@AskZac enjoy your review. This may surprise you. Retired but play pretty much everyday at home. I stayed plugged into my vintage solid state GIBSON PA35 4 channel PA with a spring reverb. It's sets a top my 1972 fender baseman. Both acquired during high-school years. Had the baseman repaired new transformers and caps. Can't make it sound good like before every note sounds like what I call sour calf scours. It's so clean every note sounds out of tune don't know if it is the fixed mid range bias or the 128 volts wall current? Anyways, I've been playing a solid state Create that I hate for a few years. Has all the bells and whistles and foot switches overdrive high gain clean flanges etc. Watching your videos think I will look for the peavey 130 you reviewed and scrap the Create flex wave 45. About my beloved baseman I don't know what to. Amp repairman is long gone. ????
From your opening sentence to the last word. I second your motion of the Lab Series as being the best solid state amp of all time. Thanks for the great video!
I've seen BB King play out of a Twin reverb & L-5 ,the Lab sounded every bit as good as the Twin reverb. Have a great holiday season to you and your family 🎅🎊
Dan Pearce was the designer of the Lab series. He later had his own company. I had a Pearce G2R. It was a rack mount head. Great amp. Mike Stern used one as did Allen Holdsworth. It had 5 dip switches in front of each channel and a sweep able mid control. Of course it also had the compressor. He later designed pre amps for ART.
I’m not 100% sure on the G2 series, but on my G1s the sweepable mid control is before the overdrive of the preamp, and the bass & treble controls are after. That’s a big part of what I love about my Pearce amps.
Growing up in Nashville, Nashville Used Music was always a shop to check out for great deals on gear. Went there almost weekly in the 90's, HA! When I'm in town, it's a must visit when I'm hitting all the good shops!
Bought my L5 in ‘79 new and still have it. Lot of the players in DFW were playing them in the late 70’s early 80’s. Point Blank, Smokin’ Joe Kubek, Rocky Athas. The compressor and eq were top of line features for its time. They had the nickname as the twin killer as I recall. I replaced the original speakers for a massive upgrade to its sound.
Great review on Lab Series amps, and very interesting story of Norlin and Moog, to create this amazing amps. Hands down it's the best demo on LabSeries and how it sounds by BB King it's superb. I'll be happy to find an L5. Thanks Zac !
Tried to buy an L11 double stack in the late 70’s as a teenager, but wasn’t able to do so. Always loved how the Lab’s sounded! Thanks for this video, loved hearing about the amps!!
I have the same L5 I played in the 80’s. Great amp and love that compressor. Records great as well. I mainly play Fender amps now but will never part with my L5 which I just got back in the past couple years from my best friend who sold it to me back then and held onto it after I traded back it to him. History!
That is a cool amp. I enjoyed hearing the history, and the story of your purchase of the amp. I appreciate that you contacted the store to make things right. I got a Fender FSR Blue Flower Power Tele a few years ago for free. My CC card company flagged the purchase as possible fraud twice when I tried to pay for it, and cancelled the sale. I called the giant retailer right away in order to actually pay for it, but was told that it was paid for. I told them that it couldn't be, and tried to pay, but they said the transaction had gone through. A few weeks after I received it, I got an email demanding payment or they would send it to collection. I wrote back explaining that I tried to pay for it 3 times, and was told that it WAS paid for. I gave them my phone number and asked them to have someone call me that could take a payment, but do not threaten to send it to collection. I never heard anything back from them ever again. It was strange. I still feel a bit uncomfortable about having that guitar.
I saw BB King when he was using the L5. Sounded awesome. I saw Point Blank in Huston in ‘81, Rusty Burns and Kim Davis both played through L5s on top of a Lab Series 4-12 bottom, just magnificent. They were a very underrated band. 🇺🇸🎸👮🏻♂️
Great video (as always), Zac. I saw your post on the Lab Series Facebook group last week and had a feeling this video might be coming! I've had a L5 for a few years now and, although I'm strictly a SS amp guy, I've really struggled with getting sounds I want from it. I'll keep persevering with it because I'm sure BB King and Moog's engineers have a better idea of what makes a good amp than I do. I think the flexibility of these amps can make them really difficult to dial in - those filter and frequency controls mean you can steer the tone in all kinds of directions that might not be that useful. Hopefully, your explanation of the backwards labelled input jacks and the compressor (that we all thought was broken when we got the amp) will save new owners a lot of time in future. And good on you for getting back in touch with them about your discount on the amp. You always come across as a good, honest and fair man so it's great to hear about that shining through in the real world!
My best friend worked at Moog Music and worked on the Lab Series amps. He got to meet B.B.King who actually worked closely on the design/sound. I thought he was the only user of them. My friend had a few at home and I got to play through them. My friend loved them but I didn't like them. Besides the sound, the pots all had long plastic (bendable) stalks on them that were a couple of inches long and gave the controls a cheap/fragile feeling. I never thought that they would hold up to professional use. I do have a Vox transistor amp that I like, but mostly I use and prefer tube amps.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. In the nineties I bought a Lab just because of the B.B. King sound and it fit the blues band I was plying with at the time. But I could never understand how to set it up this way. Since seeing this I will drag it out of storage, put it up in my studio and experiment.
My first gigging amp was a Twin reverb. My second was a Lab L5. The Lab is lighter. I'm using it on a gig Saturday. I also have 3 backups for a total of 4 L-5's I also have the B.B. King settings.A Gentleman I gig with knew B.B. and worked for Gibson at that time.I use those settings a lot. Good all around sound and responsive to my guitar's volume control.
I used to have one late 80's probably 89 even 1990 and used to play a Sunburst Les Paul Custom through it. It was a great amp and even being a transistor powered one, it was still quite heavy as far as I remember. It was very good avoiding feedback and it was very powerful too, however it was very easy to set exactly for the sound you were after. thanks for the video, a lot of good memories came to mind all of a sudden 😃
If more people would judge amplifiers with their ears, the musical world would be a happier place. There are so many amazing sounding and dynamic old solid-state amps out there.
