Lab Series L5

Late 70's/early 80's 2x12 100 watt solid state combo. Two channels (non switchable, though), master volume, reverb (one channel only, foot switchable), compression. The best thing about this amp is how you can adjust the mids on it: one dial lets you sweep through the frequency range you want to adjust and the other dial lets you take out or add to the mix, depending on where the first dial is. Given that this is a solid state amp, you really have to fiddle with the dials to get a decent sound.

The amp is certainly loud enough. It's quiet enough for practicing in an apartment but loud enough for shows.

I use a '68 epiphone riviera and a cheap japanese epiphone with crappy single coils. If I switch between guitars I have to play with the mid adjustments to get a decent sound.

I never use the distortion on this amp; distorted it sounds like it's coming out of a television speaker or clock radio. Playing it clean, though, is so much better. I've heard this amp is great for a jazz guitarist b/c of the crystal clear clean sound it gets. I play in a 4 piece rock band and for me I'm rarely happy with the sound. The high end is a bit too much, I'm always trying to adjust the mids, and the bass is sort of bulby and farty sounding. After owning this amp for four years and fiddling with the knobs a lot, I can get a sound that is passible, but certainly not perfect. It's probably the best solid state sound you can get for the money, but still, it's not all that great.

The amp itself I've had no problems with. I had all the connections looked over and resodered. It's blown out two sets of speakers though!!! I've heard that this isn't uncommon. I blew out the originals myself b/c I was playing a bass through it too loud. Yes, stupid and not suprising, eh? The second set went out when a friend of mine borrowed it. He was playing guitar at the time and the amp fried the cones, which was suprising since the speakers were rated at 75 watts each. Be warned: the amp requires an 8ohm load, so that means you have to wire two 16ohm speakers in parallel. 12 inch 16 ohm speakers are not that common. I now have two eminence 300 watt speakers in it...don't think I'll be frying those cones.

n/a. Any local shop can help you out and you'll probably have an enjoyable discussion about how rarely the repair person sees these amps.

I've been playing for 9 years now. I just bought a Marshall jmp head that I'll plug into the speakers of the Lab Series. IN otherwords, the amp itself will be my backup. IF it were stolen, I'd report it to my insurance company and buy something more useful.

It's a great, loud, inexpensive amp (though the buzz seems to be growing about it), but it just doesn't have a well rounded sound that's easy to find. I can spend hours playing with the knobs trying to get a good sound whereas with the marshall all i have to do is plug in. You get what you pay for sometimes.

Volume - bass - treble - frequency - midrange - multifilter - reverb - compression - etc -

With a Ibanez roadstar 2, this amp realy gives a nice clear sound. The mute guitar playing is fantastic. Clean rock, r&B and blues is also interesting.

God!!! WHAT CAN I SAY? NEVER BROKE AND SEEM THAT IT NEVER WILL!!! Very well built. I have given many shows for the last 12 years and this thing has never broke down.

I don't know but one thing's for sure - The more we talk about it and the best chances that we can rely on people writing on the internet to help us out!

I have the impression that, one day, I will show this monster to my grand children and I it will blast their mind out!!!

This amp was manufactured in 1977.
It is a very versatileand clean sounding.
I play blues, R & B,Classic rock, and funk.
It has 2 channels, no channel switching.
One clean channel, the other has a nice midrange/frequency shifter.
You can get some interesting sounds.
It has reverb, which I replaced, and a presence control.
You can get great sustain at high volume with the midrange control and the built in compressor. Not a tube sound, but interesting.
This amp is used for gigs and practice. I keep the preamp volume on 10 and the master on 4 or 5. It has more than enough power for
almost any gig. It is a heavy, tough, solid state amp that is extremely reliable. Great clean sound. For distortion, you need a pedal.

The amp as I said above is clean sounding. I play a strat plus with
texas special pickups. (I replaced the lace sensors) I replaced the stock eminence speakers with celestion vintage 30s. It sounds excellent. A tremendous improvement! I play through a boss bd-2.
Sounds very close to a tube sound. Great amp for blues. With the s1peaker upgrade - a definite ten. BB king uses either a Lab series or a Fender twin. This amp, with the speaker upgrade, will stand up to any twin. I been playing guitar for about 35 years. I owned both tube and solid state. My favorite tube amp was a 50 watt ampeg. This is the best amp I ever had. Great sound- warm and smooth-not harsh. Sounds great with single coils.

Extremely reliable. I've used it on gigs without a backup.
It has never broken down.

The company is out of business. When I bought it about five years ago, I got all the original papers- manual, schematics, etc. It was made by norlin.

