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?

[69mojostrat]

bump

[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.

[MGSchindel]

The celestions that came in the original 80's Lead 12 stack were actually the 16 ohm G10D-25. They are quite harsh and bright, and very scooped sounding, like a really scooped G12T-75 almost, very fizzy and scratchy, not really much like the Vintage 10 at all.

The cabs are essentially closed-back but have an oval port in the back about 3"x5".

Yeah dude I have this amp too : ) I push it with an SD-1 on occasion and back off the gain which can get a bit ratty if the gain is dimed. The head works well in to a standard marshall 4x12 too, sounds much better and is a good super low maintenance grab-n-go practice amp for noodling or warm-up. But the original cabs do sound a bit rough IMHO. The head is intended to run at 8 ohms so if you thought of replacing speakers, they should be 16 ohm'ers if you're gonna use both cabs.

[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.

[anibas]

Originally Posted by MGSchindel

The celestions that came in the original 80's Lead 12 stack were actually the 16 ohm G10D-25. They are quite harsh and bright, and very scooped sounding, like a really scooped G12T-75 almost, very fizzy and scratchy, not really much like the Vintage 10 at all.

The cabs are essentially closed-back but have an oval port in the back about 3"x5".

Yeah dude I have this amp too : ) I push it with an SD-1 on occasion and back off the gain which can get a bit ratty if the gain is dimed. The head works well in to a standard marshall 4x12 too, sounds much better and is a good super low maintenance grab-n-go practice amp for noodling or warm-up. But the original cabs do sound a bit rough IMHO. The head is intended to run at 8 ohms so if you thought of replacing speakers, they should be 16 ohm'ers if you're gonna use both cabs.

G10D-25's?Sorry about the typo.I pulled those things from both my Micro Stack cabs and my two Lead 12's years ago,and haven't looked back.The lack of low end was always the problem for me-so you're saying that these speakers basically sucked from the get go,MG?

[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?

[MGSchindel]

Originally Posted by anibas

G10D-25's?Sorry about the typo.I pulled those things from both my Micro Stack cabs and my two Lead 12's years ago,and haven't looked back.The lack of low end was always the problem for me-so you're saying that these speakers basically sucked from the get go,MG?

Yep. What'd you go with for a 10" 16ohmer instead?

[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.