Marshall ORI20C Origin 1x10" 20-watt Tube Combo Amp Reviews

The clean sound is crisp and sparkling. Pop up and turn the gain and master volumes to get the full bite and grit of the overdrive. The presence and tilt control knobs are very useful to change your sound. I really like switch where you can adjust the amp's output to 1W, 5W, or 20W. The amp takes pedals very well. I have a Strat, PRS, and D'Anelico semi hollow and they all sound amazing with the origin 20. I'm glad I purchased it. Thanks to Jeff W the sales engineer for helping me out with this purchase.

Love it! Perfect! It has "the sound"

If the Marshall company would let me into their factory and design my own amp, it would be the Origin 20 - not kidding. This amp suits my needs to a tee. I play mostly edge-of-breakup clean and prefer to get my high gain dirt from pedals (see pic). The cleans from this amp are crisp, bright and full-bodied and soak up pedals like a sponge. It is a low-gain affair so there are miles of headroom to work with. There is some inherent OD but you really have to crank the gain AND the master volume to get there, at which point it is very, very loud, even at the lowest power setting. Even then, it is AC/DC type distortion at best. Humbuckers or P90s might get you a little more than that.

It is a bright amp with ample mids and bottom end, imo. The brightness can be controlled 3 ways; Tilt, Treble & Presence. I've found that by keeping the Treble knob low, around 3, and dialing in my highs with the Presence & Tilt, I'm getting some very sweet trebles without any harshness. You'll have to do some experimenting to find where your sweet spot is, but it is there, I promise.

The stock speaker seems to be well chosen for this amp. The VT Jr has great clarity & definition, tight bottom end and a very slight mid-hump that is actually a little flatter than what is typical of Celestion speakers. I plan to give it at least 100 hrs before deciding if an upgrade is necessary. In the meantime, it sounds glorious and is everything I think a Marshall speaker should be.

I'm not going to pretend to understand how "Powerstem Technology" works but I can say with 100% surety that this is the best power reduction circuit I've ever seen on any amp. To my ears, the tone quality of the 20w, 3w & .5w settings sound identical. I have other amps with built-in attenuators and I never use the lower settings because the tones sound thin & muffled. The lowest setting on the Origin 20 sounds crisp, clear and full, only quieter, of course. This makes for an amp that is equally useful in the studio or bedroom as it is on stage. Don't take my word for it -go check one out. I didn't believe it myself until I heard it in person.

I've never played through a Plexi, so I can't attest to the Origin's claims of sounding like that iconic machine. I will say that the ORI20C sounds like what I believe a classic single-channel Marshall should sound like. As previously stated, this is not a high gain amp. If you need modern metal tones from your amp, look elsewhere. If you want pristine Marshall cleans, this amp is for you. If, like me, you prefer edge-of-breakup clean-ish tones and use pedals for the heavy dirt, it's hard to beat the Origin 20C. Get one before the price goes up again.

So , I received the Origin from Sweetwater packed well. Plugged in, sounded "tinny" and sterile. Played it the next day for about 2 hours. Messed with the Tilt, bass, presence, etc., and WHAT? Suddenly it started sounding better and better and by day three I just can't stop playing through it, and my face hurts from grinning so much!
The deal is (as I have discovered), even though the controls are simple, you gotta dial it in, and you have to let the speaker (and tubes) break in for a few hours (sorry neighbors:).
This IS classic Marshall tone reminiscent of a classic JTM-45. Just like old school Marshall, it sounds best with the master cranked and adjust volume with the gain control. Running a Les Paul R-8 , I also set the Tilt control only 1/4 the way up, treble OFF and use the presence control instead of the treble to brighten it up. The nice thing is=, with the master on full, you get the power tubes cooking and if it's too loud, you can use the 1/2 power switch to reduce volume as needed.
This amp also sounds great with my Telecaster. I mean REALLY great. Tuned it to open G, cranked the volume, and I am Keith Richards.
I didn't mention pedals because this is all just straight in to the amp. But, I tried a Boss SD-1 (with the analogman mod), and it's instant ZZ Top, ac/dc, you name it.
This is truely an inspirational amp.

