Opeth Amp? Laney VHR100 - Lots of Riffs!

[@giancarlomartinez5630]

If I may make a correction, I used to own a Laney VH100R, and a boss GT5 (I still use Boss GT pedals, I'm VERY familiar with them), so I was excited to see them using the exact same setup I used live (I wasn't imitating them, it was just a coincidence). I was at the very front of the crowd with a great view of Peter Lindgren's pedal setup (it was right in front of me). This was at a small venue in New Jersey called the Birch Hill when they were on tour with Lacuna Coil in 2003. While they used the boss GT5 pedals for their effects, they used the 4 cable method in order to use the amps' distortion anywhere they want in their Boss GT pedals' signal chain. I could see Peter's Laney GH50L had its knobs set up to high gain, which told me his cleans came from the boss pedal entirely while the distortion was the Laney's. Mike Akerfeldt used the VH100R and I had a decent view of his amp knobs and pedal as well. Both of them used the 4 cable method to use the amps natural distortion within the Boss GT pedals signal chain. It was great. It felt validating for me as I was already doing at home what they were doing live. If they had been using the distortion of the Boss GT pedals at the time, there would have been a digital aliasing/artifacting to the distortion that just wasn't there when I saw them.

[@lordgraga]

That is some really really excellent information, thank you.

[@giancarlomartinez5630]

@@lordgraga you're welcome. I've been waiting years for this knowledge to finally be useful, like this was my time to shine or something.

[@Amusiastudio]

@@giancarlomartinez5630i always knew this was the case. I tried using a gh100l and a boss gt8 the way i heard people say Opeth did their live setup by using the distortion off the pedal. Sounded AWFUL.

[@giancarlomartinez5630]

@@Amusiastudio do you still have that gear? I'm very proficient with Laney amps and Boss GT pedals, so maybe I could be a 2nd set of eyes to help you achieve the tone you're after with it.

[@Amusiastudio]

@@giancarlomartinez5630 long sold my gh100l and boss gt pedal. I still have a VC50 which is a vh100r in a combo, a vc30 and a LC30-II. I no longer desire to copy tones. But get my own out of these amps. But the VC50 drive can sound very opeth. I hear they used the VH100r on deliverance.

[@LotharOfTheHillPeople]

The VH100R is a massively underrated head. It did the JVM long before the JVM. I bought one back in like 2005 after seeing HIM's Linde playing them. They're really just perfect for everything, from clean pedal platform to super high gain standalone. *chef kiss*

[@lordgraga]

Yeah it's a dope amp! It definitely has "a sound", but I find myself able to get a lot of use of it. It covers most of my daily needs. Sometimes I lust for other amps (JCM 800 2203, 5150, Friedman), but right now it keeps me happy. I'm considering adding a few mods to the poweramp section to get a different presence, depth, and resonance control. My VH100R and my cheap 6505+ can probably record an entire EP just fine.

[@lgmx-peacekeeper3204]

@@lordgraga If you're going to mod the power section, the best mod I know of that can most effectively change the tone of the power amp is a variable negative feedback control. The VH100R uses a very small amount of NFB which gives it an ice-picky like tone and makes the depth and presence controls less effective than they could be. By using a negative feedback control you can compensate for different speaker cabs, guitars, effects, ect without messing with the preamp section. A good example of an amp that uses a NFB control is the Mesa Boogie Mark 2C+/Mark 3/Mark 4/Mark 5 and most Boogie rackmount power amps.

[@lordgraga]

@@lgmx-peacekeeper3204 Dude you are reading my mind, I would love to increase the versatility of that section. I also heard about variable caps for the negative feedback section. Any more info would be greatly appreciated. Right now, I never use the depth switch, I would gladly replace it with a feedback pot.

