My friend Obeid Khan is MAGNATONE Lead Design Engineer. My old local tech Chris Villani is MAGNATONE Production Manager. Both these guys worked for SLM / Crate / Ampeg back in the day. MAGNATONE owner Ted Kornblum used to own above mentioned companies. Its a St. Louis thing. Personally for $4500 id rather a 60's or 70's JMP Marshall. Obeid is a bonafide genius and hellava guitar player.
Everytime I see and hear one these Magnatones I am baffled by the quality of the build and the sound. The "new" Magnatone did real great with the old Magnatone Heritage and even improved the reputation. Nice to see one of these beauties here...
Great to get to get a peek inside a new amp and good to know Magnatone is building their amps well. I hope you find a way to dig into more new amps. Build quality, proper design, and execution needs to become a more important part of presenting and selling an amp. Keep their feet to the fire, Lyle!
Ive been thinking about getting one of these as my amp to see me out. Great to hear your comments on this one Lyle. Your a hard taskmaster but fair and you dont mind calling out crap but you always pay credit where its due. Love the vids and the educarion you impart on us.
Liked this video very much, and enjoyed the seemingly fair opinion of build quality and why it is liked for what it is, and where it is in the market (value).
That's a beautiful modern build right there, I prefer turret, just easier to work on, but they definitely did a good job on that. I don't like the preamps on the board, but it probably saves room. One time I got a box of faulty fuses, they just kept blowing, I tested everything I could think of, everything was kosher, it ended up being bad fuses, I hooked them up with alligator clips, I could literally watch them blow. Very strange.
This amp looks great! I had a similar issue with one of my 1971 Bassman amps that I've heavily modded. I found an unmarked fuse in the amp. I replaced it with a proper 2 amp slo blow. Come to find out, the ones that I just bought are also marked the same exact way as the fuse that I found in the amp. Anyway, I test it at full volume for a while and the volume dips. I check the fuse and it had blown. I investigated, tested again, and STILL didn't find anything wrong with the amp. I figured the fuse was bad. I still haven't had any issues.
It looks good to me! The varistor project was years long, if I recall. Definitely look like WGS speakers to me. They probably are a custom build but close the the G12 family. I’d be looking at a Two Rock or Amplified Nation in that price range, but these are special.
That is one crazy looking amp. Tubes for days but they definitely sound amazing. I own a Magnatone Super 15 and a Varsity Reverb. I owe you for getting me down this Magnatone rabbit hole. Cool vids man
@Monty Sofflet it's amazing for home use. Usable from 0-10. It definitely gets loud but not overwhelmingly so. Takes pedals really well and is awesome during live gigs. Only thing that sucks is that it doesn't have the vibrato circuit. Next on my list is a Twilighter to scratch that itch.
@@alexwoolridge94aw Thanks for that! I own a Magnatone Starlite 1x8 and it's the best clean I've ever used. I've used the Tone King Gremlin, Dr Z Jetta, Milkman amps etc but this is just unreal. Has this elastic quality to the notes. It's just perfect. I bought it to use it as a head but the 1x8 actually sounds so amazing I'm beyond impressed
@Monty Sofflet I've been eying the Starlite myself and your description makes me want one even more lol. My plans were to use it with a Magnatone extension cabinet
I had the same amp with the same problem come in about a year or two ago. This one was also brand new. Sorta drove me crazy because of the intermittent nature of when the mains fuse would decide to blow. I initially changed the fuse, played through (awesome sounding) and after doing the routine checkup, returned the amp to the customer. Fast forward a day or two and I got the call... still blowing fuses intermittently. This time I met my client at a local music store and brought a few tools and a handful of fuses. Put in a new fuse and when I came out of standby, "pop" it went. Tried another, the same result. That's when my friend Lynn (anyone remember the Boogie Body?) said, "hey jeff, what's that flash coming from the back?" Yup, you guessed it, flash over inside the rectifier. Took the amp back to the lab, tested with a couple different brand tubes, and a half a box of fuses later, I determined it was not the rectifier. So, I installed some suppression diodes at the socket, a new rectifier (original tested fine but, I have trust issues....;) and returned her to the customer at no charge. She's still running strong today. A super well built amp that sounds incredible.
@@PsionicAudio Bad OT? interesting. Now that I've thought on it a bit more, I believe this model had just came out. My client loves to buy the newest and the best as nothing seems beyond his budget. Perhaps a bit of teething pain with a new design?