Teriffic deep-dive on an amp that I'd never heard of (which is surprising as B.B. King is a hero and influence). Also a great "tour" of Nashville at the end! I'd love to visit your City one day. Thanks!
I’ve owned a few L5’s and had an L11 full stack. Always tweaking. Well after the fact, I got to know a well known jazz guitarist in my area, he put EV’s in his L5. Sounded great but added even more weight to an already heavy amp. Saw another rock player from Springfield who claimed to have once been roommates with Ty Tabor; he had an L5 sitting on a Marshall cab and it sounded great. During the break he told me he was bypassing the stock speakers and going straight into the Marshall cab.
I made a living with L5s in the late 70s early 80s. I had a Morley Volume/boost pedal and an MXR Analog Delay unit, played all kinds of music with that rig.. I'd love another one , thanks for the blast from the past!
I have a Peavey Backstage Plus I bought back in 1983. It has been a handy little noisemaker ever since, and my son is now using it until his Christmas gift from all of us arrives in a week or so. He treated himself to an American Professional Tele last month (I’m soooo jealous!!). Anyway, the little Peavey is getting to yell again, which makes me happy. The leads to the reverb tank need some love, but other than that it all still works great. It only has a single channel, but it’s the same as the main channel on the bigger Peaveys of the time. It has pre/post gain controls, saturation, 3 band EQ, bright, thick, and reverb. It also has a foot switch plug for reverb and saturation (I think). It’s made in Meridian, MS, and it was affordable quality for a teenager in the 80’s, when there was a lot of junk showing up in stores. I have to say that Lab series amps are new to me, so thanks for sharing this. I love getting to use my buddy’s 65 Deluxe (from 65), but back when I was looking anything like that was way out of my price range, so solid state was the only thing we’d be getting ahold of. As to weight, I own an Ampeg SBT with two 15” Altecs in it. It’s the reason why they invented the position of “roadie”, IMHO, but it was another bit of affordable gear I happened across. Anyway, enough reminiscing. Thanks for another great video.
I agree. It’s not huge on power, but you can use everything it’s got for hours and it never dies. I tried to buy another one, but they’re hard to find in my neck of the woods.
I bought an L5 back in the 90’s from a guy in Hot Springs Arkansas ( who lives in Nashville now) and have used it throughout the years when I needed a lot of clean headroom. The amp still works great and sounds especially good with a tele. Thanks for another excellent video Zac!
I bought a used Lab L9 ( with the EV 15" speaker ) in the mid 80s for $250. It's a GREAT amp, super loud, clean, and warm sounding, with incredibly versatile EQ, and an excellent compressor, and of course it's got solid state reliability that NO tube amp can touch. The only down side, is the weight, it's at least as heavy as a Fender Twin, luckily it has wheels. There are MANY great small low wattage amps, but for high powered high headroom clean tones, the L9 can't be beat !
Never understood before your video why BB and ALbert were using a trasistor amp from Lab Series but now everything is crystal clear! Love your honesty !
A friend of mine I played in a band with had an L5 in the 80s. It was KILLER and took pedals extremely well. He'd set it clean and used a Boss SD-1 Overdrive. Great tone.
In the UK similar amps worth checking out are Session amps, in particular the Rockette 30 and Sessionette 75. Really good solid state amps that don't cost an arm and a leg second hand. Also not too heavy. They can also be upgraded by the original company for a reasonable cost.
Cool amp, I've never heard of Lab Series, and I'm a gear nerd. Even though I build tube amps, I've never been a solid state amp hater. Most of my gigging years back in the late 90s were with a Roland Jazz Chorus JC-77... another great transistor amp line. Today I use a Line 6 cx-60 Catalyst. I swapped the stock speaker (which was fine honestly) for a Jensen C12N, and it's one sweet sounding amp that's also very light and compact. Highly recommend.
I love my Lab 5 amp! Replaced the original cts speakers with Warehouse Speakers. I prefer the 1st channel with bass and mids all up and treble around 2 o clock.
I had an L9 back in the 80s. The compressor and parametric mid eq were cool features. The amp went into storage and then disappeared some time in the 90s. I really wish I still had it. 😢
My first gigging amp was a Fender M80 Stereo Chorus (2x12). It had great cleans but the the lead channel wasn't great. It took pedals surprisingly well.
A L5 was my main amp for a few years, such a killer amp. I wish the L3 was just channel 2 of an L5 and a 1x12. They take pedals so good. Funny enough the shop insold the L5 amp through after inhad it fixed ran into the same concern with the compressor. I actually drove out to show him how to use it, we both chuckled. If you haven't tried a Yamaha G100II, I highly recommend them, the 1x15 was incredible. I in many ways prefer them to the Lab Series, but they are even heavier.
I bought my L5 in early 1978 when they first came out. It has the original black-face panel. I still have it and play it all the time. All original, except for a couple of replaced components on the preamp board. I still have the hang tags! My only regret was selling a Marshall 2104 50 watt combo to pay for it (I didn't know enough yet to appreciate what I had). The Marshall would be worth $2500 today if I kept it. The compressor is great, but you need to be over 2+ on the volume before it kicks in, and I don't play as loud much these days.
The solid-state amp for me after playing through one isn't any amp... it's a BASS amp! 3yrs ago I was in a pawnshop when I saw they had a Peavey TNT 100, I was handed an Epiphone Les Paul Special ll missing a high E, plugged in and played as I tweaked the knobs just wondering what my Teles would sound like plugged into this 45W beast after it was sold when I went back for it. Few pre-1978 TNT 100s were listed on FB Marketplace that got snatched up almost after being listed so soon as one popped up two months ago, I inquired on it immediately, brought my #4 Tele for a 3-minute test and that brief run confirmed my exact gut feeling so that was the ultimate $100 score and that 15" Black Widow though; I would have strapped it on a dolly if it didn't have caster wheels... thanks for the great video!