I love this amp. It is perfect and ideal for my playing style. Love the power switching option. Played first gig in 3 watt mode mic'd. My crowed absolutely loved the sound. I love this more than any other amp I've had for its size.

What the doctor ordered! Great Amp…I use it mainly for Blues in home-studio and recording.

Was super easy dialing in the range of tones I wanted. Sounds great with straight onboard controls. Ran my pedal board through the fx loop...super clean. Great clean tones, sweet, disks up all the crunch I want. Putting a MOJO MOJO on the front end brings the amp all the home. Speaker, even pre break in, is very nice. Good upper mids, highs aren't shrill even when tone shifted to the brightest set. IMHO, great amp, priced right, and my welcome back to the first half of the 70s.

I've been playing through Marshalls since the late '60s, starting with a 100w Superlead plexi. Like many old-school players, I scaled down year by year as we came to realize you can't use a Marshall stack effectively for most bar gigs, and since i never made the leap from bars to stadiums, the stacks were eventually replaced by combos. For a while I gigged with a JTM60, a beautiful-sounding 1x12 combo that sadly had overheating issues. Then I went down the Fender road for a while, having sold my plexi and my JTM60, and went through Supers, Deluxes, and Blues Jrs.

When I read about the Origin 20C I had to try it. I was sold within 10 min of plugging in at a local music store. It reminded me very much of my old JTM60, and was also reminiscent of JTM45s, which I never owned but have played through. There's also a bit of a Bluesbreaker feel about it, but it's way more usable in terms of usable stage volume and manageable weight. Only weighs 30 lbs, just a bit less than a Blues Jr.

Before plunking down my credit card, I compared it with the Marshall SV-20C, which costs nearly 3x as much as the Origin combo. I didn't think it sounded 3x better. The SV-20C weighs 5 lbs more than the Origin. Both of these amps sound incredible considering the 1x10 platform. They're easily the least boxy-sounding 10" combos I've played through. I think it has to do with the cab designs; the dimensions are bit roomier than in the average 10" combo. There's plenty of low end in both amps. But I found the Origin 20C to be much easier to dial in for a great sound quickly. Having owned a plexi before, I wasn't too keen on returning to the hassle of jumping channels and tweaking. In the end, I bought the Origin because it sounded great, and it was lighter and less expensive.

I've been gigging regularly with the Origin for six months now in venues ranging from small dive bars to auditoriums, and it has performed flawlessly so far. Build quality is better than I expected, for the price. I bought in Bangkok, and as luck would have it, the weakened baht this year meant that in US dollars I paid only $600 for it, brand new. Great buy. It works very well with most pedals, in fact better than any 10" and most 12" combos I've owned or played. Way better than a Princeton, for example. Lastly the Origin holds together well even with every knob dimed, something no Fender combo can handle without turning to complete mud.

I've been a solid-state amp guy chasing tone via pedals and getting frustrated. Man, what was I waiting for?! No need for compression, just a touch of reverb and delay with the FX loop and the tone is gorgeous! The DI out is a great feature, but honestly I would mic the amp the sound is so clean. The attenuator switch cuts the volume, but not the tone (which is handy to keep my spouse happy) - although the harmonics with my vintage Gibson ES hollow body are out of this world at slightly higher volumes. I am a very happy camper!

I got it from Sweetwater with a Squier classic vibe strat. Customer service was excellent. Everyone there was so nice and they knew what they were talking about. If you can make the trip to Fort Wayne IN, I recommend it.
The amp sounds really good and has an amazing feature set. The tilt knob is really useful for dialing in your tone for different guitars. And then the power switching is awesome. I usually use it @ the low setting (I believe it is 1 watt?) and it's still powerful! great buy for an even greater price

I have owned several Marshall amps many years ago. I told my Sweetwater engineer Eric Mathews what kind of sound I was looking for without spending alot for a high end Marshall setup.
With the pedal selection, I ask him his opinion.
He thought the Marshall Origin 20 watt would make a great selection. And he was correct.
It can be as clean and pristine in sound to a deep hard rock sound and anything inbetween.
I love the amp. And highly recommend it.

As long as you know what you are buying, this is a great amp. Very loud amplifier and takes pedals well. Not a high gain amp, but will give you the "Marshall"sound as long as you turn up the Gain and Master Volume--which is very loud, even with the attenuator. Has a nice clean tone as well. As always, I received great service from Sweetwater.

