Review : Laney A-Fresco 2 -The Best Acoustic Amp Under $1000

I got lucky. My local dealer was drastically cutting back on the number of vendors that they represent and I won big time as they were no longer going to be carrying Laney products. In truth, it is my opinion that they didn’t get the message out effectively and their marketing has, to me, been struggling for a while. Thus, I got a Laney A-Fresco 2 for 75% off. As I write this, there are none left. I suspect that the Canadian distributor is no longer handling Laney as none of the Canadian “dealers” show stock, except for some remaining units at Cosmo Music in Richmond Hill Ontario. If you are in the USA, Sweetwater carries everything.

Overview

I am known for being dissatisfied with most acoustic guitar amplifiers. Despite the sad reality that most pickup equipped acoustic guitars and basses are equipped with horrible sounding piezo pickups and most have no actual preamps of any quality, what gets to the amp sounds pretty shit. Then the majority of the amps just make that louder. The exception for me has always been AER, but they can be hard to find and are rather expensive. I’ve owned Fishmans, and Fenders and played through BOSS and numerous others and except for the AERs, they sounded like crap unless your instrument had a good preamp, like an LR Baggs, an outboard unit like the Tech21 NYC Acoustic Flyrig or it was a Taylor with their own Expression System 2. Then I tested out the Laney A Series. I initially played the A-Solo, then the A-Duo and finally the A-Fresco 2. What makes the A-Fresco 2 different is what the name tells us. Alfresco means outdoors. This amp was built for those folks who play outdoors, often without access to AC power. Think of a busker or someone who sets up to play but their guitar and / or voice cannot be heard. The A-Fresco 2 fixes that with a built in rechargeable Lithium Ion battery that can last up to 24 hours on a charge. It also runs on AC if available, so very location flexible.

¾ View

It’s a 60 watt solid state amp with a single 8 inch dual cone driver. It has two separate channels that are 48v Phantom Power capable (hello condenser microphones!). Each channel has independent Level controls as well as independent 3 band tone stacks. Each channel also has digital reverb and chorus available and they are channel independent. Whomever designed this knows their business. The unit comes in under 8 kg so is very portable. The cabinet is close backed so your sound is focused forward.

There is also an onboard effects loop shared across both channels and there is an optional two button footswitch available. The cabinet has a reinforced mount to use on a pole style speaker stand. The channel controls are on the side and the system controls are on the back. In one unit, it is a singer-instrumentalists dream.

Rear View

Why am I so enthused? First, even at full MAP, it’s not expensive. You can certainly pay more, but until you get to an AER, nothing else sounds this good. Most important to me, is that you can get great sound out of a guitar with a crappy piezo pickup. Of course if your guitar has a solid pickup with a good preamp, you are ahead of the game, but it can even make the shittiest piezo sound decent. Better than anything else out there priced below an AER.

Usability

Channel Controls

I’ve spoken about the great sound, the easy transport and the functionality. The control knobs are well labeled, are sized for human normal fingers and the type is legible. The controls are complete without being complex and there is all the function you could want without being overblown. Is there anything that I think is missing? Yes I admit it would be more perfect if there was a good FET compressor built in, but I have put an inexpensive MXR Studio Comp in the loop and it did all I wanted, although many would say it is unnecessary. I always use a compressor on acoustics in the studio and like one live as well.

Because the inputs are the Neutrik style you can use either normal high impedance cables or balanced XLR style low impedance cables. for greater run length. If you need a cable longer than ten feet, I always recommend a DI box, and I tried my favourite Radial StageBug SB-4 that I use in the studio with any piezo equipped guitar that has no DI capability with a 50 ft XLR cable and it worked perfectly. The amp remember can deliver 48V phantom power which is needed by this simple and brilliant DI box.

However to record directly, or if I needed to send the sound to a PA from the A-Fresco 2, I just plug a balanced XLR cable into the provided DI out jack. That’s how I recorded the samples for this article.

Recorded Examples

For the recording I first used my Martin SC-10E which is their sort of out there design. It has a solid top and layered mahogany back and sides. It sounds and plays great acoustically, and has held up brilliantly through temperature and humdity changes. The pickup is a Fishman piezo something or other and to be blunt, it sounds like everything I hate about piezo pickups. So I run the volume and tone wide open to minimize the impact of crappy pots, and control everything at the amp. Which to my joy with a bit of knob turning in the tone stack (those knobs are there for a reason) I am able to get a wonderful sound from the A-Fresco 2.

The second example is using my Alvarez ABT-60E eight string baritone. It has an LR Baggs pickup and preamp and doesn’t need much amp tone stack fiddling to sound really nice.

The third example is using by Breedlove Solo Pro Concerto acoustic bass. It too uses a Fishman piezo pickup and needs a bit of tweaking at the amp. As it is solid cedar over solid mahogany, it’s quite warm naturally and the piezo nasal twang is minimized at the instrument.

I ran the DI output from the A-Fresco 2 to a Focusrite 8i6 interface with the input level set to just before the yellow pre-clipping warning lights. The Focusrite is connected by USB C to an old Mac Pro, hacked to run Sonoma and I used Logic Pro to record.

On the main track, used a very light Chromaverb reverb and sent that track both to the mixing area as well as to a buss track. The buss track has a Focusrite Red Equalizer and a Focusrite Red Compressor on it., That track goes to the mixing area. Since some people like to see how I have my track, bus and mixing plugins set, I have inserted screenshots of them during playback below the MP3 file. I used the same settings for all three instruments, but reduced the reverb mix to 20% from 35% for the bass.

Chromaverb Reverb on primary guitar track

Focusrite Red 3 Compressor on bus

Focusrite Red 3 Equalizer on bus

Brainworx BX Master Desk mastering control

Wrapping Up

While it may be difficult for a period for Canadians to find Laney locally, the brand is widely available internationally. That doesn’t change my opinion about this and the other A-Series amplifiers. If you amplify an acoustic guitar or bass, and perhaps sing as well, want to play live and record with DI to the board in the studio you must check out a Laney A-Fresco 2. It’s a killer amp and it can make even the crappiest piezo pickup sound good.

If you like what I do here for you, please become a supporter on Patreon. Your monthly contribution makes an enormous difference and helps me keep things going. To become a Patreon Patron, just click the link or the button below. Thanks for your support of my work. I’m Ross Chevalier and I look forward to sharing with you again soon.