Origin effects unleashes probably the most authentic sounding 5E3 Tweed style Preamp Pedal to date - The Deluxe 55

I’ve long since loved the somewhat vibrant fuzzy-esque sounds of the 5E3 Tweed Amp circuit - where I already have a number of pedal gems for that genre - including the fabulous sounding Tubesteader actual 12AX7 Tube-powered Eggnog.

Yet Origin Effects has seemingly one-upped everyone here with its truly superb sounding Deluxe 55 Tweed Recreation. This one sounds just a bit more lively, vibrant and visceral than all the others. Of course Origin Effects have pedigree and form in the solid state / JFET amp recreation game - yet I feel they’ve outshone themselves here - with possibly their best sounding preamp pedal to date!

As mentioned - I love the fuzzy nature of the Tweed profile - and this style has always been very much up my street. Interestingly Origin have dropped their Adaptive technology for this release - instead giving you a wider EQ shaping, to add to the 2nd 12AY7 voicing option.

Generally the 12AX7 is the more classic Fuzzy / Gainey Tweed sound, while the 12AY7 variant cleans up and brightens that signal considerably - so lower gain and more articulate. Likely I would spend most of my time on the stock 12AX7 setting - as I love all those fuzzy overtones - after all Fuzzy-Drive is one of my favourite genres.

Controls - Level, Preamp Tube (Emulation) : 12AY7 : Brighter/Cleaner / 12AX7 : Darker/Gainier, Drive, Post Gain EQ, Post EQ Mode / Profile : I Fended Black Panel / II Marshall style / III Flat, Tone (Dark>Bright).

Note that Origin Effects launched its IR CAB LIBRARY Impulse Responses solution a week or two ago. I did not quite have the context and collateral to make that article work on its own. But it all makes sense within this release - where Origin have painstakingly recreated all those original Vintage spec IR’s for you to seamlessly connect with your digital audio interface and workstation.

For my own purposes - I still like the old-fashioned thing of pushing air through an amp - so this Deluxe 55 will very much be a standalone preamp solution for that - delivering that essentially Fuzzy Tweed voicing to my Clean Pedal Platform setup.

I must say that I’ve been hugely impressed with all the demos I’ve heard to date.

As per the last release - I got this one through very late - in fact I was engaged in other immersive work when the message came in - John Dines needs to advance press-release that to benefit from optimal results - he really needs to send that notification a day or two in advance - otherwise largely what materialises on the day is off-the-cuff and ill-considered. I will always want to sleep on my work overnight - and make refinements in the morning - which means this article is appearing a day after the release went out. I would have needed to get the release considerably earlier to coordinate with the launch timing. Something about the timing of these releases just seems a little ill-considered / conceived - every disrespectful. While there is no arguing with the quality of the product.

Most likely the best sounding Origin Effects pedal I’ve heard to date! It is relatively pricey though at £270 and equivalent, but I do recall from my conversation with Jacob at Bristol’s Wassup Nerds show - that margins on these pedals are incredibly tight, and the cost of those high quality components keeps going up. So that even though £270 might seem quite pricey - it’s still excellent value for money - based on everything that has gone into the pedal.

The Deluxe 55 has gone straight to the top of my Origin Effects acquisition list. I will definitely be coming for one of these. While I already have a number of commitments to take me through to the end of the year - so not sure if this will happen before the end of this one, or right at the start of the next!