Lab Series L5

It is a pretty cool amp. It is 100 watts and has two twelve inch speakers and is a solid state. It has two channels, each with a high and a low imput. I like the features on it, especially the compressor. It really helps out when you use a Boss Dual Overdrive in which you can set the level of the sound. It does have a lot of features though. I'm not really a technical guy, I just play. I bought it from a friend of mine who sold me his 1974 Fender Strat. He sold me the strat and the amp together. I love the fact that it has wheels. I hate having to carry 75lbs of equipment around, unlike my Fender Concert amp. I don't like the fact that you can't switch between channels. That is the only thing I don't like about this amp.

It sounds really good. I enjoy the sound output when I plug in my Strat. I mostly use the second channel and I have it all overdriven. It has a very decent distortion. It is not ringy or high like a Peavy amp would. This amp gets loud!!! I can't crank the overall volume by the compressor past 3 without hurting my ears!! I have cranked it up to four, but i couldn't stand how loud it was. It makes a great amp for outdoor places. The second channel has a variety of tones if you set the knobs right. For heavy or deep distortion, just overdrive everything, except for reverb and set the frequency to like 800Hz with the guitar plugged into the low imput. The clean channel is just awesome for regular licks and for rythm. I actually messed around with this amp. I have a Fender Concert tube amp and I plugged my strat into it and ran a cable from the effects out plug in the back and connected it to the clean channel and turned everything on (of course, I had to wait until the tubes on the Fender warmed up) and I just put the volume moderate on the Fender amp and I cranked up the LabSeries and it just blew me away!!! WOW!! It sounded really awesome, especially with the distortion! I plugged in my Gibson Marauder and it just gave me this deep raw heavy sound that makes a metal guitarist jealous (though I don't play heavy metal). My Fender Concert has an awesome sound too. I like the Fender's sound better, but maybe because I'm getting used to hearing it, since I play it often due to the fact that I can switch channels and it has a switch for reverb.

It is a dependable amp. I have never had a problem with it. It has never broken down on me, unlike my Fender Concert. The cool thing is that you don't have to buy tubes and also figure out which ones blew on you. On my Fender, I did blow a resistor in it. But this amp has been very reliable. It is also my first amp and I wouldn't get rid of it. I only had a problem with the reverb box. One of the springs broke. But I don't care for it, since I don't really use reverb. And yes, it is a dual spring reverb!!! That is really cool!!

Well, I was trying to find a reverb box to replace mine, but I can't find parts for it!! That is the only thing about this amp, is the fact that there is no customer support, since they don't make them anymore. I haven't bothered to take it to a guitar shop since I don't think they can fix the reverb box. Ohh well!!

I have been playing for about seven years. I know this amp ain't no Marshall, but it is very decent. It has good sound. It came when I bought my 74 Strat. I usually use the strat on this amp. I enjoy the sound of my strat better when I play it on this amp than I do on my Fender Concert. It just sounds more brighter on the Fender. I tend to use my Gibson Marauder on the Fender Concert. It sounds great. On the LabSeries, it does sound good, but maybe just a little bit too low for my personal choice. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this amp. It is a great amp for the price you get it.

I originally thought this was going to be one of those "finally got one" experiences. But not to be. I play analog synths (own a few) and guitar in a semi-nationally known act.

The features on this guitar, i.e. Multi-Filter and the like are very UN-guitar in character. I am not a fan of these type of controls on a guitar amp. I understand that they were trying to do something new here but I would prefer these type of controls on a keyboard amp where the range of frequencies are much greater. For a guitar, I thinkg that this was a bad idea and a step backward from the Marshall and Fender controls and features of the time.

The Master Volume distortion, ugh, terrible and another example of lousy, brittle sounding distortion. A good tube amp will destroy this thing as far a tone and timbre goes. A completely wasted feature that just added a few dollars to the cost for absolutely nothing.

I play lot's of guitars.

A fairly good sounding amp for clean sounds. Somewhat intersting in its' tonal character in that regard. Although the guys in my band, who have toured with the Animals (the real ones although without Erick Burdon), Mott the Hoople and Gary US Bonds basically told me that they thought this amp was not so good.

In fact, I read a old interview with one of the guitarists from Atlanta Rythmn Section back when they were scoring hits, and he said the same thing. They had tried these instead of Fenders on a tour and he thought that these amps had less of a "soulful" sound and were less open. I agree although I do thing the clean sound is good for a solid state amp.

Bought it broken for $90 and had to replace a diode in the rectifier section myself. So it was a good deal after making it work with a 50 cent diode, but seeing as it was dead when I got it, I can't give it a good rating for this catagory.