My second Marshall amp. I had a 10 or 15 watt practice Marshall amp years ago and sold it. It had a good grind sound but I was playing with a country group and when the gain went down I simply disappeared at practice. The clean sound was good but very very quiet. Then I went big. The Fender Twin reverb. Sounded glorious clean but lacked the grind I wanted. After all we were playing covers and requests and at private parties you have to do what you have to do. I went through the solid state stuff. Mostly fizzy distorted sounds and sterile cleans. You'd tweak yourself to death to build a preset at home to have it fall flat at a gig. Too much choice isn't always good. Add in the fact that some amps are great but unless you have your laptop there you can't tweak easily. I only mention these issues because all the huge pedal boards and 100 thousand presets can make you crazy when you just want to make music. In the studio I'm toy oriented but live I just need a few nice and a few not so nice sounds to make it work.

The Origin line Marshall came up with has been a breath of fresh air. It has the base covered with grind and clean, gain stage my amp with the clean sounds into a decent tone with a bit of hair on it to solo when I want to achieve good dynamics without going over the top volume wise.

I use a compressor first which I leave on all the time then a two stage pedal with a built in adjustable boost built in into the front of the amp when I feel like pushing the preamp saturation. The effects loop is used with a combination processor which gives me reverb,delays,tremolo,chorus rotary sounds etc. on presets that I can use singly but the base tones of the amp gives me a nice base sound set that I'm happy with even when I switch guitars.

I run the Humbuckers about midway and the single coils a bit higher in volume. I can usually just mess with the guitars controls and dial in what I need.
The effects loop is switchable with the Marshall foot switch as is the amp boost function so there is a way to dump the effects or boost as wanted. If I want a cutting solo I hate effects washing it out.
The feel for harmonics vibrato etc. on the guitar is great. The use of a 10 inch speaker is I think a good choice. The ten inch keeps you away from the mud of conflicting mush frequencies that abound. I'm happy with it cutting through the mud and being heard better. The tilt function as well as the prescience control dictates very well where you want to stay in the mix. Mine is usually around noon setting on both depending on the room.
The power scaling is nice. At times if switching from gain sounds to clean I may choose to go to the next setting. I wish that was on the foot switch but for cleans it's good to have the head room. I've tried it with a 12 inch speaker cabinet and it sounds good by itself but in a mix probably wouldn't cut as well as the 10 inch speaker.
EL 34s give the amp a different personality than I'm accustomed to. I like the overall tone very well. The grind is there and the cleans are adequate. Not Fender twin cleans but they seem to have a nice bite to them.

The amp is I feel plenty loud to do bars and medium sized rooms without reinforcement. I have not used to DI output so I can't comment on that. But it is there.
I don't care for the gymnastics involved in accessing the effects loop,foot switch connections etc. They are just in a goofy place for a combo amp. I would guess that's because they were designed first as a head. You need to lay the amp face down to see what you're doing. Minor detail.

If you want a good Marshall tube amp without spending 1500 -2000 bucks this is a great place to start. A pedal or two gets that sound without killing your wallet.
You'll need to tweak on it to figure out where your sweet spots are settings wise but once there you'll gain a good feel quickly.
It's light weight , pretty loud , gig-able .
It's not high gain but pedals push the preamp well. The power scaling makes sense. Effects loop being switchable is nice as is the gain switch.

I've been wanting to upgrade to a better, though still reasonably compact sized guitar amplifier. After doing my homework, my salesman Jon Mostacato suggested this amp, seeing that he has the head version. Thanks Jon.
I've been looking for something that wasn't going to kill my wallet, but sound great, especially with pedals.
I'm blown away by its versatility, for sure.
This amp is fantastic! Legendary Marshall tube tone in a combo amp with a great look. The power switch is perfect for practicing your chops in the bedroom, while still retaining that legendary tone. This amp really impressed me far beyond my expectations. Can't recommend it enough! Again, thank you Jon Mastacato and the team at Sweetwater for getting this to me safe and sound,(and on time), to the Island of Kauai, Hawaii
Mahalo

