My New Mesa Dual Rec and Laney Ironheart comparison

ctgblue · Mar 27, 2012

New setup, been busy at work and only played the Laney for about 15 minutes. definitely a metal amp, works as described and shown in the laney youtube videos. Will post up a comparison of these two and them in stereo too.
My cost for the two heads and the Bugera stereo cab was about $2k

Cliff's on Laney:
- built like a tank, very solid with built in grab handles on top/edges
- pre boost IS just like a tube screamer in front, too much gain on gain channels and they get muddy, but mid gain saturates, pre-boost too high jacks clean volume a LOT, moderate makes it like a blues lead
- these EQ controls are very sensitve at the end 1/4 of each range, IE middle half makes a difference, but past 3 or before 9 and there is a huge difference
- the 'dynmics' and 'tone' controls are very powerful shaping tools, meant to be tweaked according to volume level
- the watts control just kicks ***, similar to the weber attenuator, does not suck tone
- gain, lots for days, I was able to tweak and get VERY similar tones to the Mesa lead channels (the Laney has 6L6's)

VitaminG · Mar 27, 2012

sweet! My co-guitarist just picked one up and we played our first gig with it on Saturday. He still needs to tweak it, but it performed beautiful in its first hitout.

btw, we're playing classic rock covers with it

ctgblue · Apr 10, 2012

Recorded a quick comparison of the Laney IronHeart and the Mesa Dual Rectifier 3 channel amps.
Everyone was in the house so the tone is very choked down, but pretty representative.
I will repost when I can open them up, it's hard for me to play very well when I can almost hear the pick attack over the sound of the amp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bC6n9fNYVc

When you figure that the Mesa is $2k new and the Laney is $800, it becomes a REALLY GOOD OPTION.

They both sound full on "metal", but the presence control on the Mesa red channel is so strong, it really "defines the Mesa sound" IMO. with the volumes set so low on this, I didn't realize how much presence was on the orange channel until I listened to the video, the pin sized mic magnifies this effect too.
The pre-boost on the Laney is really cool, especially when used with the clean channel, it becomes a solo channel.
But too much boost and the gain channels become muddy, especially when I have the gain set so high on them. However, the more you back off the gain, the more the pre-boost has an effect, and the better the tone change.

The Laney will get a very similar "tone" to the mesa, but it won't nail the Mesa "sound" by any means. But IMO it sounds much better than a Marshall.
If Blackstar had met delivery, it would have been an HT100 vs Dual Rec video, but with the watts control on the Laney, and the fact that the lead and rhythym channel have separate EQ's, I believe I will be happier with the Laney in the long run.
It will be the head i grab and 'take somewhere to jam', as it is relatively light and has the massive grab handles on the top edges.

Wookieslayer · Apr 12, 2012

Nice review man! Thanks for that and the video.

I'm very curious to try this and the 50w 5150iii mini sometime, or if I ever decide to part with my Randalls, I'll give these a shot. (well I don't think I'll part with all of them ever lol)

I think you made the right choice over the Blackstar too