Lab Series L4 Head

Its a Great Head, I love the clean tone out of it. The compressor works better for bass than guitar though.

Great tone, better than any solid state I know. It sounded so much like a tube and no white noise, both the shop owner and myself thought it must be a tube amp. I use a Jackson RR24 with Seymour Duncan blackouts and an Epi custom SG with gibson angus young sig, 57 classic, and custom pickup I built. I plug my guitar through my metal Muff pedal for a good distortion and have a wonderful tone. I also Use some classic Peavey Cabs for a nice thick tone.

Hard as a rock, and build like a brick house, I got this used and haven't had an issue with it since I got it.

There is almost no info on these powerful amps

Great tone, perfect for anyone who plays metal or blues.

Solid State, made in 1977
compressor very poor
I use with original 2x15" speaker (looks like a fridge)
first channel very simple,second better.
nice sound

Nice sound,
original fan is noisy

production stop in 1985!
I had repair the 1?channel homemade, and (...) it works again

I like the big dimensions and style, the 70'sound

I actually used this head to play guitar through into a 4x12 celestion Red Bear cabinet. It has the warmest, prettiest clean tone EVER!!! The low, mid, and high controls feature excellent range and as if that wasn't enough, there's a frequency control. For bass, the compression control worked great, though it wasn't a feature I used much for guitar. The two channels were nice to have, but I rarely plugged into the first since the second featured the frequency control. The "deep" switch was a fine tool for changing warmth and dynamics depending on the style you were playing through it. No drive, chorus, or real effects to speak of, but hey, that's what stomp boxes are for. I've played through $2000 tube amps that can't make a guitar sound as warm and full as this bass head could.

I was playing a Yamaha guitar that I had spruced up with some very nice Duncan pickups. I suppose the style of music I was playing would be categorized as "alternative" or maybe even "grunge". That particular style of music, as you know, relies heavily on soft-hard dynamics, so the clean sound was very important...and this head delivered. Warm, full, and very "friendly" sounding. That awesome clean sound also makes a big difference when it comes to turning on your effects pedals. Metal Zone is the distortion pedal I've always used and it sometimes criticized for its edginess. But coming through this head gave a warm feel that took some of the edge off without losing any of the balls or cutting sound.

I would readily bet The Incredible Hulk a million dollars that he could not break this head. Solid state > tube.

Obviously no official customer support due to the age of the product and the fact that the company no longer technically exists, but it's a fairly simple construct and any half-decent tech or repair guy (or anyone with any knowledge of repair, really) could fix it up easily if you ever did happen to have a problem. No insanly hard-to-find parts or anything like that.

I ended up having to sell this head to take care of my wife when she was having medical problems and was out of work. I sincerely wish it had never come to that because I miss it alot. If I happened across another, I would jump on it with no concern for the price. And if I CAN get my hands on one again, you can bet I won't be playing guitar through anything else as long as I have that L4.

Lab Series has build this amp from 74 till 85.
I play sort of vintage-punk-metal music and this amp seems to be build for that.
It has two channels: low/high inputs,Deep switch(which is crap,)gain, low, mid, high.
The second has the same and a frequency from low to high-mid.
Nice feature is the compression which lets the bassplay sound more straight. ( comp. at 3-4 )
And i feel safer. Don't want to crash anything i love.
I use it in small punkrock clubs where PA's are mainly crap and it is still loud enough.
It looks like a tube amp but its solid state!
The eq really satisfies your needs.

I use it with a G-L bass and its alright with that. Like i told u before
it fits perfect to my music.
The L4 has a very strong mid-sound. But still enough bass. Perfect.
Nice vintage sound.
If u pull the gain wide open u can have a nice distortion.

Unbreakable! (Seems to me)
I bought it a year ago (2003) and i got no problems till now (2004). Even it is 20-30 years old and i used and abused it a lot in that year. Normaly it is 4 hours in use at gigs.
The really large cooling fan and the huge space in the amp, keeps everything safe. U HEAR WHEN YOUR AMP IS ON ;)
The last amp i had was a Gallien-krueger 1000rb (read the user comments about it) witch made me feel sick with its safetymode.
This amp is a haven send angel after that "terror".
Good old piece of construction. NOT a new build but not reliable piece of crap. I AM PLEASED ;)

I think the company does not exist since 85. It once belonged to moog/gibson. I don't belive that there is anything u can't repair if u got connections to a good technician.

I bought it from Ebay with a 2*13 speaker box. The guy wrote: "if i switch it, on a red light appeares. Thats everything i know."
So i didn't have any problems to beat my rivals.
If it ever breaks so that i can't repair it, than "the day, the music died" has come.
Only an ampeg could replace it. But the L4 would still be my favorite.
This amp has soul.

I bought my L4 sometime between 1979 and 1980. It features two channels, one with a basic eq and volume, and the main channel with some pretty extensive eq controls. It also had a "deep" control that made a lovely rumble, a sweet compressor, and a powerful fan that, if placed well, kep you cool during the gig. It was a LOUD 200 watts and made to power a twin 15" cabinet. I was sad to see it go, but after twenty years of abuse and use, it was just too fragile to keep using. I felt so bad that I replaced it with both an Eden and SWR rig.