Great amp for home, quick-go, small room amp. Play LP Standard and EC Strat through it and can dial in my sound which is mostly early Muddy, Hebgert Sumlin, Jimme Rogers stuff and is much lighter than my Vibrolux '68.I use no pedals or effects so not sure about that one. I tend to stay with simple rigs and somewhat "raw" sound just as my heros from the past did.(not sure I'll ever get there, but I'm trying!!!!
Oh and my best of best saleman Matt Zuleger is the best.
Only have one complaint, I'm going broke buying guitars , amps and stuff just to get the candy, LOL. We cant get a Bit o Honey around here and I think Sweetwater has them all, LOL.
But It's Sweetwater all the way for me!!

If you want a proper old school Super Lead/JMP sort of sound, (basically the sound of 70's classic rock) this will do it.

It's as basic as the old Marshalls, but it might not be intuitive to some (like me), on a lot of amps, you can turn up the gain, and turn the master volume way down, and get all the distortion you want at a low volume. Not with this amp. You have to run the gain and master high in order to get that good old marshall filth (it's power amp distortion). So yes, it's going to be terrifically and terrifyingly loud, even on 0.5 watt mode!

If your guitar has humbuckers, you'll naturally get more amp distortion than with single coils. With the boost, you get a bit more amp distortion (it's a 20db clean boost, it doesn't actually make the amp louder, it pushes the preamp to distort a little more) The boost also adds a little bass, which can actually be helpful with cleaner settings and single coils.

The tilt feature is pretty neat, they say you can replicate the different sounds from the 2 channels of old Marshalls with it, in reality it's simply an over all tone control. But you know, marketing...

The EQ is what you'd expect from a Marshall, the bass control doesn't do a lot, (guitars don't need much bass anyway) the mids are quite dramatic, and smooth, even on 10. The treble control doesn't do a whole lot once you have the mids turned up (there's quite a bit of high end in the mids)

The presence control is where it's at. If you're going to run a fuzz, that needs to be set high. If you don't turn the presence up high, the fuzz is going to sound absymal. Doesn't matter how you have the EQ and Tilt set, it will be too bassy, and just very muddled, and a pretty bigh perceived volume drop once you turn it on.

But if you run the tilt around half way, the presence all the way up, and the treble all the way down, you'll have the marshall "bite" when bypassed, and with a fuzz, you'll have a loud and simply berserk fuzz tone. Think of a live Hendrix sort of fuzz sound. It won't get messy even with the volume and gain at full blast.


Anyway, the amp does have a pair of EL34's and 3 12ax7's and it's Cathode biased. Meaning as long as you use a matched set of tubes, it's plug and play, no rebiasing necessary.

The cabinet is nice, the tolex is well done, and inside there's more than enough room for a 12" speaker. Wonder why they decided on a 10? But the V Type Jr does seem to be a good speaker anyway.

All in all, I have no complaints at all. This is a really good Marshall.

I really love this amp! At first I was kind of shopping around for an upgrade and when I talked to my sales associate Brandt Miller he suggested the Origin 20 I looked it up and really loved the sound so I decided to get it. It's a really nice amp with quality sound I would definitely recommend it!

My Origin came today...I play blues and classic rock...this amp is not only beyond beautiful...it has vintage Marshall tones in spades ! You have to crack it in order to get that "sound" that sweet spot...I'm not able to crank it unfortunately, however, I ran a proco rat in front of it and classic rock tones verging on hair metal easily. Great clean tones as well. Do not hesitate to purchase this amp. I went with the combo becuz I mainly play in my room. But will be getting a 2x12 for the basement. And btw...this is my first Marshall lol...crazy huh ?! Amazing amp !

Clear, clean and has a little special sauce (vacuum tubes). I use this to keep up with my singing wife. Her voice is able to fill a room and my classical guitar fills maybe half of the room. Now we're able to play together and both be heard.