Give me a break. Anyone still making tube TVs? If so, mabey you can become factory authorized to repair Lab Series amps!

Uhh, this is the year 2003 and even if BB King loves these things, they are not the type of amp that I consider professional for guitar players of today with the only exception being someone who wants one sound only that is a cleanish type of sound (or a hollow body like BB King clipping it a little.) This amp is sort of like a single sound foot pedal to me for recording.

I bought the L5 brand new for $500.00 in January 1981. I never use the normal channel, just the effects channel. Using the master to volume to create distortion works for about 15 minutes, and then you realize it just doesn't sound good. The compressor will give some sustain but it limits the volume too much, but it can be usefull in low volume situations. I never understood how the EQ worked in terms of the Multifilter knob until I read some of the other reviews. I have messed with them a bit, but I've found my niche and have kept the settings the same for the last 20 years. I always liked the clean sound of the guitar for chords but never felt it had enough grab to play single note leads without cranking everything up to the max. I don't know why, but the low input jack is much louder than the high input jack. I bought the supposedly legendary ibanez tube screamer in the early 80's but never got the sound I was looking for. I never thought the amp was especially loud, but then I don't ever or rarely turn the master and the channel volume past 5.

I play a 70's Strat and for many years just played it straight with no effects. I played in small clubs and did just fine playing rhythm. Lead without effects is very limited to that early sixty clean chinky sound, Sam and Dave,Beatles, early Stones. With the strat pick-ups sometimes the amp sounds noisy(even without pointing the pick-ups right at the speakers) and other times its completly quiet. I have no idea why. By turning the reverb up to 5, it gives the rhythm a little delay which gives more texture and creates a full sound. I had been having tube envy hearing all these jokers on harmony-central go into grave detail about their tube modifications, and I have my eye on a 60's Super reverb that an a friend who can't play and isn't using, bought for a song, but for now I got a voodoo lab sparkle drive. It creates a great tube warmth for this ancient transistor. I foolishly replaced the original speakers for some Jensen Cn12's. Don't get me wrong, they sound great, but they don't sound that much better than the originals. If it's not broke, don't fix it. I could of use the money towards the Super. I also use a small stone phaser, but I find it takes away from the signal and only works well in lower volume situations. The L5 with the sparkle drive is all you need for rock,rhythm and blues. Heavy metal, well that's not music. I would like to have a pedal for the reverb jack.

In my search for expanding the sound a bought some digitech super effect pedal and after five minutes thought I had blown a speaker. I blew a fuse, and sent the pedal back. That is the only problem I've ever had. I don't know the exact weight of this amp, but it's real heavy. Have thought about the deluxe reverb or tech 21 60 as a lighter replacement for the L5. Anyone out there try both and can give me a comparison? Give me an Email.

I replaced the power chord after 20 years at local shop.

I give the L5 an 8 1/2. It's very reliable but heavy. It doesn't have the modern crunch sound or the bounce of a tube amp. It's a great rhythm guitar amp for 60's soul, and with effect pedals it'll take you to the late 1980's. I bought it in a small town and my choice was it or a Randall and the owner of the store said this was better

Dual channels--but non-switching. Personally if you get an L5 I'd look into a Morley ABY box, Whirlwind, or maybe the Boss Line Selector to enable you to switch channels easily. I actually *prefer* the multiple inputs to the two channels--allows you to run two different effects chains: one for your clean sounds, and one for your dirty sounds.

The preamp and poweramp section can be disconnected from the 2 12" speakers if you want... allowing you to run the amp thru something like a ADA Cabinet Emulator for direct recording.

Overall I find the features adequete from a tone shaping point of view. Channel one (clean) has high/low inputs, bright switch, channel volume, bass, middle frequency & treble frequency. Channel two (dirty) features: high/low inputs, bright switch, channel volume, bass, frequency (from 100hz to 6.4hz--basically this is a parametric equalizer whose amount is governed by the multifilter knob), middle frequency, treble frequency, multifilter (governs resonance of the parametric EQ), & reverb.

Master channel governs the compressor setting and an on/off switch for the compressor. There is an overall amp volume switch as well. Overall, very well equipped for tone bending as well as leveling your clean and crunch sounds out--plus the added convenience of a master volume. On the rear of the unit is a 1/4" for preramp out and another for poweramp in, and a 1/4" for a reverb on/off control.

The controls are all very responsive and you can hear their effect on your tone immediately. No matter where I set the knobs the tone was good and usable.

This is a solid state amp, but it reacts like a tube amp to your playing dynamics. It's simply amazing how nice this sounds and feels. You could claim that it is tube to an unknowing tube snob and I'd bet they'd believe you. My guess is that the "tubey" tone and feel comes from the power amp section of the amp, which seems to be well-designed and possibly overspecified.

