Plenty of guitar gear seems to come out of the United Kingdom (UK). A lot of it seems to be seriously good too. Must be all the hours they have to spend inside on account of the terrible weather. Whatever the reason, I’m glad. It makes my ongoing search for a tube amplifier head easier. I just search for something like guitar amplifier manufacturer UK and discover companies like Laney. Then I peruse their website and before you know it, Bam! Laney Cub head. Perfect.
Regular readers of this website (all six of you) will know I’m searching for my first tube amplifier head. There are only a few rules. They are:
- Affordable (well under $1000 if I can help it)
- Lower wattage (I am a bedroom guitarist)
- It needs to sound and look good.
I could have split that last item into two individual items, but I like to keep my sense based criteria—such as sight and sound—together.
Luckily the Laney Cub amplifier meets all of the criteria and then goes above and beyond. Yay! Bang for my buck. It seems I can pickup the Laney Cub head here in Australia for $500. That’s very appealing. Visually, I think the Laney Cub meets my criteria. It looks awesome. Combined with a Laney Cub Cab, the amplifier becomes even more awesome. Insanely awesome (I believe that’s the next logical step beyond regular awesome).
In regards to the sounds, I am forced to rely on those lucky enough to have tested or owned this amplifier head (and then shared their experience online). Luckily for me it seems folks like Premier Guitar did a great little demo/interview video. Laney have their own official Cub video which gives a great set of audio examples. The gain through the Les Paul sounds awesome to me.
All well and good you might think. But what is in it? Good question valued reader.
- Gain, Treble, Bass, Middle, Reverb, Volume and Tone controls
- Footswitch input (for the reverb)
- Effects loop
- 2 x EL84 tubes (output)
- 3 x ECC83 tubes (preamp)
- 8 & 16 ohm speaker outputs
- 15 watt and <1 watt inputs
That <1 watt feature (less than 1 watt for you non-mathematicians) is awesome. I can rock my heart out without scaring young children and animals from the neighbourhood. Also, that’s a lot of tubes. You’ve got to love that. Well, I do.
Clean tones? Check. Gain? Check. Reverb? Check. Low wattage friendliness? Check. All-tube? Check. Like I said in my introductory paragraph, this seems perfect.
Disclaimer: I’ve not played through this head. I have not experienced the sound or tone of this head other than through video. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.
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