Lab Series L5

I think this amp was built in 1977. I play mainly rock and it suites me best. 2 channels, no switching. It does have this aboard. No headphone jack. The amp is as good as it is. I use it when practising and on stage. It blows hard enough.

I use a Squire Telecaster Custom (2007) and a Squire Strat (1991) and the amp gives them both the sound they deserve. The amp is very quiet. I mainly use the amp for rock and set almost all knobs at 10 after midnight, except the reverb on a quarter to midnight. Many people come to check the sound after a gig and almost always they can't believe it's a solid state. check you tube for tests. just put in lab series L5.

Throw it of the stairs behind the stage and it still works.

It still works and I had no problems.

I play for over 40 years now. If it was stolen I try to get another one asap. I love the overall tone, don't hate it at all!!

all I need in an amp. I play a great range of styles & even use my bass on it. I never use the compressor since it doesn t seem to do much on either of my 2 l5 s. I almost always use both channels at the same time using a home made channel splitter, before I had the splitter I would connect both channels by goining in the clean channel through the low using the high as a trough going to the second channel s low. I seldon use the overdrive (volume higer than 5) but use a blackstar to give it some tube. Power is great, usable at home aswell as for rehearsel as for live work.

sounds great on all my guitars, mostly used is my taylor t5 but strats, tele s even a semi acoustic....

My first l5 I ve had for more than 20 years and only once it broke down - all of a sudden it was dead - the sound started going up and down and then it was over. I didn t find the problem myself so brought it in to a local gitar shop a they had it repaired in no time but never really gave me a good explanation of what was wrong. Still it works again so .....though when i did get the opportunity to buy a second I didn t hesitate.
Dropping it down stairs didn t seem to do much harm

what s that?

I ve been playing for 30 years & 20 on the lab, I also combine it with my jc-60, had a few other amps but never kept them that long

This is a late 70's Lab Series L5. As used by BB King, Ty Tabor, Ronnie Montrose, etc. Solid-state 2x12, 100 watts.

I play primarily blues and blues influenced rock music, but my influences range across the board. The L5 does not have enough gain on tap for heavy metal chunk really, but you wouldn't buy this amp for that anyway. I use it with a tubescreamer when I want more searing lead tones, but I generally run the amp by itself.

The L5 has two channels, but there is no channel switching. To solve this problem I bought a morley A/B/Y switch, which I use to switch between the clean and drive channels. The amp has reverb for the second channel, an effects loop, and compressor.

It would be nice to have reverb on both channels, but I run a holy grail reverb in the effects loop to solve this problem.

The amp is quite powerful, though not as much as a comparable 100 watt tube amp... I have never found a situation where the full power of a 100 watt tube amp is necessary anyway. The L5 is plenty loud for me, plenty loud for gigs and jams.

I use four guitars primarily: 2 62 Strat Reissues, a Gretsch 5120, and a Dean Z with PAF Pros.

The L5 shines with all of these guitars. The strat tones are stratty, the gretsch tones are gretschy. The amp is very transparent in the sense that it is responsive to the nuances of the guitar and your playing style. You can really hear the differences in the woods and pickups of your guitars very well.

The amp has a unique sound, though it is very Fender-y.

The clean tones are very, very warm, and the drive channel is very similar to the clean channel but with some clipping.

I own a number of tube amps, including a plexi marshall and a vibrolux, both hand wired. The L5 has the warmth that you will find with a tube amp, but with many of the good features solid state amps have (sounds good at low volumes, consistent sounds) and none of the bad ones really.

The amp will sound great for blues, rockabilly, country, funk, and rock (when clean tones are needed and drive tones can be supplemented with a pedal or another amp)

This amp is incredibly reliable.

No tubes to worry about.

This amp was made before I was born.

I've been playing for 12 years, and it is by far one of the coolest amps I have owned.

The clean tones are phenomenal, the bluesy drive tones are phenomenal, and the amp is super reliable and consistent. If you are thinking about buying one of these, go for it! Unless you need tons of distortion on tap, this amp will suit the needs of most guitar players who like warm sounds.

