A small, scrappy combo that left us open-mouthed, especially on clean and mid-gain tones. A manageable, lightweight, easy-to-carry amp with plenty of punch and truly surprising body for its price.
Unboxing
I opened this box with low expectations. Although Laney has been developing interesting products for guitarists for some time now, this was a little 20 W “mini-combo”... What could I expect?
Looks-wise, it has a tough stage presence. That camo look (cloth-covered, by the way) is feisty. A fighter, no?
Control Panel
We start with the essential ¼" TRS jack. Input. We continue with all the knobs I’m about to list, which control the sound of “the beast.”
Channel volume
Clean/crunch channel-switch
Gain (they call it crunch)
Master control
Three-band EQ
Reverb
CD input. With it you can play a CD or similar and solo over it.
Headphone output
Power switch
In Action
After the visual impressions of a well-finished little critter, tiny but cute, we grab a guitar (specifically the Parker Southern Nitefly that’s being given away in the contest) and start experimenting.
The first surprise is the meat this amp can put out. The 20 W really go a long way. Crank it all the way up and you get quite considerable volume, within the limits of an amplifier this size.
The Sound
The controls we have, including the two channels, reverb, gain, and three-band EQ, give us great versatility. You can take the guitar from extremes of clean, either deep lows or piercing highs, through well-shaped mid-gain tones and all the way to fairly hard distortion.
I really liked the LX20R’s response on clean tones. Lots of body in the sound, despite its small size. One of the problems with a small amp and an 8" speaker is usually a nasal sound, heavily colored in the mids. With this Laney we get very convincing results, with a tonal response that is much more representative (in terms of the thickness of the guitar’s sound) than you’d expect from looking at it.
The part that surprised me most, without a doubt, is the crunch sounds. You can tell it’s British from head to toe. The mid-gain tone is fantastic, impressive for its price. I say that very sincerely.
The heavier distortion sounded a bit more artificial to me, typical of a small solid-state amp. That’s something you can improve with the help of a good pedal.
Conclusions
My expectations before plugging in weren’t too high. This is a product priced under €130. Having tried it, I confess it’s a wonderful solution if you’re looking for something small and light that barely weighs anything and is easy to carry. Its response is striking, both in the total volume it can put out and in its punch and attack. For the price, it’s a great amp for clean and overdriven tones, within what you can expect from a solid-state amp with an 8" speaker. If you’re a bit short on cash and need excellent value for money, try the little LX20R.