Marshall Lead 12 Mini Stacks

[crunchee]

Singlehum had posted a photo of his Marshall JCM800/Jubilee head collection, on my Marshall/Drake Transformer question on the HFC Expert side, and I noticed that he had a couple of 80's Lead 12 heads there too. Anybody here besides him have them or use them? I bought one cheap not long ago on a nostalgia kick, as I had one years ago when they first came out, and eventually sold the first one. It's a nice little firebreather for practicing at home but it cleans up nicely too, it may not be perfect but I think I could have done worse, especially back then. Besides, they were made in England, with made in England Celestion speakers, and built sturdy...I'm not sure that there's any particle board in the cabs at all, it looks like they were made to similar specs as the JCM800 amps. Anybody else use one?

[Hackubus]

Though the cabs are long gone, I still have the head. Those things sound KILLER atop a 4x12 cabinet. I dunno if you would want to gig one, but they might make an awesome backup amp. I used to use mine to feed my talk box. Twelve watts was a whole lot easier to take on the choppers than a full 50 watts.

[cmatthes]

Still have the White MicroStack - got my first one in '87 from the Music Loft in Winston-Salem. Great dorm amp too.

[crunchee]

Here's a demo I found, Lead 12 head with a '69 SG Jr. and a 2x12 cab loaded with Celestion Heritage Greenbacks. Nice thing is with this demo, is that most people demo the amp AND a pedal all the way through. Mercifully, not here, so you can hear just the amp too:

[Disturber]

I just sold my 80's Lead12 combo. The stacks look very cool. I, however, think that these amps got some hype from a rumour that Billy Gibbons used one at some recording session.

They sound okay for being a solid state. BUT, they are what they are. Don't expect tube greatness to come out of them. Can be used for practice if connected to a bigger cabinett with good speakers. But using my trusty JMP 2104 on low volumes sounds better. If you can find a combo for like 30 bucks, go for it. More than that, don't bother. If you want one of those stacks to look cool in your living room or mancave then cool, but you will be paying for the design, not on the fact that it sounds great. The 10" Celestions in these cabs are also just about the worst 10" speakers Celestion ever made. To make 'em sound good you have to buy good speakers, which will cost more than the amp itself.

Want a good, small solid state? Go for the Tech 21 Trademark 10. It's miles better, but does not look half as cool.

[Brooks]

Want a good, small solid state? Go for the Tech 21 Trademark 10. It's miles better, but does not look half as cool.

i shopped for a small light SS amp earlier this year. i had previously owned a tech21 TM10, which was pretty good, but limited compared to the kickass TM60's (i needed pedals to get the higher gain i like w/ my TM10, but as always "YMMV"). i want plug 'n' play in the livingroom/grab 'n' go for drummerless jams... i do not want to have to set up pedals for my practice rig!

being a big fan of my vox tonelab st pedal, i purchased a new vox tonelab vt20+; although loaded w/ tons of amp models & super tweakable FX, sadly after a few days of tweaking i just wasn't happy w/ the tone. this bummed me out, i really wanted to like it; besides all the features, the new look of the VT line is very sexy (they got rid of the chrome grill).

so i returned it. and, having LOVED my fender superchamp XD, i tried a vibrochamp xd right there in the store. the key thing i was looking for was good low volume tone (my SCXD sounded best loud, and it was!), so it made sense to try it's little brother. again, surprisingly disapointed. kinda lifeless.

on a whim i tried the last alternantive, a marshall MG15FX. bam!! instant marshally tone, but quiet, something i couldn't conjur from the others. barley any tweaking, just dime everything except the reverb (zero for me), the treble (depends on the guitar), and master volume. it has 4 programmable channels, so i switched thru them and was even more surprised by the clean tone, chimey-er and more musical than the other amps (i tried all 3 side by side for ~20 minutes w/ my best sounding guitar, my duotone). the best part (besides the easy tones) is that it has semi-tweakable FX (3 or 4 presets per FX on a knob, kinda like the SCXD). personally, the only FX that i use on a regular basis is delay (it also has chorus, flange, phase, and a SEPARATE reverb knob). i set my 4 channels up as 1) clean w/ delay, 2) slightly dirty w/ phaser, 3) regular marshall crunch w/ delay, 4) high gain dry (i use channels 1 & 3 about 99% of the time). also has a closed back (more lows), headphone out, & ipod input (only the vox had these features). the only negative is that when i got it home i realized that to use the built in tuner you have to buy the $79 dollar footswitch (i dont need a footswitch for my living room amp, booo!!). while not quite as cool looking as the micro-stack or the new vox amps, these are great small cheap practice amps!