[@lgmx-peacekeeper3204]

@@lordgraga Switching different value caps for the series NFB cap is sort of pointless, anything over 22nF doesn't really change the sound all that much and using smaller caps can only add as much bass/depth as the amp is capable of producing. Usually a single value cap is settled on based on what is appropriate for the amp. There is a way you could still retain the depth switch and install a variable NFB control by using a push/pull pot. You could put a 22k resistor in series with a 250kA pot off the 16 ohm tap instead of the stock 100k resistor coming off the 4 ohm tap which would give you a huge range of sounds from a flat hi-fi tone on 0 to the stock hairy bright sound at 10 on the control. To incorporate the depth switch you would get a DPDT push/pull pot and wire the series cap so that it activates the depth boost when you pull the switch out (not the opposite effect as you'd get using a SPST switch). A good place to start with the series NFB cap is 6.8nF, if it's not deep enough, try 4.7nF

[@lordgraga]

@@lgmx-peacekeeper3204 sweet, I’m gonna give it a go this summer

[@Matt-ke4bp]

I'm a massive Opeth fan. Where I live in England, I'm not actually far away from the Laney factory and that means these are fairly affordable on the used market in the UK. I need one in my life! Thank you for the awesome comprehensive walk through!

[@lordgraga]

That’s super cool! Laney seems like it’s run by good people. Since recording this video I actually managed to coax even better tones out of the amp - I just uploaded a new video where I did a lead sound. Anyway, I hope you find a good model! Let me know how if you have any questions about it.

[@nwrth]

This is exacly why I bought the amp about 10 years ago. Oh what a beast when driven loud.

[@lordgraga]

Yeah it's a lot of fun to play, lovely amp.

[@nwrth]

@@lordgraga Which speakers do you run it through?

[@lordgraga]

@@nwrth Check my recent video about Vintage 30s and Greenbacks. I like it a lot with Greenbacks for everything but very tight metal.

[@gearoidwalsh8606]

Great sounding amp, good riffing too.

[@RohannvanRensburg]

I'm impressed you got these tones with the HFS/VB pickups. I've been able to get decent distorted tones through Marshalls but not clean tones at all, they're awfully nasal.

[@lordgraga]

Yeah they are definitely more oriented for hot tones. Vintage Bass is alright clean, but so many other pickups are better 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@RohannvanRensburg]

@@lordgraga They worked really nicely with this amp though. I think I recall reading about them using SD JBs in their CE24s in the early days

[@lordgraga]

@@RohannvanRensburg I think they had JB’s in their Jackson guitars that they used to record still life, but I’m 95% sure they never had them in their PRS. In Mikael’s blue PRS, which he used to record on Damnation, Deliverance, Ghost Reveries, and maybe Watershed, he had Seymou Duncan Full Shred’s. I have them in my red PRS now and they are spot on.

[@RohannvanRensburg]

@@lordgraga Ahh Full Shreds, that's what they were. I think you're right, the JBs were pre-BWP era. Not sure what he had for BWP?

[@lordgraga]

@@RohannvanRensburg as far as I know, BWP is the only album that features a CE-24, which came stock with HFS/VB. I never heard that it had anything but stock pickups. A lot of the album was recorded on Peter’s Les Paul Custom though.

[@angusorvid8840]

Fantastic sounding amp. Yes, very bright, and I'd dial it back a bit, but a great example of British tube tone. I used to play through a Laney at a rehearsal studio. It wasn't mine but I loved using it. Sounded fantastic.

[@jupitermoongauge4055]

I've been gigging with these and the gh100l for years. Both bright amps, until I discovered the lo input. Still plenty of gain and in my experience a much more balanced and usable tone.

[@rayzeus]

Agreed on the brightness. If he's going through his PC, a good way to tame the highs without neutering the tone would be to use a low pass to only get rid of the very high end in that tone.

[@13superdude2]

Jesus, that sounds so good

[@NRobertAlexander]

I've had a 2004 VH100R for nine years now. Wouldn't even dream of changing it.

[@franktriggs]

@Jacob K Guitar You might want to try removing the bright cap on your guitar volume control to get a more mellow clean tone when the volume is rolled back a bit.

[@franktriggs]

I've just found a mod to get rid of the hum. Simple mod, adds a hum balance pot to filter out mains hum, and an EMI filter power socket. guitar-dreamer.blogspot.com/2012/09/laney-vh100r-repair.html

[@lordgraga]

@@franktriggs It's funny, people talk about how noisy the amp is, but I never had any problems. It might be because I'm recording DI with my Reactive Load in my apartment, which has quite modern electric wiring. I'm also good distances away from electrical noise sources.

[@eddiemunoz7880]

Awesome Riffs and playing!

