Rythm wise, to me sounds like a cranked Marshall, kinda 80's thrash tone. For modern brutal rythm tones, you might need a boost and an EQ on the loop, as Toshiro said.

The GH50L sounds exactly the same, but only has one channel with a gain boost acting as a second channel, so you have to compromise brutality or a more clean sound, you can't go heaven and hell with it. If you need that, get the VH100R

Oh, I almost forgot... Those ....ers are LOUD, and when I say loud, I mean stupidly loud Yoy might need an attenuator to push harder the preamp without deafening the whole neighborhood