LANEY
IRONHEART IRT120H
BY JORDAN WAGNER
Few amplifier companies around today can claim the history and pedigree of
Laney Amplification. They’ve been around
since 1967 under the direction of Lyndon
Laney, and their amps have produced a
significant share of the most iconic tones in
rock, pop, and metal, from Tony Iommi’s
Black Sabbath crunch to the jangle of Echo
and the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant.
But while Laneys are loved by players
of every stripe, they are most synonymous
with heavy sounds and players. And the
Ironheart, a 120-watt beast of an amp that’s
dedicated to pushing the heavy overdrive
envelope, is about as heavy as they come.
gain. When the rhythm mode is activated,
the rhythm gain and rhythm volume
controls come into play, determining the
amount of preamp overdrive and volume
level. Switching back to the clean mode
effectively removes those two controls from
the circuit and brings in the clean volume
control, which acts very much like a non-master volume control on a vintage high-wattage amp. If you want to add a little kick
to your signal before the EQ processes it,
to watch a video review of the amp
at premierguitar.com/may2012
CLICKHere…
Dual independent 3-band
EQ with push-pull controls
there’s a variable control for pre-boost that
can be flipped on to notch up the volume.
Four more controls (dynamics, tone,
watts, and reverb) let the player determine
the overall response, volume, and feel of
the amp before the signal hits the speakers.
The dynamics knob affects the tightness or
Dynamics
control
Variable wattage
control
I Am Iron Man
The Ironheart is one intimidating-looking
customer. It feels stalwart and sturdy, and
handles on the top make it easier to lug the
head around and place on top of a cabinet.
The Ironheart feels smooth and precise
too—knobs turn with a reassuring resistance
and switches click with a solid, satisfying
snap. It looks pretty cool too: Flipping on
the power activates an internal array of red
LEDs that illuminate the interior of the
chassis with a hellfire glow. The amp’s all-tube complement is easily visible through
its metal grating, which reveals four 12AX7
preamp tubes and four 6L6 power tubes.
The Ironheart’s striking appearance suggests a get-down-to-business approach. So
do the control sets, which are all about
delivering tweakability that will satisfy the
most serious tone obsessives. There are
three channels to work with, though the
clean and rhythm channel share a single
control set. Both control sets have dedicated EQ knobs that double as push-pull
frequency-shift switches. Pulling on the bass
knobs expands the lows considerably, and
performing the same action on the mid and
treble knobs can tighten up the tone and
round off the highs, respectively.
Channel 1 doubles as the clean and
low-gain rhythm channel, and has separate
controls for setting volume level and preamp
rhythm,
and lead
channels
