Members fuzztone Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Ever play one of these? It's a small solid state amp with a 10" speaker,made in England in the 1980s. I saw one on Ebay for $60 BIN. Think it is worth $60? "Vintage Marshall Lead 12 Combo Amp from the '80s in Classic Black. All original loaded with Celestion G10D-25 speaker. In great shape, no rips or tears to the tolex, all original pots and knobs. In complete working order with no issues." Here is a photo of the same amp on GBASE (priced $140). I read Billy Gibbons used a Marshall Lead 12 when he recorded "My Head is in Mississippi". [video=youtube;GFLqACIj8nc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFLqACIj8nc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ashtray Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 $50 would be an ok price. You're not exactly in $2k boutique market here, so it's splitting hairs. I have an 80s Lead 12 mini-stack. I think it sounds cheesy. Glorious cheese. Bought it more for display, but it's fun to dime the gain and just go fuzz wild. Now if you want to spend a little more, out of the same series they made bigger combos. I had a 5210 model that had nice tones. Based on the JCM800 design but all solid state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I'd definitely think it's worth $50. I almost bought one priced at $120 a while back though I would have tried to get a few $$$ knocked off. I know I'm sort of the king of 'putting a bigger speaker in there' but I think probably the thing that holds it back is the speaker. With a bigger speaker that has a decent bottom end that doesn't rely much on speaker breakup... it'd be pretty sweet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ashtray Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I hooked my Lead 12 head up to a 2x12 cab - it sounded slightly better. Fuller for sure, but still cheesy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted January 22, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Thanks guys. I was just looking for a a small practice amp for rock music.I think the 10" speaker is big enough for playing in my bedroom. I have a VOX Valvetronix VT20+ and that has an 8" speaker. I use that amp for the VOX and Fender models and I wanted a separate amp for Marshall sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members omni Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I remember buying one in Austin at a Pawn shop for 20 dollars.. Actually miked it at band practice many years ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members profgalen Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 The drummer in my band found one in a dumpster and gave it to me. I've been offered $100 dollars for but I wouldn't sell. I really like it. If it's in good shape I think $60 is a fair price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rog951 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I paid $90 for a clean one a while back then traded it away to my HVAC guy for some freon. wish I still had it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I bought my Vox Pathfinder 15R for $60 off of CL and it sounds fantastic. I tried one of those Marshall Lead 12's at Sam Ash a few months back when they had a pretty beat up used one. I wasn't impressed with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted January 22, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Thanks guys! I saw some videos on youtube. Looks like a decent practice amp for $60. [video=youtube;5iTHuCqlUns] [video=youtube;v0gJMSXMZvM] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flogger59 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I remeber liking them when they were new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grumphh Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Can't say anything specific about that exact amp - but as a general rule one should not disregard Marshall SS amps from the 80's. They can actually sound very good indeed - not the same as a big tube Marshall at gig volume, no - but they can certainly be nice sounding practice amps, and some are very good at what they do. Personally i have a "Marshall 75 reverb" which is an all SS channelswitcher with a celestion "Sidewinder" speaker in it. Not quite a tube amp, but it definitely gets a Marshall vibe going. And it could easily do a good Marshall impression at an impromptu jam... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Honestly, my experience with SS Marshalls is that their speakers are often a weak link and they tend to have a very definitive sweet spot. Play them too quietly and they sound thin, play them too loudly and they sound REALLY like a fizzy solid state amp. I've said it before, but I had a friend that had an early 80s JCM800 1x12 combo and one of the SS or hybrid amps from the late 80s or early 90s (I met him in about 1994 and he'd had it for a couple years) with the two full rows of knobs. I think it was an AVT something series. He swore up and down that he preferred the AVT. I think part of that was the 800 always sounded better and better the louder you turned it, but he really did get some incredible tones out of the SS/hybrid jobbie. He actually let me borrow the 800 for about a year and a half because he never played it unless I was over. He gigged and recorded with the AVT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Minnie The Moocher Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 Honestly, my experience with SS Marshalls is that their speakers are often a weak link Agreed. I have a bunch of those Lead 12 mini-stacks and the heads sound great - but not with their