I have been playing for 35 years. The only effects I use are a boss bd -2 blues driver and an Ibanez super chorus. As I mentioned before, I play a statocaster. I also own a Guild acoustic, a D45. This amp, in my opinion, is as good as any Twin. For the price, this is a steal.I would buy it again. With the celestions, I give it a 9.

first of all, this is the first of two reviews from me. this one is dedicated to my first impression of this monster!
2 12's, something like 100 watts, two channels, one with crazy eq functions, reverb, effects loop, fuse breaker, master volume, compression. enough volume to rip heads off.
versatility? oh yes.

i just crapped my pants tweaking the midrange filter--it's wider than ANY wah pedal i've ever heard on any recording or otherwise. i'm tempted to yank it out and make a wah pedal out of it! 3 band eq, and you can select the midrange frequency at whch you want to create a dip or rise (since the midrange knob goes from NEGATIVE 6 to positive 6). on top of that there's another filter deal that is pretty much a presence knob. adds overall brilliance. my favorite knob, though is the parametric midrange--endless palette of sounds! more later...right now it's knocking me on my arse!

this thing looks OLD! it sounds NEW! no noise--i HAD to have a quiet solidstate amp for sanity reasons (see my review of my beloved fender vibrolux reissue). it is quiet, all the knobs work perfectly, plugins, too, (i haven't tried the power plugin on the back yet--oh yeah, forgot to mention that in the 'features'. this thing is built to eat tanks.

uh, what? good guys in minneapolis better know something about this puppy if something goes wrong. but i'm very confident in my '10' reliablility rating!

i've been playing for 10 years--rock for only like 2 or 3. punk for longer. classical for a while. classical is my emphasis, but rock is definetly a major interest. there's only so much you can do with an acoustic (if you're a dunce of a songwriter like me) w/o being too far out there. electrics have endless opportunities, and the lab series takes advantage of this fact. no one should be disappointed with this amp. you can get SO many tones that who frikin' cares if you can't get an srv tone?! be original, get a lab series! make it your front running amp! i'm not ashamed to!

You've seen the other reviews, you know what it has (100W, 2x12, 2channel, compressor, etc.

Nice to have a compressor in the amp, kinda rare

Used to use an Ibanez AR80 with twin humbuckers (semi hollow body ES335 copy, nice little guitar, btw). Played blues, hard rock, pop. In between was a Morley Power Wah, which had a 15 watt preamp. This combo could give me a real agressive sound with tons of uncontrollable feeback if I wasn't on top of the settings.

If you want a good clean sounding amp, and can't drop 750+ on a twin reverb, this is a *very* nice amp. You can get a clean sound out of this rig at really high volume settings. As others have said, for a solid state amp, it can give you some pretty solid tones that won't break up at volume. I never had it above 4 or 5, and at that level, all the birds in the neighborhood left (it cranks).

Distortion leaves a bit to bit desired, but if you can accept the fact that you have a great "clean" amp and front end it with a couple of choice pedals (Boss 'Blues Driver BD-2' comes to mind), I'm sure you can come up with a nice pallet of sounds, with decent tone for very cheap.

Never had a problem, its made of Kryptonite. Volume knob on channel one was missing when I got it (if it is on yours, its probably my old amp)

N/A there gone, see schematics on back of amp, call your local amp tech

Had to sell it 10 years ago to help buy my house. I'm just starting to get back into playing again and I think I want another one. $ for $ this is a tough amp to beat, and not a bad "compromise" at all if your not completely hung up on tube amps.

I played a Lab L5 when they appeared in the late 70s/early 80s and really liked its distinctive, thick and surprisingly non-brittle tone. I think the amp is best suited for clean tones, especially since even at high volume it does not break up; use a tube amp for overdriven tones.

I bought this amp, not working, for $100 at a guitar show. Having some electronics background (I hold a computer science degree), I knew that it wouldn't take too much to get it working again, especially since the circuit schematics are readily available. After replacing the 3.5 amp circuit breaker/on-off switch I had some noise, unfortunately not the type I wanted. Rather than trace through the circuitry myself, I had the amplifier serviced at a local guitar shop. It turned out one of the speakers was shot so I replaced both of them myself with standard Fender 12" speakers as used in the twin reverb. Anyone contemplating a speaker replacement must be sure to either match the 16 ohm impedance of each of the original speakers and use the original parallel wiring harness, or use two 4 ohm impedance speakers (such as the Fenders) wired in series to avoid electrical unpleasantness.

For the uninitiated, impedance (Z) is resistance to alternating current, and resistance (R) is resistance to direct current.

The equation for impedance (Z) or resistance (R) of a parallel circuit is

Z total (impedance) or R total (resistance) = (product of impedance or resistance) divided by (sum of impedance or resistance), e.g.