Nice to see this from Zac, as you usually only find favorable SS commentary on Roland chorus series amps. I own several old tube amps but don't really use them, as they're too fragile to move around, and there's always some concern with function and parts and service. My secret weapon for joyful SS amp performance is to "velcro" a 12ax7 microphone pre-amp to the top and run my pedalboard through it patched to the amp input. I don't miss my tube amps much cause I don't ever play loud enough to get them in their 'zone', and the single 12ax7 does a pretty good job of altering the signal into any SS amp. It allows you to just use the clean channel cause the OD is usually the weak link.
What a great Story, thank you for sharing! Her is a short list of SS amps: - Yamaha G50 II/G100 II (by Paul Rivera) - Marshall old Valvestates - Burns Orbit - Fender SS Amps (not only Red Knob aera) - Roland Tube Logic (besides JC) - Ibanez IBZ - Aria (Birdie/Guyatone) - MusicMan Sixty Five - Rickenbacker TR50
Hi Zac! I just happened to come across one of your videos and decided to take a look. I subscribed right away. I've watched several of your videos now and I really like your content and specifically your approach to presenting it. As the story goes...I grew up watching Hee Haw and heard a little bit of Glenn Campbell, Chet Atkins, and various old school country records that my dad had. At about 8 years old though, I gravitated to Kiss, found Zeppelin in my early teens, then found bands like Black Sabbath and as time went on I became a full blown thrashing speed metal and shred fan of anything and everything extreme. This stuff, I know. HOWEVER, these days I'm looking to get a telecaster and learn to play some old school country guitar, cause there's some seriously great playing there! I just happened to miss it. I love watching guys like Roy Clark, Danny Gatton and a little more modern guys like Johny Hiland and Greg Koch. I've had no realistic idea about how to go about starting, then I found your channel. I need tips on playing, sound, equipment, everything. It's a whole new world to me. You're going to be one of my teachers. I know it's nearly impossible I'll ever be able to play this style to your caliber, or the people I've mentioned, but I will very much enjoy trying. I truly feel that playing guitar is about the open ended journey and there is no destination, unless you give up. There is ALWAYS more to learn, and I'm here with an open mind and open ears...
I just watched a Rig Rundown with Rob McNelly on Premier Guitar and he said that when talking to engineers about what frequency they boost for the guitar, he said it is 400 hertz. I guess great minds think alike, Zac! With 2 recommendations from pro players I'm going to start experimenting with boosting that frequency. Another great video Zac!!
Another great video. Thanks. I can appreciate SS amps from that era. I just had my Yamaha G50 112ii professionally gone over and recapped. I think it was the first to have a true parametric EQ. Sounds like new again.
Great story! I tried a Lab amp back in the ‘70s and did the same thing you did; turned the compressor up and thought it wasn’t working! I already had a DynaComp anyway, and a Music Man 410HD-130 amp that I couldn’t lift, so I didn’t figure the Lab amp would give me anything I didn’t already have. I’ve never tried another one.
I got to play with Stevie Ray Vaughan one time at Jesse Taylor’s 30 birthday party at Stubbs BBQ in Lubbock, Texas. I borrowed a friend’s L5 for the occasion. Unfortunately, I forgot the foot switch, so it was stuck on the second channel. The only way to get any volume out it was to crank the gain. After we were done Little Stevie Vaughn; as he was known back then, shook my hand and said “Sounds good kid, but you need to can the distortion.” I He was right. It was a fairly abrasive tone for the blues. Funny thing is saw him a couple years later in Austin and he wasn’t to anti distortion at that point. Lab Series amps are very specific critters.
Great vid! Another terrific player who used Lab amps for a while was John McCurry (Cindy Lauper, Julien Lennon). Thanks for the shout out to my old hood. Nolensville Road is the United Nations of cuisine. Love that music store as well. Got a really cool Harmony Rebel there. Great folks.
Honorable mention is a the Yamaha G mark II designed by Paul Rivera maybe more common here (Australia ) . But can be picked up cheap. Very similar features. Oh let's not mention the Santana woodstock amp.
I collect vintage solid state amps. In addition to the Lab Series amps, the tuck & roll era Kustoms, Peavey Bandits, and Roland Jazz Choruses will surprise a lot of tube snobs.
Good info, thanks Zac. Take a good look at Quilter. They're class D, powerful, light, and sound good. I often use a Pro Block 200. In lieu of a master volume, it has a wattage control. It's flexible enough to go loud for a big or outdoor gig, or it can go down for a small or low volume gig. There's a good XLR line out on the back. It's small and weighs about five pounds or so. I use it with a small 1x12 cabinet usually.
Really enjoy your channel. I owned a Gibson GSS100 in the late 60's. For guitar it was painfully loud as it had 2 speaker cabinets and each had 2 speakers and a horn. Not a good tone, but if you got into a volume war it would win. It was better as a PA system. In the early 70's I switched over to bass so (except for a Fender Bassman 100) I was solid state all the way, the first being a Standel bass amp. Standels were somewhat popular with steel, country-politan & jazz players at that time, and many of those same guys would own an echoplex &/or a strobe tuner.
Nice vid. What a great amp In Audio Engineering terms, the mid control is a type of Parametric EQ; control of boost/cut and frequency target. A true Parametric would also allow you to adjust the 'Q' (width of freq effect)
Whoa! Jimmy was my first teacher as well! Fastest lefty ever....probably just the fastest guitarist. I play nothing like him! He sold me my first "real" guitar around 1988/89 - a Steinberger with a trans trem a la EVH. My only real gear regret was selling that in the early 2000s. I still see Jimmy play in CT here and there. He is a good dude. Thanks for the blast from the past!
I got a wee Ediquip 1027A last year and its been a revelation. It has an internal 4inch speaker and has an out for any size cab you want. Beautiful cleans at low volume but when it's wound up its a screaming little demon, I play it more than all my "fancy" valve/tube amps that cost more than ten times the Ediquip. SS amps are not to be sniffed at!.
2 things: First, thanks for saying nice things about solid state amps. You've been kind to Peavey in the past and now this...I figure if you get a good speaker, get the gain staging right, and figure out a reasonable tone stack, a solid state amp can totally handle anything you can throw at it. Second, thanks for the tip about the music store since I'll be in town this spring, I'll add it to the list, including Gruhn's and Gibson.
