Engl blackmore vs. Laner VH100R

[bibz]

I rocked the fuck out of a gorilla today.

[SEEGERMANY]

I rocked the fuck out of a gorilla today.

Did he peel your banana?

[ozzuk1]

From what I have heard from both the VH100R and Blackmore the VHis more versatile but isnt really used for really high gain tones, whilst the blackmore can do blackmore's tones and more mdoern metal tones, however it only has a single EQ/ control setup so the clean may not be as usable ina live setting...

Both amps sound good the laney is a fair bit cheaper, and im sure if you wanted more oomph from it an od/boost would get you there...

the Vh can also switch between EL34's and 6l6's which would alter the tone too, laney also make the iommi sig which is supposedly like a poor mans uberschall allthough that is a single channel metal machine...

Are there any specific style s you absolutely need to cover where one amp would be better?

Granted the best thing would be to test out both amps or a few more and see which you like the most however very few stores ever have such a varied selection of amps other than a few different mesa's marshalls and peavy's...

[6string40]

I used to have an old "Crate" that did that..but it was unmodified.

Fucking classic!

Don't forget, some of those old Crates had THE best built-in chorus in them too!

[Sanctuary]

I have the VH100R. Picked it up after seeing Opeth using them in Australia. Nice amp. I've heard that some are noisy but mine doesn't suffer from that. As others have said, it's no high-gainer.

[jet66]

I've got a Blackmore. It is REALLY bright. With a 4x12 of V30's, it's a little too tight/stiff for me, and the clean channel comes across as too clean/sterile, IMO. Mixing it up with 2 V30's and 2 G12H30's, it smooths out a bit, especially on the clean channel. The distortion/drive ('channel 3,' even though there really aren't 4 actual channels how I would define 'channels') becomes much more usable, as well. The Blackmore is one amp that won't get buried in a mix, that is for certain. I run the presence almost at 0, and the treble only up around 9 o'clock.

I do have to comment on the build quality... It's not what I would call 'upper tier.' Some of the solder joints are iffy looking, having not enough solder or potential cold joints. I touched up quite a few when re-tubing. The tube sockets are PCB mounted, which I don't have a problem with usually, but the sockets are not attached to the chassis. So pulling and installing tubes flexes the PCB board a bit more than I prefer. The pots have plastic shafts, which isn't a totally bad thing I suppose, but a good whack might shear one off.

I got mine for a really good price, used. Otherwise, I would have gone with something else. It's a good amp overall, but if I was paying full pice, I would have shopped around.

[pagemalicious]

VH100R no hi gainer? you know the gain goes up to 10 right?

I had one for a few years and stupidly traded it for a Laney VC50 (horrible combo for metal). I used it with an EQ and Tubescreamer but only to get more tones out of it. It had plenty of gain, but it's not like the Mesa type of gain.

Been considering buying a VH100R again, Loved that amp to bits.

[jet66]

I may have to change my opinion on the Blackmore, I'm in the midst of tweaking. I also believe I have a bad screen grid resistor. I've got some new tubes and resistors coming, I'll post an update after I'm settled on everything. Two things that have made a big difference so far: Bringing the bias down from 60%-70% plate dissipation at idle closer to 50% and putting a Sovtek 12AX7LPS in the phase inverter position as recommended by a few people. Taming down the treble in my ProMod with a different bridge pup and 250k vol and tone pots also changed it up for the better.

[j4vice]

ENGL
I was leaning on the stage on Steve Morse's side 2007 DeeP PurPle and I haven't heard a better amp since. But that could be because I went deaf that night.