Just got a really early serial # Laney AOR for CHEAP haha 8 knob 50 watt model.
The guy I purchased it from has used some sort of marker to mark his settings on the face plate, which are actually pretty awesome. However, I wanted to know what people are doing for the sleep tone, or their own doom tone, or just what's the best way to push this amp to oblivion? I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with it and was hoping some cool cats would chime in!
I'm pretty sure Liz from Electric Wizard just turns everything all the way up. I remember someone on another forum used to put everything on six, and seemed to dig that.
Stupid settings aside.
The preamp has two knobs, the Preamp 1 is the first tube (and a half?) so turning it up will also increase volume more than the second, pulling it out engages the AOR circuit, which is the unused half of the second tube, Preamp 1 is cascaded into preamp 2, which is darker. Between the two you can dial in a darker or more sharp marshall-like distortion. If you run into the low input of the amp, the preamp 1 (and aor) section is cut out completely, so the amp is much quieter, but you can crank the master all the way to compensate! This is how I ran it actually, preamp 2 on about six, with an old tube in that socket (3?), and a full range boost into the amp, basically low-rent supergroup, Iommi styles.
The active frequency boosts on the EQ controls are fun. But once you pull them out you can't adjust the knob. Could never figure out if the setting stayed put "underneath" or if pulling the boost changed the response.... At low volumes the low boost is hilarious, at gig volume it didn't seem to matter as much. I generally used that korn marshall trick, treble on zero, dial in the high end with the presence control, bass and mids all the way up.
I got to just leaving everything around the noon mark. Presence and treble are boosted a bit to help with my clean sounds, I keep mid boost pulled all the time for live mix purposes.
I loved the amp much more when I stopped using the AOR boost. It squeals and hisses like some kind of tube driven demon, but it brings the foggy distortion that is the Holy Mountain sound. Blending the two preamp controls that affect disortion is cool. I found a wider variety of sounds there then in the EQ section. Running the amp with no boosts pulled helps tame the volume for "quieter" use. One of the preamp controls DOES affect volume, but I don't recall if it was for the non-AOR or with the AOR; it was definitely one or the other. I run a little passive volume control in the fx loop that lets me keep the master volume high enough for the amp to breath and not sound like the amp is covered with 45 wool blankets, and then knock a few dBs off.
I remember running my buddies bass through my AOR into a 212 bass cab. It didn't get loud enough for stage use, but it was so pillowy and smooth, even with all the gain maxed out and everything. There should definitely be a 200W AOR design. I'd buy one.
D.o.S. wrote:Like, I don't just listen to Whores when I'm sitting alone in my room with the lights off staring at a wall. Sometimes I listen to it with the lights on, too.
