Laney AOR Pro Tube

[Chip Roberts]

Anyone have any experiences with this amp?  It's been on my watch list ever since I found out Vinnie Vincent "used" them.  I saw one for sale here in a pawn shop I was thinking of taking a look at as a potential power amp to complement my MP1.  Thoughts?

[Dante]

I've never tried one. I would just try pluggin directly into that thing at the shop. If you get a good clean tone, and the price is right, you should be fine.

I used to run my MP-1 into an old Carvin X100b head and it sounded great. It had a great clean tone. Shoulda seen the guys face when I tried it out. I turned the gain all the way down & he said "that's gonna be way too clean" haha. He didn't know I'd be plugging a preamp into it. Later, I got a B200s & have been rack mount every since

[rnolan]

Hey Chip, should work fine as a MP-1 poweramp (albeit mono).  You may be able to plug the MP-1 into the Fx return and bypass the input stages  .

[Chip Roberts]

Thanks dudes.  It's part of my ludicrous bucket list of owning the amp heads that Vinnie Vincent used.  I am also curious to hear how a tube power amp affects the sound of my rig.  The other day I plugged into a Fender combo and it sounded pretty much exactly the same    We were in a different rehearsal space, so next time I'll try plugging it through the power section of the Marshall JVM they have as the backline.  I've read it's pretty much identical as the JCM800.

[rnolan]

Hey Chip, it will depend on the poweramp.  Some power amp stages are very clean and transparent (in which case you may just notice tubes are a "little" warmer eg Carvin TS100), others colour the sound eg Boogie.  Also with tube poweramps you can chase output distortion (some like it) by driving the power tubes hard.  This involves volume ir tun the power amp up full and drive it hard..  I'd try using both the Fender and Marshall at the same time and run stereo  >:D .

[Chip Roberts]

I've never tried one. I would just try pluggin directly into that thing at the shop. If you get a good clean tone, and the price is right, you should be fine.

I used to run my MP-1 into an old Carvin X100b head and it sounded great. It had a great clean tone. Shoulda seen the guys face when I tried it out. I turned the gain all the way down & he said "that's gonna be way too clean" haha. He didn't know I'd be plugging a preamp into it. Later, I got a B200s & have been rack mount every since

Dante, you've tried the X100B?  How did that jive with your MP1?  You can get them used for reasonably inexpensive prices here in the States.

[Dante]

I'm in Cali dude ;)

The x100b sounded great. It was a bit bright, but nothing I couldn't work with. I would highly recommend them, if you don't mind lugging them around. I chose the rackmount option & got a B200s, much lighter.

[rnolan]

The Carvin TS100 is a good choice if you want to go tube and run stereo (which makes soo much difference with ADA rigs).  It's actually comparatively reasonably light for a 50w p/ch tube amp, but still heavy, goes with the territory. And I'd proffer a better option (in some ways) than using mono amp heads (but you NEED 2 heads!!).  That said MLMP runs 2 old Marshalls but just uses their power amp stages coz he likes them and it works for him.

[Chip Roberts]

I'm new to the rack game and have so far had great results, but am always curious to try other things out and see what else I like.  Right now it's pretty bitchin' only having to make one trip to the car! 

[rnolan]

One trip to the car is good, I hear ya..  However, once you spark these things up in stereo, you'll never want to go back to mono, seriously  >:D .
With my B200s I had it in the main 8RU rack.  When I got the TS100, (coz B200 needed fixing), I put it in its own 2 RU rack coz it so heavy, and also keeps the heat out of the preamp rack.  Now I have a Carvin DCM200L in the rack so I have just one rack, one split stack (wired stereo), a lead case (includes the MXC and pedals) and one or two guitars... so a few trips to the car.  But easier than when I had 2 Marshalls, a 2 x 12, a quad box, a couple of pedals (delay, chorus) and their wall warts, and 2 guitars..

[kissfan113]

I have 2 of these AOR heads, great amps, mine have been very reliable over the years I've owned them. They are a bit speaker finicky tried them with g12T75 celestions and hated it, the factory cabs loaded with g12m70 Celestion speakers woke them up and balanced the tone substancially. You can run the preamp into the effects return if you'd like to use them as power amps, i use a GCX switcher and isolate the preamp by way of running to the front of the amp with a loop and back from the sent to the switch unit, that way I have some variability of use. I think if you get one you will love it. Great amps, they can be a process to learn with the pull boosts and the way those react in terms of tone and volume but certainly some great tones to be had.