I have one. I like it quite a bit. It takes OD/Fuzz pedals very, very well and the Pitch Vibrato in Stereo is really nice. It also pretty darn loud but still sounds excellent at low volumes. If you turn the Volume up to 9 oclock, it breaks up and grinds great too, though it is real loud at that point. It is based on the Fender Deluxe Reverb circuit and the designer for this model is Obeid Khan I believe for both of those points. Mine has had intermittent issues. I’m very interested to see what you find is going on if anything with this one, Lyle.
I bought the Super 15 about 4 years ago and it’s a great amp. It is extremely loud for a 15 watt amp. A friend of mine really liked it and has borrowed it a few times for gigs. I priced one yesterday for him and they have gone up $600 in just 4 years! I don’t think it is worth the money now. I will try to find him a used one. 👍
They are great amps but yea they keep goin up. I paid $800 for my Super 15 head 2 years ago. The previous owner took out the light bulbs and lost the screws. Guess that scared away buyers. I had the lights fixed in 5 minutes
Looking forward to your run through on this one. In the early 90’s I got to play around with a friends’s vintage model 280 Magnatone and I was totally enthralled with the stereophonic vibrato effect it had and wondered why no one else ever attempted to add that circuit to other amps.
I have a 480, which adds lush reverb to what the 280 does. (Capacitor-driven reverb tank, similar to how it's done in vintage Ampegs; not transformer-driven like Fender amps, and the reverb tank impedances are very different).
@@TheMoodyLoners , It badly needs recapping. I have the 6973's (6CZ5 is the substitute with a slight rewiring), 12DW7's etc. It'll be a major job and I've been putting it off. Right now, I have an injured foot and can't lift anything bigger than a Champ!
@@TheMoodyLoners , I have refurbished a few Magnetones for others. An acquaintance had a Giuletti amplifier that was almost exactly the same as the Magnetone 213. I also refurbished a 210, or 212? that didn't have Magnatone vibrato but it kicked ever-lovin' ass, and was unusually loud for a small combo.
@@goodun2974 A little amp with the pitch shift vibrato would be awesome to own. The only Magnatone I ever owned was a late 50's Varsity - basically a Champ copy.
It seems silly to put a second fuse on the underside chassis behind the ventilated panel, where you can't get at it without pulling the panel or perhaps the entire chassis out; perhaps Magnatone was trying to keep the look of the original amp and not put a second fuse holder on the control panel. I disagree with that design philosophy. PS, vintage Magnatone amps don't have "harmonic tremolo", they have patented pitch-shifting vibrato; and although the original copper-oxide varistors (supposedly custom-made for Magnatone) are pretty much impossible to find nowadays, luckily they almost never fail. Vibroworld ---- run by Robert Cray's road tech, a guy named Zak ---- had, or perhaps still has, a stash of them, but stopped selling them when his stock started running low; and I don't know if the company is even still around. Note that Magnetone once built private-label amplifiers for music stores and other instrument companies, especially accordion companies !!!, and several other companies licensed the patented vibrato circuit. Some of the Magnatone-built amps to look for include Panaramic, LoDuca, Giuletti, and possibly Flot-A-Tone; and there's also Audio Guild, who apparently built their own amps under license to Magnatone, with the same vibrato circuit. There's a "Universal" amp that might also have Maggie vibrato.
Great video! I just actually bought the mono Twilighter 1x12 , it sounds fantastic! I did have a question for you as I am getting some mixed responses from other users. I am finding the amp has quite a lot of operating hiss. Just turned off with volume, reverb and viibrato all turned to 0, it provides quite a high amount of hiss...nothing plugged in. Compared to 2 other amps I have probably about 2 times as much. Once you turn it up and the reverb up this increases. Did you find this the same with the Stereo model? Magnatone customer service said it is normal due to the varistors however some users are saying theirs are dead quiet. Thanks!
finally an amp with logic ICs in sockets. great amp, but whoa, $8K AUD. Bloody expensive. But I get why. PS, im confued, you can still buy varistors, are these ones special in some way Lyle?
@@Satchmoeddie , the varistors used in vintage Magnatones were copper oxide, not silicon. Likely not easy to make nowadays and so the modern Maggies probably use silicone-based varistors. I wonder where Magnatone is getting them made and if they're available to the general public. The original patent to Don Bonham is probably expired by now!
