laney cub 10 all tube amp ....... 2nd hand find ...and impulse buy

Keira-WitherKay

as everyone knows..i always scour 2nd hand stores for interesting buys......

and as fate would have it i wondered into my local music store to get some strings ....and found a traded in laney cub 10 , all tube amp on the shelf........ i tried it and bought it for just less than 2K ...... and yes it was an impulse buy.but i do have a personal rule that allows myself to treat myself to anything at about 2 K or less if i'm interested ........ so it just fell within my "buy now on an impulse " rule

i initially thought it would make a cool bedroom/rehearsal studio amp for me.........

so let me tell you my impressions:

is this the amp of my dreams?? hell NO .....

is this the best value for money ?? hell YES ......

lets just say this amp at 1st glance i dismissed as a toy.......... till i plugged it in...... then it impressed me no end ............
and yes maybe having no expectations is a good thing ........but i was surprised at what i heard.........

so is it versatile ? i think not....... i think this is a one trick pony amp......... with one amazingly good sound and if that one sounds works for you then it's game on .......and yes it works for me........

does it sound great on all guitars.......... no , well not in my test.... with my strat it's pure heaven .....tube tone i love ...which is that clean tone but surrounded by a halo of breakup , basically a bluesy /country rock type tone.......
with my ES175 jazz guitar it sucked......... no other words.......
with my Ltd Ec100QM it sounded better than the jazz guitar but still very wooly .......
so i guess the amp likes single coils ......... cos with the strat it's instant chemistry but i would not use it with the other guitars.......

overdrive? well the rock fans will be dissapointed cos the amp i got even when i crank the gain full and volume up it does not give that fat rock overdive but more a bluesy breakup ...but that is with the strat ........ maybe it needs hi impedence pups to really rock out ........

looks? it's a way cool vintage look with only tone/volume /gain and a hi and lo input ........

tone control....... like i said earlier it's a one "sound" amp cos the sound just darkens or lightens with the tone control very subtle......

is it loud ? wow yes it is........ i would say it could rival a blues junior ........ cos when i bought it i tested it in a huge room (at open plan shop) and it was too loud for the shop .........

10" speaker? i was always afraid a 10" would have no fatness........ but there is a deep bottom end to the sound..i didn't expect ..amazing and it cuts thru the mix very nicely .......... but again for fender tones where i want a tight lower mid bass string not a fat boomy one like i do for my jazz guitar ......... this amp delivers........

with the stock speaker i thought Laney were clever in that they come stock with a celestion tube 10 speaker (only 94 db) but 30W so even at full crank (where the amp sound best ........) the speaker never distorts as the amp is 10W and the speaker can handle 30W so no speaker 'farting " at full 10 on volume and gain

however the stock speaker could be improved on in my mind .........and taste ..... so i will up grade to get a higher db rating hence more volume and also hopefully more "presence" to the sound ..

tubes i believe by reading what online reports say where not skimped upon (ruby tubes were used if i got it right) and are quite a good quality in stock model.....but everyone says change out the speaker ......

here are the specs from the laney site

Power RMS 10 watts RMS
Inputs Hi & Lo
Equalisation Tone
Preamp Valves 2 x ECC83
Output Valves 2 x 6V6GT
Class Class A/B
Reverb No
Footswitch No
FX Loop(s) No
Impedance 8 Ohm
Drivers 10 inch Celestion Driver
Weight 8.25 Kg
Dimensions Width 365mm x Height 355mm x Depth 220mm
Channel Controls Tone, Volume & Gain

portability....... wow just check out the weight a mere 8.2 kg ........ and it's the size of a roland cube with 10" as in super compact and light
which i love........

and yes i wish it had onboard reverb ...but no worries it just means an extra pedal........

so i have even taken it to my gig at sun city , and tonight i will try it out ....... at te sound check this afternoon it was loud enough without being mic'd up with the volume on 7 and the gain between 5 and 6 so tonight is experimental time........ maybe when the venue fills up it will need be cranked more or mighr not cope........ then i can always mic it up but we'll see, anyway my old rig is standing there so if it does not work i'll just switch it off and plug back into the guitar processor ........

so yes i'm a happy camper cos i found a bargain basement deal that seems i will have fun with .......

and NO like i said earlier this does not mean i don't want that princeton still.......... cos as much as i rave about this little demon of an amp....... i'm not comparing it to top end amps, but do always like the cheapie that comes to the party and performs well , and all this for under 2 K ...

and the nice thing is at this low cost , i can always use this as a practise amp , or sell it if i find i don't like it ....... and make my money back

Ray

I got one of those when they came out at a special price. I think it was Fritz in Cape Town also got one and Matta whipped out the speaker and put in a Jensen c10r (if I remember iirc). also I think he replaced the tubes which didnt make too much difference. I've changed nothing becasue it does all I need it to but will probably replace the speaker sometime why I dont know but anyway. You can get those Jensens on take2 for not much I dont think. And then you pay 30 bucks shipping as well. But if you search a bit you will find the thread of this activity I think about 1 year back.

http://more.take2.co.za/moreusa-jensen-c10r-25w-10-replacement-speaker-8-ohm-b0002e58mo.html

Garren

My friend has one of these thats fitted with a celestion vintage 10,
Not much variation with tone as you said, but I must say i dig it ?

