I've had a Laney VC30 for about 15 years and it still gets regular use. It's great as a pedal platform, it's great as a stand-alone channel switching amp, the overdrive channel does everything from clean to 'thin lizzy' type breakup exceptionally well (and responds great to being pushed with an overdrive or boost, too). It doesn't really have that much of its own distinct voice and 'personality' that you instantly recognise in the same way that you do with Marshall, Fender, Vox etc. but it truly is an excellent workhorse that holds its own against much more expensive and highly regarded amplifiers, in my experience. IMO All a VC15 or VC30 needs is a speaker upgrade, and you'll be getting some top quality tones out of it. I have a G12H anniversary in mine :D
I have had my VC15 for years and as you say it is truly an underrated amplifier. My understanding is that it was initially designed to allow easy access to power end overdrive at sensible volume levels which it excels at. Set drive gain and drive level to around 8 and full reverb and you have early 70's Santana from the Lotus album. I usually max all tone controls including the 'tone' knob which really opens the amp up. Incidentally Santana's original snakeskin Boogie on that album just had the one gain stage. It did not have the cascading gain stages found on the later Mark 1 Boogies. It was basically a Blackface Fender on steroids. Maybe this is why it sounds similar in my opinion. Another thing to try is a tubescreamer in the effects loop instead of the front of the amp. This then allows the tonestack to drive into the gain stage of the tubescreamer which then gets you into Dumble teritory at really manageble volume levels. This will get the amp feeding back those 5th order harmonics on virtually any note. I have owned a Mark IIB and a Mark 1 Boogie in the past and as amazing as these amps it is pretty much impossible to get the power section cooking without getting the police at your door. Its like owning a Ferrari but only being able to drive it round a carpark. This is the main reason I went for the VC15. Your videos have convinced me to look into an ex cab for the amp. Great work and very well put together without any partiality.
Great test and laudable playing. Very keen on a Laney 15 as well, but through watching this video, at no point was I able to work out which particular speaker was in use.
After one of your videos in which you tested a greenback with the VC15, I got an extension cab with the same speaker. While the original one sounds really good in the clean channel, the GB with a bit of drive sounds just perfect. BTW, nice chops, as always!
Hi, guys! The H heritage 55Hz really seems to sound very good with the VC15, very creamy and full. My preference would probably be a little brighter with a tighter bass though. The Alnico blue sounded great as almost always, I also liked the Century vintage and the Neo Creamback surprised me again - that'd be a killer lightweight rig IMO would it fit in the combo somehow 😉 These are my favourites for a 212 mix, too. Also I wonder how the VC15 sounds with a little more gain as you've used it as a platform for a low gain situation. Keep on rocking!
I concur. I have the older Cub12r and with a Vintage 30, it's a seriously awesome amp. The VC30 is such a great workhorse, pedalhead's amp. I'd take those two over a Blues jnr and a HRD. Fender QC is a bit dodgy. The Lionheart series are amazing but too pricey for me.
@@ZillaCabs thanks for making this demo. Much appreciated. I've owned a VC50 (beast!) and have my Cub and the VC30 clone as mentioned. Now I'm seriously considering this 15. They are wonderful pedal platform amps!
@@mattgilbert7347 I have a vh100r, gh100l, lh50, lc15. All amazing amps. I have a bunch of vintage fender and Marshall amps too but I have ended up rejecting all of them for gigging and use the Laney's , mainly the VH and GH. They are both slightly modded and are the best sounding amps I have ever used.
@@jupitermoongauge4055 Awesome! I just sold my Fender Bassbreaker15 combo and am putting some of the $ towards a used VC15 for sale near me. I need that Laney VC "thing" at lower volumes. The VH100R is another phenomenonal Lamey.
Love the VC30 and VC or LC15 Laneys. Got a VC30 1x12 clone! Currently looking into a real one, probably the 2x10 with Jensens if I can find one. They are so reliable and sound great. I liked the V-Type. A little low-end flub can be charming, just a little. EDIT : I scored a 2x10 VC30 with the Jensens and just found the 1x10 for a very reasonable price :D All i need now is a 4x12 cab...
Although it is not stated in the video I believe that the recordings were made plugging the VC15's External Speaker jack into a 2x12" cabinet 1 speaker being the Heritage G12H which was combined with 21 other speakers.. Sadly there is simply not enough room in the VC15-110 to fit any of the Celestion speakers tested. I hope nobody goes out and buys any of the recorded speakers to fit in their VC15 because of this video.
I hope no one buys a 12" speaker to go in a 1x10 too. I have to admit, it didn't cross my mind to mention that, I assumed a certain level of sense would be applied. We have done videos on the VC15 before, but for this I may have wrongly assumed people wouldn't try and fit a 12" speaker in to a 1x10.
LC15 & VC15 are magnificent amps. The TT's are also especially good and extremely technologically innovative for their time, dated now, but the midi crap is no worries. In fact, the midi board's on the heads can be disabled and/or removed. Put a piece of grill with HEPA filter behind it and the removal allows it breathe a little more. If you can find a TT, it has enough channels to do the voicings of the VC-15 and the LC-15.
The stock Jensen is quite decent, I like it better than the HH that came with VC30. Anyway mine have a problem with reverb tank, I know a few amps have problem as well, how is yours holding up?
Can't believe the heritage h 30 is discontinued wish I bought 10 of em. I have an m greeny mixed with my blue can't find a h anywhere. Not sure about anniversary.
you did a lot of comparisons! let me ask you 1 question... Would there be a difference in tone between 1/2" (pretty thin) plywood and 3/4" (pretty thick) plywood construction for cabs? Maybe the baffle would be different sounding between those two? I am not worried about weight. it will sit in the studio it's whole life...
Well there are people who say the material doesn't make a difference to sound but it does, in a big way.. Thicker woods increase resonating mass and will usually result in more low end.... it's about find the right thickness for the right cab/job.
The Vh100r is so good, I bought 2. Basically a switchable hotrodded blackface fender and Marshall in one box. I slightly modded the preamp circuits and they are the best amps I've ever played.
@@lordgraga I increased the value of the clean channel v1 cathode bypass cap to 10uF to give it a more blackface bass response. I changed the bass cap in the lead channel tone stack to 0.022uF, the standard Marshall value, that gets rid of the woodiness. I've done signal cap mods to vh and gh's too which may have subtly improved the tone. I used zoso and Mallory 150's.