There isn't much I can add to what other reviewers have noted. It isn't a high gain metal amp, it's very old school 60's Marshall tone and gain levels. The beauty is you can get that amazing tube saturation edge of breakup gain at less than ear-splitting volumes, or you can run it flat out if bleeding is your thing. It also handles high gain distortion class pedals extremely well for a low gain amp. The 10" speaker sounds bigger and fuller to my ears than most 10's, but a cabinet with bigger speakers should solve any perceived problems with that.
All in all, an amazing bang for your buck Old School Marshall.
Also, I must spend a moment to praise Sweetwater's outstanding customer service. I bought this as a demo, so I knew it wasn't pristine, but it arrived with significant damage to the cabinet that clearly wasn't due to the shipper. The box was undamaged. Dylan from customer service listened to my concerns and more than made up for this and made me extremely happy I decided to use Sweetwater instead of the other big chain that has a local store. He offered to replace it, but we came to an alternate deal I couldn't be more pleased with. I can't say enough good things about Sweetwater. Thank you Chris, Dylan, and the rest of the Sweetwater staff! Customer for life!

This thing sounds wonderful clean and takes pedals really well. I posted a pic of my board to give you an idea of what is running into it. I don't use the effects loop, so no opinion there, nor do I run it dirty.

The 2 best things this has going for it is the 10" speaker, and the fact that you can adjust the high end at 3 points along the signal path. These are Tilt, High, & Presence. Coming from mostly Fender amps, the mid knob is also welcome. The knobs aren't like some vintage, where they don't do much, but are quite reactive. The "10 V Type is nice and focused. Non pedal users may miss the low end of a 12" driver. What I've noticed with the 10", is that I'm able to utilize more of the range on my mod and time based effects. No muddiness or thumping, but a clear and focused tone. I would argue personally that the amp has enough low end. I think anything you're missing is falling victim to the mix anyway.

Weight is great and it's roughly the size of a Princeton.

Picked this up after a tip from my Sweetwater sales engineer. Read all the reviews between the DSL series and the Origin. Price point for Origin was where I wanted to be. Perfect amp for me. The Origin is not a high gain amp, but is the perfect pedal amp.
Does everything I need and more.

I've had this amp a little over a year now. It is a pretty sweet amp and I'm glad I got it. I waited over a year after it came out at NAAM just to see if the hype on it was real..........it is.

I really do love this amp. My friends I also love it and are very impressed with it.

To start, it is light.... And has a relatively small footprint. So it's easy to travel with and does not take up a lot of space.

Next is the versatility. The fact that you can dial it back to one or five watts makes it great for home use. Then opening it up to full/Hi power of 20 watts, there is plenty of clean headroom and volume. Most all of my amplifiers are vintage style, whereas you have to crank the volume to get break up. This having a gain knob, you can get crunch without ear bleeding volume levels.

Then there is the Presence and Tilt knobs. These actually work and do change the sound.....Very cool.

The look of this amplifier is so cool. Not much more needed to say.

The boost is a great feature as well and could eliminate the need for a drive pedal. It just takes the current sound gives it a little more volume and Slight drive with a mid boost that sounds fantastic.

I bought this after they went on sale and I would say is a great value for what you were getting. And the authentic tube sound.

Now, in my opinion, what would've made this amplifier mind blowing-awesome would be if they kept the same footprint but put a 12 inch speaker in it and gave it some spring reverb.
Otherwise, I really do not have any complaints.

I love it .
It’s a low gain amp so take that into consideration when buying.
I also have the 50h but I got the little combo for when I feel silly bringing a head and cab to a little gig.
Feel and response is my favorite quality of this amp and how well the controls work to tune it. Most every time I thought my rig didn’t sound right I have been able to fix it with the dials. I’ve added a video. Take into consideration that I owned this amp for 3 hours before taking to this show and since learned to get a little more out of it. Also it’s camera audio. The camera is right in front of the bass amp and directly over a 60 watt hot rod deluxe ... I’m surprised you can hear me at all with that camera location. The little combo is kicked back against the wall behind me across the room. I have a prince of tone overdrive on for the whole song. I was very impressed with the output and handling of this little amp.