If you are lucky enough to find one in a store to try, do it. But if you are someone who traditionally likes Fender tube amps, you'll probably like this amp.

I am the proud owner of a 1977 Lab Series L-5 2x12 100w solid state
amp. I have owned many different amps over the course of 25 yrs
of being a working musician.And find my Lab Series L-5 to be plenty
loud and versitile for the style and styles i have played. Generally i play progressive hard rock, but deviate to jazz and funky rock.
The L-5 transistions well to the for mentioned styles. The amp has 2 channels but i use only one of them" the boost" channel.The reverb
on my unit does not work, but that is o.k. since i am using the digital reverb from my processing gear.But i have heard the reverb on these amps is very nice. I have used this amp to record a couple songs, but have used this more as a work horse for gigging and rehearsal.

I use a variety of different guitars and pick up combinations. Several hot rodded teles, strats,and Brian Moores.I even have used this
with my Ovation electric/acoustic.I would consider using this again
to record due to how quiet this amp is while it's idoling on stage
or in the studio. Much more quiet than my marshalls,
The distortion is good at less saturated levels, smooth and good for blues. To get a real good metal distortion out of it,it is nesscery
to use out board gear.

The Lab Series L-5 is VERY reliable.I think this is the strong point of these amplifiers. I have beaten,tolchocked,and abused many amps over the years and have done some of my own repairs and maintenance
to other amps I own, but my Lab Series has needed no maintenence
what so ever.From smoky clubs to outdoor shows in the 90's with high humidity this piece of equipment has always performed very well.

I have never had any problems. as far as factory support, ???
There are manuals available on line and i've seen factory manuals
on e-bay for roughly 30.00-40.00$.

I have been playing since my early teens, roughly 25+ years. And own
several marshalls, both tube and solid state. The L-5 sounds
almost as good as my Mesa heartbreaker 2x12 100w combo. I have used
these two in a stereo set up before and can barely tell the difference between the two, I purchased this amp from a co-worker's
wife, who had been given this amp from her uncle's estate after he passed, for $20.00 yes that's right...$20.00. the reverb dose not work but $20.00 who cares????

Plenty of features, especially for a guy like me who grew up playing straight into the amp, and controlling my sound by turning the guitar's volume up and down. The midrange frequency and level controls are really a parametric EQ just for the mids. You can dial it in to match your guitar. The compressor works very well, and it has an effects loop, too.

This amp is studio quiet, even at very loud levels. I have to say that you must get to know the controls first, but you can get a great clean sound and a great overdrive sound, too. The "clean" channel sounds quite different than the "effects" channel. The channel with all the stuff on it sounds fantastic clean, as it has a character to it that doesn't really sound solid-state at all. The reverb gives Fender a run for their money. I had forgotten how good the reverb is on these amps. If you use the master volume and compressor, you can set this channel for a fantastic blues tone with just a little overdrive to it. B.B. King got these for free from Norlin---that's the real reason he used them, but I can see why he liked them. The sound is way better than I remember. If you crank the distortion, you can dial in a pretty good classic rock tone, but as I said, you have to get to know the controls first. A Strat Elite, or maybe an Eric Clapton Strat, both of which have a 20db mid-boost control, overdrive this channel sufficiently in conjuction with the amp's mid EQ for that King's X tone. I know Alan Holdworth used them at one point, but I've seen him live a few times, and he could play a Hondo II guitar through a Peavey practice amp and still sound like himself. I do have to say that once a good distortion sound is dialed-in, the amp's character is so strong that it really only does one type of distortion sound well. One thing to remember: B.B. King used to play relatively clean, but he played very, very loudly. The L-5 sounds really good this way. Dial in a good bluesy sound, turn on the compressor, and turn the volume up really loud. The amp holds up at high volumes, and actually seems to prefer playing loudly. This amp suits my 70's styles of blues-rock playing very well. Indeed, that's what it was designed for. Today's Line 6 players may have to learn to experiment with the controls for awhile before they get what they want from it. I remember when these amps came out, and they were a pretty good alternative to the non-master volume Marshalls that everyone had. You could get a controllable distortion at whatever level you required.