Allan Holdsworth who was always searching for the cleanest amps used Lab Series back in the early days, he changed over the years as you can imagine using Mesa Boogie, and several others last I spoke withhim about a year before he died he was using H&K 100w Switchblades. My first tube amp was a Gibson Atlas iV For solid state amps there's always the ever classic Roland Jazz Chorus
Well there are good soiled state my main practice amp is a fender bronco 2 0 watt made in the USA, lad series is one of the best this is for me very captivating vid thanks for it Zac you have the best guitar channel on the tube.
I have a Peavey classic 2x12 from the late 70s. It has a solid state preamp and two 6l6gc tubes in the power amp. I've had it for close to 40 years and it's not spectacular but it sounds kinda fenderish but also a little like a Marshall tone. It's as heavy as a small truck but I still like having it around.
I love solid state amps. My first amp sucked, but it was SS (Crate G80XL). It had an acceptable clean tone, but the gain tone was horrendous. But I had a Tube Works “Real Tube” pedal with a 12Ax7 and it actually worked great for a nice smooth to creamy tone. And I added a Boss distortion pedal to get more gain after that. I’ve had some other amps in between that and my current one, a Quilter Interblock 45. But I finally found that tone again, with my Quilter and a Moskey Golden Horsey (Klon clone). Weird how nostalgia works.
You beat me to it. This just popped up in my feed, and I was going to post this. He has "TaborTone" written on it, lol. That amp was absolutely TABOO to own,-I've seen bands get fired during setup for having it in their possession.
Always played pre-1970 Fender amps (still do!), but I have owned a coupla Lab Series. I have repeatedly proclaimed the L9 to be the ultimate pedal steel amp. Mine had an EVM-15L speaker and it was ideal for pedal steel...no limit to the clean headroom and an extremely musical, hi-fi sound. I also had the L3, which was a Princeton Reverb size combo, but lacked the popular features of the bigger models: the fancy eq and the compressor. The reverb tank is also small and does not provide the lush springiness of the bigger LS models. I wanted to like the L3, and did for its lightweight portability, but it does not have goods of the bigger models.
Back in the early '80s I think it was, I borrowed my brother-in-law's L5 for quite a while. Darn thing sounded really good. And the drummer in our band begged me to turn it down. I played an original Firebird through it, and I was a baaad boy ...
I have 2 L-3's an L-5, 2 L'7's, and an L-9. My total expenditure is probably $1000. They can be found out there for cheap if you hunt. Yes, hey are heavy but completely reliable and sound wonderful. As Tom Bukovac said "Big tone is heavy & hard to carry. Always will be." PS, plug into the bottom input. That's where the tone really is.
I considered buying a used L5 several years ago. But I had just bought a different amp, and no regrets in my case, but I would have been satisfied with either. Looking back, I find it that heavy amps don’t interest me. I don’t gig, but I don’t have the space to leave stuff set up, so I’d be moving it a lot, and it’s heavy. So it’s okay I never got one, but they’re real nice amps.
Found my L-5 in a pawn shop 20 years ago...$99.00 out the door. I currently have a Rivera Fandango, Marshall Dual Super Lead & a '66 Bassman...the Lab Is my favorite of all of them.
Hey Zac I bought an L5 back in 1979 and still own it. I’m 59 with a bad back so I don’t use it anymore. I was wondering if you have ever tried using a peavey Nashville 1000 amp . I bought one and it sounds pretty damn good. I don’t know if I’ll gig with it because it’s heavy but it has a very unique sound.
Thanks for the shout out! It's a great amp and I'm glad you enjoy the shop!
Thanks, Johnny!
I’ll certainly visit next time I’m in Nashville!
@AskZac enjoy your review. This may surprise you. Retired but play pretty much everyday at home. I stayed plugged into my vintage solid state GIBSON PA35 4 channel PA with a spring reverb. It's sets a top my 1972 fender baseman. Both acquired during high-school years. Had the baseman repaired new transformers and caps. Can't make it sound good like before every note sounds like what I call sour calf scours. It's so clean every note sounds out of tune don't know if it is the fixed mid range bias or the 128 volts wall current? Anyways, I've been playing a solid state Create that I hate for a few years. Has all the bells and whistles and foot switches overdrive high gain clean flanges etc. Watching your videos think I will look for the peavey 130 you reviewed and scrap the Create flex wave 45. About my beloved baseman I don't know what to. Amp repairman is long gone. ????
From your opening sentence to the last word. I second your motion of the Lab Series as being the best solid state amp of all time. Thanks for the great video!
Thank you for doing this video. I have been eyeballing this l9 for sale near me. I’m a Kings x / Ty tabor fan.
I've seen BB King play out of a Twin reverb & L-5 ,the Lab sounded every bit as good as the Twin reverb.
Have a great holiday season to you and your family 🎅🎊
Dan Pearce was the designer of the Lab series. He later had his own company. I had a Pearce G2R. It was a rack mount head. Great amp. Mike Stern used one as did Allen Holdsworth. It had 5 dip switches in front of each channel and a sweep able mid control. Of course it also had the compressor. He later designed pre amps for ART.
I’m not 100% sure on the G2 series, but on my G1s the sweepable mid control is before the overdrive of the preamp, and the bass & treble controls are after. That’s a big part of what I love about my Pearce amps.
Growing up in Nashville, Nashville Used Music was always a shop to check out for great deals on gear. Went there almost weekly in the 90's, HA! When I'm in town, it's a must visit when I'm hitting all the good shops!
Bought my L5 in ‘79 new and still have it. Lot of the players in DFW were playing them in the late 70’s early 80’s. Point Blank, Smokin’ Joe Kubek, Rocky Athas. The compressor and eq were top of line features for its time. They had the nickname as the twin killer as I recall. I replaced the original speakers for a massive upgrade to its sound.
I had an L5 too!
I'm just curious what speaker did you end up putting in your amp
Great review on Lab Series amps, and very interesting story of Norlin and Moog, to create this amazing amps. Hands down it's the best demo on LabSeries and how it sounds by BB King it's superb. I'll be happy to find an L5. Thanks Zac !
