Laney AOR50 question.

[zeegler]

I just bought one off Ebay for a friend of mine. $300 buy-iy-now seemed like a fantastic deal since I saw one sell for over $500 last week.

So, are they good? I hear they are supposed to be very high gain, but do they sound good?

[toddstaples]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

Yes.....

[charvelguy]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

wow, I guess holding onto mine was a good idea.
They made a few different styles of AOR Pro Tube.
Outside of wattage, the first issue MK1 had metal corners.
These were straight master volume heads. They came out a few years later around mid 80's with the black plastic corners like they used on their cabs. The Mk2 head have a cascading preamp and those heads have more gain level than the straight master vol ones. The gain is 'ok', these amps are good candidates for mods. I'm considering a Soldano hot mod or a torres mod in one of mine.
In the meantime..I think the best way to run these is to set them up relatively clean and run a distortion pedal in front, especially if you are running one of the MK1 series.

[zeegler]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

It is a series II with the plastic corners.

[jgcable]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

I love hearing about amps that are actually increasing in value. Less than a few years ago, those amps were always around 250-300 bucks. Laney's kill. Put a pedal in front of it and look out.

[atilla]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

Get a few pre-amp tubes for it and look out. I scored an awesome deal on a smoothplate Telefunken and put it in V1 of my Laney Pro-Tube 100 (also called an AOR, I think). Made a huge difference.

[mrr3000gt]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

I have a Laney AOR50 Series II head: great head. I know, as I build tube amps. Unlike the JCM900 (LOTS of chips and more computer than tube amp), the AOR50 has only three little ICs in it: one for buffering the effects loop, and a couple for the 'AOR' gain channel and the bias circuitry. Otherwise, its just capacitors, resistors, and tubes.

Mine was made in 1991, and upon opening it up, saw the signs of a true PCB handbuilt amp. All wires neatly arranged at 90 degree angles, and sparse wiring obviously by someone who knew what they were doing. I believe the Laney (at least mine) is the best mass production amplifier made.

The AOR50 circuit has two channels: one low gain, and that obnoxious AOR channel. The AOR channel is nice to plug in and make chainsaw noise with, but the lower gain channel is more versitile. Slap a DOD-250 infront of the low gain channel and you can make the Yngwie sound. In fact, I can get a HEAVY and clear sound with it. I rarely use the AOR channel (partly because this part of the circuit uses those damn IC chips - OP amps). Op amps have no business in a tube amp.

When I got it, it sounded like exploding dogshit, and I knew this was from the lowbrow tubes the knothead who owned it had in it. I put a pair of Sovtek EL34WXTs in it, a Mullard 12AT7 phase inverter (who needs a high gain phase inverter??), and the rest of the 12AX7s are the ElectroHarmonix 12AX7EHs (perhaps the best, richest, sonic, noise-free, and smooth distorting non-NOS tubes you can buy). I get clarity at all volumes that does not wash out at maximal volume, and get a thrash tone.

The FX loop is real nice, as none of the amps I build have FX loops.

The secret to this and other tube amps is to get the right combo of tubes (Im lucky enough to have around 1000 tubes to play around with).

[Twisteramps]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

I am currently gutting an AOR30... the build quality was decent, but not any better than JCM800s of the same era. Somewhere I have 'before' pics, I'll have to post some when I get done with the 'after' part. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Op amps (imho) do have some places in tube amps... a well designed op amp fx loop will smoke a poorly designed all tube or passive loop. Look in O'Connor's The Ultimate Tone for some great examples of using opamps in a loop. It also depends on the quality of OpAmps you use... if I had an amp that used dual op amps, I'd take em off the board and put in a socket - and play with some Burr Browns in there. Some of the most expensive tube amps you can find (Dumbles) have FET front ends. So did many Mark I mesa boogies. Hell, put your DOD-250 pedal in front of your amp, and you're adding ICs and likely clipping diodes to your tone! The bottom line for me is how it sounds, not the IC count. I've heard amps with lots of ICs and diode clipping sound fine, and simpler amps sound like crap. It's a sum of all parts, not just whether it has the magic tube or transformer or op amp or clipping diode-free signal path.

Stock, my AOR30 sounded ok... nothing really great. I'm looking forward to firing up the modded JCM800 turret board I put in there and seeing what it does. Too many projects, too little time... [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Pete

[charvelguy]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

I was gonna swap out the turret on one of mine..as well as the output. I'll be curious to see how it turns out.

[mrr3000gt]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

I do think that op amps in the FX loop is a good idea, as this normally requires a tube (to do it right).
Ill agree: the JCM800 is the best Marshall amp made (next to its sister circuit the Model 1987 plexi made in the late 60s/early 70s).

A different output transformer could be interesting in the Laney: a good Mercury Magnetics or other hand-built tranny might do the trick.

[charvelguy]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

My 50 has a schumacher output, but the hundred has a few options, of them a couple different MM's. So many projects, I'll probably be doing this for the next couple years with as much backlog as I have on the table. Once I get the tagboard, it should come together fairly quick.

[DonP]

Re: Laney AOR50 question.

I have an AOR 50 head and an AOR 50 combo (sealed 1 x 12).

Those IC's you see aren't all Op Amps - they are opto-isolators for channel switching. The signal path is 100% tube (less the effects buffer).

The pre-amp circuit is like a hot-rodded Marshall. If it's too gainy/grainy, lower the gain by changing the values of the cathode resistors.

I'm thinking of taking my 50 watt tube head and putting in my 1979 (year) Marshall 100 watt power and output trannies, and using 6550's for a crushing metal tone. What do you think? The Marshall parts are in the chassis of a 4140 Town & Country, currently not in service. I'm going to make that combo into a 18 watt clone with a front panel.