I have a huge background in musical electronics and manufacturing. Until just recently, I had never encountered a Lab Series amp with any sort of problem whatsoever. I recently bought two L-5's and these were the exception. I have never seen any amplifiers that were this messed-up, especially Lab Series amps. But, I got them pretty cheap, and I knew I could fix them up. I sold one and kept one for myself. In the course of straightening these amps out, I kept marvelling at how well they were made, and how much I had forgotten about these amps, because they normally just do not ever break down. I'm seeing a lot of Lab Series amps on eBay now, and for some reason, a lot of them have the speakers changed in them. They originally came with CTS speakers. The Lab Series amps I've owned in the past were absolute workhorses, and never broke down. They need no maintenance whatsoever. This one I have now, I had to do a lot of work on, but I think someone just got in there and tried to work on it without knowing what they were doing. I've been playing through it, and I'm positive that in it's current condition, I could totally trust this amp on a gig. These L-5's were meant to be Fender Twin Reverb killers, and I really believe Norlin accomplished that.

These amps come from another time. In 2007, there is no customer support for these. Also, more than one revision exists for these. The amp I have now has bone-stock circuit boards in it, and they don't totally match the schematics that are floating around on the internet. You would have to find someone like myself to repair these, but, you know, I doubt you would ever need it. Warranty service and stuff like that wouldn't apply to these amps.

I started playing seriously as a teenager in the 1970's. I own myriad amplifiers and other gear, and I build my own amplifiers, too. I have been employed by Soldano, and Ampeg, and am very familiar with guitar amplification of all types. At this stage in the game, if it were lost or stolen, I wouldn't necessarily lose my mind, because I've owned so many of these over the years, and, you know, it's not like I don't have other stuff. I got the one I have now as a reminder/learning experience sort of thing, and I couldn't remember what they sounded like. Plus my ears have gotten a lot of experience over the years, and I didn't know if I'd still like these amps or not. Also, folks---these amps aren't all that heavy. A real Fender Twin Reverb weighs a lot more than a Lab Series L-5. I suggest carrying an Ampeg VT-22 down three flights of stairs---now that's heavy. I once had a 50-watt Hiwatt Bulldog combo amp that was so heavy it must've had bricks inside of it. The Lab Series L-5 sounds good, is very durable, reliable and portable, and won't let you down. It is a true working musician's amp, just like the Fender Twin Reverb. All Lab Series L-5's came with casters, too.

As others have said, this amp was made in the 70's by Norlin (who owned Gibson at the time). I've heard that engineers from Moog had something to do with the design, but I don't know the details.

It's a 2x12 combo, but mine was cut down and made into a head by a previous owner. So, I'm using it with an Ibanez 4x12 cabinet.

It has 2 channels, but no switching (like an old Fender). I won't go into all the features (everything's been covered already). But I really want to stress the value of the EQ controls on the distortion channel. It has Bass and Treble, and a parametric midrange. This allows you to sculpt just about any tone you need. Very nice.

This amp can make a lot of different sounds, from pristine clean to classic 70's crunch. It's very warm and tube-like (for solid state). But it stops short of modern high-gain tones. I've found that using a good overdrive (Marshall Guv'nor) along with the amp's distortion yields some very nice results. If you play death metal, you'll definitely need to add a distortion pedal.

I use a variety of guitars Fender Strat, Epiphone SG, Ibanez RG) and it handles them all well. I usually play heavy rock, but venture into blues, jazz and funk ocassionally. With a few EQ tweaks, it can handle all these styles.

At gig volumes (Master Volume around 7) there is a tiny bit of noise. But it's not more than I've noticed from any other amp. Not bad for something over 30 years old.

I depend on it regularly. It's never broken down. There are no tubes to change. And as long as I treat it right, I'm sure it will hold up. It's survived 30-something years already, and I doubt the previous owner was as careful as I am. When I bought it, it looked like the speaker enclosure had been hacked off and a plywood bottom had been nailed on. The tolex was gone and a black t-shirt had been stretched to cover the wood. Some of the knobs were partially melted. (?) But it worked perfectly. I re-covered it with black vinyl.

