Lambeth Amps...Heard of Them?

andvari7 · September 8, 2013

Doubt it. I couldn't find much info when I Googled the name. From what I have been able to find, however, one Josh Lambeth sought to build the best amp possible, and spared no expense doing so. Unfortunately, high quality generally means high cost, and Lambeth Amplification never made more than twenty-five or so amps.

So, now that we've taken care of the quick and dirty history, let's get to the amp: Model designation JL100. According to the guy from whom I received the amp last week, it's 100w class A. It's technically a twin-channel amp, but it doesn't use a footswitch to switch channels. There is only one speaker output, and a three-way resistance switch (4, 8, and 16 ohm), in addition to the power cable, on the rear of the unit. It's a 3 qty. 12AX7, 4 qty. 6L6 beast of a head, which doesn't feel very comfortable on one's foot.

Here is a pic of the beast:

How does it sound, you ask? To be perfectly honest, I'm not too happy with it. However, I don't think the head has anything to do with it - my only speakers are a pair of low-quality 12-inchers that I salvaged from a busted Crate G-120C built in 1993. The same speakers rendered my Mesa/Boogie head an unusable mess(a), so I'm not going to knock points off of the sound.

However, it does suffer from the same problem that the Mesa did for me: I'm not a gigging musician, and a 100-watt head is all but useless for my purposes. I'm preparing it for sale, unless you'd like to make a compelling trade offer, and I do mean compelling.

Here's a sound clip:

http://snd.sc/1cTJKWX

Settings are as follows:

Guitar: Gibson SG Special Faded

Board: Big Muff (green Russian, bubble font) -> Moog MF-103 phaser -> EHX Small Clone -> Fulltone Clyde Deluxe -> MXR Carbon Copy.

Cables: Yes.

First half: High Gain; Master and Gain knobs set to get clipping, without causing my ears to bleed (yes, I'm wearing protection; always have, always will); Bass, Treble, Mid to 5, Presence to 8.

Second: Clean; Master and Gain to louder, everything else the same.

Mic: Blue Yeti pointed at speakers, which are actually facing the carpet (I'll reposition them shortly).

Program: Garageband, exported to MP3, then to WAV, through Audacity.

Room: My bedroom.

Cat: Making breathing difficult, thanks to his dander.

Scotch: Arbelour 16.

Janeway or Seven of Nine: Seven for show, Janeway for go.

Final Thought: I apologize for the poor playing, but I did warn you.

andvari7 · September 8, 2013

I should stress that while this is technically a great amp, and that with the right speakers, I could theoretically sound better, it's just not the sound I'm after.