Laney has unveiled two new guitar amps that it has developed in partnership with YouTube star Martin Miller and UK fusion legato virtuoso Tom Quayle. The Lionheart and Ironheart Loudpedal amps have 60-watts, two channels, and are designed to be a super-portable all-in-one rig that you can mount on and integrate with your pedalboard.
Both come hot out of Laney’s Black Country Customs workshop, and follow the release of the Foundry Series Ironheart Loudpedal, which debuted in March 2023. These, however, have more features, and a slightly larger footprint.
We now have footswitchable reverb, Laney’s Advanced Impulse Response (LAIR) technology, MIDI I/O connections, USB C, and there are some cool twists on the original amplifiers. For instance, Quayle’s Lionheart Loudpedal features a footswitchable boost feature that is not available on the original tube amp. There is also a headphones output and an aux in.
Designed to perfectly emulate the sounds, response and feel of the originals, the Loudpedals offer two channels with three voicings each – Bright, Dark and Flat. Each channel has its own independent volume and gain controls, with a three-band EQ serving both channels.
There’s no missing the boost feature. That bright red chickenhead knob dials in some extra juice via Laney’s Black Country Customs Steel Park boost pedal circuit.
Laney also imported the digital reverb via a BCC staple, with the Secret Path reverb pedal providing the spring reverb we hear on the Loudpedals.
Quayle says the similarities between the original tube amp’s tone and the Loudpedal version are uncanny.
“If you’d blind A/B’d me between the original amp and this, there’s literally no way I could have told the difference,” he says. “It sounds like hyperbole, but genuinely, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference.”
Good to know. The big differences are in how you can use these pedals. You could run them in front of your guitar amp, using it as a twin-channel external boost or overdrive pedal, shaping your tone that way. You could also hook it up to a passive guitar cabinet and run it that way. Again, you’ve got 60-watts here.
But with the balanced XLR outputs on the rear panel of the amps, and with the LAIR impulse response tech onboard, they are designed to go direct to the desk when playing live, or to your DAW when recording.
Each comes pre-loaded with a pair of artist-designed IRs, but you can use the accompanying Loudpedal app to upload your own IRs via USB – and you can also EQ them individually via the app.
“The LAIR technology allows you to have two IRs stored on the device,” says Quayle. “You can actually have more than that in the app, but two on the device. The really cool thing is they can have independent parametric EQs, fully parametric EQs per IR. So, if you've got an IR that you really like, that's maybe a bit spiky in the high end, you can actually tame that one.”
“The DI out is fantastic for recording direct, whether that’s in a hotel room, on the road, whether that’s in my studio or that's on a recording session,” adds Miller. “It also sounds really good just going straight DI out or straight into a loudspeaker with no bells and whistles. It sounds fantastic doing just that.”
Miller and Quayle's Black Country Customs series Loudpedals are available now, priced £399. See Laney Amplification for more details.