I gig without a backup (how many people lug 2 amps to a gig?). I suppose if it ever blows, I have a POD I can plug into the mixer to keep going...

N.A. - Lab Series is long gone. I've seen some schematics posted on the web, though.

I've been play for 20-something years. I love this amp. It's got everything I need. If it were lost or stolen, I'd look for another, but I'm not sure I could find one.

The main reason I bought it was that I once had an L-7 (a 4x10 combo from Lab Series). I sold it to buy a Fender Pro Reverb and always regretted it (The Fender was great, but I missed the L-7). SO when I saw this amp, I grabbed it immediately.

for a solid state amp made in the late 70`s you really can`t ask for too much more.other people have named off all the features so i`ll skip that part and just tell you at the time it had all the bells and whistles that a guitarist would want.

both channels have a incredible clean tone.very warm sounding for being a solid state amp.i have three guitars...a strat,e.s.p. 400ex and a b.c. rich warlock.so yeah i`m a metalhead,with that said the distortion on this amp is "lacking".but with the addition of a stompbox for that metal tone it soars at volumes rival to a tube amp of its size.it does fair the best as far as sound quality goes with the e.s.p because of the emg 81`s.

i`ve had this amp since 1995 (currently 2007).the only thing i`ve had to replace on it was the speakers because i blew them.i can`t say if it was age or the house i was living in at the time being humid.other than that i`ve had no problems whatsoever.

n/a

overall i love my L5 and never plan on getting rid of it.its a perfect small gig amp that puts out big gig power.with the addition of a flange,distortion,and a wah pedal you`ll have all you`ll need to play any bar or club.plus it being a solid state you don`t have to worry about tubes popping on ya when you take it on the road.

Late 70s amp. I bought it from my first guitar teacher. It was a good amp all those years ago. Home, rehearsal, gig. 4 channels s speakers. two high two low. I prefer low plus all the possibilities of mid range, freq, etc. lot of variation to play with here. Power is way way enough. I never had to worry it. Solid state amp I found with a lovely sound. Great amp. Back up, gig or studio.

Lot of variety with sound. Sorry $nordin went out of business as the development on this amp would have been interesting. The compression on this amp provides a very smooth - and nice sound very quiet too - sound. Mine stopped working. Only because I made the mistake of lettting someone have a look at it who didn;t know what he was doing..

The onlyu thing that needed attention on this amp in 30 years is the reverb. I have never had a service and it just keeps going. It spent 7 years in a shed at the bottom of the garden and played fine after the abuse. I dug it out recently and will never banish it agian.

You can get schematics. Look online. Gibson provide very little information. I have been offered good money for this amp from session musicians and gigging alike. No one has one around here.
I happy with this amp. It serves many purposes and I can get just about everything I need from it.

I've been playing 28 years. This amp has been with me since I started. I would try to buy another if it were stolen. I like the wheels too. It's very heavy but hardy. I love the tough nature of this amp. Labseries L5. I hate the fact that some guy messed with it and that I put it away for so long. It's back now. And to stay. I don't think I will sell it - unless I'm offered enough to get another. If you can find one 2nd hand go for it.

You now the features allready...........

Iam using an American texas special stratocaster with this amp ,I play blues and rock mainly,not noisy,very nice clean sound BUT after I replace speakers for a couple fender 12' ,dramatic change.....I change tank reverb as well ,I did't like the original one.
The distortion is crap,I use stompboxes for that.

I have it for 4 years ,just yesterday it stops working I haven't open it yet....

I have been playing since 10 years old I'am 33 now,my other amps are: fender twin reverb,fender super reverb,marshall jcm 800.
I love this amp, sounds diferent and that counts to me a lot,most of my gear is vintage classic staff that is been proven to work well for years,I would say that this is something diferent that finds it's own place in what I do,the compressor it has is awesome,I mean it....
I think,it's a really great amp,of course Iam talking about mine with the speakers and reverb change,I use it a lot and I love it.

