MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
I bought a Marshall Origin 50 used from GC the other week. Cosmetically it looked pristine, functionally something was off. Even on the high power mode with gain and master maxed it was relatively quiet. Like my little 5 watt DIY build was louder. I didn't put a whole lot of effort into diagnosing the problem. Several here confirmed that it should be wall shaking loud through a 412; and it wasn't. I messaged Jason Tong about it and he pointed to a couple of things it could be; which ranged from a bad switch to the transformer going out. It was easier to return it, than dealing with trying to diagnose the problem.
Round 2, GC had another one listed at the same price. I decided to call the store to ask about more about the condition & functionality. The sales guy was straight forward and said it was rougher than pictures online showed. It was mainly a large tear in the tolex. He said it was 100% functional and the faceplate was fine. He also knocked $100 off the price plus free shipping. Just over $300 including tax worked for me.
The amp came in yesterday, just as the sales guy said it would look. There is a hole and multiple scuff marks on the tolex. The only unexpected thing was it missing a rubber foot. All of this is of no concern to me. I had planned to recover the shell a different color anyway. At least this way I won't feel bad about ripping off a perfectly good cover. Cosmetically, the most important part for me; the faceplate, looks perfect. No scuffs or scratches on it.
The really important part, everything worked as it should and it was sounding as loud as I would expect a 50 watt amp to be. Gain maxed and creeping up to 4-5 on the Master it was getting up there. Stepping through the power modes I could hear the change in volume. Surprisingly low watt mode was louder than I expected.
All that said I purchased the Origin 50 specifically to mod the crap out of it into a high gain beast. I already purchased Jason's drop-in PCB mod. This fully replaces the main board and the board with all the knobs. The only original board that's kept is the one with the output jacks on it. So I pretty much got the transformers, chassis, hardware, shell, etc. for $300. The mod board was $150. I haven't priced it out yet, but I'm guessing +/- $100 for resistors/capacitors and such plus another $30 or so for a couple yards of tolex. We'll say about $600 investment for a fun side project. You'd be hard pressed to buy an amp kit for that price. Plus I can use the original boards as another project; which I'm thinking about making that into a stand alone preamp.
Of course I'll mess around with it as stock while I order and wait for stuff to be delivered. First impressions is it has a really nice JTM45-esque tone. I'm pretty sure a vintage JTM45 would sound better, but the Origin does a reasonable representation of that tone. I'd actually consider getting one to keep stock if I didn't already have my Vintage Modern. The VM covers same/similar tones so a stock Origin would be too redundant.
I snapped one quick pic this morning. I'll post some gut shots later when I get home this afternoon and pull it out the shell.
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Round 2, GC had another one listed at the same price. I decided to call the store to ask about more about the condition & functionality. The sales guy was straight forward and said it was rougher than pictures online showed. It was mainly a large tear in the tolex. He said it was 100% functional and the faceplate was fine. He also knocked $100 off the price plus free shipping. Just over $300 including tax worked for me.
The amp came in yesterday, just as the sales guy said it would look. There is a hole and multiple scuff marks on the tolex. The only unexpected thing was it missing a rubber foot. All of this is of no concern to me. I had planned to recover the shell a different color anyway. At least this way I won't feel bad about ripping off a perfectly good cover. Cosmetically, the most important part for me; the faceplate, looks perfect. No scuffs or scratches on it.
The really important part, everything worked as it should and it was sounding as loud as I would expect a 50 watt amp to be. Gain maxed and creeping up to 4-5 on the Master it was getting up there. Stepping through the power modes I could hear the change in volume. Surprisingly low watt mode was louder than I expected.
All that said I purchased the Origin 50 specifically to mod the crap out of it into a high gain beast. I already purchased Jason's drop-in PCB mod. This fully replaces the main board and the board with all the knobs. The only original board that's kept is the one with the output jacks on it. So I pretty much got the transformers, chassis, hardware, shell, etc. for $300. The mod board was $150. I haven't priced it out yet, but I'm guessing +/- $100 for resistors/capacitors and such plus another $30 or so for a couple yards of tolex. We'll say about $600 investment for a fun side project. You'd be hard pressed to buy an amp kit for that price. Plus I can use the original boards as another project; which I'm thinking about making that into a stand alone preamp.
Of course I'll mess around with it as stock while I order and wait for stuff to be delivered. First impressions is it has a really nice JTM45-esque tone. I'm pretty sure a vintage JTM45 would sound better, but the Origin does a reasonable representation of that tone. I'd actually consider getting one to keep stock if I didn't already have my Vintage Modern. The VM covers same/similar tones so a stock Origin would be too redundant.
I snapped one quick pic this morning. I'll post some gut shots later when I get home this afternoon and pull it out the shell.
