THREE TO GET READY

A trio of lovely Laney heads

Laney L5-Studio head £519

Designed with home recording in mind, the tone-rich little L5 head has a raft of features to make getting tone down on tape easy – from a single-ended Class A power stage for easy access to responsive, blooming tone to Laney’s T-USB output allowing direct recording to a DAW. Boutique-grade tone in a flexible, studio-ready package that doesn’t cost a bomb.

Laney Cub-Supertop head £329

Laney’s entry-level valve head doesn’t skimp on features or tone – as demonstrated by Brazilian phenom Lari Basilio who uses these live. The cool but minimal enclosure houses a 15-watt EL84-based amp with a footswitchable boost function plus digital reverb and can be stepped down to one-watt output for bedroom use.

Laney Black Country Customs LA30BL head £779

Harking back to the muscular, mighty Laney amps of the 70s, the LA30BL is a study in potent simplicity. Deriving 30 watts of output from a pair of EL34s, the LA30BL has four inputs, three-band EQ, presence and a gain control… and not much more, except some of the most evocative tones the company can offer. You just have to crank it right up to get ’em.