This amp is from 1981. I bought it new at my local dealer, when Gibson made a promotion tour in Germany with a real good guitar player. I gave about he price of a new Twin for it. I was fascinated by the variety of different sounds the man played with a Gibson RD Artist and the amp. At that time I played in a cover band (Steely Dan, Foreigner, Kansas, Blind Faith, Santana...) and I felt that?s the one I need. Today I know that the guy could have played any style (Jimi to Johnny Cash that?s what he did)on any cheap chinese amp, but beeing more in the blues business now I really love the amp .

Got everything I need. I play it with a ES 335, a Standard Strat, Tele, Gold Top Heritage and a L5. Unbeaten clean sound. Compressor and reverb perfect. For my blues it?s very good. No noise at all even with the Fenders. I use a Ibanez PUE 5 S for crunchy style. Fits perfect with the tube preamp.

In the early years I had problems with sinusoidal volume jittering. But this was fixed at the local dealer. Since then no problem.

No need for support these days - everyone can fix it. It was a sophisticated piece of equipment when I bought it. Today it is primary school electronics.

I play it since 25 years now. I also have a Fender Blues DeVille 410, a MusicMam RD 112 and a Line 6 Flextone. My Lab has the best clean sound of them all. Ask B.B.King. I?ll be it again any time. I love the the musical clean sound.

I've had my L5 for 30 years and I love it. I worked as a junior engineer at a computer manufacturer when I bought it (used) for $175. I was really impressed by how well built it was and it sounds great. We're all familiar with the features, so I won't bloviate.

I use it with a custom built maple Tele. It's got 2 EMG single coils and an EMG humbucker in the bridge, and it's all tricked out to do coil splitting on the humbucker as well as another switch that adds the bridge pickup to any other combo - VERY cool guitar. It is extremely versatile with this amp. I play all kinds of music, but mostly Jeff Beck style stuff. I use the LO input on the dirty channel exclusively, and just mess with the parametric mid to add or subtract balls. It's very quiet to operate. The only noise is an L11 style fan I put in the side of the cab 'cause I like to run it at 4 ohms with an extension cabinet for big rooms.

In 30 years, I've never had a problem I couldn't fix myself, and it never quit on a gig. I put an on/off switch in it about a year after I bought it, and when the reverb tank broke, I stuck an Accutronics unit from an old Princeton Reverb in it. Works great. I live in Buffalo where they were built and have talked to a couple of the engineers who designed and built them. They say you can run the output right down to 2 ohms without hurting it if you cool it with a fan. It's VERY heavy, so now I make my kids carry it.

Please....

I've been playing for 35 years, I've got a really nice Alverez acoustic, and a Korg M1 that I use for recording piano tracks. It sounds great through the L5 too. If someone stole it I'd freak 'cause nothing else comes close. Plus I'd have to spend the next 30 years figuring out something new, and I don't have that kind of time. Can't think of single feature I wish it had that I haven't already done to it.

Two non-switchable channels. If you want to switch channels, you have to unplug the guitar from one channel and plug into the other. Channel 1 is clean, channel 2 is dirty. It has an effects loop, a built in compressor and a master volume. Each channel has a "bright switch". Preatty straight forward for an amp.

This is a solid state amp. I bought it because I am a big fan of Ty Tabor, of King's X. The amp has a nice overdrive, but don't expect this to sound like a Marshall or a Boogie, although I have to say that this thing has its own unique sound. To get a metal tone out of this thing I run a rackmount parametric eq through the effects loop, and boost 100hz and cut 400hz. This gives me a very nice metal sound. There is quite a difference in volume from channel to channel, something I do not like, but I like the sound of the dirty channel that I don't bother with the clean channel. I really like the sound of the amp.

Well, as of this writing, this amp is almost 30 years old. It seems that it will hold, but it has given me signs that it will be a troublesome amp on a gig. The inputs are making crackling noises, so I'm afraid to take it out on gigs. I take it because it is the only amp that I have right now. I have it because it is an awesome sounding amp, don't get me wrong, but something this old is just not very reliable.

This amp was designed and made in a joint venture between Moog and Gibson, they were both owend by Norlin in the mid to late 70's. Norlin is now defunct and neither Gibson nor Moog have any information on the amp. I have talked to both companies trying to find more about the amp, but my inquiries have not been fruitful.

