Magnatone?

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capnkid

capnkid

Optimus Prime
I'm thinking about buying an old Magnatone 431 tube amp. It has reverb and trem on it.

Anyone have any insight on these? I guess thier rare.
 
Montgomery Wards or Sears I think? Rare maybe because few have survived, but plentiful in the 60's.
 
As I understand it, the Magnatone has actual vibrato and not tremolo, the only amp that ever did, the difference being that tremolo is based on rapid amplitude (volume or gain) modulation in rapid up/down cycles to produce the "rippling" effect. Vibrato being based on frequency modulation (think of it as a whammy circuit) that alters the frequency of the tone/signal in rapid up/down cycles.
Buddy Holly's signature sound came from running a strat through a magnatone amp.
 
I remember them.

In the mid 60's, I played in a group that had one. At that time it was the biggest amp I had ever seen. It was enormous! I think we traded it in when we bought Super Beatles!

I was a decent amp as best as I remember. The Super Beatles just looked sooo cool!
 
mikemorgan said:
Montgomery Wards or Sears I think? Rare maybe because few have survived, but plentiful in the 60's.
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Goodness no! They were the first boutique amp out there with Ampeg. If you lived on the west coast and wanted to be high falootin' you'd buy a Magnatone. There's two eras of Magnatone and neither were a slouch. The first was Magna electronics. These amps are super killer good. And then Estey took over, maybe a notch or two under the Magna amps, but still completely wonderful. Handwired, dripping with tone... if you can get your hands on one I would highly suggest it. They're keepers.
 
I've got a Magnatone Titano 610. Finally took her in for surgery and man it sounds too sweet.
 
Magnatone at one time made Ampeg amps if I remember correctly. My VT22 was made by Magnatone I think.
 
YeshuasFan said:
As I understand it, the Magnatone has actual vibrato and not tremolo, the only amp that ever did, the difference being that tremolo is based on rapid amplitude (volume or gain) modulation in rapid up/down cycles to produce the "rippling" effect. Vibrato being based on frequency modulation (think of it as a whammy circuit) that alters the frequency of the tone/signal in rapid up/down cycles.
Buddy Holly's signature sound came from running a strat through a magnatone amp.
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How would it do that? I'm not saying that it doesn't, but I can't picture how that can be done without delay and modulation or pitch shifting, and Buddy Holly's day in the sun was way before any of that stuff was developed.

Hi ho Google, awaaaaay!
 
Don't know how they did it but they did. I had one in the early 60's and used it along side a Fender Bandmaster. Great sound. Got rid of it when the Fender Leslie came out.


chazba
 
Go for it! I acquired a custom 260 (Estey made) a few months ago and it is just an awesome amp. Mine stays clean with the volume cranked all the way up, but when you put an overdrive in front of it, it just sings with sweet goodness. The vibrato is pretty cool too. I read somewhere that these were originally introduced as amplifiers for organs, but it serves its purpose well with guitar.
 
I think I had one of these Magnatone Juno 450's when I first started out playing electric guitar. I vividly remember it had a 12" and an oval shaped speaker in the combo cabinet and it was low powered.
The picture sure brings back some memories though..

http://www.vibroworld.com/magnatone/450.html
 

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