So then, the City Link has just arrived with my new amp. I've taken a punt on a Laney Ironheart. There was nowhere to try one around here and so I thought I'd take advantage of being able to try one at home for seven days thanks to online sales blah blah.

...

Obviously at this time in the morning I’ve hardly been able to open her up at all, but even at (exceedingly) neighbour friendly volumes my initial impressions are very favourable and that this is a keeper.

Despite the obvious metal pedigree the clean channel is rather lovely. Reminds me a lot of my beloved Laney Cub 12R. And the crunch channel is similarly not just for metalheads - there’s plenty of bluesy low gain goodness on offer at the lower gain settings. The pre-boost can also add a little grit to the clean channel too.

The crunch and lead channels seem to be pretty similar but the lead channel goes just a little bit further. A lovely metal crunch that has even better sustain with the boost kicked in. I’m impressed at how very quiet the amp is even with lots of gain dialled in. It’s certainly a heck of a lot quieter than my Blackstar HT-20.

The EQ section is interesting in that each pot is also a pull switch and I’ve already discovered that the bass pull pot is ideal for adding some bass chunk at lower volumes. The Watts setting is advertised as some kind of power soak thing - for all I know it may just be a master volume - but it works really well, with no problems with the taper all the way down to the quietest end. Whatever it is, it’s not a normal MV as it doesn’t actually go silent at the bottom end, it just goes to its quietest setting. Even then you can dial in plenty of volume with the channel controls.

I’ve not tried the FX loop yet, but for purists it can be switched out of the circuit altogether. Construction on the whole seems very solid with two bloody great handles on the top of the amp. I’ve read that although many of the components come from China, final assembley takes place here in the UK. I don’t know how true that is - but I’m no anti-China snob - and the amp looks well built either way.

My only quible so far - and I’ve only been messing for 15 minutes - is the footswitch. It requires some tap dancing to use all three channels. One switch engages clean, the other lead. But one doesn’t cancel the other. And with both on you get the crunch channel. Not quite worked out the logic of this in my head yet - I think one has to kick two switches at once but I’ll figure it out.

But anyway, first impressions are very good. Rather than being a full-on metal amp it seems to be quite good at the quieter end of the musical spectrum too. Looking forward to giving it some welly at some point. But that won’t be for a week or two. I may even try some EL34 power valves in it - see how that compares.

Anyway more impressions when I’ve had more time with it and I’ll no doubt record some clips. But if you see one in a store, have a go.