The only thing I didn't really dig was the on/off switch on the back, and the plastic knobs on mine. One looks like someone's dog chewed on it. I'm planning on replacing them and possibly the pots as well with Boer pots or something similarly indestructible... just to be safe.

I'm doing ambient indie, but I play everything when I'm goofing off. I went from metal (with a Boss DS-1), to blues, jazz... this thing is a tone tank. The L5 should be known as the "POD KILLER" because that's exactly what it does.

The tone is just amazing. As I mentioned earlier, it is a dead-ringer for a tube amp (think Fender Bassman-ish). It can pound out some heavy tones though if you run a decent overdrive/distortion pedal as a front end. It loves my DS-1 and the combination of the two produces some excellent tones.

As everyone states about the L5 the clean tones just slay you. They are just so beautiful. I was running just my guitar into the amp--no effects--and the lush tones just oozed out.

This amp gets loud quickly, but doesn't break up in bad ways.

One thing a number of people have slammed is the L5's reverb. I don't understand why at all. I took mine partially apart to clean out all the dust, clean up the tolex, etc... and removed the reverb that is affixed to the bottom of the inside chassis (in a little plether dust cover). Well, it is a REAL spring reverb--and a 16" spring reverb to boot. It sounds amazing... WAYYY better than any digital reverb. Reverb only applies to channel 2 though.

Seems reliable. Mine had about 22+ years of dust and stuff in it so I carefully cleaned that all out, removed the spring reverb and dusted it off, cleaned the case that it is in, etc...

Feels very solid, but I don't have any formal experience with it yet, so I can't rightly say. Most people say they're pretty reliable and it is solid state...

You know the story... Moog music is gone, Norlin is gone and Gibson probably doesn't support them much other than free schematics (from what I hear). But it's an amp and most amps seem to be easy to have fixed anyways.

I've been playing 16 years and I've owned (and own) some very nice equipment in my time... although mainly vintage synthesizers. I tend to believe that my opinion is usually grounded in fact more than emotion of getting something new.

Right now I am running my Brian Moore i8 guitar thru a Boss DS-1 to the L5. I'm re-building up my guitar gear after being too obsessed with synthesizers for a while. With just this simple setup the L5 is already proving potent. I'm planning on adding a Morley ABY box, running a Small Clone to the clean channel, and a MXR Phase 90 before the DS-1 on the dirty. I tend to like simple set ups.
I thought long and hard before choosing an amp and looked at every option--including radically more expensive amplifiers (tube) as well as the Line 6 'Vetta. Personally, the L5 blows them all away except for VHT's--which were TOO pricey for me actually. VHT's are the best for what I want to do, but I paid peanuts for this L5.

In fact, I'd rate the VHT--a superior amp--only a 9 in this category because of the price. For the money you cannot beat this amp. Unique tones that are simply amazing, tube reliabilty, power, articulation, volume & projection, dual channel. This is a one of the best kept secrets in guitar gear right now.

I am going to be keeping my eye out for another L5 as a backup. I positively love this amp. The multifilter/frequency filter aspect creates some very distinct tones. Why some people don't dig this feature is beyond me.

This amp rules. Why it isn't worth at least 600-800 dollars on the used market is beyond me.

I think I bought it in 1978, new, and still have it. I can get any sound I want out of it, and even a few sounds I don't want. It has 2 channels, with one with a hi, lo input, which designates a high level or low level signal input (hot pickups or not so hot pickups)
It has every feature I need in an amp and plenty of power, I've used Fender twin reverb, quad reverb, Super Twin, Peavey, Vox, Ampeg, Gibson, Standel, and this is my favorite, with price being no object.

I have used an old Strat, a Les Paul Recording (my favorite with the L5), and a Travis Bean, which absolutely screams with the L5. Very quiet circuitry, no hums, buzzes, etc. Did have a buzz from the reverb, but I wrapped it in tin foil and it quit. The Les Paul gets any kind of sound you can dream up using this amp. I find the "low" input works best with the Les Paul Recording, as the pickups are not very hot when used on high impedence, it was designed to be used with a low impedence amp. Not that the Low input on the amp means Low impedence, because it doesn't. But the sensitivity is better on the Low input, so to take better advantage of the Les Paul's capabilities. The Travis bean can overdrive the amp when the guitar is set on 7 or higher, but the Les Paul can't overdrive it no matter what, unless I use the compressor. I use it for all styles of music, and it's suitable for all, from country, jazz, classical, hard rock.