It is supposed to be an Xmas gift, so please don't tell my wife that I've used the amp enough to do a review! Thanks Sweetwater and Jim for making this happen...Personal, professional service ROCKS! Thanks Marshall! This amp is totally off the hook. 20 Watts is the perfect size for my act. In fact the band loves the sound so much, both guitar players will be using Origin for our 2020 tour season! My lead guitar player got the head, and I have the combo. We are using it with Les Paul's and occasionally Les Paul Jr with P90's. Can't beat the simplicity of the panel layout...Excellent Boost function as well! Very true organic distortion with all the correct harmonic overtones that we need. Unmatched touch sensitivity...In fact, I A/B tested this with my Marshall Artist (circa 1987) and was just blown away by the difference. I've always found it hard to get my sound with the cascading gain stages and large amounts of compression that most Marshall's offer. I have 3 other Marshalls in 30,40, and 100 watt formats. Finally, they have put fourth something that fits my needs for touch sensitivity and a wide range of harmonic sounds!! I just love it...Now, as always, had to do a little work to make it my own - Took out the 16 ohm "made in china" celestion speaker and put in my own Jensen Jet Falcon which was broken in already from use in another amp. I've done a lot of speaker testing over the years and Jensen is so much better (Made in Italy) Vs any china made speaker. In fact, it is quite annoying that Celestion chooses to make some speakers there. I will NEVER use a chinese made speaker, and recommend either Jet Falcon or MOD series for most guitar players that want a satisfying mid-range. Also, we do not prefer 16 Ohm speakers, and the amp is nicely equipped with alternate impedence output. It was a no brainer for me to switch to my own 8 Ohm speaker. The cab is actually pretty accessable once you remove the back panels and the head. Be careful becuase the lug that holds into the baffle is a lttle cheesy and two did come out on mine. A little glue on them for re-installation should keep them in going forward. I did not re-install the middle section because I like to be able to reach into the amp and use it for storage if needed. Very pleased with the J&J Tubes especially the matched power set! Marshall gets it right with Origin!! Can't wait to gig with this on 12/28!!

I've been looking for a vintage amp that doesn't break the bank . I found it , did not have to spend any time to find the sweet spot , great value !

Can't even begin to say how great this little amp is. I literally played on it all day from the moment I unboxed it. My service tech at Sweetwater: Mark Magdich went above & way beyond the call of duty on this and a string of prior purchases, they have my biz for life. I had been wanting an amp to go straight in and get some sweet tones without pedals other than a reverb... The Origins specs aligned perfectly. My girlfriend even liked it... 'Ooooo that's sexy ; } ...! ' Who knew?

The amp... it really is a sexy little tone machine with tons of aesthetic vibe & just drips with tone. It's a baby blues-breaker. The tube & 10" speaker configuration was what really made me pull the trigger. If you like Princeton's or the old Peavy classic 30's this is worth serious consideration. When adding in the additional features, effects loop, select-able power modes and then the classic Marshall tone it is pretty to hard to beat. The price is very competitive especially considering a re-issue Princeton is around $800? Sweetwater's demo video of the amp is spot on. Depending on your pick-ups & the height adjustment you may have to crank the master up to at least 1/3 to get actual distortion and at the low power setting it is not going to blow you out of the room but a boost pedal can rectify thirst for higher levels of saturation. I personally did not want to put an overdrive in front of the pre-amp to keep the pure amp character and just used a basic boost / eq stomp ( highly recommended : ) JHS Haunting Mids •••• love that company) which relieved initial personal low level 'not enough grind' concerns, but note, this was only on a strat with the pickups adjusted close to the body. The 52 Tele with stock pu's killed it!

Tonally... the intricacy and subtitles of the tone controls and how they interact with eachother is startling great. I explored the amp w a Les Paul, 52 Tele, Strat & an archtop and was floored at the palette of great tones. Would be a great small gig amp even for a jazz gig with enough gas to push from the stage. Great tones all around sparkling highs, to creamy darker tastes.
Lastly the effects loop is super transparent and worked flawlessly w a TC Hall Of Fame.

So... there ya go.

Started playing in garage bands in 1964. Many years later still addicted to tone. Second Marshall amp.
All of the epic sounds are in there. Played several
Guitars through it. Les Paul, Paul Reed Smith,
Custom shop tele, each sounds like you thought
It should. My wife loves the fact that I can play and
Get great tone without rattling the windows. So.....
Take it from an OG rocker. It's the real deal.
Great customer care and service from Brian
Loney. Thanks.

What a nice amp had it for about a week and I think it gets better every time I use it I think Marshall did it right!

