Can't dial in my Origin 20 to save my life all of a sudden

[Goober23]

Nope it's me.... I suck!!

 

[Timo V]

Nope it's me.... I suck!!

No you don't.

 

[jeffb]

Tatzman makes a great point. That's some heavy competition you have to judge against a budget amp.

I've gone full circle. Big power back in my younger days, lower wattage recent years and now back to the real stuff.

I had every 20 watt Marshall makes minus the SC. Dumped them all for a Germino Lead 55LV. All those amps are fine but I don't regret getting rid of them. I will never go back down in wattage again.

+1. The ORI is a neat amp, but it cannot compete with the absolute legendary Marshalls like the 2203 and 1959. It's a price point amp to get you in the ballpark of old school Marshall tone-but it won't win a World Series.

 

[Vinsanitizer]

Nope it's me.... I suck!!

Stop sucking?

 

[Moony]

If all the other amps sound great with your playing only the Origin 20 does not - then it's just not the right amp for you.
I don't think it's rocket science to dial it in correctly, so it seems you just don't like how that amp sounds.
Why messing around with it any longer?

 

[Goober23]

If all the other amps sound great with your playing only the Origin 20 does not - then it's just not the right amp for you.
I don't think it's rocket science to dial it in correctly, so it seems you just don't like how that amp sounds.
Why messing around with it any longer?

I'm not a good guitar player and don't ever obtain a tone I'm happy with. That said I did a small clip and replicated it with the 2203, The SLP, The JVM (both crunch orang red and OD orange), The Origin-20, And even A Bugera infinium 1960 for good measure.
I also tried tracking it with Amplitube-5 (JCM 800 sim), Amp Lion2, and ML Sound Labs 800.
I did all of them with two tracks each with Reaper hard panned and double Tracked. I played the same rhythm on each track
with individual performances on each track. I tried to dial in all amps for the same tone (with the idea that each amp will produce the same basic tone with their own "flavors" of said tone. With some "twiddling and fiddling" of the tone stacks and gain levels I was able to make them all VERY similar. I pounded out a bass line and installed an appropriate drum groove with Superior Drummer-2 to create a well produced sounding cut.
To me the CLEAR winners were the 2203 and surprisingly the Bugera 1960! The Origin was a close follower in this test in fact it had that sweet 1970's rock tone with only slightly less but noticeable presence. There was a "wooliness" to the tone that was a slight detractor but I'm thinking a 12AY-7 may help there. The SLP was about the same as the Bugera so I mentioned the BUG as I was impressed by how well it copied the target design (Had that thing in my barn unused for years as I'm rather embarrased to own it but can't bring myself to foo it
The Origin seems fine> As a side I did try it with both a Boss OD-1 and an MXR Ragin' drive both sounded like CaCa to me.
The VST based sims wer incredibly bad which surprised me as they sound so good to me when I noodle.

 

[V-man]

Those are your ticket. Dont waste any more
money for lower grade stuff. Unless youre
getting it for free or dirty cheap...but then a
waste of time still.

Sell it, wait for a good deal on a jtm45.
Its not that much bigger but plain and simple
a better amp which sounds good at any setting
and is a logical onpar addition to your amps i listed above.

There may be something to this here. You have a ton of british-voiced (Marshalls) in the stables and the best of the best at that.

It is one thing to take a Peavey 6505 and the 2203 and appreciate the differences. It is another to take a plexi-ish “tribute” style amp and stack it against your genuine article.

If the origin sounds like shit, you obviously have a problem. If it just sounds lackluster, that may be because it sounds so close to the gear you have/are used to but just not right/as good.

 

[V-man]

I'm not a good guitar player and don't ever obtain a tone I'm happy with.

With the gear you have, I am starting to consider simply believing your contention of having bad ears and/or hands.

I’m no Yngvie Van Rhoads myself, but my experience with a 1959 Super Lead is that (straight in) it is impossible to get a bad setting, just awesomeness with your level of (super-)briteness to taste.

With a 2203 (I too have a ‘78), it is not difficult to dial the right tones for rock or metal with the right boost for your taste. I literally came into my old roomate’s room to ask him what he was playing, so smitten was I over the thrash tone and he smugly held up his phone indicating he recorded me screwing around the other day. Yes, I actually fell in love with my own tone on a 2203.

 

[JazzBrandee]

I always run it the same way, and it sounds like sexy gravy.

Low watt mode.
Volume dimed.
Roll up the gain to about 3 or 4 to get that clean/edge of break up tone.
Whack an overdrive in front of it for your rocking tone.

Got some decent compliments out of that, and that's before I put the creamback in.