Seth, you probably know this but 6CZ5 is the sub for 6973's, usually with just a jumper wire added to the sockets. I don't see how 6V6's would sound anything like a 6973-based amp, since the 6973 was designed as a low distortion, high-linearity hifi tube ( also used for jukeboxes, and some Valco amps). Somebody else commenting here says that these modern Maggies were designed more like a Deluxe Reverb. By the way, vintage 6973's were built both in a short bottle version and a tall bottle version with longer plate structure. The taller version can probably handle more wattage. I've also seen a lot of original 6973's that are a bit gassy or have some interelement leakage.
It's a perfectly valid question! After all, how many young whippersnappers under 30 are gonna buy these? Usually it's people who are at least 50 and have bad backs.....
My friend Obeid Khan is MAGNATONE Lead Design Engineer. My old local tech Chris Villani is MAGNATONE Production Manager. Both these guys worked for SLM / Crate / Ampeg back in the day. MAGNATONE owner Ted Kornblum used to own above mentioned companies. Its a St. Louis thing. Personally for $4500 id rather a 60's or 70's JMP Marshall. Obeid is a bonafide genius and hellava guitar player.
Ha! Wow. I owned a Reason amplifier about 15 years ago that he designed. It sounded fantastic. Sold it to a band mate and wish I still had it!
Everytime I see and hear one these Magnatones I am baffled by the quality of the build and the sound. The "new" Magnatone did real great with the old Magnatone Heritage and even improved the reputation. Nice to see one of these beauties here...
Great to get to get a peek inside a new amp and good to know Magnatone is building their amps well. I hope you find a way to dig into more new amps. Build quality, proper design, and execution needs to become a more important part of presenting and selling an amp. Keep their feet to the fire, Lyle!
Oh this is great! I have been really intrigued by these amps, so its great to see one on your bench to get your thoughts!
Ive been thinking about getting one of these as my amp to see me out. Great to hear your comments on this one Lyle. Your a hard taskmaster but fair and you dont mind calling out crap but you always pay credit where its due. Love the vids and the educarion you impart on us.
Very informative review. Anxious to hear it play.
Liked this video very much, and enjoyed the seemingly fair opinion of build quality and why it is liked for what it is, and where it is in the market (value).
Brilliant always. Thank you.
I will keep this amp in mind for the future. Thank you.
That's a beautiful modern build right there, I prefer turret, just easier to work on, but they definitely did a good job on that. I don't like the preamps on the board, but it probably saves room. One time I got a box of faulty fuses, they just kept blowing, I tested everything I could think of, everything was kosher, it ended up being bad fuses, I hooked them up with alligator clips, I could literally watch them blow. Very strange.
This amp looks great! I had a similar issue with one of my 1971 Bassman amps that I've heavily modded. I found an unmarked fuse in the amp. I replaced it with a proper 2 amp slo blow. Come to find out, the ones that I just bought are also marked the same exact way as the fuse that I found in the amp. Anyway, I test it at full volume for a while and the volume dips. I check the fuse and it had blown. I investigated, tested again, and STILL didn't find anything wrong with the amp. I figured the fuse was bad. I still haven't had any issues.
I really like Magnatone amps. Esthetically and tone.
Still waiting till I can afford one.
We missed you Lyle, glad you're back :)
It looks good to me! The varistor project was years long, if I recall. Definitely look like WGS speakers to me. They probably are a custom build but close the the G12 family.
I’d be looking at a Two Rock or Amplified Nation in that price range, but these are special.
Very educational video!
That is one crazy looking amp. Tubes for days but they definitely sound amazing. I own a Magnatone Super 15 and a Varsity Reverb. I owe you for getting me down this Magnatone rabbit hole. Cool vids man
how is the varsity reverb for home use? thanks
@Monty Sofflet it's amazing for home use. Usable from 0-10. It definitely gets loud but not overwhelmingly so. Takes pedals really well and is awesome during live gigs. Only thing that sucks is that it doesn't have the vibrato circuit. Next on my list is a Twilighter to scratch that itch.