For years I played through a Marshall JTM 30 2x10 combo. Loved the amp, but it had an inherent design flaw when they put the tubes in horizontally. I fought it for years because I loved the sound, but it was just too unreliable for live gigs.

I was looking for something close to it, which led me to ORI20C. I'm a big believer in 10" speaker sound, and this amp did not disappoint. AT ALL. I love the one channel design, with the tilt control. You still get all the bass, treble, and mid control, but the tilt gives you added depth in the sound adjustment.

It's loud and proud. Nice feature of power control setting. Takes pedals well before the amp and in the effects loop. It's got air vents located on the top to keep it from overheating, which is the problem I had with the JTM.

Overall gave it 4 1/2 stars, ONLY because I wish Marshall had a 2x10 option. But honestly you would never know it by the knockout punch.

I'm a long, long time player and I've owned a crap-ton of amps over the decades, and I gotta say that I love this amp. It's got an old school Marshall sound and sounds great just guitar-to-amp. Perfect pedal platform for hitting the front, or using the effects loop which is awesome. The Boost comes through clear and loud with plenty of headroom, even when the amp is cranked. 3 power level switches let you go from the bedroom on low, to a small stage on high (You can line out to a 2x12 and rock a big stage). Mid level works great and sounds sweet enough for home studio use (without upsetting the neighbors to badly). I also like the Tilt switch... it basically blends the old "Normal" and "Bright" channels to your specifications.

I give the amp 4 1/2 Stars... no reverb holds it back a bit.

Going into this amp you need to be aware that it is no meant to be a high gain monster. It can get dirty with Master and Gain dimed but it will never produce more than an old-school growl on it's own (which I love). It takes pedals fantastically well and the power attenuation modes are really helpful additions that I love for lower volume playing (although, it's still pretty loud, even on the .5 watt setting... this is not an apartment amp).

The amp comes out of the box with a 10" Celestion VT jr. speaker and cheap Marshall branded tubes. I found both the speaker and tubes to be lacking. The high were a bit brittle and exaggerated and the bottom end was nonexistent.

Swapping a 10" Celestion G10 Creamback speaker is a great step forward. It brings out more bottom and tames the highs a bit. The next big upgrade is to add new tubes. The configuration I settled on was new production Mullard tubes in V1 and V2, and a Tung Sol in V3. I have yet to change the power tubes. With these modifications, this amp sounds bigger than you'd expect out of such a lightweight tube amp and it sounds great with both single coils and humbuckers.

I have notice a slight tube jingle, no matter the configuration I came up with. I'm guessing this is either the result of needing new power tubes or it's just the fact that this is a very loud tube amp in a small form factor. Things are gonna rattle. That said, it's not a deal breaker by any means.

One thing that I hate about the amp is the fact that you are required to have the footswitch connected in order to use the effects loop.

Overall, this is a fantastic low cost, lightweight amp that will give you that Marshall sound. Out of the box you can get AC/DC style tones. With an OCD or some other overdrive pedal in front, it can get you into high gain territory.

I love it despite it's minor flaws. It's one of my new favorites.

Nice amp good tones. I must say that I'm a little disappointed that I spend over $$$ on an amplifier and don't even get a bumper sticker. Kinda cheap, don't you think?

I like amps in the 20 - 30 watt range; small grab and go type of amps. This was perfect for what I like. It offers authentic Marshall tones and enough features to craft and customize some great tones. I have not gigged with it yet but I do believe it will keep up in smaller rooms and it can be mic'd in larger rooms. I am using it primarily to record and it works out great. I'm really pleased with this purchase.

Beautiful product with amazing sound and plenty loud for small room practice. Another great Sweetwater purchase. Tim

I first ordered the DSL 20CR and thought is sounded great but was too high-gain for my taste so I sent it back and got the Origin 20-watt combo and have been super pleased from day one.

The Origin 20C is great at home for practice - with pedals or without (the effects loop is a great feature). I love how you can get a little grit at very low volume -- but then when you turn the Master way up and the gain half way up or more, you get full on Marshall rock 'n roll tone -- perfect for a club gig.

