Auditioned some amps today

[Boudoir Guitar]

Yeah, the reverb in both that and the Imperial I wasn’t crazy about. I just don’t like dark amps in general so I’m probably exaggerating more than what others might think.

I come from Matchless/Bad Cat land where we’re all about sparkly brilliant chime and high end and tight understated bass.

My theory is that the Imperial must be voiced to work well with a vintage Strat at really high volume levels. It seems like it would be great at that. With the LP around 90db? Not so much

Yeah, I was hitting it with a tele so...it's hard to get too dark :)

 

[metropolis_4]

Yeah, I was hitting it with a tele so...it's hard to get too dark :)

As I was playing the Falcon I thought to myself “this would probably be a good Tele amp” :)

 

[andergtr]

i have an origin 50 head and need to spend more time with it.

 

[7 Dying Trees]

It was a really eye opening experience. Here were my big takeaways:

• The Mesa Mark sound is not my thing anymore. Played a Mark V and hated every minute of it. That dream died quick
• I thought I would love Tone King… but I don’t. Played an Imperial and a Falcon and didn’t care for either one. They’re sooooo dark. Crazy dark.
• Loved the Boogie California Tweed!!
• Marshall Origin made me do a double take when I saw the price. Really sounded great and I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. I may be turning into a Marshall guy
• Blackstar St James el34 really surprised me. I loved it! For that pushed clean thing it was really nice with lots of chime and a great feel.
• Badlander + Marshall 4x12 =

Also spent some time with a Carr Mercury that was all kinds of fun and some serious tonal goodness!

With respect to the marshall origin, Headfirst do a few mod videos on it to make it sound even better, just sayin'

 

[metropolis_4]

I need to take a second look at the Origin.

I’m a little scared about heavy gigging with an amp that cheap… but features wise it’s the best fit for me of the Marshall amps.

Someone on TGP suggested just buying two and that doesn’t seem like a bad idea if I find I’m really digging it still

 

[JT]

I have heard some people dig on the Origin. It doesn't speak to me as there is not going be enough dirt onboard for my tastes. I would rather grab a DSL.

 

[metropolis_4]

I have heard some people dig on the Origin. It doesn't speak to me as there is not going be enough dirt onboard for my tastes. I would rather grab a DSL.

Yeah, I don’t think there’s much gain in the Origin. And what’s there doesn’t really sound as good as other Marshall options once you get above a certain level of dirt.

The problem I had with the DSL was that I always wanted to be able to footswitch between the clean and crunch modes of the classic gain channel. Also the shared EQ didn’t work well for me.

I actually bought a 3 channel recto after spending some time with the DSL50 just because the idea of having separate EQ for each channel sounded so amazing after battling with the DSL shared EQ.

 

[spawnofthesith]

I really want to try both the california tweed and the badlander. Mark's will always have a special place in my heart, I miss my III and V


I'd love to play around with a Carr too

 

[DrewJD82]

i have an origin 50 head and need to spend more time with it.

Curious to hear your thoughts on this as you get to know it more. I still want to have a tube amp for a pedal-based rig and I’ve been leaning towards the single channel thing, I really, really love the more classic Marshall tones, Plexi’s and the JTM45 specifically, but also love Fender cleans, so I’m a bit lost on which direction I should head in.

 

[Foxmeister]

There is an odd void between the two models because one isn't gainy enough and the other is either all clean or all gain.

This is absolutely the case.

I sent back my EL34 St James mostly for this reason - for a two channel amp, with a clean and "dirty" channel, I couldn't coax as much dirt out of the dirty channel as I wanted - and I'm a long, long, way from a high-gain player.

It was a shame because, other than that, I really liked the amp.