I had a pair. the same as an LA2a except in solid state. at the peak of my addiction i had an LA2, pair of LA3s a pair of black LA4's and an 1178.

LA3's are simple to use without the tube sound. othe than that the applications and technique of use remain the same. i loved mine.

They're all good, dontcha know! :)

Occasionally, I used to bus signal to an LA2 and bypass GR, keeping at at unity gain (or thereabouts)... and in that circumstance, not to use the piece as to what it was designed for, but to pick up sonic coloration that the unit provided. I can't recall if I ever did that with an LA3, but I've certainly used the 3's and they are very nice units as well.

Apparently you can still get them new. this

I have no idea if the new ones sound as good as the old ones. FWIW, while Sweetwater has discontinued the sale of the LA3, they still carry 1176's.

d.

I contacted the Canadian Distrib and they said they aren't available anymore. Thanks for the link Donny. Man, they are pricy.

there's a couple of them on ebay. you should check ou the la22 ... different but still cool and cheaper.

audiokid, post: 408727 wrote: I contacted the Canadian Distrib and they said they aren't available anymore. Thanks for the link Donny. Man, they are pricy.

Oh yeah, they are indeed. Kurt had a good suggestion regarding Ebay. Although I've never used the LA22. Wait a minute wait a minute yes I have! I recall now doing a session where someone brought a few in in from a place like Dreamhire or another gear rental place... although I can't say that I remember anything about it in particular, either. Sorry...some of those days are pretty blurry in my head now. ;) The good news is that I always remember the gear I've had poor experiences with, and since I don't remember it must have been okay. LOL

cool thing about the LA22 is the sidechain filters. i used to do a lot of stuff for a guy that had a lot of peakey mids when he belted it out and the LA22 always worked real well to hold bcak the shrillness. a great dynamic eq / compressor.

cool.

I first used an LA3 in the early 1970s. I loved it immediately. Back then it seemed to me that every dynamics device that I tried did very little until you pushed it and then most sounded terrible. Not the LA3. It just seemed that no matter what I did with it, I liked it. I eventually bought several more. I never had any problems with any of them.

Interestingly for a few years here in the Washington area both the classical music radio station and the top-40 rock station used LA3s.

When I first got involved with DAWs back in 2004 one of the very first plug-ins that I purchased was the BF LA3. I still use an LA3 plug-in in almost every session that I do. I am not trying for a vintage sound.....I just like the action.

I never used an LA2 so I can't comment on it.

I did have several LA4s. They are very different from LA3s. I am not a big LA4 fan.