@@alexwoolridge94aw Thanks for that! I own a Magnatone Starlite 1x8 and it's the best clean I've ever used. I've used the Tone King Gremlin, Dr Z Jetta, Milkman amps etc but this is just unreal. Has this elastic quality to the notes. It's just perfect. I bought it to use it as a head but the 1x8 actually sounds so amazing I'm beyond impressed
@Monty Sofflet I've been eying the Starlite myself and your description makes me want one even more lol. My plans were to use it with a Magnatone extension cabinet
these just look so damn cool
I had the same amp with the same problem come in about a year or two ago. This one was also brand new. Sorta drove me crazy because of the intermittent nature of when the mains fuse would decide to blow. I initially changed the fuse, played through (awesome sounding) and after doing the routine checkup, returned the amp to the customer. Fast forward a day or two and I got the call... still blowing fuses intermittently.
This time I met my client at a local music store and brought a few tools and a handful of fuses. Put in a new fuse and when I came out of standby, "pop" it went. Tried another, the same result. That's when my friend Lynn (anyone remember the Boogie Body?) said, "hey jeff, what's that flash coming from the back?" Yup, you guessed it, flash over inside the rectifier. Took the amp back to the lab, tested with a couple different brand tubes, and a half a box of fuses later, I determined it was not the rectifier. So, I installed some suppression diodes at the socket, a new rectifier (original tested fine but, I have trust issues....;) and returned her to the customer at no charge. She's still running strong today. A super well built amp that sounds incredible.
Thanks. Another tech friend had blowing fuses in this model due to a bad OT.
So far I cannot get this to fail.
@@PsionicAudio Bad OT? interesting. Now that I've thought on it a bit more, I believe this model had just came out. My client loves to buy the newest and the best as nothing seems beyond his budget. Perhaps a bit of teething pain with a new design?
I don’t understand why the customer didn’t just return it to the manufacturer/place of purchase, or were you doing a warranty repair?
I had a vintage ss magnatone about 15y ago that sounded awesome. Had a great reverb as well. It was well made
I have one. I like it quite a bit. It takes OD/Fuzz pedals very, very well and the Pitch Vibrato in Stereo is really nice. It also pretty darn loud but still sounds excellent at low volumes. If you turn the Volume up to 9 oclock, it breaks up and grinds great too, though it is real loud at that point. It is based on the Fender Deluxe Reverb circuit and the designer for this model is Obeid Khan I believe for both of those points. Mine has had intermittent issues. I’m very interested to see what you find is going on if anything with this one, Lyle.
Great vid thanks! Ive been curious about the quality of the new builds as i nurse my inherited 1960 280a back into health.
I bought the Super 15 about 4 years ago and it’s a great amp. It is extremely loud for a 15 watt amp. A friend of mine really liked it and has borrowed it a few times for gigs. I priced one yesterday for him and they have gone up $600 in just 4 years! I don’t think it is worth the money now. I will try to find him a used one. 👍
They are great amps but yea they keep goin up. I paid $800 for my Super 15 head 2 years ago. The previous owner took out the light bulbs and lost the screws. Guess that scared away buyers. I had the lights fixed in 5 minutes
Magnatones are just fantastic. Some of the best sounding clean tone amps I have heard in years.
The late 50’s/ Early 60’s 280 model is one of THE best amps ever made for cleans. Absolutely killer overdrive too.
I have a mid 1950s Magnatone Lyric 115 which also has great clean tones.
Looking forward to your run through on this one. In the early 90’s I got to play around with a friends’s vintage model 280 Magnatone and I was totally enthralled with the stereophonic vibrato effect it had and wondered why no one else ever attempted to add that circuit to other amps.
I have a 480, which adds lush reverb to what the 280 does. (Capacitor-driven reverb tank, similar to how it's done in vintage Ampegs; not transformer-driven like Fender amps, and the reverb tank impedances are very different).
@@goodun2974 Excellent! Have you had to modify it at all from its original state? Early Magnatones used some now obsolete tubes and components.
@@TheMoodyLoners , It badly needs recapping. I have the 6973's (6CZ5 is the substitute with a slight rewiring), 12DW7's etc. It'll be a major job and I've been putting it off. Right now, I have an injured foot and can't lift anything bigger than a Champ!
@@TheMoodyLoners , I have refurbished a few Magnetones for others. An acquaintance had a Giuletti amplifier that was almost exactly the same as the Magnetone 213. I also refurbished a 210, or 212? that didn't have Magnatone vibrato but it kicked ever-lovin' ass, and was unusually loud for a small combo.
@@goodun2974 A little amp with the pitch shift vibrato would be awesome to own. The only Magnatone I ever owned was a late 50's Varsity - basically a Champ copy.
used some vintage stereo Magnatone amp in a studio setting. exquisite trem. I would never take it on the road tho
Woo!