[@lordgraga]

Thanks a lot Eddie!!

[@munchen7986]

Eyyy, en dansk opeth fan :0 rock on brotha!

[@lordgraga]

Hey, tak!! Jeg er ved at skrive et album, musikken er rimeligt Opeth agtigt - håber du ville lytte med når det en dag kommer ud!

[@deusmisereatur4213]

Nice opeth playing.Such a great band.I have 2 of these amps i play in stereo because of opeth also but because of Timo Tolkki of stratovarius.They were bought stock with sovtek 6l6/5881 but after a little bit of playing they died out and became microphonic.Replaced with JJ 6l6GC in one amp and JJ KT77 in the other.That was 11 years ago and the amps sound fantastic.Only recently did the amp with 6l6s get noisy and thats because the power tubes drifted hot 14 milliamps.I adjusted the bias back to where it should be and the problem was solved.

[@colinclark1981]

From what I can hear, it sounds like your tone is a tad bright and the gain is more than what they used in the studio. And your lead tone would definitely benefit from more delay

[@lordgraga]

100% valid points. I’m also playing around to find the best impulse responses to go with it. It’s a good amp but it’s not God tier.

[@WDeeGee1]

Usually, it works great if you dial the treble back to 1 or 2, and add brightness with the presence control.

[@lgmx-peacekeeper3204]

There is also the possibility they just rolled off the excess high end in the the studio. This is so close to the Deliverance tone, high end fizz included. In my experience with this amp, if the treble control is rolled off below 2:00, you'll lose this characteristic.

[@dq7860]

Quite the sleeper amplifier, might get one of these.

[@lordgraga]

I like it, but depending on the genre there are better options. A JVM or Ironheart is also a good choice.

[@JONNIE_ROCKER]

I've got mine in 97 and i got 5881 Sovtek original

[@BlighMartin]

Hello Jacob, whole my life i was convinced that the roundhouse tapes dvd = boss gt6 to laney to 412tt v30 and final sound is from mikes.

[@lordgraga]

I think that sounds right! I only noticed that they used TT cabs very recently (which are 16 ohm, I believe), and the rest checks out with their various rig rundowns from that period.

[@BlighMartin]

@@lordgraga Try send yours vh100 through 412tt and enjoy the sound. That nothing much better than this. Obvieusly in that period of it.

[@lordgraga]

@@BlighMartin wish I had one but I have an ENGL 4x12 with speakers closely dated to studio Fredman’s speakers so I am not sad!

[@franktriggs]

Channel A with a Boss DS1, can't go wrong. The extra gain stage from Channel B is a bit too much for me, sounds too fizzy without the amp master turned up. I've had my Laney VH100R since around 2000, bought it after hearing Andy Timmons playing it.

[@lordgraga]

OK, super interesting tip!! Currently I'm alleviation the fizz by running without any overdrives at all, channel B with the gain at 4 and the drive at 6, which gives a marshall-ish tone which doesn't quite work for tight metal, but it sounds glorious. Look forward to playing around with pedals on Channel A - is that without the boost stage enabled?

[@franktriggs]

@@lordgraga Set your distortion/overdrive pedal louder than direct in, drive the input, add the gain from pedal, then dial in the Channel A gain and boost levels. I start with amp fairly clean (with guitar volume dialled back a bit), pedal on gives about 3dB boost and some break up/crunch. To me, Channel A is tighter sounding and less mushy, more punch/kick/power.

[@lordgraga]

@@franktriggs Aweseome! I'll give it a shot. Might do another VH100R video in the near future.

[@franktriggs]

@@lordgraga I'll do a comparison video soon too, between my Marshall JCM800 2210 and Laney VH100R, and demonstrate the Laney Pre-amp out going into the Marshall Power amp input. Sounds fuller, and the Marshall's reverb is much better.

[@lordgraga]

@@franktriggs nice!! Subscribed, will keep an eye out

[@Ullish1989]

Open actually used the GH100L a LOT live

[@Amusiastudio]

Same amp. One is just two channel

[@arjundhannyify]

I have a question... can you connect the laney amp head to the audio interface like focusrite 2i2 to a computer at a higher volume when the valves are fully engaged ? I am thinking of buying this amp and I wanna use the impulse responses from the computer (i dont wanna use the mic n all coz I got neighbors lol)... so would amp head to audio interface to computer work at full valve output and without clipping the signal ? Please help 😊

[@lordgraga]

You need a loadbox

[@arjundhannyify]

@@lordgraga what brand and type of load box would you recommend for this amp ?