There were two inputs per channel, one for a hot signal and one for a milder signal. Both channels worked at the same time, so I used to run my Taurus pedals through it at the same time! This amp was classic clean Lab Series. You could make it growl when you wanted, but the cleanliness and headroom were its outstanding features.

Like I said, I BEAT on that thing for twenty years, and, aside from some bad switches (the funky power switch had a very good repair tech pulling his hair out trying to find a replacement) and cracked solder joints, it took it like a trooper. Construction was top notch. It rode around in the rain, slid all over pickup truck beds, was smashed at the bottom of volumnous piles of gear, and was run for days at a time. My L4 was a tank!

Norlin is dead. Go to local repair facilities.

I wish I could find some hidden away in a warehouse somewhere.

Mid-80's vintage, 2 channels one hi and one normal (bass), solid state, Preamp send and Power amp return (FX loop), basic eq on both channels, standard features and a loud 200 watts RMS.

I use a passive Ibanez Soundgear bass (one of the mid-priced ones) and it sounds pretty good. Excellent for hard rock and punk. With the gain all the way up it has some nice overdrive. Very low-mid to mid range but it has satisfied anything I've needed it for.

It's about 15 years old and it looks like it's 30, but I've never had a problem at all with it.

It's a great rig for the money even though it's a bit large to hull around. I've played good punk (misfits/pistols/etc.) and hard rock (sabbath/acdc/GNR) since before this rig was made and it's got everything I've ever needed.

Mid-80's amp, 200W w/matching 200W cab
Channel 1: 2 inputs (hi & lo), vol., deep switch, bass, mid, & treble
Channel 2: 2 inputs (hi & lo), vol., deep switch, bass, mid, treble, frequency.
Master volume, Compressor/Limiter with on/off switch.
Rear: 1 output, pre-amp out, pwr amp in, 120V AC outlet, Cooling fan.

After a large surge of power the fuses blew, so I opened her up to replace them. As soon as did I was surprised as anything to find 4 12AU7's and 3 EL-34's! I was told it was solid-state and it looks like it was at one time, then someone decided they wanted it to be a tube or something?!?! Hell, I don't know. But I got a good suprise out of it.

My L4 sounds like a Mesa 400+ except it has less than half the power. IT HAS THE RICHEST DISTORTION HUMANLY POSSIBLE. It's just absolute heaven to play. One problem may be that this amp is all mid and upper end! The low-end is just not there like some of the newer amps but it was made at a time when most people only played 4-strings and even then only the upper registers. I play rock, metal, and blues and it's great for all of them. When you slap a note on the E-string there's a very metallic-crunchy ring which some people may not necassarily like but I found very unique.

I have yet to replace anything other than the fuses. Even though I've always wanted a tube amp, I bought this amp because I though it was solid-state and therefore more reliable and I wouldn't have to replace tubes. However...looks like I'm going to be replacing tubes anywho.

There is none.

I've been playing for half my life (10 years) and this was probably the biggest surprise I've gotten from any of my equipment. I've always owned solid-state because of reliability and they're cheaper to keep up on, but I guess I own a tube amp now, pretty cool for me. I doubt I'll ever replace my L4 and I know I'll never find another one like mine. I guess for a comparison in sound, playing a Fender Jazz Bass through the L4 sounds a lot like Justin Chancellor of Tool on "46 & 2". This amp is pretty versatile though and has many more sounds.

I believe this amp to be made in the 1980's (LabSeries was only around from '74 to '86). This amp can handle metal, rock, blues, jazz, and just about anything you can dish out. It has an FX loop but I don't use it because it produces a hissing sound. It has 200W and a 2x15" cabinet with an extension cab jack. The L4 is indestructible and has only broke down on me once in an electrical storm (blew a fuse). I use it in gigs along with a 1x15" cab and it delivers every time with no problems.

I've played Boutique basses through it, some Fender P-Basses, and a Wahsburn 5-string and they all sound great. I've never had any problems with getting the sound I want. The FX loop, as I mentioned before, hisses when in use so I just don't use it. The pots are quiet and the compressor/limiter works fine. If you use a tube screamer and set the gain and level to 0, and the volume to about 5 or 6, you can produce a tube sound that many players love (including myself). The amp doesn't distort until about 7 or 8 on the volume and after 8 it gets really "boomy."

I have a limited income and this amp suits my needs just fine. It is extremely reliable and has taken a lot of abuse. I have played small to medium sized clubs and it holds up to the two amps that our guitarists use, in volume.

There is no customer support but a local dealer or experienced technician can fix whatever is wrong (my amp came with schematics for ease of repair).

This amp is irreplacable seeing that production was stopped in the mid-80's, and I would have a hard time finding a replacement at the same price and quality. It is a heavy piece of equipment and weighs as much or more as its tube-amp counterparts, but I wouldn't trade it for any other solid-state amp (maybe a tube-amp, though).