Amp Score! LAB Series L5

Picked this one up on Sunday. Nice amp, and it's in great shape. Dig them new (12th week of 2005) Weber "Michigan's" in there. It also came with a "Le Cover"

This is a nice sounding amp, really nice...but where are the tubes? :lol:

Life is good

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5004.jpg

Congratulations on a fine amp! I picked up an L11 head a few years ago, and liked it so much that I knew a lady that had an L5 in really bad shape, and I bought it off of her for $20. It didn't work at all. I don't remember exactly what all was wrong with it, but I sank some $$$ into getting it going, having to replace both speakers as well. The cones of the original speakers were just ripped to shreds. I put in Celestion G12H-100's, and they really do the job, but I'm considering something like a couple of Cali's in there.

While waiting for mine to come back from repairs, I found another really clean L5 at Elderly in Lansing, MI. It had the old CTS square magnet speakers in there, and it just sounded absolutely AWFUL. To be sure, I disconnected the speakers, and ran the amp through a Marshall 4x12 and it sounded great. So the right speaker is everything.

Are your Webers ceramic, or alnico?

Those Michigan's have ceramic magnets. They're Big, Bold & Clean sounding. Not much for break-up.

I "fixed" a buddies L5 a little while ago...all it needed was a new power switch (somewhat common) I was impressed with that amp through my 412...not so mush through the factory round-mag CTS speakers. Heck, one of the stock speakers had a ripped cone!

But anyways, I liked the amp, then got "lucky" and found this one locally for a good price. Heck, them Weber's sell for $90 each! The cover sells for $55!

I paid $200 for the amp

Isn't the L5 one of BB King's favs?

The only thing that keeps me from making one of those my number two amp is that I've seen the schematics, and they look like an IBM mainframe.

They sound frikin amazing, but I'd really like to be able to fix at least 75% of what could go wrong with my amps. I'd be scared to even pull the chassis on an L5.

Isn't the L5 one of BB King's favs?

Yes it is. I have had the pleasure of seeing BB a half dozen times or so. Most of the time, he had the Lab amps. A couple of times, he played through Twin Reverbs. One time, he was really p o'd about the tone he was getting from the Twin.

The only thing that keeps me from making one of those my number two amp is that I've seen the schematics, and they look like an IBM mainframe.

They sound frikin amazing, but I'd really like to be able to fix at least 75% of what could go wrong with my amps. I'd be scared to even pull the chassis on an L5.

Actually, the chassis is pretty straight-forward...

Pre-Amp Board,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5008.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5009.jpg

Power Supply and Power Section,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5010.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/RussBert/LabL5011.jpg

Bought a Lab Series L-5 brand new in 1978 or 79. I remember that it really cut through and could get really LOUD. However, you could play small clubs with the master volume. And the overdrive was really smooth with the built in compressor. I kept it a couple of years until I bought into the hype about a new kind of amp all the "big names" were using...it was called...you guessed it...Mesa Boogie :roll: . Back then you had to "custom order" them direct and had lots of options to choose from. I ordered the hard wood cab and amp head, wicker grill, 60/100 watt switch (even the 60 watt setting was obscenely loud), EVM-12L speaker, equalizer, and Anvil flight cases. Man, was that mutha' heavy?!! I thought I really had something. I might even have been the first in my state to have one, not sure about that though. In retrospect I'm betting if I listened to them side by side now I would have kept the L-5. It was a very rare commodity...a S.S. amp that would hang with the tube amps tonally and in most other categories. You would never have been able to convince me of that then. Funny how attitudes change.

Yeah, you know, after I posted that about the complexity, I took another look at the schematics, and it really wasn't all that horrible. A good portion of the scary parts are the compressor and the reverb too, so the straight-up amp isn't really that bad.

Hmmmm... Got me thinkin' now...

Those are great pictures, BTW.