Marshall lead 12 combo or head with little cabs?

[69mojostrat]

anyone hear both of these, there a local shop that has a head and two little cabs, the head is a lead 12 as are the cabs. Are cabs closed back? does this little stack sound better than the lead 12 combo? I have the lead 12 combo with a vintage 10 in it, sounds great for what it is.

[69mojostrat]

no idea whats in the cabs the stock speaker in my combo was crap, lots of fizz. not sure about the little lead 12 though.

[gag halfrunt]

I had a lead 12 half stack, and I thought the speaker and the head were both junk. Not enough headroom for anything, and the distortion was kind of nasty. Put in a celestion 12 inch speaker, and it was better, but the real improvement came when I had my tech replace the original 12 watt guts with a nice 200 watt SS power section, and now it's a decent little practice amp.

[69mojostrat]

Originally Posted by gag halfrunt

I had a lead 12 half stack, and I thought the speaker and the head were both junk. Not enough headroom for anything, and the distortion was kind of nasty. Put in a celestion 12 inch speaker, and it was better, but the real improvement came when I had my tech replace the original 12 watt guts with a nice 200 watt SS power section, and now it's a decent little practice amp.

wouldn't that be a bit loud for a practice amp? did the little cabs have 10s or 12s in it?

[gag halfrunt]

Originally Posted by 69mojostrat

wouldn't that be a bit loud for a practice amp? did the little cabs have 10s or 12s in it?

The increase in power gave it the headroom it needed for decent practice volume with out the nasty SS clipping.

The original cab came with a wimpy 10" speaker with a tiny magnet. Stock, those mini stacks are ALL about looks and nothing about tone. I got the head for free, so it was just a fun project for me to get the thing usable.

[anibas]

The same speaker that came with the Lead 12 (G10L-25,I think) was used in the Micro Stack cabs.They sounded pretty good new,but they tend to crap out with age,a lot like the G12L-35's that came in the first Valvestate 4X12's.I've got an Eminence Ramrod in my red 1X10" Micro cab,69mojo,and that thing sounds pretty righteous with my Lead 12,as well as most of my other 15 to 30 watt amps-try one out if you get the chance.

[69mojostrat]

bump

[Wilbur]

I used to have a 5005 (combo). What worked really well was a Bad Monkey into the clean channel. It sounded a lot smoother than the high channel which was typical SS raspy. The Monkey into the clean channel still had the Marshall EQ going on.

[69mojostrat]

some told me that the old valvestate 8040 which as a tube preamp and a 12 was decent for backstage and messing around at the house. anyone?

[anibas]

MG,it's a UK made Vintage 10 in one,and a Silver Series 60 watt 10" in the other.I've also got an 8 ohm Silver Series in my Lead 12,and the Ramrod is in a spare micro cab that I got off of Ebay.I rarely use the head with both cabs,mostly run it into either 4X10 or 2X12 Marshall cabs-sounds better that way!69mojo,I've heard guys sound good through those first gen.Valvestate heads with the matching 4X12 cabs,but I never could get anything going with one.As far as the Lead 12 goes,I've used them for recording and small gigs with no problems,other than doing the speaker upgrade.