NAD - Marshall Lead 12

I'm not going to mess with those connectors. I have a speaker jack on the way and I'm going to mount it to the bottom of the chassis so I can either plug in the internal speaker or plug in an extension cab. That should be easy enough. I still have the tail from my MG15 I can use for the internal speaker.
 
Got the new jacks and plates today.
Went with some inexpensive stuff from Ambazon - complete garbage.
Mounting plates were too small and the jacks shorted out with spade connectors.
Lesson learned, maybe...

Made my own plates from the hole saw cutouts from the fan mounting holes I cut for the John H re-do.
Found some good Switchcraft jacks in an abandoned switcher box thingamabob I made for an amp that's long gone.
Turns out I had what I needed to begin with.

5005 (22).jpg

Set up the amp in my office with the O20's for now to try some pedals with it - go figure.
I gots to have a little chorus & reverb, so I tried a little Mosky multi-gizmo.
More garbage.

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Yanked the little board from the Ceriatone with some decent hardware on it.

5005 (21).jpg

Now we're talkin', the Bad Monkey works great with the Lead12. :yesway:
Digitech Multi-Chorus and Digiverb put that Mosky thing to shame.
Everything in the NS-2 loop keeps it nice & quiet.

Now I gotta get some decent pedals for the little fella, or something else for the Ceriatone... :unsure:
 
DirtySteve said:
I'm not going to mess with those connectors. I have a speaker jack on the way and I'm going to mount it to the bottom of the chassis so I can either plug in the internal speaker or plug in an extension cab. That should be easy enough. I still have the tail from my MG15 I can use for the internal speaker.
Click to expand...
Oh wait, can I even use a regular jack like what cabs use, or do I need a Cliff jack?
 
I got the hole drilled and the jack mounted today. I'm really liking this 10" C-Rex in here. By far the best speaker I've tried in it. I bought this speaker specifically for this amp and when I installed it, that's when (I thought) the amp died and I never heard it until today.

Also, I know why I didn't like the amp before, there's a point right around 8 on the gain knob where the damn thing comes to life, big time. It goes from being thin and bright to a little rock monster, slam the front end with an OD and it's on! I kept trying to set it like I was setting my SC20 with the gain at 6, but that's not enough to get past the thin, bright yuck. Now I get it, now I get why so many like these little things.

dgnVrdA.jpg
 
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DirtySteve said:
I got the hole drilled and the jack mounted today. I'm really liking this 10" C-Rex in here. By far the best speaker I've tried in it. I bought this speaker specifically for this amp and when I installed it, that's when (I thought) the amp died and I never heard it until today.

Also, I know why I didn't like the amp before, there's a point right around 8 on the gain knob where the damn thing comes to life, big time. It goes from being thin and bright to a little rock monster, slam the front end with an OD and it's on! I kept trying to set it like I was setting my SC20 with the gain at 6, but that's not enough to get past the thin, bright yuck. Now I get it, now I get why so many like these little things.

dgnVrdA.jpg
Click to expand...
Awesome that it was an easy fix!
That jack is a very simple and super useful mod.
Now you can run the amp to any 8 or 16 ohm cab.
Blast the little rascal through some 12's and it'll roar. :yesway:
 
fitz said:
Awesome that it was an easy fix!
That jack is a very simple and super useful mod.
Now you can run the amp to any 8 or 16 ohm cab.
Blast the little rascal through some 12's and it'll roar. :yesway:
Click to expand...
Way ahead of you, that's what I've been doing since I posted. What a little beast! I like the low input best. Just because it was the easiest way to do it, I pulled the input speaker cable from my Origin and plugged it in. That means it was going thru my attenuator so I had to turn up the volume. I still have issue with the volume pot, it cuts in and out as you turn it up and down, but the rest of the scratchy pots are not scratchy anymore.
 
DirtySteve said:
I got the hole drilled and the jack mounted today. I'm really liking this 10" C-Rex in here. By far the best speaker I've tried in it. I bought this speaker specifically for this amp and when I installed it, that's when (I thought) the amp died and I never heard it until today.

Also, I know why I didn't like the amp before, there's a point right around 8 on the gain knob where the damn thing comes to life, big time. It goes from being thin and bright to a little rock monster, slam the front end with an OD and it's on! I kept trying to set it like I was setting my SC20 with the gain at 6, but that's not enough to get past the thin, bright yuck. Now I get it, now I get why so many like these little things.

dgnVrdA.jpg
Click to expand...
It seems like they put a fuzz tone i those with gain above 8 or so. Certainly more than the single channel 800s. Mine does that too. Fun little amp.
 