stock cabs (way too tsmall, and cheap speakers too). Hook it to a decent 2x12" and it's another story: - the Lead 12 jubilee head into a 2x12" greenbacks: [video=youtube;zpfI7aa1hlU] - another Lead 12 head with the same cab: [video=youtube;QW303lSUTxI] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scott944 Posted January 22, 2012 Members Share Posted January 22, 2012 I had one back in the 80's and remember it fondly. There were 2 at the Columbus guitar show last weekend, both priced north of that one. Go for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted January 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 29, 2012 Thanks guys,I got it today. It's a nice little amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members docjeffrey Posted January 29, 2012 Members Share Posted January 29, 2012 They are great. I own two of them--paid $90 for one about 5 years ago. Check out this clean clip I made awhile back: [video=youtube;zCmTqp3P-Ow]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCmTqp3P-Ow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sylvesterlowery Posted January 29, 2012 Members Share Posted January 29, 2012 Another member of the Lead 12 club here! I love mine, even with the stock speaker. I's my computer-side practice amp! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Deadbeat Son Posted January 29, 2012 Members Share Posted January 29, 2012 Glad you're enjoying yours Fuzztone. The last two I purchased were for $60. I think they do the classic Marshall tone very well, but not so much higher Marshall gain. I think the Lead 12 is always a good amp to have hanging around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Santuzzo Posted January 29, 2012 Members Share Posted January 29, 2012 I have tihs amp on my attic, it was my very first guitar amp, bought it in 1987. I'm afraid, I can't tell, though, if 60$ is an ok price for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dan Metal Posted March 18, 2020 Members Share Posted March 18, 2020 I had one of those for many years. I actually dumped it for $10 at a garage sale, absolutely the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life. If you have one of those, keep it...or I'll give you $100 cash for it, you ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 19, 2020 Members Share Posted March 19, 2020 I have two of the newer 15W valve state amps. Ones the older version and one is newer with built in effects. They are actually loud enough to rehearse with a drummer if you use the pair. I mainly use one for practicing in the living room. I can dial it up to a low volume with saturated tones and practice my riffs. I've used both with stereo effects pedals doing acoustic jams. Actually sounds pretty good. Light and portable too. I bought both for under $50 and the amps still sell for incredibly high prices used. Most of the ones you see are either new or close to $100 used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 I remember those little Marshall MG15 mini-stacks as being good little practice amps too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted March 19, 2020 Members Share Posted March 19, 2020 I have a VS15R I use in the basement, it's an OK little amp . It has the Black and Gold speaker and a tiny spring reverb . I actually used it in church for a while before I went to acoustic. Picked it up at a yard sale with a cheap guitar for like $35. Cleaned up the guitar added a new set of strings and made a couple bucks,so the amp is basically a freeby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 29, 2020 Author Members Share Posted March 29, 2020 I picked this up at Music-Go-Round.It's the first version of the 5005 Lead 12 made in 1982,the one with no output plugs(later versions have one or 2 outputs on the front).This one has a built-in fuzz circuit that kicks in when you turn the gain knob past 8.5. From Vintage Guitar Magazine: "Lead 12: The Little Screamer - Greater distortion at low volumes was also the goal of one of the most interesting amps Marshall released in the early '80s - the model 5005 Lead 12. A 12-watt transistor practice amp with a 10" Celestion, it retailed for under $200 and for many came surprisingly close to capturing the great, warm sound of the distorted Marshall amps of years gone by. It was a favorite of many working musicians, including luminaries like Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. The Lead 12 proved to be enough of a hit with consumers that Marshall has continued to make transistor mini-amps. The '80s and early '90s saw the introduction of the tiny one-watt MS-2, the popular 3005 solidstate Micro-Stack (based on the 5005), and the 10-watt 8001 Valvestate Micro-Stack (part of a series of Marshall amps launched in '91 where all models with 40 watts or more used a 12AX7 tube in their preamps, to drive a solidstate power stage designed to sound and feel like an all-tube power amp), as well as numerous more high-powered combo amps, and even separate transistorized heads." From "The History of Marshall" by Michael Doyle "...Naturally there are many modern Marshalls that can come close to approximating the Bluesbreaker sound but the most surprising one is the old 5005 (Lead 12) solid-state combo so beloved by Billy F Gibbons. He recorded such guitar greats as "My Head's in Mississippi" with this amp, and I am eternally in his debt for bringing it to my attention!." I used to have the 2nd version of this amp(single output jack on the front). But that one didn't have the built-in in fuzz circuit that the 1st version has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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