Minus one guitar, plus an amplifier

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mrr3000gt
Posts: 369
(3/15/04 10:44 pm)
 Minus one guitar, plus an amplifier
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 I just got a 1990 Laney AOR50 Series II 50-watt tube amp! Its very well built, and unlike the JCM900, allows you to play without that crappy buzzy IC distortion (it only have 3 ICs: two for its distortion channel, and one to buffer the FX loop).

I was not shopping for an amp: this was provided to me on a trade I made so I did not go away empty-handed.

I took my 900.00 Malmsteen strat over to the local Fender dealer to see if I could trade up or get a nice American standard. I had to go with my 5-year old and 2-year old on this occasion (no choice).

I looked around for 40 minutes, and made a selection on one I wanted. I scooped up my 2-year old and walked to get the guy I was dealing with (leaving my 5-year old there).

The next thing I know, I hear the sound of a guitar tumbling: my 5-year old wanted to look at a 1500.00 strat and it dropped from its wall hanger onto an amplifier, and to the ground.

As it turned out, I had to buy this guitar or pay for the damage (about 700.00). It was the opposite of what I ever wanted: two humbuckers, hard-tail, new Fender pushbutton electronics, Rosewood inlay. It looked more like a guitar Duran-Duran would have used with its wild-assed paint job.

I ended up leaving my guitar and taking the Laney. I would have been pissed, but it was funny I would take a prize guitar to trade, and end up just giving it away and taking a hand-made Laney.

My 5-year old liked the guitar he damaged because his guitar is a Squier mini strat, and he thought the color was cool.

Could have been worse: the surrounding guitars were Les Pauls ranging from 1600 to 3700 bucks each!
 
6G6
Junior tube assistant
Posts: 123
(3/16/04 8:07 am)
 Re: Minus one guitar, plus an amplifier
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 Well, maybe your new Strat will grow on you or you'll find someone that just has to have that very one.
Kids can be kinda like unguided missles. It gets more interesting when they become teenagers!

Is the Laney good enough to make up for the stress of your experience?
 
mrr3000gt
Posts: 370
(3/16/04 1:57 pm)
 Re: Minus one guitar, plus an amplifier
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The Laney is a well-built amplifier based upon the Plexi-50. While it uses a PC board, I can kinda forgive that because they are using good components (looks like lots of orange drop-looking caps and well rated resistors). The wiring is obviously hand-done, and it is inspirationally clean (some wiring lessons for me).

The Laney uses only 3 ICs: two for the buzzy JCM900 distortion channel, and one to handle the FX loop. Other than that, its a Marshall Plexi-50 (2.7K resistors on preamp stages).

I can say I'd own one of these before any of the new Marshalls that use 1/4 watt resistors as the norm, and mounts their PC board to the case with the pots and jacks.

The wiring and layout makes me think of Soldano.

But, its not worth the 900.00 guitar I traded...



 
Ritchie200
Senior tube assistant
Posts: 176
(3/16/04 1:59 pm)
 Re: Minus one guitar, plus an amplifier
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 OH MAN!!!!!!! Brother, I have been there! Fortunately, I have been able to avert disaster and not break out the credit card, but I have had some pucker moments! And only a good dad would find the whole episode amusing - way to go! A close friend of mine owns the music store I frequent. He thinks my girls are cute, but I still have to run from one to the other to keep them from fingering the merchandise. They are as fascinated by the new gear as I am - and they always choose the $7,000 items to mess with! Now you have material to bring up at the family gatherings for years to come!
Jim
 
jc
I only work on Fender's
Posts: 682
(3/16/04 6:19 pm)
 Re: Minus one guitar, plus an amplifier
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 Were they insured? Did you check to see what their deductable was? I normally only take my son to the big box stores. My bet is that they are better insured and at worst you would have to cover a small deductable if anything. Once I lost track of him at MARS. I noticed smoke pouring out of the DJ room. I ran over and saw him partially obscured in the smoke pushing the smoke machine button. The good news is that the fake smoke doesn't seem to set of the smoke alarm.
 
mrr3000gt
Posts: 371
(3/16/04 10:34 pm)
 Re: Minus one guitar, plus an amplifier
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 I dont think they were insured, but they were pretty cool about it. I was quick to let them know I was not going to try to weasel out of paying.

I did not get mad, it was more or less a situation where I brought my most valuable guitar to trade and ended up giving it away (I thought that was funny).

Im at a point in life/career that it just didnt matter (it was an accident). I admit I would have been pissed if it happened right after I got it: I never saw one of these guitars before and it was a rare bird in my area (you have to go to Chicago to find them in shops).

The Laney was a nice little bandaid...


 
 
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