My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Ok, now tell us why.
No sarcasm or anything, I just haven't heard much about the amp.

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Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Well as a younger guy looking for that classic rock tone it was perfect for me. Not break the bank expensive and I didn’t have to go seek out a vintage piece. I love the built in boost too. It does clean up nice for a single channel and the boost really gives you an awesome crunchy angus young type sound. I play with a pedal board and it takes them well (has an fx loop) but shines on its own.
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Cool. I'm an old guy that had to make a dollar count. So I appreciate moderately priced gear too. At least when it sounds good.

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Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

I'm a big fan of simple mid-power amps like this. The 50w head has had my interest for awhile now.
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

I would like to hear your opinion on its tone, ability to get some cleans as well as its ability
to get the Marshallmcrunch.


Studioplayer
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Summed up opinion: the tone is fantastic if you're going for that classic rock 60's -70's style tone.

More detailed: That being said, it isn't a one trick pony, that's just what it does really well in my opinion. As I mentioned before it takes pedals really well - so you can really get some heavy and shapable gains on it...I just love the sound of the preamp on it that I don't care much for the pedals. The EQ knobs (as typical with most Marshalls) don't do a whole lot. I really just keep those all at the 12 O'clock for now. The tilt and presence knob sort of take over on that job. If you back the tilt control off to more of the "channel 1" style marshall you can get some really warm cleans out of it. It's never going to be 100% clean but its close....(this may be different as you get to the high power setting, I haven't had much of a chance to mess around with that yet, just the low and medium since this puppy is LOUD).

I don't have much experience with vintage marshalls, and I'm certainly no expert, just what I have heard via videos or my favorite records, but I think it sounds great. I'll see if I can't get some sound clips up at some point.
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Summed up opinion: the tone is fantastic if you're going for that classic rock 60's -70's style tone.

More detailed: That being said, it isn't a one trick pony, that's just what it does really well in my opinion. As I mentioned before it takes pedals really well - so you can really get some heavy and shapable gains on it...I just love the sound of the preamp on it that I don't care much for the pedals. The EQ knobs (as typical with most Marshalls) don't do a whole lot. I really just keep those all at the 12 O'clock for now. The tilt and presence knob sort of take over on that job. If you back the tilt control off to more of the "channel 1" style marshall you can get some really warm cleans out of it. It's never going to be 100% clean but its close....(this may be different as you get to the high power setting, I haven't had much of a chance to mess around with that yet, just the low and medium since this puppy is LOUD).

I don't have much experience with vintage marshalls, and I'm certainly no expert, just what I have heard via videos or my favorite records, but I think it sounds great. I'll see if I can't get some sound clips up at some point.

Your review here makes me think that I should find one and give it a tryout!


Studioplayer
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

yes! You definitely should. If you do, try my favorite setting first and see what you think (on low or med power) = Gain: 8 Tilt: about 6 EQ: All at 12 O'clock Output around 2 (or where you need) Presence: 9.
Try first with no boost. Nice warm crunchyness......then give it the gas. Boost for some seriously awesome AC/DC tone (the treble pickup loves this setting).
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Also, one last note....I don't know why, but the 50 combo seems to have a lot more crunch on it when turned all the way up than the 20 watt. I'm not sure if it has to do with the 10" speaker vs the 12", or if its more wattage going through the same amount of tubes? But I liked the 50 a lot more. If anyone has any knowledge on this I'd love to learn a bit more.
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

As a dude who has spent more of his lifelong income on boutique British tube amps than basically anything else, those Origins are legit.

They FEEL kinda cheap, build-wise. They feel really light and a little flimsy, like maybe they're not gona handle the rigors of daily touring, but for the average weekend warrior bar gig guitarist they should be fine.

Tone wise they're on point. They sound like Marshall's from the 70s. I work at a pretty big music store and we have a hard time keeping them in stock.

The 20w is good but it lacks the lowend depth of the 50w. Nice choice in that department.
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

Still no stock of Marshall Origins in Chile, sadly.

I've loved the experience of pushing my Tweaker 15 and making it sound more aggressive than it has any right to, so I think a Origin 50 head would be truly excellent for me.
There's something that feels right in my head about pushing a vintage flavored amp to heavier limits, rather than a modern flavored amp as it is. I tend not to like those very much, with a few exceptions. This route just feels and sounds more interesting.
 
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Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

more wattage going through the same amount of tubes

So in the 20w i believe it's a different biasing circuit for the power tubes (cathode biased power tubes, normally "fixed-bias" in 2xEL34), combined with much lower plate voltage and smaller transformers, someone on the internet having stated on the origin 20 the output transformer is mismatched also dropping power. But each of these things would have the effect of killing the upper harmonic distortion that makes tube amps sound bright, alive, and juicy, and when the tube is run at low voltages the first thing to go is treble response and headroom starts to go down.
So what you're hearing is yes, in the 50 the proper wattage going through the tubes. In the 20 it's a bunch of fancy tricks to "brown out" a marshall power section down to 20W levels. They did OK by most accounts but they don't sound light years better than say just making a 50W amp and having a pentode/triode mode (more traditional "half power switch").
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

So in the 20w i believe it's a different biasing circuit for the power tubes (cathode biased power tubes, normally "fixed-bias" in 2xEL34), combined with much lower plate voltage and smaller transformers, someone on the internet having stated on the origin 20 the output transformer is mismatched also dropping power. But each of these things would have the effect of killing the upper harmonic distortion that makes tube amps sound bright, alive, and juicy, and when the tube is run at low voltages the first thing to go is treble response and headroom starts to go down.
So what you're hearing is yes, in the 50 the proper wattage going through the tubes. In the 20 it's a bunch of fancy tricks to "brown out" a marshall power section down to 20W levels. They did OK by most accounts but they don't sound light years better than say just making a 50W amp and having a pentode/triode mode (more traditional "half power switch").