Jethro Rocker said:
It seems like they put a fuzz tone i those with gain above 8 or so. Certainly more than the single channel 800s. Mine does that too. Fun little amp.
Click to expand...
I don't get that at all. It just fills out and the tone thickens up. I'm liking it much better cranked on the low input than the high. I don't know what changed with it sitting for so long, but something sure did, it sounds great now, I couldn't get a good sound out of it to save my life when I first got it and before it died on me. I thought people were crazy for liking this amp.
 
DirtySteve said:
I don't get that at all. It just fills out and the tone thickens up. I'm liking it much better cranked on the low input than the high. I don't know what changed with it sitting for so long, but something sure did, it sounds great now, I couldn't get a good sound out of it to save my life when I first got it and before it died on me. I thought people were crazy for liking this amp.
Click to expand...
It may have been earlier versions that did that, as I recall.
 
Got a Zoom G3n for some front-end effects on the Lead12.

g3n.2.jpg

Spent some time this morning with the G3n hooked up to the Zoom app.
Set it up with: gate > fuzz > OD > reverb > EQ > stereo chorus. :hmmm:

zoom lab.jpg

Resurrected the MG15CF chassis (if you can call an L shaped bent plate a chassis...) in a refurbed headshell.
The MG has a completely horrid drive channel, but sounds fairly decent on the clean with some pedals.
Running it down to the bottom cab with the Lead 12 on its own.
Stereo out to both inputs, because..., two is more than one. :yesway:

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But wait..., there's more... !

Decided that crappy MG wasn't going to cut it for a stereo partner for the Lead12, so I had a look around.
Saw this G15RCD on Reverb.
This amp is basically the Lead15 micro-stack amp in a combo.

g15.01.jpg

List price was an absurd $179.99, on sale for $149.99.
Tossed a low-ball lob of $99.99, and the seller accepted without a counter offer.


The feeble little 8" speaker had to go.
Gutted it and prepared for surgery.
Making it as tall as the lead12 and popping a 12 in it. :yesway:

g15rcd (1).jpg

Got out the wood stretcher again.

g15rcd (2).jpg

Need to add 2-1/2".

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And 2-1/2" to the baffle also.

g15rcd (4).jpg
 
fitz said:
But wait..., there's more... !

Decided that crappy MG wasn't going to cut it for a stereo partner for the Lead12, so I had a look around.
Saw this G15RCD on Reverb.
This amp is basically the Lead15 micro-stack amp in a combo.

View attachment 107523

List price was an absurd $179.99, on sale for $149.99.
Tossed a low-ball lob of $99.99, and the seller accepted without a counter offer.


The feeble little 8" speaker had to go.
Gutted it and prepared for surgery.
Making it as tall as the lead12 and popping a 12 in it. :yesway:

View attachment 107524

Got out the wood stretcher again.

View attachment 107525

Need to add 2-1/2".

View attachment 107526

And 2-1/2" to the baffle also.

View attachment 107527
Click to expand...

:popcorn:
 
Now that's a proper speaker hole.

g15rcd (5).jpg

Found some matching cab scraps and glued them in place.
Lots of drilling and dowel pins as usual.
And a few of the clamp hoard.

g15rcd (6).jpg

Side-by-side after the clamps came off.

g15rcd (7).jpg

Got a speaker mounted and the chassis back in for a test drive.

g15rcd (8).jpg

And a back view.

g15rcd (9).jpg

Disassembled a.t.m. for a coat of rattle can black on the baffle and shell.
That's all for today.
 
A few final pics - didn't bother taking pics of the tolex application.
Wrapped it in the leftover purple/black from my Haze15 re-do.
Recycled some vintage Marshall somweave grill cloth from the stash.

g15rcd (10).jpg

Here's a back view.
Decided to give the G12C's a try since I had both amps opened up.
Ordered an IEC power cord jack for the G15, but the fixed cord works fine for now.
Also have some new piping inbound for both amps to replace the spliced together scraps.

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Tried out the new stereo rig with the Zoom G3n as a splitter and for some TBE.
These amps have a similar 80's JCM-ish overdrive tone with the gain cranked.

The G15RCD (Lead15) is a real sleeper amp that can be had on the cheap.
Dual gain controls, MV, spring reverb and that "Contour" reverse mids control.
Wasted on the 8" combo and 10" mini-stack.
Run it to a 12" or two and it'll roar with the best SS Marshalls.

Those limited-edition greenbacks are a nice match for the little fellas
Strummed a few chords, and Led Zeppelin started coming out of the guitar...

g15rcd (12).jpg
 
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