NAD: Marshall Origin 20 head

glasshand · Mon Sep 13, 2021 3:52 pm

The other day my wife was asking me if there was anything else I really wanted, music-wise, and the only thing I could really think of was a Marshall amp. I didn't need one, but...if you watch a video for any hard rock, heavy metal, or punk band, it's rare to not see a Marshall. Pretty much all of my heroes have played Marshalls. I had the SL-5C a while back, and I loved the way it sounded, but honestly, a 5-watt, 45-pound combo with no effects loop or other way to obtain a solo boost just wasn't the most practical thing for me. (You can't put a boost in front of the overdrive channel or it just gets crunchier, not louder.)

And the day after I said that, what should come up on the local Craigslist but a Marshall Origin 20 head? I made the guy an offer and we made the deal.

I haven't gotten a chance to really exercise it yet; I've messed around with it at home for a bit, and I took it to one band recording session where I DI'ed it, and we were only recording drum tracks that day, therefore we weren't even thinking about guitar tone, so it wasn't really much of a test.

The good: Firstly, it's undeniable that it looks cool. It looks like a classic Marshall. And overall, it feels really well-made. It's solid but not too heavy for a full-size tube head. The feature set and design are just about perfect, what I would have chosen in an amp if I were designing one myself. And the sound is definitely Marshall - of a specific sort...

The less-good: This is not a high-gain amp. It's not even stock JCM800 gain. And that's OK; I knew that going in. But honestly, I think some of the videos you see out there are kind of misleading. For example, check out Marshall's own promo video at about 2:40:

There is no way that I have found to get that sound out of the Origin 20 without cranking the almighty f*ck out of both volume and gain. Which is an option. But even the low power setting is REALLY DAMN LOUD through a 2x10 if you dime the gain and volume. So that makes the amp a little less flexible than one might want. There is a reason why pretty much all of the demos are recorded through a load box.

The DI is nothing to write home about. I guess I'm glad it's there, all things considered. The master volume controls the DI volume, which I find weird. Is that normal? I guess it makes some sense, given how important the power stage is to the sound of this amp, but I thought the whole point of DI was that you get a consistent level out of it.

Also, I thought I'd test my usual trick of putting a clean boost in the effects loop to boost volume for solos. After a good bit of experimenting and swearing, I turn to the internet and discover: the effects loop on the Origin DOES NOT WORK UNLESS THE FOOTSWITCH IS PLUGGED IN. I, buying used, did not get one. Fortunately, there is a neat trick for using a dummy plug to force it on, but...who the hell decided that was a good design? "You must plug in a footswitch that you don't even want in order to use a completely different feature"?

So I'm still a little divided on the Origin. There's no question that Marshall has succeeded in its goal of making a 1970's-style amp with some modern features, but it is very much a 1970's style amp for all that that means, good and bad. And maybe that's just not quite what I'm looking for. I'll give it a fuller try at some more band practices and a gig before I render a final verdict.

golem · Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:59 pm

I hope you like it! I assumed they weren't high gain from my experience with Origin 5. Granted, you can add a pedal in the mix and get that level of gain. No you're making me wonder about the footswitch on mine

Mossman · Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:01 pm

Sorry you were underwhelmed with the amp. The DI output on my Fender Rumble is also controlled by the master volume, and I thought the same thing: "Who the hell thought this was a good idea??". Makes it kind of a pain for recording. I have to stick a 1/4" adapter in the headphone jack to defeat the speaker, because otherwise, I'd pummel the neighbors with BASS at the levels I need for recording. I'm not even sure how it's desirable in a live setting, either. The stage volume I want may not be commensurate with the signal I want going to FOH.

I can only imagine wiring the master volume to the DI is a cost-cutting measure. It's kinda the opposite of a "feature".

tlarson58 · Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:12 am

Mossman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:01 pm Sorry you were underwhelmed with the amp. The DI output on my Fender Rumble is also controlled by the master volume, and I thought the same thing: "Who the hell thought this was a good idea??". Makes it kind of a pain for recording. I have to stick a 1/4" adapter in the headphone jack to defeat the speaker, because otherwise, I'd pummel the neighbors with BASS at the levels I need for recording. I'm not even sure how it's desirable in a live setting, either. The stage volume I want may not be commensurate with the signal I want going to FOH.

I can only imagine wiring the master volume to the DI is a cost-cutting measure. It's kinda the opposite of a "feature".

I do work-around stuff like this all of the time thinking "why is this simple fix not in the ma nual?"

Maybe a unicorn dies somewhere every time a speaker is defeated by doing this.