I blew one of the speakers playing outdoors while it was still near new. I decided to rearrange things...I installed a Peavey 15" Black Widow speaker, and made a new board to put inside on top of the original, in case I decided to go back to 2-12's later. Best decision I made in a long time. Really improved everything. Other than that, a rock solid reliable amp. Failure was my fault, playing it wide open for 4 hours outside.

Company is out of business. Doesn't break, anyway. Who needs them?

I can't believe anyone would ever sell one of these. I've kept it thru hell and high water. I doubt if I'd sell it for $2500 now. Couldn't replace it with anything as good that they sell now.

Lab Series L5. 100 Watts, 2 channel, 2 12 inch speakers. Made by Norlin Music Industries, along with Moog, and sold by Gibson. Made in late '70s.

I am a jazz player. I use it as a bass amp with an Epiphone 5 string fretless bass with live electronics. I also have an Epiphone Emperor guitar. The amp works great either way. With the bass I get a sound that is very similar to a full-size acoustic bass.

No problems at all in 8 years. When I bought the amp it was in new condition and it still is, even down to the vinyl amp cover with the Lab Series logo.

Never needed any service or repair. I got the owner's manual with the amp. I just discovered all of this information on the web and the schematic is available for download.

With an easy player like me, this amp should last 4 or 5 lifetimes. It never gets past a slow idle.

Built after Bob Moog invented his amp circuit with multifilter that he patented in 1978, these amps were built by Norlin Music Inc. (which owned Moog at the time) and they were also sold under the Gibson brand. See my first posting on this amp below for further info. Also I'd like to add that the signal continues to the speaker even though you line a signal out straight into a recording equipment or PA, unless you put a tele-plug into the power amp's input jack to cut it. This way, you can line it to the PA and still use the combo itself as a monitor (or opt not to).

See earlier postings.

Had it since 1986 or 1987 and has never had any trouble whatsoever. Know of a few people that's had trouble with the compressor unit failing though. See earlier postings.

Now the schemes and card layouts have been moved again since M$ shut the nbci.com user pages where they were previously stored down without notice last autumn. Now they are found at http://firetones.net/Labscheme.zip.
Many people have asked for these, so I thought I'd better make them accesible again.

See earlier postings.

I used a Lab Series L5 in the late 70's and early 80's. What I liked about it was the compressor. It had an adjustable knee and worked well for softening the clean sound. I never really liked the amp for chunky rock sounds. But I did at one time use it in stereo with a Mesa Boogie and a Roland Stereo Chorus. The Lab set clean with just a little compression and the Boogie set to a chunky yet clear rhythm sound made an unbelieveable combination. I stumbled apon the combination just by coincidence, but started getting comments from band mates as well as other musics. They would come up to me and say.. Hey, you're the guy with the really fat and wide sound. This combination gave me an incrediblbly clear grinding sound. I eventually went to just using the Boogie because I was carrying more gear than I wanted to, but will always remember my days with the L5 Combo and the Boogie. Nice amp.

i just picked this lab L5 up in the used section of my local music store. i've always wanted one of these since they came out in the late 70's.once i cleaned the pot seeds and beer residue out of the speaker enclosure and reactivated the reverb tank, soldered a new speaker connection with a new 90 degree 1/4 inch plug( so icould tranport this thing on its back) and fired it up on the bench.switched the compressor on and found it still work clean and quiet.after fooling with the midrange knobs a bit , i dialed in a surprisingly twin like clean tone. it didn't jangle but still very good.by over driving the master i tried to break it up and it didn't impress me so i switched back to clean.cleaned it up, put some new plug in style caster and took it on a country rock gig and loved it.

i used a roland ready strat with the stock singe coils and a epiphone regency II joe pass arch-top. both guitars sounded surprisingly good.warm tube like sounds. although it does not have the fender jangle maybe thats why the company failed because they were obviously in the twin market territory. compressor made my solos sing with out irritating attact sounds or noise. 100 watts put me easily over the top of drunken bar patrons.ran danelectro p,b and j dely thu effect loop and cut the reverb out. now your talkin!!

i just purchased this baby so can't tell yet,but amp feel well built.

n/a

so far i love the thing. it was written up in guitar player mag last month and they like it. so, when i saw there under a pile of junk and saw the price i had to have it. its my first string amp now.

See my earlier posting

See my earlier posting

See earlier posting

After receiving several questions about the scheme and list of components, I decided to scan them and make them accessible over the internet at the following URL (NB! The URL has changed since last posting.):

http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/holmo/Labscheme.zip (1.82 Mb)

They are (after unzipping) in 150 dpi JPEG-format and cover not only the L5, but also the L7, L9 and L11 models.

See earlier posting