[Jem]

Marshall's got a little Lead 12 stack that i brought him and it sounds fine although next to my HT-5 stack there is no comparison. In fact lately when he goes for a jam round one of his mates he invariably begs to take the Blackstar.

[Stike]

I upgraded the stock speakers in my Marshall mini stack with some better 10's although I forget which ones, maybe Ragin Cajuns? Anyway it sounds really good.

[cmatthes]

They got a lot of hype in the '80s and early '90s when Bob Bradshaw used a few of them as his "secret weapon" when putting rigs together for some pretty big names.

I don't recall the Billy Gibbons reference, but nothing would surprise me with him - he does a lot of goofy, offbeat stuff in the studio.

I've always liked the sound of the ones I've had - it wasn't intended for all-out gigging, but definitely makes a fun practice amp, and friends have recorded well with them. As Brooks mentioned, even the Lead 12 gets that "spongy" Marshall clean tone. It isn't supposed to be a full-on tube Marshall, but does what it does well enough for next to nothing.

Oh, it looks cool too.

[Brooks]

i forgot to mention that i used to have one of those marshall micro cabs loaded w/ an eminence copperhead (70w fender-ish spkr), i used it w/ a powerblock & pedals (you can see a sabine tuner velcro'd to the top and plugged into the headphone jack), it was *crazy* loud for how tiny it was, & plenty of headroom. i played gigs w/ that rig, both w/ generic hustle (jazz/funk/ska) and sitting in w/ HHB's old rawk coverband. actually had some guitar guy at a club trippin' out and demanding to know "where i hid the real amp", ha. you can see it behind my duotone;

ps - stike, i sold/traded you an eminence lil buddy for one of your microcabs (100w 10"!!!)

[crunchee]

I'd been thinking about the potential for turning a Lead 12 Mini Stack/Micro Stack into a 'stealth' amp, kinda like what Brooks has...anybody else done that or know of someone who modded the innerds? I'm sure it could be done with SS guts, maybe even with a small tube amp though that might be pushing things. The look of these little amps are pretty classic, and the cabinet work certainly isn't garbage, IMHO. I'd keep the look exactly as is (including the front control panel) for the appropriate shock value.

Edited to add: I like the stock sound fine...but Marshall made THOUSANDS of these amps, apparently, and there's bound to be a few out there in derelict condition, ready for some 'upgrading'.

[cmatthes]

Check with Stike on that one...

[Brooks]

I'd been thinking about the potential for turning a Lead 12 Mini Stack/Micro Stack into a 'stealth' amp, kinda like what Brooks has...

if a powerblock could fit inside, you could gut the L12, remove the knobs from the PB, and use the PB just as a poweramp like i do (running a modeler setup into the rca jacks on the back, which bypasses the PB preamp). that would be cool! or just get some corners/tolex/marshall logo and build a box around the PB.

i used the PB/microstack at stikes Bday a few years back;

[crunchee]

I'd been thinking about the potential for turning a Lead 12 Mini Stack/Micro Stack into a 'stealth' amp, kinda like what Brooks has...

if a powerblock could fit inside, you could gut the L12, remove the knobs from the PB, and use the PB just as a poweramp like i do (running a modeler setup into the rca jacks on the back, which bypasses the PB preamp). that would be cool! or just get some corners/tolex/marshall logo and build a box around the PB.

i used the PB/microstack at stikes Bday a few years back;

Cool! I've got a Marshall Lead 12 combo that isn't working, sitting in storage...it might be a good donor for a new head cabinet design. At least a roomier or taller one, anyway.