Laney AOR50 rebuild

elams1894 · Post by **elams1894** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:19 pm

I recently rebuilt a Laney AOR50 for a friend who, after acquiring one, found that it had been well and truly molested inside. Some of you guys may well know of the Laney AOR50 as it is quite a beast, with a whole bunch of boost switches and a bass boost that acts like a tactical nuke. Extreme used one back in the day. The circuit is quite complicated with transistors and optocouplers included which Laney used for switching. It was let down by its build quality with an awful PCB and miles of hook-up wire iside which resulted in a heap of unwanted noise.

The amp has 4 pre-amp tubes and a tonne of gain. It really is a cool design, however overly complicated. I'm gonna be bummed giving this back to Tez as its so cool to play..
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6pk_7jMZKE/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DrJIydzel0/youtube]

elams1894 · Post by **elams1894** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:22 pm

I can't seem to embed videos anymore.. I don't know why.. I am using a MAC.. any tips will be greatly appreciated. Or if anyone could embed these vids, that would be great too. Thanks

jimi · Post by **jimi** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:26 pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6pk_7jMZKE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DrJIydzel0[/youtube]

jimi · Post by **jimi** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:27 pm

remove the s from https and you're missing the [ from [/youtube]

elams1894 · Post by **elams1894** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:31 pm

jimi wrote:remove the s from https and you're missing the [ from [/youtube]

Thanks so much Jimi!!! You are the man!

AmpShop · Post by **AmpShop** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:32 pm

Really nice!

The Scarecrow · Post by **The Scarecrow** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:34 pm

I had a bandmate's AOR100 head at my place for about a year when practice was held at my flat. Loved all the EQ boosts - pull the bass one out and really feel the earth shudder. The poor-man's JCM800, but actually a lot cooler IMO with all the extra tonal options and a degree of footswitchability between high/low gain modes.

elams1894 · Post by **elams1894** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 4:57 pm

The Scarecrow wrote:I had a bandmate's AOR100 head at my place for about a year when practice was held at my flat. Loved all the EQ boosts - pull the bass one out and really feel the earth shudder. The poor-man's JCM800, but actually a lot cooler IMO with all the extra tonal options and a degree of footswitchability between high/low gain modes.

I've often heard it described as 'the poors mans JCM800' which is quite strange as the circuit was at least twice the size of the 800. I think that the PCB and god awful wiring was just thrown in there to make it as cheap as possible, leading to a plethora of noise problems, and giving it the bad name. Its nice to have this circuit rebuilt and after hearing it with no added horrible noise.. it slays man.. Its a real cool circuit at the end of the day.

AmpShop wrote:Really nice!

Hey thanks !

Aquila Rossa · Post by **Aquila Rossa** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:17 pm

in late 80s when we were broke teen guitarists, people were wanting Marshalls. I wanted the Laney AOR instead. Then the mighty rack systems appeared and most of us forgot both. Still have this thing for those AOR amps, but not played one since back then, so no idea if i'd still like them.

Doing this overhaul does it some justice huh. Have you done this before, or just have a knack for DIY and got stuck into it? I sometimes toy with the idea of putting a turret board in my late 80s Marshall. Turret board material and parts source?

elams1894 · Post by **elams1894** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:38 pm

Aquila Rosso wrote:in late 80s when we were broke teen guitarists, people were wanting Marshalls. I wanted the Laney AOR instead. Then the mighty rack systems appeared and most of us forgot both. Still have this thing for those AOR amps, but not played one since back then, so no idea if i'd still like them.

Doing this overhaul does it some justice huh. Have you done this before, or just have a knack for DIY and got stuck into it? I sometimes toy with the idea of putting a turret board in my late 80s Marshall. Turret board material and parts source?

Yes overhauling any PCB, IMO, improves the amp greatly in terms of reduced noise. I have rebuilt a few other circuits before, but none this complicated. I thought it would be pretty straightforward but it was quite hard trying to get a suitable layout with near point to point wiring. I have always hated the thin horrible miles of copper trace in a PCB and it just can't do any justice to the circuit noise-wise. The added problem with this amp was the multiple ground points which create weird earth currents and a large amount of noise. My main goal is to neaten everything up and get a good thick ground strap to a single earth which reduces that hum and hiss noise significantly. I source most of my components from partsconneXion and I make my own turret boards out of fibreglass cloth.

Aquila Rossa · Post by **Aquila Rossa** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:17 pm

Chees for info.

It's a funny thing PCB vs Turrret board. Some converts wil swear by it, but others will say it will sound the same if the components are the same. I dunno. I just like the tinkering aspect and to hear the results myself. Changed my transformer and a few components and did a bit of shoddy job tbh. It was as far as i got with it all. As for turret board, i had been convinced brown is best or the real deal for some reason. I now see old Marshalls with white -ish boards, so they were full of it on those forums. Does not matter either way, but the way it looks and the gut shot at the end can matter to some.

Jay · Post by **Jay** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:26 pm

Watched both vids - your attention to detail is amazing. Great work on the amp and your camera work is real good too.

There is a lot of labour in doing things properly and that makes it really uneconomic for us to do this. I guess that 's why we buy so so stuff from the East.

elams1894 · Post by **elams1894** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:58 pm

jvpp wrote:Watched both vids - your attention to detail is amazing. Great work on the amp and your camera work is real good too.

There is a lot of labour in doing things properly and that makes it really uneconomic for us to do this. I guess that 's why we buy so so stuff from the East.

Thanks JVPP

I totally agree re: doing things properly is costly. The re-drawing of the layout of this amp took me so long.. I hate to think how many hours. Having said that though, I think building a guitar takes so much longer than an amp, esp when you want to be very accurate. Guitar building is the ultimate exercise in patients as the labour involved, I'm sure you'll agree, is just hundreds of hours. I'v seen your work close up JVPP and its so neat and accurate, you must spend a great deal of time. Makes it so much more special when you finished. I know I could never make any money out of guitar building, I would go broke in no time haha. Thanks J!

jeremyb · Post by **jeremyb** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:09 pm

You're a ridiculously talented man, love watching your videos!

crowbgood1 · Post by **crowbgood1** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:33 am

Very tidy. I have an old 15 w Laney, sounds great but not very reliable.

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Laney AOR50 rebuild

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