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Laney VC30-210 Valve Guitar Amplifier Combo

 

Review of the Laney VC30-210 Valve amp for Guitar by The Man in the Jar

The VC30 has a very handsome Modernist look about it.

A black leatherette box with a gunmetal grey, close-weave speaker grille are set off by the shiny chrome corner protectors and dual chrome vents topside. A large Laney logo manages to look quite attractive on the front. The carrying handle is very chunky which is a good thing because as with all good valve amps the VC30 carries a bit of weight.

The VC range is heralded on the owner's manual as "All Tube 'Class A' Vintage Amplifiers". In normal valve amps the valve is switched off when the current cycles into the negative part of its wave. In Class A amps the valve is always on - which is better.

Looking at the recessed control panel really triggers the vintage vibes. Sitting on a highly polished chrome mounting plate is a row of black chicken-head knobs and rocker switches. Starting at the left we have two inputs, one marked "Lo" and the other marked "Hi". The Hi input allows maximum gain from the instrument to reach the pre-amp. Use this for single coil or medium output humbuckers. If you are wielding high output humbuckers plug into the Lo input. A six decibel attenuation here makes sure that those hot pickups don't push the preamp into "mushing" your sound. 

There are two channels to choose from, Clean or Drive. The first knob is the Clean volume and next to it is a rocker switch to turn on added brightness and sparkle. Next along is the Drive control that sets the pre-amp drive for the Drive channel, then comes the Drive volume which acts as a master for the Drive channel. Next along is a rocker that switches between Clean and Drive.

Next up is the EQ section offering Bass, Middle and Treble with an additional Reverb control. The last chicken-head is a clever Effects control that blends the returning signal from the effects loop with the main unaffected signal.

There are two switches - essential on a grown up valve amp. One is the main power switch and the other is the Standby switch. With both on the amp is fully functioning. Turn the standby to off and the amp is effectively turned off but the valve heater circuits remain on. This means the tubes are gently simmering away and ready to burst into immediate action when the standby is turned back on.

The back panel houses the power cord socket with two levels of fusing. The on-board speakers are connected via a cable to a jack socket. Next to this socket is a rocker switch to change the output from 8 ohms to 4 ohms and an extension speaker socket. Basically when running the onboard speakers this must be set to 8 ohms. If you connect an additional 8 ohm speaker cab to the extension socket, the rocker must be flicked to 4 ohms.

Lastly on the back there is the effects loop send and return and an input for an optional footswitch to control overdrive and reverb.

The open back of the cabinet is protected by a very sturdy metal grille. Through the grille we can see four EL84M valves hanging down from the power amp section like the milk teats of the rampant whore-goddess of guitar-rock-Valhalla.......

Also through the grille we can glimpse the two ten-inch special design Jensen speakers that give this combo its voice. I chose to try the 2 x 10" to stay with the vintage vibe, a 1 x 12" and 2 x 12" are also available.

So I plugged up a Fender Mex Strat to the Clean channel and let rip. I hadn't noticed that the Bright switch was already engaged and the treble response almost tore my ears off. Using the Strat the sparkle and brightness added was almost too much. But that's a good thing if you're not using something with as much natural sparkle as a Strat. But I was. So I put the wax back in my ears, turned off the added Brightness rocker and set out to explore the normal scope of the Clean channel.

Even without the Brightness switch engaged the bridge pickup on the Stratocaster heaped on the treble. You could cut through plasterboard with a lead sound like this. Switching to bridge and middle combination and the Laney delivers a beautiful bell-like chime. With the middle pickup alone the amp produced an excellent edgy, indie tone which would be perfect for ska music. It's actually one of the best sounds I've ever heard from the middle pickup on any Strat-type configuration. The neck and neck + middle combinations delivered deep blues and rich jazzy tones, ready-made and off-the-peg.

The EQ doesn't have a huge sweep but Laney have confined it to the most useful ranges. I prefer it this way, everything is usable and useful. In particular the Middle is really useful for beefing up the tone of the single coils or "scooping out" to create a gorgeous funky-disco-rhythm-groove. 

I had to pluck up courage before messing with the Treble EQ. I found it quite useful to blunt the edge of the remarkable treble response of the Clean channel. On the other side of the coin it offers the luxury of graduated boost, should you need it, that isn't available with the Brightness rocker switch.

The Reverb is a very useful addition. Up to about halfway it adds a lovely chime that really suited the voice of the Strat. Even full-on it isn't overblown and remains perfectly useable. Laney get full marks for that.

For the Drive channel I switched to a Gibson SG running into the Lo input.

The Drive channel is necessarily a more complex beast with which to come to terms. Again the treble response is ecstatic and I found myself winding back a couple of points on the Treble and Middle and adding a couple of points on the Bass to mellow out the bridge humbucker sound.

Setting the Drive to 3 or 4 produced what people of taste recognise as the "Thin Lizzy" sound. This is one of my benchmarks when trying an amp ("Can you Lizzy with it?") and Laney passes with flying colours. Cranking the Drive to 5 gives the sound a nice bark. Beyond 5 we are getting into serious Rock territory. Moving up to 7 set the SG cooking in that lovely Angus Young fashion (another benchmark). Above that all the way to 10 the dirt gets added until you're playing with a seriously gritty but not over-saturated sound. Add your favourite overdrive pedal and the door opens to metal-head weeping and screaming. The ability to blend the returning effects signal adds a whole new dimension to the tonal variations available from this super little amp.

 

Overall impressions of the Laney VC30 210 

This is a highly responsive and tonally satisfying amplifier. The treble response is phenomenal. Turn on the Brightness switch and the sound is so sharp that you can do open heart surgery from twenty paces. The Drive channel goes from a nice valve rumble to sandpaper grittiness and every great guitar sound sits in between. This amplifier doesn't do tricks like many of the digital modelling poodles that are available. This is a guitar player's amplifier. The depth of sound and richness of tone available from valves just can't be beaten. If you love your guitar then buy it one of these amps for Christmas.    

Note: As with all amps equipped with headphone sockets, turn the Master Volume to zero before plugging in the 'phones.

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