OT - Anyone have a Koch Studiotone?

[Tim O'Sullivan]

hey there kids.

Have you checked into Laney amps? They're dirt cheap for all tube amps. You can get a little thirty watter for under a grand canadian, and that's Class A. It's three channels, ranging from super clean to overdrive to distortion. Some no talent assclown named Paul Gilbert plays them and he certainly sounds all right! I highly recommend you look into them because their pricepoint will slay Mesa. You'll get a GREAT amp and have enough left over to eBay purchase a EBMM!

The no talent assclown comment was a joke, in case anyone missed that.

http://www.laney.co.uk

Laney's give a good bang for the buck, but the speakers could be better. Budget on swapping them out.

 

[Dodgeball]

Laney's give a good bang for the buck, but the speakers could be better. Budget on swapping them out.

Not so the VC-15 great little amp, but I agree some of the bigger combos could use some better cones. I run a GH50L through a Cornford 2x12 and love it!

Definately recommend trying out some of the Laney line and also the THDs which sound fantastic. But then I only go for 1 channel amps.

 

[candid_x]

Laney's give a good bang for the buck, but the speakers could be better. Budget on swapping them out.

On 'bigger' Laney combos the speakers are unrefined, to say it politely. Trashy, to put it bluntly. Laney went for a Voxy vibe, and the HH speakers deliver that sort of sizzle on top. But the mids are wanting and ragged. I've run through several speakers with both my combo and head. A V30 completely changes the sound of the amp, putting it in the Santana midrange territory. I've tried a pair of Eminence Alnico Red Fangs - lots of harmonic content, but compress too much when pushed, to be very useful when playing rhythm in a band setting. New Celestions (made in China) all sound pretty terrible to my ears. I'm using an Eminence Wizard, which is like the old Celestion H30 only better, and for a second speaker, an Eminence GB128, which is like the original Greenback, but with twice the power handling and better mids and highs. I love this combination.

Also, Laney's come from the factory with low end Sovtek tubes, which are more linear than musical sounding. Here, as with speakers, it's a matter of personal preference which to replace them with.

Still, a used Laney in good condition can be had for not a lot of coin, and even with these simple mods creates an amp worth much than its price tag. The only amp I'd replace them with would be a Two Rock, and at $4500, that ain't happening any time soon.

 

[TimSz]

The Speaker sitch...

What I found to be the secret to my Laney success was to actually go back to Mesa for their speakers. They have some really good Celestion speakers that handle a lot of power without sounding too brittle or ****ty. I plugged two Celestion 80/70's into my 2x12 combo, and it's great. I ended up selling the amp because the Dr. Z came along. If you are interested, buy a VH100R and a 4x12 Mesa half-stack. That will kill and slay at the same time!

 

[robelinda2]

i used to own a VH100R, terrible amp really. Way too loud, and SO noisy, just stupidly noisy. played 3 or 4 of them, they were all the same. great on stage, heaps of headroom, but i'd rather a combo for home and stage, and since i stopped using the VH100R live i realised how wrong it was.

just my opinion of course.

 

[candid_x]

What I found to be the secret to my Laney success was to actually go back to Mesa for their speakers. They have some really good Celestion speakers that handle a lot of power without sounding too brittle or ****ty. I plugged two Celestion 80/70's into my 2x12 combo, and it's great. I ended up selling the amp because the Dr. Z came along. If you are interested, buy a VH100R and a 4x12 Mesa half-stack. That will kill and slay at the same time!

Not wild about the VH100R either.

There's also a big difference between their GH Gain Head and the LH Laney Head series. The first being as the name implies: high gain, fast response. The second is more of a "saggy" classic rock or blues sound. Both good amps.

I think the Mesa speakers are 90 watt (Cel) Black Shadows, if I remember correctly? Nice speakers, pretty dark though. I had a Mesa 1x12 cab with one.

 

[CudBucket]

I had, I believe a Laney 50 watt AOR half stack back in the day. Oddly enough, back in 2002 or so, when I finally decided to sell it and the rest of my gear (since I hadn't played in 15 years or so), I got back into guitar playing and here I am.

I remember that amp having tons of low end when you pulled the bass knob out. There were also Treble and Mid boosts on the respective knobs. Tons of gain. I don't really regret selling it but I wonder what I would think of that rig if I still had it.

I recently got Paul Gilbert's "Get Out Of My Yard" CD and have to say I like what he gets out of his Laneys.

Dave

 

[candid_x]

I had, I believe a Laney 50 watt AOR half stack back in the day. Oddly enough, back in 2002 or so, when I finally decided to sell it and the rest of my gear (since I hadn't played in 15 years or so), I got back into guitar playing and here I am.

I remember that amp having tons of low end when you pulled the bass knob out. There were also Treble and Mid boosts on the respective knobs. Tons of gain. I don't really regret selling it but I wonder what I would think of that rig if I still had it.

I recently got Paul Gilbert's "Get Out Of My Yard" CD and have to say I like what he gets out of his Laneys.

Dave

The AOR is an altogether different beast. I never played through one but I have heard a friend of my kid's do so. I wasn't knocked out by what I heard, although it was plenty loud. Think the AOR was designed to compete with The Plexi of its day. Don't know much about them, other than they have tons of push/pull knobs, and they sell cheap used.

Gilbert uses the GH100L. Pretty much a straight ahead, single channel tone machine. A friend at the studio plays through a GH50L sometimes, and it sounds really good. No reverb though.

