NAD - Laney Cub 12 - longish

[markb]

Or, solid state fan won over by cool little valve amp.

So I bought the Laney Cub 12. Oh my, it's nice and only half the price of a Blues Junior. It's got a more "british" voicing than either of the little Fenders, more of an baby Marshall thing going on. Laney's "american" amp in this range is the Cub 10, basically a non reverb Princeton for even less money.

Good things:

Tone, excellent. even turned way up in the shop it didn't fart out on a dropped D.
EQ. TMB stack, works well
Overall tone control. Excellent, all amps should have one of these for just tweaking the amp to suit the room or switching between, say a strat and a 335.
<1w input. Simple built in attenuation just by plugging into a different socket. The tone thins a bit but it's fine for home use
15w input. The tone fills out with more bottom and mid complexity. Loud!
Built in tilt back stand. Brilliant and effective to point the amp at your ears and cut the bass coupling.
11.5kg. A nice large section rubbery handle to take the weight too. comfy like old Fender leather handles but shouldn't rot over time.
FX loop. Connect reverb pedal here.

Less good things:

Not the best covering job I've seen.
The Celestion Rocket 50 speaker is a bit fizzy. I'll see how it breaks in before thinking about a change. I think a greenback would suit this amp nicely.
The cheapest plastic corner protectors ever. Easily replaced.
Big 'elf and safety approved grill on the back panel. No quick valve swaps in a crisis here. Need a screwdriver.
The white chicken head knobs feel a bit cheap but the pots are smooth.

Here's the proper Laney demo. I'll see about a video here.

 

[MAXIFUNK]

Demo sounded really good congrats.

 

[forgivenick]

where did you buy it from? I am having a very hard time finding this for sale in the states, let alone the internet. Looks like a great amp, especially for the money. Congrats!

 

[Robert]

Sweet little amp - congrats!

 

[markb]

As I play this more I'm liking it better. It does nice round edgy cleans with a cool EL84 fizz if you dig in. It loves the Cool Cat Drive, just sounds like you turned the gain up on the amp. It's a pity that pedal's got some problems, I'm just going to have to buy an OCD after all.

@forgivenick: I'm in New Zealand. I got mine through my local guitar pusher direct from the distributor. It's worth finding out who distributes them in your country.

 

[forgivenick]

As I play this more I'm liking it better. It does nice round edgy cleans with a cool EL84 fizz if you dig in. It loves the Cool Cat Drive, just sounds like you turned the gain up on the amp. It's a pity that pedal's got some problems, I'm just going to have to buy an OCD after all.

@forgivenick: I'm in New Zealand. I got mine through my local guitar pusher direct from the distributor. It's worth finding out who distributes them in your country.

I contacted Laney directly already, which was a few weeks ago and they replied asking where I was located. I told them San Diego, CA, USA and no reply after that.

 

[markb]

Laney's US distributor http://www.laney.co.uk/show_distributors.php?rid=7

Their website http://www.musicaldistributors.com/

 

[markb]

The Cub just did its first live outing. I was right about 18w Marshall on the cheap, not much headroom but excellent tone and punch. I took the tele with 4 way switch 'cause it's the one that sounds good in any situation. Gain at 6-7, volume at 7-8, good rock tones with a loud drummer. Gain down to 4-5 and volume up full for one country number. The rest came from the guitar. I could get used to this

 

[stingx]

I went to the NY Amp Show on Saturday and ended up buying the 12R from the Laney guys. I love the tones this amp can throw out. I think the C30 will be collecting dust for a while...

 

[stingx]

I am totally in love with this amp and cannot stop playing it. I cannot praise the tones enough. Talk about ear candy...

 

[stingx]

I was looking around the 'tube and found this recent clip of some guy playing his Squier CV 50s Strat through this amp. Cleans first followed by gain around 2:05 onwards.

I have barely touched my other amps since buying this a couple of months ago. I really need to record some clips of my own.

 

[Monkus]

congrats, sounds great...

 

[Duffy]

That is a cool little amp. I wonder how it cracks out against the Blackheart equivalent? Does it sound something like a Vox AC15? The LC series also looks interesting, especially the LC50. But all this aside, I bet it sounds great cranked up a little. I like the asymetrical twist to the exterior design.

 

[stingx]

Kinda Vox-ish since it's equipped with EL84s. You have the option to plug intop the 15W input or the .75W input. Naturally, you'll get much more overhead with 15W so you can achieve cleans with no dirt. Either channel full on gain will melt your face, the .75W will just keep it lower - you'd be surprised how loud .75W sounds I really like the amp's overall tone. It does classic rock right out of the box, it takes pedals well, and the digital reverb even sounds good to my ears. I like it so much I'm considering a higher watt Lionheart to replace my Classic 30.