Very cool history. Next episode i vote for Music Man hybrid SS/Tube amps.
Tried to buy an L11 double stack in the late 70’s as a teenager, but wasn’t able to do so. Always loved how the Lab’s sounded! Thanks for this video, loved hearing about the amps!!
Good on you for admitting Pilot Error, and to Norlin for how they handled it. Makes me want to check out their store.
I have the same L5 I played in the 80’s. Great amp and love that compressor. Records great as well. I mainly play Fender amps now but will never part with my L5 which I just got back in the past couple years from my best friend who sold it to me back then and held onto it after I traded back it to him. History!
That is a cool amp. I enjoyed hearing the history, and the story of your purchase of the amp. I appreciate that you contacted the store to make things right. I got a Fender FSR Blue Flower Power Tele a few years ago for free. My CC card company flagged the purchase as possible fraud twice when I tried to pay for it, and cancelled the sale. I called the giant retailer right away in order to actually pay for it, but was told that it was paid for. I told them that it couldn't be, and tried to pay, but they said the transaction had gone through. A few weeks after I received it, I got an email demanding payment or they would send it to collection. I wrote back explaining that I tried to pay for it 3 times, and was told that it WAS paid for. I gave them my phone number and asked them to have someone call me that could take a payment, but do not threaten to send it to collection. I never heard anything back from them ever again. It was strange. I still feel a bit uncomfortable about having that guitar.
I saw BB King when he was using the L5. Sounded awesome. I saw Point Blank in Huston in ‘81, Rusty Burns and Kim Davis both played through L5s on top of a Lab Series 4-12 bottom, just magnificent. They were a very underrated band. 🇺🇸🎸👮🏻♂️
Rusty was a good friend and he is so missed
@ He was a badass player, he and Kim Davis were just blazing away every time I saw them.
Great video (as always), Zac. I saw your post on the Lab Series Facebook group last week and had a feeling this video might be coming! I've had a L5 for a few years now and, although I'm strictly a SS amp guy, I've really struggled with getting sounds I want from it. I'll keep persevering with it because I'm sure BB King and Moog's engineers have a better idea of what makes a good amp than I do. I think the flexibility of these amps can make them really difficult to dial in - those filter and frequency controls mean you can steer the tone in all kinds of directions that might not be that useful.
Hopefully, your explanation of the backwards labelled input jacks and the compressor (that we all thought was broken when we got the amp) will save new owners a lot of time in future. And good on you for getting back in touch with them about your discount on the amp. You always come across as a good, honest and fair man so it's great to hear about that shining through in the real world!
My best friend worked at Moog Music and worked on the Lab Series amps. He got to meet B.B.King who actually worked closely on the design/sound. I thought he was the only user of them. My friend had a few at home and I got to play through them. My friend loved them but I didn't like them. Besides the sound, the pots all had long plastic (bendable) stalks on them that were a couple of inches long and gave the controls a cheap/fragile feeling. I never thought that they would hold up to professional use. I do have a Vox transistor amp that I like, but mostly I use and prefer tube amps.
Ty Tabor from Kings X used Lab amps for a while.
I bought one from 1981, in 2017 and never had issues with pots. The transistors did die on me while recording though.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. In the nineties I bought a Lab just because of the B.B. King sound and it fit the blues band I was plying with at the time. But I could never understand how to set it up this way. Since seeing this I will drag it out of storage, put it up in my studio and experiment.
My first gigging amp was a Twin reverb. My second was a Lab L5. The Lab is lighter. I'm using it on a gig Saturday. I also have 3 backups for a total of 4 L-5's I also have the B.B. King settings.A Gentleman I gig with knew B.B. and worked for Gibson at that time.I use those settings a lot. Good all around sound and responsive to my guitar's volume control.
What are BBs settings?
I used to have one late 80's probably 89 even 1990 and used to play a Sunburst Les Paul Custom through it. It was a great amp and even being a transistor powered one, it was still quite heavy as far as I remember. It was very good avoiding feedback and it was very powerful too, however it was very easy to set exactly for the sound you were after. thanks for the video, a lot of good memories came to mind all of a sudden 😃
If more people would judge amplifiers with their ears, the musical world would be a happier place. There are so many amazing sounding and dynamic old solid-state amps out there.
Teriffic deep-dive on an amp that I'd never heard of (which is surprising as B.B. King is a hero and influence). Also a great "tour" of Nashville at the end! I'd love to visit your City one day. Thanks!
Used to use a Lab at a rehearsal spot, loved it. Moog nailed the eq section.
I hear moog, I think quality. Seems like a good rule of thumb.
I used to own a L5 in the late 70’s. Gigged the crap out of it and it never failed me. Loved it. I think I’m getting G. A. S. again.
I’ve owned a few L5’s and had an L11 full stack. Always tweaking. Well after the fact, I got to know a well known jazz guitarist in my area, he put EV’s in his L5. Sounded great but added even more weight to an already heavy amp. Saw another rock player from Springfield who claimed to have once been roommates with Ty Tabor; he had an L5 sitting on a Marshall cab and it sounded great. During the break he told me he was bypassing the stock speakers and going straight into the Marshall cab.
I played thru 2 Lab L-5’s in the late 70’s. Ronnie Montrose recorded “Town Without Pity” with one.
I made a living with L5s in the late 70s early 80s. I had a Morley Volume/boost pedal and an MXR Analog Delay unit, played all kinds of music with that rig.. I'd love another one , thanks for the blast from the past!
Never knew. Thanks for the in depth.
Great video, Zac. I've toyed with the idea of geeting a Lab Series or a Pearce for years. Thanks for the insight into these amazing amps.