I have been playing for 17 years. I have always liked solid state designs. I'm not afraid of them and do not give a rodent's hairy behind about purists that say that tubes are the best. I do not care about brand names either. This is what works for me and this is what I use.

The features are well documented on this board.

My L5 was built prior to 81, the year in which I purchased it new. A speaker was blown and replaced with a Celestion. The amp had a problem under heavy load on some earlier models with either soldering or diodes. I had this repaired in 82 and no problems since then.

The amp is versatile for clean sounds up to pre-grunge distortion. If you are into a heavier distortion this amp works well with outboard distortion pedals, flangers, wah, delays, etc. I am currently using a Digitech HotHead with it and it compliments it quite well. In addition I have used various flangers (since EH Electric Mistress) and Crybaby Wah.

This amp has enough power to keep up with my drummer (who plays louder than normal) either distorted or clean. I have also added outboard plugs for it to accept another 8-16 ohms in series or parallel which gives it a nice bottom of a full stack when needed if a 2-12 or 4-12 cabinet is used.

I use a Fender Strat Deluxe with red, silver and gold pickups from bridge to neck in that order. In addition I have a G&L GL500 with two humbuckers. The parametric EQ can really be used to get different tones from just about any guitar.

In 24 years one broken power switch, a speaker replaced before I bought it, and on some a need to check those diodes. Overall it is nice and quiet however with a heavy distortion box you can get some additonal hiss when the amp is set to 8 or 10. Otherwise you may want to check the aging diodes or capacitors on the reverb/power board.

In 24 years I've used it to practice, garage jams and for bar bands and it hasnt let me down or been as finicky as some tubers can be.

================================================================
FYI my rectifier diodes were replaced in 82. I believe the current suitable replacement part for the Motorola MR502 based on the diagram are 1N5406 rectifier diodes should you have a meltdown. A good electronics tech. should be able to help you. If anyone did this themselves they should post instructions.
=================================================================
If any of you folks have a broken breaker/power switch here is an update on getting replacement parts:

Hello Corey:

Indeed, you have a very old part number, but it is complete, which can be half the battle.
The current part number is 2-5000-P10-H-3.5A.

Right now, none of my distributors have this item in stock, but I have it here in Chicago.

================================================================
In addition my rectifier diodes were replaced in 82. I believe the current suitable replacement part for the Motorola MR502 based on the diagram are 1N5406 rectifier diodes should you have a meltdown. A good electronics tech. should be able to help you.
=================================================================
Please contact one of my distributors to purchase this item.
You can find one near you by going to www.e-t-a.com, and clicking on contact,
and then distributors in the drop down box.

Thank you !
Karen Pelletiere
Customer Service


----- Forwarded by Karen Pelletiere/E-T-A on 01/20/2005 08:22 AM -----
Barbara Kutzer/E-T-A
01/20/2005 07:33 AM

To Karen Pelletiere/E-T-A@E-T-A
cc
Subject Fw: Looking for Part

Barbara Kutzer
E-T-A Circuit Breakers
847-827-7600
----- Forwarded by Barbara Kutzer/E-T-A on 01/20/2005 07:32 AM -----

To: <usinfo@e-t-a.com>
cc:
Subject: Looking for Part

I am looking for a replacement breaker\switch used in Gibson/Moog Lab Series guitar amplifiers manufactured in the late 70s to early 80s. The schematic calls for an E-T-A 045-000P-H 3.5 amp breaker and on off switch. Can you point me to a distributor who might have inventory or to a newer product that would match the specifications and general dimensions?

Thanks in advance.

Cory

I have been playing guitar for over 25 years now. If lost I would find another on EBay, I've considered getting another for spare parts or to play in stereo. I loved the reliability since 82. I hate fact they areent around to make more improvements or a tech. update. I wish someone would do a reissue or an update to the L5 at least. Some might say it doesnt have the same sould of a tube amp (I also own a Mesa amp) but I think it comes damn close. I like the fact that it holds up under pressure and high volume with an almost Marshall like tone. Wish it still had a service department.

As per everyone else`s review (that`s me being lazy). There`s some stuff you don`t really need but it`s there anyway and so it can`t hurt right? An extension speaker cab output would be nice.

