Marshall Lead 20

[Mondaze]

Just picked up one of these up for 8 bucks. No brainer, seeing how I don't have an amp to play anymore haha.
But anyways, I don't really know much about them other than that they were from the JCM800 era, and it shows. This thing is an absolute killer for its size, and it is pretty true to the JCM800 tone as well (similar circuitry)
I just don't know much else about them, Ive been searching all over the web for reviews or info and even then they are still scarce and not very informative. any of you guys happen to know anything else about this little monster? also how would I go about finding the d.o.b of this thing?

i love this thing though, classic JCM800 tones, and tube-like characteristics for a solid state! Im definitely excited though, Id love to learn more about this thing

[Gone Fission]

It's the big brother of the Lead 12, which there's more info on for both the combo and mini-stack versions. I'm 99.99% certain it's mostly the same circuit on the same circuit board, just with a beefed up power supply and output section, packed in a bigger cabinet with a better stock speaker.

The tones are surprisingly good, especially given that it's just opamp gain and a pretty basic transistor power amp. Can indeed sound JCM-800-ish, but is also good at doing more vintage Marshall sounds. A lot of pros used the 12s for recording or as preamps in racks of doom back then, most famously ZZ Top. I find the low input to be very good for taking pedals, too, though I honestly haven't tried using the high imput much.

The jacks and the pots go bad pretty commonly at their age, but there are replacement parts readily available and these are dead easy to do basic work on. I got my Lead 12 in "dead" condition for a few times what you paid, but some Deoxit got it limping along until now--came up "dead" again after a few months of mostly good. I haven't heard of any other common breakdown issues. A warning, though--there is no short-circuit protection built into the output stage. I think all the combos are hard-wired to the speaker, but if you switch it to a jack, you should not connect a speaker with the power on just to be safe.