It actually sounds pretty good with my epi les paul aswell...
really good value for money too, sounds like you got a pretty good
price on it ?

Keira-WitherKay

Garren wrote: really good value for money too, sounds like you got a pretty good
price on it ?

well i would not have paid full price for it but at the price i got i felt it was a giveaway for a tube amp , as i said an impulse buy

singemonkey

Cool review Keira. Nice to know it's not necessarily so hot with humbuckers and short-scale guitars. Will have to leave it out of my thoughts of a little practise amp.

Ray

Well I dont know about this humbucker thing. I put a blues driver in front and things shakje around a bit. Then I've got this SD humbucking acoustic guitar soundhole thing and I play slide through that and into the cub and there's blood all over the place.

Dinosaur-Snr

Nice review and find Keira! I've always wondered how these little amps sound. I like the fact that valves amp are becoming more and more accessible. Some of these small amps are so cheap these days they are even comparable price wise to their ugly solid state twin sisters.. ?

Keira-WitherKay

Ray wrote: Well I dont know about this humbucker thing. I put a blues driver in front and things shakje around a bit. Then I've got this SD humbucking acoustic guitar soundhole thing and I play slide through that and into the cub and there's blood all over the place.

love the way you put that ........... ?

@ singemonkey ........ if you find one cheap , try it , maybe you'll like the tone the buckers give it ...... and maybe just an EQ pedal could sort any lack of EQ on amp........i found my humbucker guitars were too dark in the amp not enough tops........ but then i love and listen to mostly bright twangy fender tones at moment ......so my ears are tuned to that as my "prefered tone" but definitely for the jazz box there is not enough clean headroom for it to sound pure jazz......as i found the amp sounds best pushed....... and that introduces breakup .....

anyway the amp is so small and so light and so big sounding for it's size it's the perfect take anywhere amp......

MikeM

Keira WitherKay wrote:with the stock speaker i thought Laney were clever in that they come stock with a celestion tube 10 speaker (only 94 db) but 30W so even at full crank (where the amp sound best ........) the speaker never distorts as the amp is 10W and the speaker can handle 30W so no speaker 'farting " at full 10 on volume and gain

Not all speakers distort badly. Some actually are pleasant - The deluxe reverb does lightly, Voxes do quite a bit.

Anycase, if you ever feel the need for a bit more punch, the Celestion Gold G10 is relatively cheap and pushes out 4db more although it is 0.9kg more heavy.

Nice buy!!

Keira-WitherKay

just an update .... i played the amp onstage at my gig , and it held it's own..... ? yay for that , i would have never thought `10W could sound so fat ..... and amazingly the amp is set just perfect for the best responce .....in other words i drive it almost full ........ and it stays clean enough with volume at 9/10 and the gain at 4.5/10 for me to do my usual fingerstyle multipart playing and cuts through the percussion to not even need to be mic'd up .( me being paranoid about my sound , i set up a mic just in case it was not loud enough , but never switched it on ) .......... however i do think i would like to have a little more volume/headroom on hand tho...so maybe a 15W would suit my needs perfectly .....

like i been saying in my initial post this amp is no substitute for a deluxe reverb or ac15/30 but it seems to be able to stand up and be very usable at low volume gigs ......... and so small and light which just makes me love it more ?

MikeM

Remember 10watts is half as loud as 100watts (3db). So 15 watts is barely louder than 10.

Glad to hear it's doing it's job!! I'd actually try it with volume at max and just control gain. Might get a hair more out of it.

Keira-WitherKay

MikeM wrote: Remember 10watts is half as loud as 100watts (3db). So 15 watts is barely louder than 10.

Glad to hear it's doing it's job!! I'd actually try it with volume at max and just control gain. Might get a hair more out of it.

ok , wow i didn't realise that the 15 W would not be much louder, and explains why i thought this amp to be almost as loud as a blues junior 15W (whch i know and played on a lot) cool

but if i replace this speaker with a more efficient one then i will increase the volume if i understand correctly .cos stock celestion is 94db but i if i replace it with a more effecient jensen at 99db or was it 100db that should give more volume?

@mike..... thanks for advice re the volume on full, i had read that on a forum about these amps recently too and yes i did have the volume up at 10 initially but it was too loud ( hehehe i can imagine the heavy rockers here on the forum ...rolling around laughing at the thought that the 10 W would be too loud.....but welcome to my world of jazz ) so edged it back to 9 ? so yes even stock this has a hint more than i need for this gig ........

guidothepimmp

Spot on Keira,

Jensen at 99db will sound louder. Speaker is more efficient.

MikeM

That amp with a 97db speaker will sound as loud as a 100watt amp with a 94db speaker. Which explains why an AC30 can often overpower a Twin.. I can vouch for that ?