62 re-issue Strat (standard). Playing pop, funk & rock. Seriously loud & great clean sound for my Pod Pro to front end with. I only bought this yesterday at a pawn shop here in Australia while I was waiting for a club to open to do an afternoon soundcheck,. I asked the guy if i could try it and guess what...I bought it. It`s awesome. There were hundreds of people in my face at this gig last night and they were like very roudy and I had no issue in hearing every naunce of my playing. This thing married beautifully with the Pod Pro and all of clean, edgy, bright, warm, fat, compressed etc justed worked. The band said i had a great sound! An impulsive decision but a great one. It looks like the real deal and sounds like it too.

Too soon to tell.

Who cares at this point.

Bought it cause I`m sick of my Fender Roc Pro 70 breking up on me and it`s omly 4 years old. Simply need a good clean amp that`s reliable and loud. for the tone, I can`t believe it`s solid state!

Features has been listed, I won't elaborate, but for its time period its sufficient

Using a Epi SG Junior with a single p90 truly makes it growl. I run it clean, the master dimmed and the channel volume at whatever is appropriate for the club. Tweaking the middle, rolling back the treble and playing with the frequency gives a great BB'ish sound, the speakers get a raw sound to them very much tubish in sound. My partners were blown away at my little $60.00 pawnshop prize, I was looking for tube amps and spending bucks, but hey why do it now? More money for the next guitar (with p90's of course, for the blues I play they are THE way to go for me).

Haven't had it long, but hey after nearly 30 years the only problem appears to be the reverb tank which I'll switch out. Thats pretty good in my book, let my partners look for new tubes, I'll just plug and play.

Ahem, extinct company....

Love it, if it were stolen I'd look for another and if I found who stole it, well lets just say they'd go on a long vacation.

Not as many features as a lot amps of today but,at least has a mid sweep on it to tweak a little.Compressor ok but, I don't use it.Seems to cut volume abruptly.I use it for dirty sound only in an A/B configuration.Can't blow power transistor cause the two on the outside are for protection.They turn off the power transistors when speakers are shorted or amp is overloaded etc.But power transistor do go out.

I use a 1978 Strat.Can't hardly distort clean channel.I even went in & turn the distortion trim pot up to 9 1/2.Almost 10.On the other channel it will distort well.I do run an Echoplex in front of it.One with a 4 channel mixer that boost the signal.It makes it sound better.I play all types of rock music on it.Van Halen,Blackmore,Hendrix,Beck(Jeff That Is)ZZTop,AudioSlave,JudasPriest,Frampton,Trower,Dokken,Aerosmith to name a few.Get complements on my sound quite often.Some people even think I play an amp with tubes(HA HA HA)

I've own this amp for about 20 years.Played 100's of gigs with it.Never went out at a gig.But blew transformer after about a year.then about 15 years later blew rectifier circuit.Thats the only problems I've had(other than dropping it once.busted a cap lead easy fix)

Long out of business.I did get a schematic for repair work.Need one let me know.

I cut this amp into a head version many years ago.Have played 5 other ones.None sounds like this one.With a 78 Strat I use two amps.Clean I use an Ampeg V4,peavey 6x10 cab.Rotophase cab.For dirty I use a Lab L5,a 4x12 with GI75 Celections,Electoharmix Golden Throat Talk Box,Pre-amp out to an MXR Analog Flanger Doubler,noise gate,Alesis Quadraverb then back to power-amp in.Pedal board has Cry-Baby(1975 model)Boss EQ,CE-2 Chorus,MXR Phase 90,Octave pedal,Tremolo pedal,then to a Rapco AB box.Dirty goes to Echoplex with 4 channel input(with hotter preamp) then to Lab L5.Clean goes to another Echoplex,a standard solid state unit then an Alesis Quadaverb then to Ampeg V4 for clean.I can get a pretty good clean sound out of the Lab but,I have to re-set the levels on it.If it were stolen,I don't know what I would do.

Midrange sweep and compression is what sold me.
Very versatile for the time.