Why 4.5 stars and not 5? I wish I could get just a little more nastiness at low volume, but when you turn it up, that is not a issue. Also, I do think this amp is better suited for Gibsons than Fenders, so fire up your SG and let 'er rip!

I had this on pre-order, soon as it was shown on the site.
I got it from Carson , who by the way is great to deal with, as he is a player as well!
This is a new adventure for Marshall, a low priced tube EL-34 20 watt amp, vintage style looks and
has a cool tilt feature which helps a lot on what type of pickups you use and a master volume and
power reduction modes as well.
The amp has some early vintage type tones and is a low gain platform , which is great for
pedal platforms to use.
Not everyone will like it, but if you spend the time and dial to your ears, it is a fun great little amp.
Also the speaker will need some break in time, to loosen up and has some vibe.
I love it and it suits my playing needs.

I'm really loving the tone from my new Marshall Origin 20. Classic EL34 sound. And it's loud for such a small amp. I was hoping the low output setting would be even quieter, but that's not a criticism. I need my volume to be very low to play at home. But my overdrive sounds great through this amp, even at whisper volume. I held back one star because the switches feel really cheap to me. I hope this won't become an issue in the future.

Ok, I haven't been able to gig it yet due to the Covid situation and all of my work being canceled. But... this is a super sweet little amp. I'm a Marshall guy from WAY back. I started playing in the 80's, Every time I heard a new guitar player that made me sit up and take notice, I'd look, and there was a Marshall. So naturally as a kid that's all I dreamed about. I've had most of the usual suspects. Ranging from 70's JMP models, to 80's JCM 2203, 2204, and 2205 models, 80's Artist series 3203 heads, to the 900 series 4100 heads and 4102 combos, to an early DSL50 head. I love Marshalls. One that I've never had and always wanted was a JTM. When you say "vintage style Marshall" to most people they go straight to Plexi voicings. But there were many awesome Marshalls before the Plexi amps. That's what this Origin series sounds like it's going for, to me. That earlier JTM vibe. This is vintage Brit blues/rock all over again. It's not a dead nuts knockoff or reissue. But it's got that vibe and sonic style in spades. I've had it almost a month now, and I am totally in love with it. Don't be fooled by twenty watts and a ten inch speaker. This little guy BARKS. Likewise, don't be scared off by one channel. If you know how to use it, there are a lot of sounds in this little box. Between the presence control, the (amazingly cool) tilt control, separate gain and master, the three band eq, the on-board boost, and the power scaling, you can cover a LOT of ground. And it will get LOUD. I have zero doubt this puppy will do small venue gigs, and larger ones mic'd. It's also got a ridiculous amount of low end for a little 1x10 combo. If you really wanna have fun with it, try it with different speaker cabs. I like to use an Egnater Tweaker 1x12 ext cab with mine. It makes a mini- stack that I have no doubt will handle any gig I'll need to do. I play mostly rootsy stuff. Classic and alternative country, Americana rock stuff, and blues and blues-rock. This amp makes it easy to get those killer "edge of breakup" tones at volumes that don't maim small animals. I'm super happy with it.

I bought this amp, which is my first tube amp, knowing it was not high gain. That's fine, my taste is changing towards lower gain anyway. The clean tones on this thing are wonderful. Being a brand new speaker, I'm unsure if it's the fact that it's not broken in, or the Chinese Celestion just doesn't handle overdrive well, but when I finally got to crank it the sound was not all that good. Add the boost and it's even worse. I'm gonna give it time before I replace the speaker. I'm already planning on swapping tubes, especially in the preamp. Overall it's a good amp for the price. I'll be saving the $ for the SV20H and a cab for my plexi fix.

I just received the amp but so far so good . Exactly what I was looking for . A plexi-ish tone in an affordable low watt combo.
Looks cool and very well made.

Unfortunately Marshall decided to put a 10 inch speaker in this combo and even tho it's a V type I found it lacking in punch. I also found the 50 way too powerful so although these amps are amazing they in my opinion should have made the 20 with a 12 inch and the 5 a 10.

Anyway they're fantastic amps as far as performance. I ended up with the 20 Head instead with the 212a cabinet and couldn't be happier. With the price drop on both it's worth getting the head and cabinet for $... more than the Origin 50c.