I have a Peavey Backstage Plus I bought back in 1983. It has been a handy little noisemaker ever since, and my son is now using it until his Christmas gift from all of us arrives in a week or so. He treated himself to an American Professional Tele last month (I’m soooo jealous!!). Anyway, the little Peavey is getting to yell again, which makes me happy. The leads to the reverb tank need some love, but other than that it all still works great. It only has a single channel, but it’s the same as the main channel on the bigger Peaveys of the time. It has pre/post gain controls, saturation, 3 band EQ, bright, thick, and reverb. It also has a foot switch plug for reverb and saturation (I think). It’s made in Meridian, MS, and it was affordable quality for a teenager in the 80’s, when there was a lot of junk showing up in stores. I have to say that Lab series amps are new to me, so thanks for sharing this. I love getting to use my buddy’s 65 Deluxe (from 65), but back when I was looking anything like that was way out of my price range, so solid state was the only thing we’d be getting ahold of. As to weight, I own an Ampeg SBT with two 15” Altecs in it. It’s the reason why they invented the position of “roadie”, IMHO, but it was another bit of affordable gear I happened across. Anyway, enough reminiscing. Thanks for another great video.
That is the best of the smaller Peavey amps
I agree. It’s not huge on power, but you can use everything it’s got for hours and it never dies. I tried to buy another one, but they’re hard to find in my neck of the woods.
I bought an L5 back in the 90’s from a guy in Hot Springs Arkansas ( who lives in Nashville now) and have used it throughout the years when I needed a lot of clean headroom. The amp still works great and sounds especially good with a tele. Thanks for another excellent video Zac!
I bought a used Lab L9 ( with the EV 15" speaker ) in the mid 80s for $250. It's a GREAT amp, super loud, clean, and warm sounding, with incredibly versatile EQ, and an excellent compressor, and of course it's got solid state reliability that NO tube amp can touch. The only down side, is the weight, it's at least as heavy as a Fender Twin, luckily it has wheels. There are MANY great small low wattage amps, but for high powered high headroom clean tones, the L9 can't be beat !
Thanks for the plug of Nashville Used Music. Will make a trek there in early ‘25.
I ended up searching on marketplace after watching your video and picked one up for dirt cheap. Very cool amp, great clean tones.
Nice score!
Never understood before your video why BB and ALbert were using a trasistor amp from Lab Series but now everything is crystal clear! Love your honesty !
Albert used Roland 120 after Fender Dual Showman as I read. Didn t know he used the Lab.
@@To.Si.Ma. Saw him in France but he was sharing teh same stage with BB King so maybe that's the reason I saw a Lab Series
Thanks!
Welcome!
A friend of mine I played in a band with had an L5 in the 80s. It was KILLER and took pedals extremely well. He'd set it clean and used a Boss SD-1 Overdrive. Great tone.
In the UK similar amps worth checking out are Session amps, in particular the Rockette 30 and Sessionette 75. Really good solid state amps that don't cost an arm and a leg second hand. Also not too heavy.
They can also be upgraded by the original company for a reasonable cost.
Stewart Ward is retired now.
@jamjar20049 but you can still buy second hand and get them upgraded by Session :)
Cool amp, I've never heard of Lab Series, and I'm a gear nerd.
Even though I build tube amps, I've never been a solid state amp hater. Most of my gigging years back in the late 90s were with a Roland Jazz Chorus JC-77... another great transistor amp line.
Today I use a Line 6 cx-60 Catalyst. I swapped the stock speaker (which was fine honestly) for a Jensen C12N, and it's one sweet sounding amp that's also very light and compact. Highly recommend.
I love my Lab 5 amp!
Replaced the original cts speakers with Warehouse
Speakers.
I prefer the 1st channel with bass and mids all up and treble around 2 o clock.
I had an L9 back in the 80s. The compressor and parametric mid eq were cool features. The amp went into storage and then disappeared some time in the 90s. I really wish I still had it. 😢
My first gigging amp was a Fender M80 Stereo Chorus (2x12). It had great cleans but the the lead channel wasn't great. It took pedals surprisingly well.
A L5 was my main amp for a few years, such a killer amp. I wish the L3 was just channel 2 of an L5 and a 1x12. They take pedals so good.
Funny enough the shop insold the L5 amp through after inhad it fixed ran into the same concern with the compressor. I actually drove out to show him how to use it, we both chuckled.
If you haven't tried a Yamaha G100II, I highly recommend them, the 1x15 was incredible. I in many ways prefer them to the Lab Series, but they are even heavier.
I love Nashville Used Music. It is the first music store I went to when I moved here in ‘91. ☮️
Thanks for the information!
Nashville Used Music - great store. I don't know but Zac said so.... and he did an honest review
Hello from Indiana, funny story Zak, they did you good not once but twice! Have a Happy Holiday Season and KeepSmiling! 😂
I bought my L5 in early 1978 when they first came out. It has the original black-face panel. I still have it and play it all the time. All original, except for a couple of replaced components on the preamp board. I still have the hang tags! My only regret was selling a Marshall 2104 50 watt combo to pay for it (I didn't know enough yet to appreciate what I had). The Marshall would be worth $2500 today if I kept it. The compressor is great, but you need to be over 2+ on the volume before it kicks in, and I don't play as loud much these days.
The solid-state amp for me after playing through one isn't any amp... it's a BASS amp! 3yrs ago I was in a pawnshop when I saw they had a Peavey TNT 100, I was handed an Epiphone Les Paul Special ll missing a high E, plugged in and played as I tweaked the knobs just wondering what my Teles would sound like plugged into this 45W beast after it was sold when I went back for it.
Few pre-1978 TNT 100s were listed on FB Marketplace that got snatched up almost after being listed so soon as one popped up two months ago, I inquired on it immediately, brought my #4 Tele for a 3-minute test and that brief run confirmed my exact gut feeling so that was the ultimate $100 score and that 15" Black Widow though; I would have strapped it on a dolly if it didn't have caster wheels... thanks for the great video!
Nice to see this from Zac, as you usually only find favorable SS commentary on Roland chorus series amps. I own several old tube amps but don't really use them, as they're too fragile to move around, and there's always some concern with function and parts and service. My secret weapon for joyful SS amp performance is to "velcro" a 12ax7 microphone pre-amp to the top and run my pedalboard through it patched to the amp input. I don't miss my tube amps much cause I don't ever play loud enough to get them in their 'zone', and the single 12ax7 does a pretty good job of altering the signal into any SS amp. It allows you to just use the clean channel cause the OD is usually the weak link.