 

[Jimmyb]

HiWatt DR103

No channel switching, no reverb, 100w of valve-powered madness!!!



Why not look at getting hold of a kit, where you can build your own valve amp? You get some insight on how they're put together, plus a rosy feeling when you power it up and say "I built that".

 

[thindave]

Ok, so this has certainly gotten way OT... Never mind, I've decided not to get rid of the Boogie...

 

[candid_x]

Ok, so this has certainly gotten way OT... Never mind, I've decided not to get rid of the Boogie...

Sorry 'bout that.

Did you decide what yer getting?

 

[thindave]

No prob - free speech & all that... I'm going to wait to see if anything interesting pops up at winter Namm - then I'll decide...

 

[candid_x]

No prob - free speech & all that... I'm going to wait to see if anything interesting pops up at winter Namm - then I'll decide...

There's so many great amps out there, just a matter of what clicks with the player.

Good luck, hope you let us know what you decide on.

 

[hiddendip]

laney

laney LC30 and VC30 combos are very loud - impractical for home use. Trying to use a power soak with mine, the output transformer burned out. My amp tech's comment was that these amps use poor quality transformers which is one reason why they are so cheap. His comment applied to the 30w and 15w combos.

 

[Grand Wazoo]

All, I'm going to get rid of my old Boogie Mark IV and get a "smaller" amp. I've looked at the Mesa Lonestar Special which I really like but I've heard quite a bit about the Koch Studiotone as well. Does anyone have one and care to offer some opinions - positive or negative?

Also, I'd welcome any other suggestions - looking for an EL84 amp with at least two channels and low-power options.

Judging by the fact you are asking for a particular amp fitted with EL84's and that you are already familiar with the Mesa sound, if I was you I would seek high and low in the 2nd hand market, or even on ebay for a.........

Mesa Boogie Studio 22+ in a combo format (it was fitted with a Black Shadow Electrovoice 1 x 12 speaker) You couldn't go wrong with that amp it was built around the mid 80's and I used to have one when I was going through a short guitar fad that lasted a couple of years before returning to my bass passion, but believe me that was one the best Boogie amp I have ever tried, here is what people have been saying about it on Harmony Central

Mesa/Boogie Studio .22: Harmony Central User Reviews

 

[RobertS]

All, I'm going to get rid of my old Boogie Mark IV and get a "smaller" amp. I've looked at the Mesa Lonestar Special which I really like but I've heard quite a bit about the Koch Studiotone as well. Does anyone have one and care to offer some opinions - positive or negative?

Koch Studiotone is my main amp since more than a half a year.
What do You want to know?

Also, I'd welcome any other suggestions - looking for an EL84 amp with at least two channels and low-power options.

For the record: Studiotone doesn't have a low-power option.
It has built-in dummy speaker load, so the speaker can be switched off completely when using recording output or phone output.

 

[RobertS]

koch and engl are great german amps.

True, Koch and Engls are great amps, but Koch amps are built in Netherlands, not in Germany

 

[stringkiller]

My Koch Studiotone has become my main amp since 2007.
I loved my Boogie MK 4 but was always breaking the swithches witht eh flight case and it would take two people to take it out or put in in the truck or car. Too heavy for gigging. I'm a musician not a furniture removal worker.
Why the Studiotone - Great varied sounds from clean (even when turned up as opposed to the Boogie 22) to scream due to the three channels and responsive controls.
Even better it is lighter than my Laney VC30 (great value amp - wow it has cheap transformers does it - you learn something every day) - lighter than my Vox AC15 (no channel switching and a bit too much hum for stage use)
My Koch Twintone stays at home even for large concert or outdoor festivals as the guitar amp is going to get miked into the soundsystem so the Studiotone is even good for large gigs - I noticed at the last festival we played all the 100 w rigs were asked to lower the satge volumes and all the cats were complaining about the lower volume levels hindering them getting their tone. (While rubbing their backs - joke)
Listen to the Koch in tiny clubs (huchette) festivals (Rueil Festival) and large clubs (Souboc) at Doctor Pickup blues band, Paris blues videos
Also the tracks at Les Bluesmakers on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads are a PRS Singlecut Trem thru the Koch with the volumes on 1 (20H00 or 8 o'clock) in a restaurant. Many people have been asking me if it was a 50 or 100 watt rig when hearing the recordings!
Ohter sound clips at Dr Pickup on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads all Koch Studiotone
I see that the US price is high due to the dollar/euro conversion but if you can try one one and ask to use it over the weekend and I am sure you'll want to keep it due to the good range of sounds ( the Jensen Koch Speaker has something to do with it) the possibility of getting good guitar sounds at very stage low volumes, outputs for large stages and recording (see the manual) and not breaking your back everynight coming home from gigs.

 

[HCB]

Got a Laney Lionheart head that sounds great with the heritage G12H .

If I was buying right now, I would be setting my sights on the new Fryette

30 watt Memphis. This thing is off the hook.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DIeRWsdMZQ"]YouTube - Summer NAMM '09 - Fryette Amplification Memphis Thirty Demo[/ame]

He needed to use the axis instead! Steve is a great guy.

 

[Astrofreq]

It was between Engl and Koch for me when choosing a combo amp. Neither unfortunately had dealers for me to check them out. It basically came down to Engl having a TON of metal endorsers, so I took a chance figuring that the distortion would meet my needs. I love my Raider 100 and it cost considerably less than the Koch.