I've never played an Origin 20, but I have a Mini Jubilee head which is a pair of EL-34s cathode biased to 20W. The things you mentioned may be true in general, but they're absolutely not the case with the 2525H. It sounds plenty bright, alive, and juicy and the power amp compression and clip sound and feel like you'd expect. It doesn't have the bass response of a bigger amp, but that's just not going to happen at lower wattage.

In addition to the 2525H, I also have a 2555 which has a pentode/triode switch. Having compared both amps extensively, I have to strongly disagree with your "by most accounts" statement. Triode mode on the 2555 sounds AWFUL and I never use it. It's spongy, muddy, and harmonically dead. Even the 5W mode on the Mini Jube sounds better.

If volume weren't an issue, I'd take the 2555 over the 2525H any day. The Mini Jubilee sounds great, and it really does get 80-90% of the tone of its bigger brother. In fact it's so good that I don't really notice the difference unless I immediately switch from one to the other. Meanwhile in the real world, the 2555 is so loud it's almost hard to contemplate while it weighs as much (or slightly more) than the 2525H and my ported 1x12.
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

I've never played an Origin 20, but I have a Mini Jubilee head which is a pair of EL-34s cathode biased to 20W. The things you mentioned may be true in general, but they're absolutely not the case with the 2525H. It sounds plenty bright, alive, and juicy and the power amp compression and clip sound and feel like you'd expect. It doesn't have the bass response of a bigger amp, but that's just not going to happen at lower wattage.

In addition to the 2525H, I also have a 2555 which has a pentode/triode switch. Having compared both amps extensively, I have to strongly disagree with your "by most accounts" statement. Triode mode on the 2555 sounds AWFUL and I never use it. It's spongy, muddy, and harmonically dead. Even the 5W mode on the Mini Jube sounds better.

If volume weren't an issue, I'd take the 2555 over the 2525H any day. The Mini Jubilee sounds great, and it really does get 80-90% of the tone of its bigger brother. In fact it's so good that I don't really notice the difference unless I immediately switch from one to the other. Meanwhile in the real world, the 2555 is so loud it's almost hard to contemplate while it weighs as much (or slightly more) than the 2525H and my ported 1x12.
The "by most accounts phrase" was referring to the first part of the sentence where I said "they did ok".
Not saying most people consider triode better.
The 2525 seems like it was designed thoughtfully.
I honestly don't know if they implemented it as well in the origin 20 or what. I hope to try one soon.
Triode mode is kinda dead in comparison to pentode but I've tried it on a few amps and it's better for me than some of the cathode biased amps I've tried but none of those were new Marshall 2xel34 cathode biased, more like egnater or Peavey. So yes I'm not saying that cathode bias sucks or triode mode works for all, and it's totally not the same as when you design from the ground up around a low power el34 setup.


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Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

The "by most accounts phrase" was referring to the first part of the sentence where I said "they did ok".
Not saying most people consider triode better.
The 2525 seems like it was designed thoughtfully.
I honestly don't know if they implemented it as well in the origin 20 or what. I hope to try one soon.
Triode mode is kinda dead in comparison to pentode but I've tried it on a few amps and it's better for me than some of the cathode biased amps I've tried but none of those were new Marshall 2xel34 cathode biased, more like egnater or Peavey. So yes I'm not saying that cathode bias sucks or triode mode works for all, and it's totally not the same as when you design from the ground up around a low power el34 setup.


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Thanks for the clarification and I agree.

For the sake of everyone that buys one, I really hope that the power section in the origin is done as well as the 2525H. If it is, they could really have a winner on their hands.

In case the Origin 20 actually uses the same power section, I'll include a few observations about the 2525H that may prove helpful. I was surprised by how picky the 2525H is about tubes; much more so than the 2555. The stock JJ / Shuguang 12AX7s and Tung-Sol EL-34s sounded OK, but were really bright to the point of being grainy. The Tung-Sols were also considerably lacking in low mid and bass response. Swapping the 12AX7s for a Tung-Sol in V1 and Sovtek LPS in V3 along with JJ EL-34s made a HUGE difference. I've never played an Origin, but it's certainly possible that the comparatively lackluster tone may have been caused by stock tubes chosen for price rather than tone.
 
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Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

I feel like the DSL50 head I had was very sensitive to power tube changes as well.
JJs have deeper bass
I find the Chinese to be the most balanced, almost too much. I think they got used sometimes on the DSL40c. They sound modern but not as thick as JJ.
Those old marshal svetlana tubes had the midrange that I thought made the DSL sound "80s rock" and more JCM800. I wonder how they would do in the origin?
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

I feel like the DSL50 head I had was very sensitive to power tube changes as well.
JJs have deeper bass
I find the Chinese to be the most balanced, almost too much. I think they got used sometimes on the DSL40c. They sound modern but not as thick as JJ.
Those old marshal svetlana tubes had the midrange that I thought made the DSL sound "80s rock" and more JCM800. I wonder how they would do in the origin?

Winged-C EL-34s were great in pretty much every Marshall I've ever heard them in, but these days they're getting a bit pricey for everyday use.

IMO JJ EL-34s sound like a best-of-both-worlds compromise between the Winged C and a 6550. I like how they really fill out the lower mids on the 2525H, and the headroom helps the 2555 as it gets pretty mushy when you really push the power section.
 
Re: My new Marshall Origin 50!!

I don't know how you guys can retain all that information about tubes.
 
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