SIMON: Hi. Simon here again for Laney at the NAMM Show 2007. I'd just like to take you through the new Lionheart gear. This year represents 40 years of Laney amp production. We started in a garage in Birmingham in England, and we slowly got bigger and there we end up here today in Los Angeles. Basically, the Lionheart gear represents 40 years of valve amp production heritage. We've noticed a few things over the last couple of years that with PA systems becoming way more effective and people are beginning to be far more conscious about the noise levels that you find at gigs and the noise levels that you find on stage. We're starting to find a requirement to produce smaller and smaller units.

We also have a thing which we call the Dark Art. Over recent years, we've noticed that guitar players are simply not getting the experience of power amp distortion. Amplifiers are getting that efficient that they're very loud and there's no need to turn them up, so basically what you end up with is a guitar sound which is almost 90% preamp distortion with very, very little power amp distortion. And if you listen back to the corpus of rock music, a lot of the great tones that you hear, a lot of the amazing sounds are actually a combination of both preamp and power amp distortion.

So, what we did with the Lionheart productsm, we started to produce this maybe two years ago. It's taken quite a long time to get to where we are because we have to be happy with the sounds and then, you know, the vintage tones that we're trying to achieve, and to be honest I think we've done okay. We've kind o achieved what most guitar players consider to be the holy grail of guitar sounds which is that, you know, that classic sort of semi-preamp, semi-power amp distortion.

Lionheart consists of three models: There is a 5-watt, single-ended class A model, which basically runs a single EL84 in the output section. It runs into a single 12 which is a vintage G12, Celestion G12. Behind that, you'll see there is a 20-watt version. All the Lionheart models feature the same preamp. All that changes really is now the package and the speaker complements. Behind the little L5T is what we're calling the L20T, which is a head version which is a twin-channel. All Lionheart models are twin channel and the channels can be footswitched. It's a 20-watt output section, which inputs into a 212 extension cabinet, which again is loaded with Celestion G12H's.

The other model in the Lionheart range is the L410. That is a 20-watt same output, same preamp package, different output package. A 20-watt combo which outputs into four Celestion -- sorry -- four Jensen 10" AlNiCos.

From the sound point of view, very difficult to describe here on mic and on camera but if you ever have a chance to listen to, they really do produce that classic, quintessential, you know, the holy grail of guitar tone.