The great slide/songwriter Jason Isbell plays through one of these. Aside; he attended Memphis University.
It seems silly to put a second fuse on the underside chassis behind the ventilated panel, where you can't get at it without pulling the panel or perhaps the entire chassis out; perhaps Magnatone was trying to keep the look of the original amp and not put a second fuse holder on the control panel. I disagree with that design philosophy. PS, vintage Magnatone amps don't have "harmonic tremolo", they have patented pitch-shifting vibrato; and although the original copper-oxide varistors (supposedly custom-made for Magnatone) are pretty much impossible to find nowadays, luckily they almost never fail. Vibroworld ---- run by Robert Cray's road tech, a guy named Zak ---- had, or perhaps still has, a stash of them, but stopped selling them when his stock started running low; and I don't know if the company is even still around.
Note that Magnetone once built private-label amplifiers for music stores and other instrument companies, especially accordion companies !!!, and several other companies licensed the patented vibrato circuit. Some of the Magnatone-built amps to look for include Panaramic, LoDuca, Giuletti, and possibly Flot-A-Tone; and there's also Audio Guild, who apparently built their own amps under license to Magnatone, with the same vibrato circuit. There's a "Universal" amp that might also have Maggie vibrato.
Have you done any work on vintage Magnatones? I haven't yet opened my M15 Custom
Great video! I just actually bought the mono Twilighter 1x12 , it sounds fantastic! I did have a question for you as I am getting some mixed responses from other users. I am finding the amp has quite a lot of operating hiss. Just turned off with volume, reverb and viibrato all turned to 0, it provides quite a high amount of hiss...nothing plugged in. Compared to 2 other amps I have probably about 2 times as much. Once you turn it up and the reverb up this increases. Did you find this the same with the Stereo model? Magnatone customer service said it is normal due to the varistors however some users are saying theirs are dead quiet. Thanks!
Got a mono one coming soon.
Could you please share how to schedule amp repairs with your shop?
Have you worked on a Starlite yet? I'm considering buying one and was wondering if it is just as well made.
Know how you feel, mate.
No videos from me for all of Feb, I reckon.
Do what you have to do, Brad!
Cool amp but did you say over four grand???? That amp with 6v6,s would be, what , fourth watts or so?
finally an amp with logic ICs in sockets. great amp, but whoa, $8K AUD. Bloody expensive. But I get why. PS, im confued, you can still buy varistors, are these ones special in some way Lyle?
Google awaits. $60/pair.
@@PsionicAudio yeah, pretty exclusive pricing. I think if i had this amp I would buy a set and keep them safe somewhere for future security of supply.
Vibrato = frequency modulation
Tremolo = amplitude modulation
Yeah, talk to Leo.
@@PsionicAudioSorry - I thought the topic was focus was on the Magnatone Twilighter
Who déjà vu cool
6V6s? My Twilighter has 6973s in it. It's also the original Magna version from the 1960s. The Twilighter was an accordion amp.
There are a few tricks to make an array of MO VDRs and resistors work like SiC VDRs.
mines the 2022 modern version. which this one is. your vintage one must sound incredible as grandfather of mine ;)
@@Satchmoeddie , the varistors used in vintage Magnatones were copper oxide, not silicon. Likely not easy to make nowadays and so the modern Maggies probably use silicone-based varistors. I wonder where Magnatone is getting them made and if they're available to the general public. The original patent to Don Bonham is probably expired by now!
Seth, you probably know this but 6CZ5 is the sub for 6973's, usually with just a jumper wire added to the sockets. I don't see how 6V6's would sound anything like a 6973-based amp, since the 6973 was designed as a low distortion, high-linearity hifi tube ( also used for jukeboxes, and some Valco amps). Somebody else commenting here says that these modern Maggies were designed more like a Deluxe Reverb. By the way, vintage 6973's were built both in a short bottle version and a tall bottle version with longer plate structure. The taller version can probably handle more wattage. I've also seen a lot of original 6973's that are a bit gassy or have some interelement leakage.
I have this amp and it was blowing fuses too. Turned out to be a bad REctifier tube.
hate to be the village idiot here but how much did that thing weigh ????
56 lbs
Two pounds less than my AC15C1!
It's a perfectly valid question! After all, how many young whippersnappers under 30 are gonna buy these? Usually it's people who are at least 50 and have bad backs.....
@@goodun2974 And bigger bank accounts 😂