[@lordgraga]

@@arjundhannyify Suhr or Fryette. Any of their Reactive loadboxes.

[@arjundhannyify]

Great and so signal chain would be amp head --> suhr reactive box--> focusrite 2i2--> DAW--> IR LOADER. . please correct me if I am wrong somehwre. Thank you so much my friend!! love your passion towards nailing the nuances! @@lordgraga ...

[@lordgraga]

@@arjundhannyify That's the chain, yes! It's also fun to play on cabs if you have the chance (but yeah, mic'ing them well is hard), but that's another rabbit hole :D. A warning: Like I said in the video, you should reserve a bit of extra money for maintenance, so don't pay too much! These amps are fairly reliable but there will most likely be smaller issues that a tech needs to check. Another thing: The Laney is not actually a big part of Opeth's classic sounds - the 5150 and ENGL Savage have a larger part here (And Mesa Rectifier on Deliverance and Ghost Reveries). Nevertheless, I really like to play my Laney and it's the first amp I turn on if I just want to enjoy (I am playing it right now in fact), so it's definitely not a bad choice. And thanks for the kind words!

[@jalaskabtu]

friend, I had this amp, tried with 6l6 and el34. The 6l6 is much better for cleans, el34 came with mids and great rock n roll drive. Now I bouth a new one, very happy with :) Im a tone intusiast. What do you think about the reverb? Mine is little, not big as other amps that I had. Thanks for your video, glad talk you about this, our amp hehehahha. Congrats. Paulo from Brazil.

[@lordgraga]

E aí!! I am very curious about 6l6. I would love to try it out, especially to see what happens under HEAVY gain - maybe it sounds more like Deliverance haha?? Did you like the distortion with 6L6 also? I think the reverb is not bad, but I like to record the amp dry and add reverb later in post, so I don't turn it on that much much. Now you made me want to order some tubes, OBRIGADO rsrsrs!!

[@jalaskabtu]

@@lordgraga obrigado a você amigo :) the 6l6 will bring sweetness to your sound, the drive is similar but more rounded and less bright. I choose 6l6, but to sound more jcm, the el34 better. I have belle epoch delay, this is like a delay with little reverb together hahahaha. I will send a message to you later, ok? Lets talk about our great amp :) thanks

[@jalaskabtu]

@@lordgraga about the drive, yes, it's wonderfull too with 6l6, but the big difference is in the first channel. The el34 drive is more classic in this amp, the 6l6 will bring more sweetness drive, like an fancy and top amp, I like it so much. Tomorrow my amp will be here, and in some days I will do a video test with 6l6, and send you my friend, ok? Thanks a lot :) bye

[@lordgraga]

@@jalaskabtu Dude that's awesome! Muito legal! To esperando o seu video - até logo!

[@jalaskabtu]

@@lordgraga mano, você escreveu to esperando... To achando que você fala português hahaahhahaha não? Abs :)

[@kevinleahyjr1977]

Seen them Opeth in 2005 looks like the Amp... also seen gh100 on stage

[@lordgraga]

Yeah they used GH100 with their BOSS GT-3 pedalboard almost exclussively live, but in studio it was VH100

[@kevinleahyjr1977]

@@lordgraga ok .. killer show.. seen arch enemy 3 weeks later. Lol. Same place

[@mauriciogutierrez9340]

Quería conseguir el tono de Windowpane, sabes que efectos tiene la grabación original? Gracias

[@lordgraga]

I have a video about this, look on my channel :-)

[@mauriciogutierrez9340]

@@lordgraga thanks! I will right now :)

[@eveofcontempt]

recently got a vh100r on ebay, but i’m having a hard time getting a good hi gain tone like what you showcase, do you have any tips for it or ideas what i might be doing wrong?

[@lordgraga]

These days, I set treble and mids quite high (6-7) and keep the bass in the middle, or slightly below. I have the presence low, and the gains slightly above noon. Speakers are also extremely important - I like Greenback IRs a lot recently.

