NAD (A Maggie Holy Grail)

[Timko]

Since I got into electric guitars 7 years ago, I have been on the hunt for a vintage Magnatone with the true F.M. Vibrato.  There's a great resource on old Maggies (https://www.magnatoneamps.com/), and while I have a little 5w Varisty from the early 50s that is a Tweed Champ killer, I've been longing for one of their big 2x12s.  However, living in the Midwest, these things are incredbily rare and difficult to source as Magnatones 1.) aren't that common and 2.) were mainly a West Cost amp.  As someone who has a 4 state craiglist search, I was very shocked to find a 1959 Magnatone 260A 4 hours from me.  On top of that, the seller's family was wanting to take a trip to the Kansas City IKEA, so he brought it down with him!

The 260A is from the origins of rock era (think Buddy Holly).  The 280 is the true stereo amp, but contains a wealth of tubes and weighs nearly 70 pounds.  This is a much lighter 40 pounds, and is a mono 2x12".

The thing was in GREAT shape.  The only knock on it was that someone had scratched settings into the faceplate which is really a shame.  But the tolex has very little wear, came with a ratty original slip cover, and  (most importantly) has the original manual.  The seller had even put in a vintage AlNiCo Jensen P12N, and is shipping me the other original Magnatone speaker!

The Tremolo is the thing these amps are famous for (and yes, it really is as good as people say), but the amp itself sound fantastic.  It loves the lower output single coil pickups on my custom Mary Kaye strat and Johnny Marr jaguar.  It can grind, but man, does it just ring when pushed just to the edge of breakup.

Outside of eventually buying a Hiwatt Custom 50, I may finally own all of the vintage amps I personally ever could want.





Josh Scott's "He's Got the Box" immediately went through my head when I got this gem with the amp.

[matmosphere]

Congrats man, that looks super awesome!

[davent]

Looks great!
Saw Erika Wennerstrom a few years ago and her guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo was using Magnatone that looked a lot like that one.


dave

[midwayfair]

Grats, Tim, looks awesome!

[skyled]

When I saw Maggie, first I thought of the Simpsons, then I thought of Magnapan speakers...

You might consider building a Marshall 18 Watt variant called the Marwatt to satisfy your Hiwatt desire.
https://www.18watt.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=24420

[matmosphere]

The more I look into this thing the more interested I get.  Sounds really nice.

Looks great!
Saw Erika Wennerstrom a few years ago and her guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo was using Magnatone that looked a lot like that one.


dave

She used to play bass in a local band when I was younger. I keep forgetting she does her own thing now. Thanks for the reminder I need to check it out.

[culturejam]

Awesome! That's a classic!

[cooder]

That's one classy score!