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Happy New Amp Day! If nothing else, you have a Marshall foundation to add gain pedals to.

glasshand · Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:02 pm

I remembered the other day that I had a attenuator! So I connected the attenuator and dimed the amp...THAT'S how you get a crunchy sound out of the Origin. It's not the world's "cleanest" distortion - it's a little fuzzy and ragged - but it is what you expect from a dimed old-school Marshall and not an SLO100, and every guitar still has its own distinct character even with the amp dimed: humbuckers, P-90s, and Firebird mini-humbuckers all sound different. It's a little weird and new to me to have an amp with a master volume that still requires the master volume to be way up in order to get properly crunchy, but I guess that is the old-school way.

So the secret to working with this amp seems to be: rely on the master volume; use a "cheater" plug if you don't want to use the footswitch; and put a reverb pedal in the loop if you want reverb. I'm still not 100% sure if the Origin 20 will be here for the long term, but I'm definitely going to use it at some upcoming recording sessions and gigs, and we'll see then.

Mossman · Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:47 pm

tlarson58 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:12 am
Mossman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:01 pm Sorry you were underwhelmed with the amp. The DI output on my Fender Rumble is also controlled by the master volume, and I thought the same thing: "Who the hell thought this was a good idea??". Makes it kind of a pain for recording. I have to stick a 1/4" adapter in the headphone jack to defeat the speaker, because otherwise, I'd pummel the neighbors with BASS at the levels I need for recording. I'm not even sure how it's desirable in a live setting, either. The stage volume I want may not be commensurate with the signal I want going to FOH.

I can only imagine wiring the master volume to the DI is a cost-cutting measure. It's kinda the opposite of a "feature".
I do work-around stuff like this all of the time thinking "why is this simple fix not in the ma nual?"

Maybe a unicorn dies somewhere every time a speaker is defeated by doing this.

------

Happy New Amp Day! If nothing else, you have a Marshall foundation to add gain pedals to.

I used to have a Fender Bassman that did NOT cut the speaker when you plugged in headphones. At first, I thought it was defective, but I looked in the manual and it said you had to UNPLUG the speaker when you use headphones!

I found out about that particular "feature" the hard way, BTW. I was practicing with headphones in my apartment around midnight, and I was totally oblivious to the fact the sound was still coming out of the speaker. At some point, I sat down on the amp and thought: "Why is the amp vibrating??', which was followed by an angry knock on my door.

I think that's an even dumber (deliberate) design feature than having the master volume control the DI output. I don't know why they thought people would enjoy constantly unplugging their speaker every time they wanted to use headphones, when EVERY OTHER AMP ON THE PLANET cuts off the speaker automatically. But at least the DI had its own output control.

glasshand · Mon Sep 20, 2021 2:08 pm

And coincidentally enough, Ola Englund just did one of his "Will It Chug?" videos with the Origin 20! And I really appreciate this one because he is not using a load box, and he comments several times on how loud it is when you get it really distorted, and how you can't back off the master without losing some of the gain.

redman · Mon Sep 20, 2021 3:09 pm

Super Nice @glasshand many moons ago I had a 100 watt Plexi sitting on a full stack my 2 4X112 cabinets I must admit were Peavey but it still sounded awesome but as age set in I didn't like lugging it around 3 trips to the truck/van/bus just to off load my amp I sold it and bought a Messa Boogie Lone Star 2X12 combo it was still heavy as hell about 80 lbs but one trip to the vehicle got it on stage. Weigjht was what caused us to go from our Cerwin Vega Eliminator series top cabinets to JBL's and we finally started bigger venues and making enough money to use a sound company that supplied everything including a guy to mix and run the board.

glasshand · Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:05 pm

I used the Origin 20 at a gig on Saturday night for the first time, after experimenting with it at practice and at home. It sounded great, but ultimately I don't think I'm going to stick with it.

The thing about the Origin 20, like I've said, is that it is very "vintage", and one of the things that means is that tone and volume are intimately tied together: you can't really change one without changing the other. This can be a bit of a problem playing live, because you may not be able to get your preferred volume and your preferred tone at the same time. If you get a great tone, it may be too loud (using a higher wattage setting) or too quiet/not enough headroom (at a lower wattage setting). Get the volume right, and the tone you're looking for may not be there. I ended up goosing the front end with an EHX East River Drive, which definitely solves that issue.

I also stuck a reverb in the effects loop, since there's none onboard. And that works fine too, although you do need to use either the footswitch or a "cheater" plug to enable the loop.

Like I said, it sounded pretty good...but so does my Orange CR120, and I don't have to bring an overdrive or a reverb pedal or anything else, and the master volume works in a more modern fashion.