What do you guys think about the Laney AOR 100?

[supes0328]

I just found one in the back of a local guitar shop for $350. I knew what they were and saw it was hiding under a bunch of newer gear. Instantly pulled it out, plugged it in, and WOW. It had so much balls. lol. I bought it without even thinking and didn't even take it home. I took straight to our local custom shop, and just handed it over for a cleaning and a retube. Might get a new output transformer from a JCM 800 for it.

Who has one of these amps? What can I expect as far as maintenance? Any mods that you guys have found useful or suggest? I'm excited to just get it home and start jamming on it.

BTW it's the 8 knob version with the pull boosts.

 

[rupe]

I had that same amp back in the mid to late 80's and absolutely loved it. I went all rack in about '88 and traded the amp but not because it didn't work for me (I bought hard into the ADA MP-1...still think its a great pre). When I was shopping, I thought it blew away the JCM800 by a long shot...it actually sounded very similar but was already "hot-rodded" right out of the box. There may be some mods out there but I don't know why anybody would want them, at least from a tonal standpoint.

 

[codyjarret]

I just found one in the back of a local guitar shop for $350. I knew what they were and saw it was hiding under a bunch of newer gear. Instantly pulled it out, plugged it in, and WOW. It had so much balls. lol. I bought it without even thinking and didn't even take it home. I took straight to our local custom shop, and just handed it over for a cleaning and a retube. Might get a new output transformer from a JCM 800 for it.

Who has one of these amps? What can I expect as far as maintenance? Any mods that you guys have found useful or suggest? I'm excited to just get it home and start jamming on it.

BTW it's the 8 knob version with the pull boosts.

Great amp heads

Here's a clip of my stock AOR 100.

 

[supes0328]

I didn't have a ton of playing around with it. Literally plugged it in to make sure it worked. And I've heard a ton about them, so I thought it was a no brainer haha. I was more worried about the typical marshall hiss that can develop at high gain, and didn't know if I was going to experience the same thing here with the Laney. Though again didn't try it yet... hopefully that my decimator will take care of all unwanted noises.

I've also heard that the bass is a little funny. Regular bass is just "half way" there, and the bass boost is TOO much. Again having only played the amp for 5 minutes, I can't comment on it. Though I'm very excited to get it home!

 

[SFW]

Great amp. I don't know if I would mod it. They sound great as is.

 

[boost]

I had a couple of 50 watters. The only mods I did were some safety ones on the tubes, but I can't remember exactly what they were. Torres 'protection' mods. No mods needed for tone.

I ran all the tone controls on 10 with all the boosts pulled out. With the 4 volume/gain knobs interacting with each other, there can be a bit to dial in just there. Take your time and try it different ways, not just how you 'think' the volumes should be set. It was a bit noisy at higher gain settings, but that didn't bother me too much. I sometimes ran an EQ or DOD Bi-Fet preamp through the loop for solo boosts.

I had one with metal corners and one with plastic ones. Opening them up, there were some extra diode clipping going on in the plastic corner one if I recall. The metal corner one did not have these. The metal corner one sounded warmer and more organic, just better overall. Never could find any info on the 'metal corner' one. Could have been a really early prototype I was told, but never confirmed anything. I bought it used.

Tesla EL34's sounded the best to me in these amps.

Hope this helps.

 

[supes0328]

Yeah that does help. The amp tech highly suggested 6ca7's for the amp. He was overly happy I picked one up. About 30 minutes before I bought the amp, I was in the amp shop talking to the tech about getting a JCM800 or possibly a 900. And I walked in our local shop and saw this, and was just like no way. I brought it straight to the amp shop for cleaning and retubing, and he couldn't believe I found an AOR just sitting around hahah.

Like I said I haven't had any time to play with the thing. I just know a ton of people hot rod Marshalls, and I know this is basically a hot rodded Marshall out of the box. I was more curious if there's anything from other's experience to change out. If there were many defects in the design of the amp. Reliability? Stuff like that. Nothing to do with the tone. It blew me away. Though the one I got doesn't seem to have a working "Mid boost" control. But the tech said he'll either fix it or install a small toggle to achieve the same result. It's whatever to me.

Has anyone ever added a Resonance knob? Or wanted one for this amp? I noticed the Presence, that's why I'm curious.

 

[boost]

I played the amp for many years, many shows. No reliability issues whatsoever. Tubes and pots are chassis mounted and not to the PCB like many amps today. I wouldn't gig without a backup, but that's because tubes are not reliable, the amp is.

I wouldn't bother with the resonance mod. If you like hot rodded Marshall tones, you'll dig this amp. Without the gain boost pulled out it has a little more gain than a stock 800 I would say. With it out, it's a cascading preamp that takes it over the top gain wise.

They clean up awesomely with the volume knob on the guitar too. That was big for me and one of the reasons I had the amp for so long.

 

[supes0328]

^^^^ that's definitely good to know

I had no idea that they were chassis mounted. Hahah. But yeah I definitely dig on the hot rodded Marshall tones. I'm more excited to just get it home after it's all cleaned up. It worked like a charm, but inside the amp looked like nobody EVER got in it to clean ha. But it'll be a beauty in about a week or so again.

 

[chumbucket]

The AOR series are decent amps. The pull boost controls are only really usable at low volume levels (kind of like a loudness control on a stereo). The original Skot transformers are weak. I had a Classic Tone Marshall JCM800 style output transformer installed to replace a smoked Skot and it sounded great when it was cranked up loud. Make sure the pots and jacks get cleaned, especially the effects loop jacks. Its like a JCM800 with a little more gain. They seem to clean up nicely when you back off on your volume control.

 

[ronjhoser]

I have a 20th anniversary AOR 100 in white. Had it since 1988. I run a rockman eq in the loop, along with a hush pedal. Not a bad amp. In the time that I've owned it, I have done one retube and one repair of screen grid resistors and caps. Mine is due for a retube again and I am considering a KT77 swap. Best of luck with your new toy.

 

[supes0328]

thanks. and that's awesome to know. i have Kt77's in my Jsx, and they kill. one of the best choices i've ever made as far as tubes for an amp. i'm just letting the guitar tech do his thing. he knows what i'm typically going after and has done some awesome work for me in the past. so i just handed it to him and said make this sick for me hahaha. after some research i'm glad he's putting 6ca7's in and i think it'll compliment what i have going on with my jsx if i decide to run stereo.

 

[PsychoholicSlag]

Necro bump because I'd like to know the results of the OP.