R1 = 16 ohms
R2 = 16 ohms

then

Z total (impedance) or R total (resistance) = (16 * 16)/(16 + 16) = 256/32 = 8 ohms.

The impedance (Z) or resistance (R) of a series circuit is

Z (impedance) or R (resistance) = total of all resistance,

e.g.

R1 = 4 ohms
R2 = 4 ohms

Z total (impedance) or R total (resistance) = R1 + R2 = (4 + 4) ohms =
8 ohms.

Hope this higher math does not confuse anybody!

I am now extremely happy with the amplifier which sounds great and works perfectly. Total cost about $400 which is worth it to me since I now know exactly the condition of the amplifier.

I am happy to answer questions not addressed in this or any of the other articles on this subject. Please read this and other related articles first before sending any questions.

This amp has been through the ringer with me, and held up beautifly. It's never let me down. I bought this amp for $138.00 in Minneapolis back in 1992. I knew these amps were good cause my brothers been using one for 20 years. He finally broke down and sold it last year for something lighter. So there is another one of these L5 s floating around Eau Claire, WI. The amp is very powerful and clean. I use up front effects but the workhorse is behind me. Speakers seem very directional, but stick this thing in the corner and you'll stand up to any Marshall or Fender amp.

Super dependable. These were built in the early 80's and were very pricy. Around $800.00 back then. The LAB L5 Switch for on/off is actually doubles as a circuit breaker. I broke off the little black button on the switch and had to find a new one. There is a company still selling this switch, but I can't find my receipt right now.
If someone is deparately looking contact me. Brinic1@mail.direcpc.com
and I'll find the receipt.

channel 1 has volume,bass, treable and a high and low jack input.
channel 2 has a voulme.midrange,treable,bass,frequency and it also has a master volume with a great compresser.

It sounds great with eather my SG or my strat im a blues player
and it is perfect . this is the most versitle amp i have ever seen.
It is never noisy. it never distorts at a high volume.
only if you turn up the channel all the way and turn your master
down.
The distortion is the best for southern rock maybe a little heaver.

the one i own my dad used it almost every night for twenty years.
bought it almost new i have used it for six years .

Hardly no trouble at all.all except the reverb unit.Besides that
no trouble at all

i never delt with the company.but i would like to shake their hand
on the best amp ever made .
my dad owned two of them. He and i both loved their sound.

I have been playing for twenty years .
Ihave owned otheramps .
But nothing compairs to a LAB
It is the same kind BB KING uses .(L5)
Other blues players use them .

This amp has two channels, one is your bog-standard 3 band EQ with volume, and the other three band paremetric EQ and mulitifilter, oh and reverb too. It's also got a weird compressor on it, but I don't really use it much. Basically it's got enough knobs on the front to keep you happy for quite a while!

Froget the distortion, if that's what you call it, sounds more like to just clipping the input signal, badly! But for clean it really comes into its own!!! It sounds so good! Really crisp! And it is verstatile enough to get just about any sound going! The reverb was weird, hardly there at all, so I replace the coil with a spare one I had and it sounded gorgeous!!!!

I got this amp covered in dust, cobwebs and all sorts of muck. I cleaned it put, thinking it probably wouldn't work at all, and low and behold it did! Looks like it's been hammered shitless for the past 20 odd years, but sounds as if you've just got it home from the shops! The only problem is did have was the it would occasionally go quiet, then back loud, sporadically. But this seems to have ceased now.

Never dealt with Norlin, then again, never needed to!

I play a Jackson Fusion Professional through it, and it sounds great clean! Unfortunately I can't afford any dent effects yet, so I've been using a crappy Zomm 505, and with the amazing EQ on the amp, I can get some surprisingly amazing tones out of it! It is shit-hot for metal and can also sound really warm, almost like a valve amp for blues. Plus everything in-between. It's the most verstatile amp I've ver played, and if you see one, get it and but individual effects boxes for it. That way you can sound like anybody you want to, be damn loud and not pay very much.

Good straight ahead clean amp with an interesting compressor built in.
Speakers are generic eminence. I upgraded them to EVs. Quite a bit of EQ possibilities. Reverb sounds alright.

Good clean sounds. I'm not crazy about the distortion. Works well with my ES 175 or strat. Pretty warm for a transister amp. Its a good idea to have some effects up front if you want anything besides clean sounds.

I bought this amp new at least 20 years ago. I have never had a problem with it. It has traveled many, many miles.

no need

I play through a Fender Blues Deluxe these days. I would never sell the Lab because it will always be a depedable backup amp. I practice through it at the house so I don't have to bring home or unpack the Fender. It's a great deal if you can pick one up under $200.