[@lordgraga]

You might also have to check your presmp tubes.

[@eveofcontempt]

@@lordgraga yes i’ve heard that the tubes can be a cause of the problems, i have el34s currently, the guy told me it was serviced before covid, i’m also playing through a 2x12 matching laney cab, but i’m wondering if it’s because i’ve plugged the speaker cable incorrectly, i have it going from the 1*16 ohm on the head to the 16 ohms mono on the cab, another reason might be that i cheaped out on a noise gate pedal but i’m looking for a boss one now instead, also running it through an overdrive pedal

[@lordgraga]

@@eveofcontempt boss is not the best gate. Try TC Sentry, it is cheap. The Laney cabinets with HH speakers are OK, but I think you can get better tones with other brands.

[@vanessasasdelli]

what do you think about this and jcm800? What kind of tube do you use?

[@lordgraga]

I haven’t tried the JCM800. The VH100R is a good amp, but it’s not a perfect amp. It has some problems where it has a lot of high frequency overtones that sound piercing to the ear, especially for complex chords. I hear it can be fixed with a mod, which I will try soon. I think there is so much competition on the amp market, and many great options exist, but if you can get a VH100R for a good price I would recommend trying it. For Opeth tones it’s OK, but a 5150, a Rectifier, or even a JCM800 might get you there. I use EL34 with this amp. I haven’t tried it with 6L6, but I might do that in the future.

[@jalaskabtu]

Jacob, friend, yesterday I tryed my vh100r with a great friend of mine, put the amp in test with a marshall jmp1 too. I have a lot of doubts now hahahhahaha, think the drive doesn't glue the notes, the frequencies seems to be loose and separated, hope you understand hhahaha, it doesn't feel a mass of drive unique and soft, do you feel yours like this? Hope some day we can talk whatsapp, it's very crazy and cool talk someone with the same amp in other Country to learn more about this monster amp. Thanks for your atention friend :) bye

[@jalaskabtu]

@@lordgraga :)

[@SamuraiBud]

if you want a better tone you have to pay more btw that riff is similar to pair of panda here n yt

[@guitarwilly81]

what pickups?

[@lordgraga]

HFS / Vintage bass. I've since changed the neck pickup to Seymour Duncan Full Shred, which I prefer.

[@nicholas72611]

Mikael said in an interview that he would use a boss gt 6 live lol

[@lordgraga]

I know!! Kind of shows that you don’t need the best gear in the world to play Opeth, but I’m getting a lot of enjoyment chasing those album tones 😄

[@RohannvanRensburg]

@@lordgraga Album tones are very different from live tones, at least in terms of gear used. Early live shows don't sound like their later shows

[@baronvonchickenpants6564]

Its not as versatile as you think, the crunch doesn't have enough gains, sounds really good though, the foot switches fail and it randomly changes on its own, take one of those metal corners off and revel in the quality of the cabinet construction, it looks like someone smashed the corners off with a hammer

[@lordgraga]

@@baronvonchickenpants6564 I agree 100% with this. To me, for an amp that’s sold as a do-it-all amp, the clean is anemic, and the gain channel has too little variation. I still like my VH100 a lot, and I have played it for hundreds of hours (including tonight, and I have MANY other amps), but it’s not a perfect amp. Sadly my other “do it all” amps (JVM, Savage) has left me equally disappointed.

[@flemminghedemann9672]

Du må være dansk, 😇 det lyder fedt.

[@lordgraga]

Ja det har du ret i! Og tak :-)

[@d.vengeance1897]

Would love to hear the amp unboosted. Great sound anyway

[@lordgraga]

I will do another video about the amp in the near future where I won't have it boosted. I found very fast after doing this video that boosting made no sense. Since then I've recorded A LOT with the amp (many many hours) and found out how to dial it in, so I'm excited to show it!

[@d.vengeance1897]

@@lordgraga lookin forward to That 👍🏻🤘

[@lordgraga]

@@d.vengeance1897 Not exactly what you want, but there's a new jam clip where the amp is set on clean with a bit of pedal overdrive, so the cleaner side of things. I will eventually do a full recap on my last 6 months with the Laney.