Laney’s founder Lyndon Laney speaks about how he started up making guitar amps.

So how did Lyndon Laney get himself from playing with Led Zeppelins Robert Plant and John Bonham in ‘The Band Of Joy’ through to becoming a major player in British amp making. This is his story in his words. Enjoy…

“To say why I got into the amplifier business I have to go back a long way …over 40 years! At that time in the 1960’s I was playing bass in a series of bands based around the West Midlands area in the UK. This was a very fertile time in music and I had a great time playing at all types of venues. During this period I was still at school (Rock and Roll and schooling are not a good mix!) and several times was found to be asleep in class having returned after some gig, somewhere, usually at 5 or 6am in the morning.

When I was awake though, I had a deep interest in electronics and a fascination for tubes in particular which was stimulated by the amplification requirements to gig at night. It became a logical step to make my own amplifier; partly out of interest but mainly out of economic necessity: Bands did not make a lot of money in those days! However I did find this to be great fun (I still do today). At that time I was playing in a local band, The Band of Joy, with John Bonham on drums (you never did get over John) and Robert Plant on vocals. Robert always held his own up front despite the racket behind him, Great times. The Band of Joy was a fairly loose band at that time and Robert and John went onto bigger and greater things.

My interest turned more and more to amplifier construction and working at that time in my father’s garage, I started to get demand from fellow musicians for amplifiers and started to supplement my meagre wages from playing in bands with amplifier sales… this was a good idea!! Then came the big decision; I had finished my school education and had a place at University reading Electronic Engineering. Two days before I was due to go I decided to carry on for a couple of years making amplifiers, see how it went, and then go back to University later. I suppose now they would call this a ‘year out’- in those days it was just stupid! Anyhow, 40 years have gone by and I still haven’t made it to University.

Tone: If there is one constant element from the last four decades that is important, it is TONE: Making amplifiers is a quest to deliver tone to the musician, something that we have started to call THE DARK ART. It is fluid and changes with developments and innovations of technique, instruments and musical style, but look at any musician who hits the sweet spot on tone- usually it is with a narrowing of the eye, a tilt of the head and more than likely a grimace- but they have got their TONE. That’s what we are after. Throughout the following pages you will see the wide range of products now on offer from Laney for all kinds of players at all kinds of levels, but every one of them has been designed and engineered by a Laney team with 40 years experience in the BUSINESS OF TONE.”

Lyndon Laney: Founder and CEO