Laney Ironheart Foundry Series IRF-Dualtop review: “It’s pretty remarkable you can grab an amp like this for this price”
£429.99/$580 (with IRF-CAB212), $429.99/£259, laney.co.uk
It’s apparently ‘loud analogue solid-state amp head’ season here at Guitar.com. Yes, after blasting ears with the Orange Tour Baby, it’s time to look at a similar – but not quite the same – amp from another British brand – Laney’s Ironheart Dualtop, a diminutive 60-watt head that’s heavy without being, er, heavy.
READ MORE: Orange O Tone 40 review – is this the world’s loudest practice amp?
There’s some crossover with the intentions of this amp and that recently-reviewed Orange – the Laney Ironheart Foundry Dualtop is also aiming to be a loud analogue solid-state head that you can bring to a gig even if you’re walking there. But it also wants to be a home-friendly guitar amplifier that works as part of a quiet recording setup/practice rig. Can it cover all this ground without losing focus?
Image: Ian Wallman
What is the Ironheart Foundry Dualtop head?
Laney’s Foundry amps are affordable, compact and solid-state interpretations of some of its best-known tube amps. They are, importantly, not digital modelling amplifiers. There are digital elements here such as the reverb and cab simulation, but the actual preamps are analogue. In this particular case we have a small, 60-watt version of the metal-focused Ironheart, the tube version of which has been around since 2011.
Metal-focused is a bit of an understatement – the original amp bathed its tube compartment in red LEDs, making it immediately clear that it was here to do the devil’s work. While there’s no open space atop the amp here, there’s still a metal grill that’s been implemented seemingly only to allow for some devilish red glow behind it. Awesome.
The look of the thing is quite compelling, in that it’s mainly black across the whole amp, with the boost knob and that front-grille glow providing red accents. It’s approaching it, but it never fully veers down the trying-too-hard-to-be-metal path. There are two deeply-embedded corner handles too – while complete overkill given the 10.3lb weight of the amp, these are a nice nod to the original tube version.
Image: Ian Wallman
How does the Ironheart Foundry Dualtop sound?
So the looks are pretty metal, but what of the sounds? Well, to do the obvious thing let’s start with the gain channel. Right off the bat, with everything at noon, I’m met with a solid rock crunch. The master EQ is very responsive, and knocking the treble back a touch helps dial out basically all of the solid-state fizz.
There are three voicings for the gain channel; flat, bright, and dark. These I don’t find particularly useful until I try out different boost pedals and different guitars with the amp – then, they help glue things together and keep the sound balanced as other variables change.
Across the middle of the gain range, things are all fairly usable. It’s not the most beautiful and well-rounded overdriven amp I’ve ever heard, but hey, it certainly doesn’t sound bad. But a more pressing test is the proper high-gain stuff, so I engage the onboard boost and whack the gain up to full. I’m happy to report that it chugs – the boost pushes things into aggressive territory while also cleaning up low-end mud, and the character of the gain itself makes for a good do-it-all metal sound. When set all-out like this it’s definitely aiming to reward palm-muted gallops and pinch harmonics.
For some more characterful sounds I dial back the gain and add some dirt of my own courtesy of a RAT pedal and some vintage-style fuzzes. The gain channel takes them all like a champ, blending its own saturation without overtaking the sound of the pedal with its own voice. In most cases, the dark voicing on the gain channel works best for a smooth, fuzzy sound, as the bright one cuts just a little too much bass in my view – but again, it’s good to have the option, and I could see it working if I was using a different set of pedals.
A quick note on the effects loop – it works as you’d expect, cleanly adding whatever time-based effects you put in there. But overall it’s a really good thing to see on an amp like this. Not only does it mean it works with in-depth pedal rigs, it also means you can use the thing as a dedicated power amplifier for other preamps if you ever need to.
Image: Ian Wallman
Does the Ironheart Foundry Dualtop’s clean channel sound good?
Before engaging any of the bells and whistles, the clean sounds are pretty dry and dull. As with a lot of analogue solid-state clean channels, there’s very little compression or reaction to your playing – almost to the point that you might as well be going into the effects return. Luckily the Ironheart Foundry offers me a few ways to slather some proverbial hot sauce on this tonal toast sandwich.
The reverb is the most obvious – it’s a one-knob version of the Laney Secret Path pedal’s spring algorithm. A well-regarded sound in pedal form, it’s just as good here – even if it does take things from dry-as-a-bone to very splashy by about 3 on the knob. Then taking it to 10 is almost unusably wet unless you’re in the world’s surfiest surf band, who I doubt would be looking to buy an amp this outwardly metal. But hey, it’s good to have options!