Guitar - Les Paul standard
Music styles - Rock, Blues, Contemporary Worship
Noisy? - not too bad would be nice if the compression was gated.
Kind of sounds - Sweepable mid-range allows for quick, easy variation.
Distortion - ok Live, Lousy on Line out

Worked great for the first10 years,then:
-Reverb unit failed
-Out of tolerance components caused an overheating problem.
Had the amp serviced & once the tech found a schematic & made some tweaks, the amp worked & sounded great for a few more years, then
the Power transistors' solder joints became loose.
Re-soldered the transistors & soon after, the pre-amp started to develope some problems.

Overall, the L5 served me very well gigging for the better part of 10 years trouble free. In that time it took a lot of abuse.

Now I use it as a power amp for my Line6 Pod Pro!

Didn't need any service for 10+ years of hard work.
It would be nice if I could fin a schematic and a couple of spare knobs to replace the ones that I lost.

It was the best that I could find at the time & if it wasn't so heavy I'd refurbish it & keep on using it (with my Pod Pro, of course)
It still has a great sound.

Dual channel, non switchable w/out A/B box

I just recently purchased this amp, primarily as a seperate clean amp swithched from a triple rectifier setup that I have. (No, I'm not some grunge, nu metal snot nosed punk...I switched the power tubes to eh6ca7's and talk about a brown sound!) Anyway, the tone and variations are awesome, and remind me of tube acoustic amps in the (notch) filtering and midrange control capabilities that this amp has. Awesome tone...with one huge exception that someone might be able to help me with. It has tremendous amount of hiss, amd I've seen someone else post info regarding changing the rectifier diode in order to fix a similar problem. Any input would be very much appreciated!

If this problem is fixable...a 10!

After reading the other reviews, I think I got a real deal on this L5. It had been sitting in the closet of a guy who bought it along with an electric guitar and never got around to learning how to play. I paid him a hundred bucks for it in 1985, basically in new condition. Since the description of the amp is already well covered, I'll just comment that after playing with this thing for twenty years, I still don't quite understand how everything works on it, but I'm close enough.

I've played a lot of guitars through this amp, but mainly my Les Paul Studio Deluxe. I almost always use the "lo" input on the dirty channel. The "hi" input sounds the same to me, just not as loud. In recent years I've been playing more jazz, using most recently an Ibanez AF75 jazz box which I like o.k. I play that through the clean channel and get a very nice sound using a slapback effect from a digital delay pedal and clicking in an octaver for some leads. Try it; you'll like it.

In the twenty years I've had it, the only problem I've has was just the other day I noticed one of the pots was a little scratchy. Guess I'll need to have them cleaned one of these days.

N/A

I've been playing since the sixties. I've whittled my guitar accumulation down to about eight instruments I really like and have a use for. Main electric axe is the abovementioned LP. The L5 has been my main amp ever since I got it, and if it weren't so heavy I wouldn't be looking for something right now, but it is and I am, since I don't need so much weight to play jazz in a three-piece combo. (Need a nice little tube is all.) But I will never get rid of the L5. As others here have noted, the clean channel is nice for guitarists who actually want people to hear what they are playing. The dirty channel can be futzed around with and usually you can come up with something appropriate for rock and harder stuff. (I've played all kinds of stuff in various bands.) This amp is basically becoming my studio amp.

IF your reading this, you already know the features!!!

Fender strat elite (active pickups), tele, yamaha rgx-tt (awesome guitar) Aounds best with the elite - can't say enough good about it!
This is the combination that brought you the great guitar tones on King's x first four albums!!!! BB King also used (uses) them - It's a tone King!!!!

Could easily survive a nuclear holocaust! solid state and built to last! reverb can be a bit touchy after 20 years - take it to a good amo tech, I think the reverb is awesome!!!!

Non existant - company is long gone, I still don't think customer support is usually needed on this one!

I can't say enough good things about this amp, I do suggest driving the overdrive channel with some kind of booster, like an eq, micro amp or something- add a touch of chorus and a little noise suppresion and you have enviable tone.
the strat elite / l-5 combo just goes great together - you can get heavy, jazzy, funky, soulful, whatever!!!

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.