@dlux703 you should get Pre 71 fender tube amps you wont have any relyability problems
My goodness those Lab Series amps sound good. If I was in the market for a very heavy amp, I'd pick one up 😆 Thanks for the video Zac!
Gave a like, will watch later. Zac + Solid State = immediately on my watchlist. I will come back with other SS names. I’m a huge fan.
What a great Story, thank you for sharing!
Her is a short list of SS amps:
- Yamaha G50 II/G100 II (by Paul Rivera)
- Marshall old Valvestates
- Burns Orbit
- Fender SS Amps (not only Red Knob aera)
- Roland Tube Logic (besides JC)
- Ibanez IBZ
- Aria (Birdie/Guyatone)
- MusicMan Sixty Five
- Rickenbacker TR50
Hi Zac! I just happened to come across one of your videos and decided to take a look. I subscribed right away. I've watched several of your videos now and I really like your content and specifically your approach to presenting it. As the story goes...I grew up watching Hee Haw and heard a little bit of Glenn Campbell, Chet Atkins, and various old school country records that my dad had. At about 8 years old though, I gravitated to Kiss, found Zeppelin in my early teens, then found bands like Black Sabbath and as time went on I became a full blown thrashing speed metal and shred fan of anything and everything extreme. This stuff, I know. HOWEVER, these days I'm looking to get a telecaster and learn to play some old school country guitar, cause there's some seriously great playing there! I just happened to miss it. I love watching guys like Roy Clark, Danny Gatton and a little more modern guys like Johny Hiland and Greg Koch. I've had no realistic idea about how to go about starting, then I found your channel. I need tips on playing, sound, equipment, everything. It's a whole new world to me. You're going to be one of my teachers. I know it's nearly impossible I'll ever be able to play this style to your caliber, or the people I've mentioned, but I will very much enjoy trying. I truly feel that playing guitar is about the open ended journey and there is no destination, unless you give up. There is ALWAYS more to learn, and I'm here with an open mind and open ears...
Thanks! I'm glad you're here.
I just watched a Rig Rundown with Rob McNelly on Premier Guitar and he said that when talking to engineers about what frequency they boost for the guitar, he said it is 400 hertz. I guess great minds think alike, Zac! With 2 recommendations from pro players I'm going to start experimenting with boosting that frequency. Another great video Zac!!
really depends on the speakers and guitar
Great video Zac!
I have an L7 and an L11 head. Great amps. You can add Ronnie Montrose and Kim Simmonds to the former users list.
Wow; that thing sounds awesome!
Another great video. Thanks. I can appreciate SS amps from that era. I just had my Yamaha G50 112ii professionally gone over and recapped. I think it was the first to have a true parametric EQ. Sounds like new again.
Great story! I tried a Lab amp back in the ‘70s and did the same thing you did; turned the compressor up and thought it wasn’t working! I already had a DynaComp anyway, and a Music Man 410HD-130 amp that I couldn’t lift, so I didn’t figure the Lab amp would give me anything I didn’t already have. I’ve never tried another one.
I got to play with Stevie Ray Vaughan one time at Jesse Taylor’s 30 birthday party at Stubbs BBQ in Lubbock, Texas.
I borrowed a friend’s L5 for the occasion. Unfortunately, I forgot the foot switch, so it was stuck on the second channel. The only way to get any volume out it was to crank the gain. After we were done Little Stevie Vaughn; as he was known back then, shook my hand and said “Sounds good kid, but you need to can the distortion.” I
He was right. It was a fairly abrasive tone for the blues. Funny thing is saw him a couple years later in Austin and he wasn’t to anti distortion at that point.
Lab Series amps are very specific critters.
Great vid! Another terrific player who used Lab amps for a while was John McCurry (Cindy Lauper, Julien Lennon). Thanks for the shout out to my old hood. Nolensville Road is the United Nations of cuisine. Love that music store as well. Got a really cool Harmony Rebel there. Great folks.
Jealous of your digs
Micheal Sweet of STRYPER used one as a pre amp on the first lp Yellow And Black Attack an L5
Heard that Ty Tabor from Kings X used a racked L5 and Allan Holdsworth used L5s for a spell.
Confirmed: ruclips.net/video/jK77GcTiWfg/видео.html&si=pb21I3aAyLA_zuB5
Lab series amps were great!!!
Honorable mention is a the Yamaha G mark II designed by Paul Rivera maybe more common here (Australia ) . But can be picked up cheap. Very similar features.
Oh let's not mention the Santana woodstock amp.
I collect vintage solid state amps. In addition to the Lab Series amps, the tuck & roll era Kustoms, Peavey Bandits, and Roland Jazz Choruses will surprise a lot of tube snobs.
Good info, thanks Zac. Take a good look at Quilter. They're class D, powerful, light, and sound good. I often use a Pro Block 200. In lieu of a master volume, it has a wattage control. It's flexible enough to go loud for a big or outdoor gig, or it can go down for a small or low volume gig. There's a good XLR line out on the back. It's small and weighs about five pounds or so. I use it with a small 1x12 cabinet usually.
bought a series 3 brand new in the seventies, still looks new and plays great. It’s a telecasters best friend if you want to go solid state.
I had this amp and a Mark IIb Mesa Boogie that I ran in stereo with the Boss CE-1. Back when all the gear was new. Lab Series is great...
I used to have a lab series bass amp that sounded pretty good. Kind of wish I would have hung on to that thing 😢
Really enjoy your channel. I owned a Gibson GSS100 in the late 60's. For guitar it was painfully loud as it had 2 speaker cabinets and each had 2 speakers and a horn. Not a good tone, but if you got into a volume war it would win. It was better as a PA system. In the early 70's I switched over to bass so (except for a Fender Bassman 100) I was solid state all the way, the first being a Standel bass amp. Standels were somewhat popular with steel, country-politan & jazz players at that time, and many of those same guys would own an echoplex &/or a strobe tuner.
