My new Gibson Lab Series L7

mr-mac

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mr-mac

So far i'm mighty impressed....

Clean sounds like a pre gain control fender valve amp just a lot more headroom and shitload more clean volume.  I'd almost go as far as maybe better than JC120.

Tested a bit of over drive and it actually produces a lovely lead tone in a Freddie King cranked to max fender sound.  A little hand muting a slightly softer picking and it will drop from that to a nice vintage clean with a little twang.  Brilliant for something like Hideaway lead sounds brill then you get the change in texture for Shuffle in between...  Compressor comes in to it's own here (loads said its in wrong place) it isn't its in just the right place in chain so you can bring the level of the quieter clean Shuffle or other playing up to a level it doesn't get lost in band or level with band for rhythm part.  If you put compressor where people say it should be you'd loose ability to get it from drive to clean with just a change in touch.  the compressor preserves those changes but adjusts volume to right place for mix.  And its a nice quality optical compressor so really doesn't loose any of the delicacy of what player is doing. 

not ventured much past there for gain yet and not really tried it as a pedal platform but will update as i do.

all i can say if your in market for a JC120, Fender Clean but can't afford them you'd do really well to look here.  I'll also add, certainly with underwound paf its a compelling vintage blues tone too (and don't just think bb king, I was getting really close to Freddie king tones).  At money they sell for (less than a solid state fender champ s/h) you could be very clever with a low budget 

ICBM

The compressor is in exactly the place it should be - where it was designed to be, for a very good reason - to replicate the power-stage compression of a valve amp... it's not a compressor pedal.

These are really good-sounding amps, and very well-built as well. Their only real problem is the use of quite a few rather unique parts, which can make them difficult to repair - including the pots and knobs. Luckily yours looks to be in fine condition and without any of the common damage to these.

mr-mac

ICBM said:

The compressor is in exactly the place it should be - where it was designed to be, for a very good reason - to replicate the power-stage compression of a valve amp... it's not a compressor pedal.

These are really good-sounding amps, and very well-built as well. Their only real problem is the use of quite a few rather unique parts, which can make them difficult to repair - including the pots and knobs. Luckily yours looks to be in fine condition and without any of the common damage to these.

The compressor does seem to do a decent job bringing up quieter playing to level it won't get lost too.  Really works well and as you say allows you to set it to replicate valve power stage driven harder.  only turned it up enough to bring diff in volume from Freddie tones to the clean palm muted to be about same as you'd maybe use if you were using volume control or clean boost for similar purposes.

really love the 4x10 setup in this too really does sound superb

mr-mac

Still canny belive they are so under rated they come up for £100 reasonably often.... It's practise amp money for level above beginner maybe...

when you look at what a JC120 goes for clean is as good or better but lab series od is a different league to JC.

And no noisey pots either, thank god....

mr-mac

Canny get my head around driver wiring though.  not clearly series or parallel as far as i can see....  And doesn't seem to logically follow + to - either that i can see.  

unless i am being thick I'll try and find a few photos or something of others

ICBM

mr-mac said:

Canny get my head around driver wiring though.  not clearly series or parallel as far as i can see....  And doesn't seem to logically follow + to - either that i can see.  

unless i am being thick I'll try and find a few photos or something of others

That's because someone has wired it wrong. I should have spotted that .

It's wired with the two right-hand (in the pic) speakers in parallel, and the other two in series, in parallel with the first two. That will produce less than the required 8-ohm load, so hopefully you haven't really cranked it! They are at least all in phase .

The correct wiring is series-parallel - not parallel-series, there is a difference.

What to do...

First remove all the wiring - it's probably easiest to start again. (Edit - actually the wiring between the two right-hand speakers is correct, you can leave that.)

Connect the white and black wires from the amp to the top two terminals you can see - white to the left speaker (red dot terminal) and black to the right speaker.

Connect both speakers on each side in parallel - red dot to red dot with a white wire, plain to plain with a black wire.

Connect the remaining black wire between the two lowest terminals.


This isn't the worst mis-wiring I've ever seen by the way!

mr-mac

Nah nothing too loud... 

gonna need to read that a few times as its not really jumping out at me yet.

mr-mac

If i use this as template would that be as it should be?

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ICBM

Aha... found the right diagram finally!

http://triodeamplification.com/images/4-Speaker_Series-Parallel_W.gif

And you beat me to it . That corresponds to the picture exactly.

The only other thing I would suggest is to bunch the wires up - especially the series link across the bottom - and cable-tie them, that will stop them getting snagged by anything you put in the cabinet.

mr-mac

Great same as photo i just posted thanks 

mr-mac

Maybe we shouldn't call em Gibson though as no Gibson branding on them or adverts.  Yes has Norlin name but not Gibson so maybe they were all moog.  must dig and see what can find about them.

mr-mac

Gotta imagine if it sounded stunning with wrong wiring it should sound similar but kinda bigger with correct wiring as i imagine the wrong wiring would have dicated some of drivers weren't doing as much as they should as guess most current would be heading down route of least resistance being the wiring would have meant some of drivers would present higher resistance than others.

ICBM

mr-mac said:

Gotta imagine if it sounded stunning with wrong wiring it should sound similar but kinda bigger with correct wiring as i imagine the wrong wiring would have dicated some of drivers weren't doing as much as they should as guess most current would be heading down route of least resistance being the wiring would have meant some of drivers would present higher resistance than others.

Yes, exactly - the pair on the right in the pic would have been taking 4/5 of the power - a 4-ohm load in parallel with a 16-ohm load.

The oddest I've come across was a 4x12" which had been rewired as (it took me some time to work this out!) one speaker in series with the other three, which were wired as a single speaker in parallel with the other two in series and out of phase! Thus the total cab impedance was 16+(1/16+1/32) = 26.6 ohms, and the first speaker was taking almost 2/3 of the power to the whole cabinet.

I assume it must have somehow 'evolved' into that wiring as speakers were replaced by people who didn't know what they were doing - the only two originals were the out-of-phase series pair. The amazing thing was that it didn't sound *that* odd, and the speaker which was taking the most power hadn't blown again despite being the lowest-rated.

mr-mac

Lest it was a pair rather than a Single driver cos unless i really cranked it they'd still be under what designed for.  And of course the other benefit is giving the power amp an easier life cos 4ohm would draw a lot more current than 8.  Least i ken the psu and amp components are up to job and likely in decent order cos reckon running like that would have killed anything on its last legs

mr-mac

Just a funny quote from Joe B.... Like the last bit of it... Well actually like it all.

 I hate it when people buy an R9 or anything from the Custom Shop and immediately go out and spend $3,000 on aftermarket parts – why don’t you just play it for a couple of gigs? Or even if you don’t have any gigs, why don’t you just sit there for three or four hours, zone out, beat the thing into oblivion and all of a sudden the guitar looks real; the more you play it, the guitar looks real!
“It’s almost like a Hollywood agent: ‘We love you, now just change everything about you!’ And then there’s a cat that can pull out a sandwich-bodied ’78 Les Paul Pro that weighs 12lbs, plug it into a Lab Series L5 – retail value of guitar and amp $1,000 – and kick ass…”

mr-mac

Funny too. Was watching this vid thinking how bloody well bb stacks up tone wise (even betters) a line of rather good valve amps with his L5...  Hold the phone, look close, his rhythm guitarist is also playing through a Lab Series this time an L7 (4x10)