Marshall Origin Series

I love my Origin 50 1X12 combo. Sorta a one-trick deal,but damn, that's a good trick

 

If you want a clean sound, it’s nice to have at least 10 watts for the low end. If you want to play clean with a drummer you’ll need at least 20-40 watts depending on the drummer.

 

Yes.

 

I was looking at using the Origin 50 as a pedal platform.

 

Sounds like you are looking for headroom to me, check out what Brian Wampler has to say about his Bravado amps combo and head versions. The are 40watt 6L6 amps, but loud on the scale of 20 watt and the come with volume knobs and the effects loop was designed be Friedman. It’s on my bucket list. Check it out on YouTube

 

Origin 5 doesn’t sound that great on low volume. It needs to be cranked to sound good.

 

I'm seriously looking at the 50 watt head version. What makes you say it's a one trick pony? That makes me a little leery. I've watched some clips on youtube, which is less than ideal, but they sound really good. Anyway, if you'd be inclined to follow up on your statement, I'd be interested in your observations.

 

Well it's prob a pretty versatile combo.

it's probably more that I just personally find no need to chase anything other than what you'd probably term "classic Marshall crunch" with it

Also consider that alot of my background is with modeling stuff, so I'm pretty used to being able to get a wide variety of tones

 

Often the difference in wattage is less about sheer volume and more about how much clean headroom you'll get from an amp. A 5 watt amp isn't going to have nearly as much clean headroom as a 20 watt amp of the same model. For your purposes, I would think the Origin 20 would be a good starting point. It's worth mentioning that the Origin amps all offer different output settings so the 20 and 50 watt amps can be run at much lower outputs.

 

Thanks. I don't really need another amp, but I love the classic plexi crunch tone, like Malcom's rhythm tone, which is really between clean and dirty, and not overdriven that much. I was hoping that this amp could do that type tone. A couple youtube reviews say that the amp gets a bit fizzy when really pushed, so again was hoping that it still sounded great on the in between stuff.

I have a Kemper with JMP's, JTM's, and JCM's, but I have a nice old Marshall 4x12 that really has been screaming at me to put a Marshall head on top of it

 

yeah the consensus is you're not going to get plexi out of these without a pedal*

however lots of people have varying opinions on what the plexi sound is

*I goose mine with a Donner Boost Killer to make it sing

 

I haven’t tried the 5. I’ve never heard a 5 watt amp that I thought sounded good, though.

I have the 20 watt combo. It’s a killer amp. And on the middle setting (7 watts?) it still sounds really great. And still gets good cleans. FWIW, I think a lot of higher powered amps sound great at low volumes. If you’re trying to crank an amp to get it to break up, because that’s the sound you’re after, more power is not your friend for living room use if you play yourself. But for cleans it can be more than ok.

I think the 20 gets great, warm, full cleans at very manageable volumes. And has a surprising amount of low end for a Princeton sized, single 10” combo.

 

The Origin amp smaller than the 20 didn't impress.
Most 5w amps can do 1 sound well, and its typically going to involve pushing an el84 or 6v6 to get said sound.
I'll always recommend trying it, but the 20 seemed better sounding.

 

The AC/DC tones you’re referring to I think are more in the JTM camp, not Plexi tones. The origin is great for those. It’s a much more JTM styled amp. I really don’t get Plexi from it at all. I have to wonder if people calling the origins “Plexi” like have ever actually played one.

The origin doesn’t have the gain to do Plexi like overdriven tones.

It will get a little crunchy. I actually changed power tubes in mine to give it a little more headroom. Cause I really love Marshall clean tones.

 

I can say the same for the Marshall SC20C at 5 watts.

 

I have 20w head which goes through my Laney cub 2 x 12", really it's all been said other posters, superb amps and very good cleans

 

I think the tilt dial on the Origin is supposed to mimic plexi tones. At least that is what Marshall says it is for. It is supposed to mimic a jumpered setting on a plexi.