I'm going to spare all parties some grief here. Would you be the kind of guitar player to turn the amp on '10', and turn your HB equipped guitar down to volume '2' to get a clean sound? This is what BB did/does with his Fender Twins, and also what he did with the L5 when he used them. This is the 'secret' recipe for getting the L5 to perform as it did for BB. They have a noticeable hiss when running this way, but certainly fine for live play.

So, if you were to ask me why the Lab series amps didn't catch on, it's as simple as what I've written. BB just happened to approach the L5 as his experience taught him and the result was, well, very usable for him. His way was not like most other players, although I did meet one local pro guy (many years ago) who did figure this out. Imagine my surprise, me owning the same amp and not even getting close to what he had going on. It was laughable but I was not beyond asking him how he was doing this. Talk about a light bulb moment! The idea of making a preamp pedal to capture this result seems virtually impossible, but carry on.