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Laney Nexus

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Bass amp + cabinet

Published in PM July 2009

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Reviews : Bass Amplification

Laney’s Nexus Tube is a 400W valve bass head with tube/FET preamp and eight glorious KT88s as its power stage! What better to partner it with than an NX810 — the Nexus range’s 8 x 10 cab?

David Heap

Founded in September 1967 by Lyndon Laney, the Laney brand started with guitar amplifiers, and although these are still manufactured — apparently, some of the originals are still going strong — there has been for some time a complete range of bass amplification and speaker cabinets. There are two series on offer. The first is the compact Richter range, which are combos with various amp and speaker configurations. And the other is the more powerful Nexus range, which appears as a 400W tube amp and a 650W MOSFET head with three speaker configurations: the 15-inch NX115, the NX410 (4 x 10) and the NX810 (8 x 10) reviewed here.

Heads up!

The Nexus Tube amp head employs eight KT88 valves.

The Nexus Tube is rackmounted in a very sturdy, vinyl-covered, ply casing with metal corners and two large handles recessed into the two top edges. And at nearly 35kg these handles are definitely necessary, as a two-man lift is needed to get it up onto the 8 x 10 cab. Four heavy-duty rubber feet allow it to sit firmly and securely on top of a heavily vibrating speaker cab.

Six attractive bar slots across the front allow air flow through the amp and also give a clear view of the valves. Each of the eight KT88 output tubes has two LED lights alongside them, one blue and one red. When the amp is first turned on, in standby mode each red LED illuminates, and after about two minutes’ warm-up, switching the amp to run, these should all go out. When a signal is applied, the red and blue lights flash along with the sound. These lights are also an indication of faults. If a red fails to go out after standby, a valve or fuse (each valve has its own) should be replaced. Likewise when playing, if the red and blue fail to appear, this indicates a faulty valve.

Below the air intakes, the comprehensive front panel has an LED Peak ladder above the Input socket, alongside which is an illuminated Pad button to change between active or passive instruments. There are two gain controls: the first is FET Gain, while the second, Tube Gain, controls the amount of drive to the preamp tube stage, and the higher the setting for this the more distortion will be added to the sound. Alongside this is a Tube Level control to adjust the balance of this tube stage sound. Both these gain controls have illuminated on/off buttons that can be activated via the supplied FS7 footswitch.

The Nexus Tube has a very comprehensive EQ section, starting with basic Bass and Treble controls featuring 12dB and 15dB cut and boost, at 50Hz and 5kHz respectively. The Lo Mid and Hi Mid controls sweep from 100Hz to 1kHz and 400Hz to 4kHz, and each have cut and boost of 12dB. Both these mid functions share one switch. Near the front centre is a six-band graphic with ±15dB at the chosen frequencies of 40Hz, 80Hz, 160Hz, 330Hz and 750Hz as well as 3kHz, and this can be switched in and out via a button or with the FS7. Under normal circumstances, the amp runs with a subsonic 30Hz filter to save on power and cut down excessive cone movement, but Laney have supplied a button on the front to defeat this when working in quieter environments or when extreme lows are required.

Following on are the Presence and Deep controls. The first adds a crisp top end to notes, while the latter opens out the bottom end from tight, controlled bass at zero to a much more rounded tone when full on. Next up is a much larger knob for the master volume, and at the far right are the switches for standby and power.

At the rear

Starting from the left, the rear panel carries the mains socket, above which is a reset button working similarly to a fuse, tripping out if there is a problem, pushing it back in to reset. Unusually for a big valve amp, there is a Fan switch, a function used to turn off the fan in quiet studio environments, but under normal circumstances this ought to be left on.

There are three dual-purpose speaker sockets for connection to 2Ω, 4Ω and 8Ω cabs, and each may be plugged in with a Speakon or jack plug. Next along are two jack sockets: Preamp Out, and Power Amp In to daisy-chain separate amplifiers together. An XLR is supplied for DI Out and this is accompanied by two switches: one a ground lift and the other altering the signal path from pre- to post-EQ. There are three remaining jack sockets, of which the first two are FX Loop with a Bypass switch and the third is Tuner Out.

Supplied as standard is the FS7 footswitch, connecting to the amp via a D-type connector and cable. The three-button pedal (not seven as the name suggests) controls the on/off functions of the Tube and FET channels, as well as the para-mid, graphic and compressor. When any of these are activated, a blue LED appears on both the pedal and amp front panel, next to the appropriate control.

NX810 cab

The fully sealed, shelved plywood NX810 is covered in the same material as the amp and, again, has metal corners. As per usual for an 8 x 10, there is the obligatory handle along the top back edge and two large wheels set slightly up on the angled bottom edge, a tried and tested method of moving these cabs by tilting them back and pulling or pushing. There is also a heavy-duty handle on each side, about a third up from the floor. The speakers are protected by a fairly open criss-cross metal grille, which is secured by two metal strips running down each side.

Internally, the cab is split into two halves, top and bottom, allowing for a stereo signal path, 800W into each at 8Ω or a 1600W capability if run in mono at 4Ω. And to help keep the NX810 as light as possible, Laney have chosen eight of the tried and tested 10-inch Celestion neodymium drivers.

There is a small panel on the rear carrying the Mono-Stereo Mode switch, and two dual-purpose Speakon sockets that take either a quarter-inch jack or NL4 Speakon plug.

Superb stack

As expected, this is a serious bit of professional kit from Laney. Immediately upon plugging in, even with the tones set flat, there is that great punchy grunt associated with a big valve head and 8 x 10 cab. The FET gain produces a full, well-rounded, clean sound that can be wound up to deafening levels, while the tube side can be added for that extra middle-y nose or turned up to create varying degrees of valve distortion. Each of these ‘channels’ can be operated individually, although by far the best tones are concocted with combinations of each.

All the EQ is well thought out and it is really difficult not to get a good sound from this amp. In addition to the usual bass, treble and graphic, the two parametric mids allow for that final little bit of tweaking. The Sub switch comes in handy for quieter studio work and makes a real difference when miking up, although I did find it best to leave the filter on in the louder stage environment.

The NX810 handles anything that the amp can deliver and faithfully reproduces any small tonal nuances dialled in. The stereo capability is a bonus for bi-amp rigs, running bass into the bottom four and the highs into the top. In this mode, with my stereo amp and crossover, it sounded brilliant. Built to last and well worth the substantial investment, these are two excellent products from Laney. 0