Nice vid. What a great amp
In Audio Engineering terms, the mid control is a type of Parametric EQ; control of boost/cut and frequency target. A true Parametric would also allow you to adjust the 'Q' (width of freq effect)
Great amps! Thanks for the great analysis! ❤🎉
Good plug for Used Music. Will drop in on them soon.
I live close to Nashville, will have to take a trip to Nolensville Road😉
My old guitar teacher, Jimi Bell (House of Lords & Autograph) used to play L11 amps in the 1980s.
Whoa! Jimmy was my first teacher as well! Fastest lefty ever....probably just the fastest guitarist. I play nothing like him! He sold me my first "real" guitar around 1988/89 - a Steinberger with a trans trem a la EVH. My only real gear regret was selling that in the early 2000s. I still see Jimmy play in CT here and there. He is a good dude. Thanks for the blast from the past!
@@therealkevinmcnally Yes, I am still catching Jimi play here in CT too, whenever I can.
yep nice vid mate..i love what ur doing. next one on peavey bandit?
@drno2141 I agree. Peavey was incredibly popular for guitar, bass, and PA starting in the 70's with guys playing clubs...back when those existed.
I got a wee Ediquip 1027A last year and its been a revelation.
It has an internal 4inch speaker and has an out for any size cab you want.
Beautiful cleans at low volume but when it's wound up its a screaming little demon, I play it more than all my "fancy" valve/tube amps that cost more than ten times the Ediquip.
SS amps are not to be sniffed at!.
2 things: First, thanks for saying nice things about solid state amps. You've been kind to Peavey in the past and now this...I figure if you get a good speaker, get the gain staging right, and figure out a reasonable tone stack, a solid state amp can totally handle anything you can throw at it. Second, thanks for the tip about the music store since I'll be in town this spring, I'll add it to the list, including Gruhn's and Gibson.
My Grandpa gave me his L3 when I first started playing. It is indeed a good little amp! The reverb is rad though!
Allan Holdsworth who was always searching for the cleanest amps used Lab Series back in the early days, he changed over the years as you can imagine using Mesa Boogie, and several others last I spoke withhim about a year before he died he was using H&K 100w Switchblades.
My first tube amp was a Gibson Atlas iV
For solid state amps there's always the ever classic Roland Jazz Chorus
I have had one since 1979. Really are versatile amps. Not flimsy as some have said.
James McMurtry uses an L5 too
I had an L5 loved it.
Well there are good soiled state my main practice amp is a fender bronco 2 0 watt made in the USA, lad series is one of the best this is for me very captivating vid thanks for it Zac you have the best guitar channel on the tube.
I have a Peavey classic 2x12 from the late 70s. It has a solid state preamp and two 6l6gc tubes in the power amp. I've had it for close to 40 years and it's not spectacular but it sounds kinda fenderish but also a little like a Marshall tone. It's as heavy as a small truck but I still like having it around.
And a shout-out to my current fave solid state amp, (did I just say that?) Quilter amplifiers.
I love solid state amps. My first amp sucked, but it was SS (Crate G80XL). It had an acceptable clean tone, but the gain tone was horrendous. But I had a Tube Works “Real Tube” pedal with a 12Ax7 and it actually worked great for a nice smooth to creamy tone. And I added a Boss distortion pedal to get more gain after that.
I’ve had some other amps in between that and my current one, a Quilter Interblock 45. But I finally found that tone again, with my Quilter and a Moskey Golden Horsey (Klon clone).
Weird how nostalgia works.
I’ve been to Nashville used music a couple of times. I need to get back up there. We ate at Martins Barbecue when it was the only one in Nashville.
Amp of the first four Kings X records.
You beat me to it. This just popped up in my feed, and I was going to post this.
He has "TaborTone" written on it, lol.
That amp was absolutely TABOO to own,-I've seen bands get fired during setup for having it in their possession.
Yes
Always played pre-1970 Fender amps (still do!), but I have owned a coupla Lab Series. I have repeatedly proclaimed the L9 to be the ultimate pedal steel amp. Mine had an EVM-15L speaker and it was ideal for pedal steel...no limit to the clean headroom and an extremely musical, hi-fi sound. I also had the L3, which was a Princeton Reverb size combo, but lacked the popular features of the bigger models: the fancy eq and the compressor. The reverb tank is also small and does not provide the lush springiness of the bigger LS models. I wanted to like the L3, and did for its lightweight portability, but it does not have goods of the bigger models.
Back in the early '80s I think it was, I borrowed my brother-in-law's L5 for quite a while. Darn thing sounded really good. And the drummer in our band begged me to turn it down. I played an original Firebird through it, and I was a baaad boy ...
That a pretty Tele Zac . It sounds nice through that Lab Series.
I have 2 L-3's an L-5, 2 L'7's, and an L-9. My total expenditure is probably $1000. They can be found out there for cheap if you hunt. Yes, hey are heavy but completely reliable and sound wonderful. As Tom Bukovac said "Big tone is heavy & hard to carry. Always will be."
PS, plug into the bottom input. That's where the tone really is.
I considered buying a used L5 several years ago.
But I had just bought a different amp, and no regrets in my case, but I would have been satisfied with either.
Looking back, I find it that heavy amps don’t interest me.
I don’t gig, but I don’t have the space to leave stuff set up, so I’d be moving it a lot, and it’s heavy.
So it’s okay I never got one, but they’re real nice amps.
21:00 “I thought I was a cool guy, for some reason, for doing that” umm that’s because it’s cool and so are you! Great idea and what I wanna try!
Excellent as usual Zac!
Thanks again!
Found my L-5 in a pawn shop 20 years ago...$99.00 out the door. I currently have a Rivera Fandango, Marshall Dual Super Lead & a '66 Bassman...the Lab Is my favorite of all of them.
I owned an L5 and recorded with it-great amp!!
Hey Zac I bought an L5 back in 1979 and still own it. I’m 59 with a bad back so I don’t use it anymore. I was wondering if you have ever tried using a peavey Nashville 1000 amp . I bought one and it sounds pretty damn good. I don’t know if I’ll gig with it because it’s heavy but it has a very unique sound.
I love my LAB L5!! Greetings To You Zac!