For further unboringification, let’s engage that boost again. By itself it works as a bit of a ‘make it louder’ control thanks to the amount of headroom. However there’s the handy addition of a toggle for two different sets of clipping diodes before you hit the clean channel – these limit the sound as they would within an overdrive pedal, and so with them engaged, the on-board boost adds just a touch of saturation for sounds ranging from a slightly pushed clean tone to a more reactive overdrive.
The clipping diodes are also good for ensuring that your own pedals don’t suddenly cause a huge leap in volume, and they work just as well with external boosts as they do the onboard one. A Big Muff into this clean channel with some extra clipping engaged is a bloody gorgeous sound, even if it undoes the ‘clean’ point of it. But hey, this thing has built-in red LEDs. It was only going to stay fully clean for so long.
How are the direct sounds?
Direct sounds come courtesy of an XLR port with a choice of IR speaker simulation – 2×12, 4×12 or none. This is good for live use, but there’s also a headphone port and an aux-in for the home player. In achieving that balance between the home and stage, it’s good to see a way of listening and playing along built into the amp for a much more sensible coffee table setup.
The direct sounds themselves are not going to win any awards – they’re fairly fizzy, and when listening on headphones the drier, non-tube nature of the preamp becomes a lot more obvious. But the IRs are good, and the option to apply your own by turning the amp’s off is useful if you want to go more in-depth with your home recordings.
Image: Ian Wallman
Should I buy the Ironheart Foundry Dualtop?
For the player looking to just casually practice at home and absolutely nothing else, the Dualtop is perhaps overkill. You can drop the 60 watts down to just one, but even then a lot of the volume settings are far too loud for practical home use. Whether you just want to use headphones or low volume out of a cab, you’d be spending out on a full 60 watts of power that you’d never use. This same cash could instead get you the tonal flexibility offered by a dedicated digital practice amp. In short: in a world where Positive Grid’s Spark line exists, it’s hard to say a full head and cab setup could ever be the most sensible practice rig.
Similarly, if you just want to record at home, there are better-sounding direct sounds out there for comparable cash. But if you want to do a bit of everything – practice quietly, do some home recording, and play live with actual stage volume – it manages to balance all of those aspects pretty well while still being cheap as chips.
In a gigging situation, you’ve got footswitch control over both channels and the boost. Grab Laney’s dual footswitch, and you’re totally sorted for a good deal of rock and metal tones across a set without having to even bring a board. Need a bit more flexibility? It works just fine with pedals, effects loop included.
In terms of volume, it’ll absolutely get you above most drummers. I wouldn’t trust it to compete with a full band without some help from a PA, as it doesn’t quite reach the levels of earth-shattering SPL of the Tour Baby, which has very much set the bar for just how loud an amp of this size can be. But hey, most space shuttle launches have a hard time being heard over Orange power amps. With a good monitoring situation, you’ll be fine on 90% of modern stages.
And although not quite as easily gig-bagged or hard-cased as the Orange Tour Baby, it’s still really light and small enough to sling in a backpack. Having to use a bespoke power lead with an external brick isn’t completely ideal, but the brick itself does at least accept a regular IEC cable. But I do want to mention that the small and fragile DC power jack at the back would make me nervous if the thing ever got knocked off its cab…
But overall, this is a pretty good amplifier. While I’m not completely blown away by the sounds on offer, they’re also far better than they should be given that we’re talking about an affordable solid-state head. And on that point, it’s pretty remarkable you can grab an amp like this and a matching vertical 2×12 for £449. For something that credibly does live, practice and recording, it could get you started for the same price as some reverb pedals – good work, Laney!
Laney Ironheart Foundry Series IRF Dualtop – alternatives
Having already mentioned it a bunch I am going to mention Orange’s Tour Baby – and also its more metal sibling the Gain Baby – here (both $599/£459 each). While pricier, you get a bit more of a rugged, tour-friendly design and some extra power for that cash.
If the Dualtop is appealing but you want to save a little on space and cash, there’s also the Leadtop (£169/$299) – a more stripped-back, straightforward take on the same 60-watt format.
As for other analogue solid-state amps like this – there are surprisingly few, particularly at this price range. But if you’re willing to enter the digital realm, you could explore amps like Boss’ updated Katana Gen 3 range (from $299/£249) – while a bit of a different approach, these amps will absolutely do the practice/home recording/live balance too, with plenty of high-gain options to boot.
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