Magnatone Amps - Knowledge/Experience/ Advice please.

jimkehoe

I will try to not bore you with detail of my Amp GAS affliction but as far as I have established over my 56 years I love the sound of Fender blackface/silverface amps and/or Voxy AC type jangley/chimey amps. I also just love reverb and a throbby tremolo. I only want/need one clean channel and it has to work at low home volumes.
My musical tastes are Americana/Country, blues, a bit of jazz, and traditional old school rock.

I have no need for any extreme metal/distortion and achieve overdrive at polite volumes with a Line 6 HX effects which I must say I am very impressed with.

At the moment I have a 65 re-issue Princeton reverb with an alnico speaker (love) and a ToneKing Imperial II which is superb but probably far more than I need.

I have become intrigued by Magnatone amps - Both the Twilighter 1x12 or the Panoramic stereo 2x10. They both look that they may be perfect for my tastes/needs.
However:

• I have no personal knowledge or experience of either.
• Coda who appear to be the only stockists in the UK don't currently have both in stock and when I contacted them they said they weren't currently planning on ordering any more as due to exchange and pricing they are too expensive and would struggle to sell them at the price-point.  
• A very trusted and knowledgeable friend in the business advised me to not bother with Magnatone, specifically saying that the ToneKing was a far better put together and better sounding amp.

Anyone have any knowledge or observations please?

mgaw

buy a Bartel Amp would be my advice, expensive but 3 amps in one, and each one sounds ace

StuartMac290

I've had a couple of Tone Kings and a few Magnatones. I still have a Magnatone Twilighter 1x12. The Tone Kings were lovely-sounding amps that were in a very similar ball park to the Twilighter (ie basically black face deluxe reverb-based) but I much prefer the sound of the Magnatone. Any Tone King I've played has been marred at least to some degree by a pretty lively top end at an annoying frequency that's hard to dial out. They're also far more scooped than the Magnatones, making the Magnatone much more useable in a recorded mix.

The break up on the Magnatone is much nicer too.

Plus, you can't ignore the switchable vibrato / tremolo on the Magnatones - the vibrato is pretty much unique and sounds glorious. I actually prefer it in the mono amps to the stereo ones, it just seems a bit more musical.

As for build quality, they seem pretty close to each other. That said, two of Magnatones ended up being returned because they developed faults, and I never saw one again (a Single V head that I loved) because they couldn't repair it and discontinued it soon afterwards.

Even disregarding the vibrato and tremolo circuits I'd choose a Magnatone over a Tone King every time. The Twilighter is one of my all-time favourite combos, I think they're pretty magical amps.

57Deluxe

Keef uses them in the Studio

munckee

I have a 68 Princeton and have been thinking the clean sound, the tremolo and reverb of the Princeton with the tweed and lead channels of the tone king gremlin plus attenuator would be the perfect amp. Does the magnatone fit the bill?

jimkehoe

mgaw said:

buy a Bartel Amp would be my advice, expensive but 3 amps in one, and each one sounds ace

I'm sure they are superb but too much (quality and price!) for me I'm afraid.

jimkehoe

StuartMac290 said:

I've had a couple of Tone Kings and a few Magnatones. I still have a Magnatone Twilighter 1x12. The Tone Kings were lovely-sounding amps that were in a very similar ball park to the Twilighter (ie basically black face deluxe reverb-based) but I much prefer the sound of the Magnatone. Any Tone King I've played has been marred at least to some degree by a pretty lively top end at an annoying frequency that's hard to dial out. They're also far more scooped than the Magnatones, making the Magnatone much more useable in a recorded mix.

The break up on the Magnatone is much nicer too.

Plus, you can't ignore the switchable vibrato / tremolo on the Magnatones - the vibrato is pretty much unique and sounds glorious. I actually prefer it in the mono amps to the stereo ones, it just seems a bit more musical.

As for build quality, they seem pretty close to each other. That said, two of Magnatones ended up being returned because they developed faults, and I never saw one again (a Single V head that I loved) because they couldn't repair it and discontinued it soon afterwards.

Even disregarding the vibrato and tremolo circuits I'd choose a Magnatone over a Tone King every time. The Twilighter is one of my all-time favourite combos, I think they're pretty magical amps.

Really  useful insight . Thanks @StuartMac290.
Would the Magnatone work at home volumes i.e Woefully quiet! What is the noise floor like at such volumes?
Jim.

jimkehoe

57Deluxe said:

Keef uses them in the Studio

Richards?

thecolourbox

jimkehoe said:

57Deluxe said:

Keef uses them in the Studio

Richards?

I'm not sure Chegwin is a guitar player

jimkehoe

thecolourbox said:

jimkehoe said:

57Deluxe said:

Keef uses them in the Studio

Richards?

I'm not sure Chegwin is a guitar player

Chegger plays .......A Magnatone! 

DougCoda

jimkehoe said:

I will try to not bore you with detail of my Amp GAS affliction but as far as I have established over my 56 years I love the sound of Fender blackface/silverface amps and/or Voxy AC type jangley/chimey amps. I also just love reverb and a throbby tremolo. I only want/need one clean channel and it has to work at low home volumes.
My musical tastes are Americana/Country, blues, a bit of jazz, and traditional old school rock.

I have no need for any extreme metal/distortion and achieve overdrive at polite volumes with a Line 6 HX effects which I must say I am very impressed with.

At the moment I have a 65 re-issue Princeton reverb with an alnico speaker (love) and a ToneKing Imperial II which is superb but probably far more than I need.

I have become intrigued by Magnatone amps - Both the Twilighter 1x12 or the Panoramic stereo 2x10. They both look that they may be perfect for my tastes/needs.
However:

• I have no personal knowledge or experience of either.
• Coda who appear to be the only stockists in the UK don't currently have both in stock and when I contacted them they said they weren't currently planning on ordering any more as due to exchange and pricing they are too expensive and would struggle to sell them at the price-point.  
• A very trusted and knowledgeable friend in the business advised me to not bother with Magnatone, specifically saying that the ToneKing was a far better put together and better sounding amp.

Anyone have any knowledge or observations please?

We are stocking them again, we’ve worked something out with Magnatone so they won’t be as expensive ...delivery is due in December so you can come and compare to the Tone King, I believe we have a panoramic stereo head and cabs in stock right now if you wanted to check that out but I can’t confirm until tomorrow 

jimkehoe

DougCoda said:

jimkehoe said:

I will try to not bore you with detail of my Amp GAS affliction but as far as I have established over my 56 years I love the sound of Fender blackface/silverface amps and/or Voxy AC type jangley/chimey amps. I also just love reverb and a throbby tremolo. I only want/need one clean channel and it has to work at low home volumes.
My musical tastes are Americana/Country, blues, a bit of jazz, and traditional old school rock.

I have no need for any extreme metal/distortion and achieve overdrive at polite volumes with a Line 6 HX effects which I must say I am very impressed with.

At the moment I have a 65 re-issue Princeton reverb with an alnico speaker (love) and a ToneKing Imperial II which is superb but probably far more than I need.

I have become intrigued by Magnatone amps - Both the Twilighter 1x12 or the Panoramic stereo 2x10. They both look that they may be perfect for my tastes/needs.
However:

• I have no personal knowledge or experience of either.
• Coda who appear to be the only stockists in the UK don't currently have both in stock and when I contacted them they said they weren't currently planning on ordering any more as due to exchange and pricing they are too expensive and would struggle to sell them at the price-point.  
• A very trusted and knowledgeable friend in the business advised me to not bother with Magnatone, specifically saying that the ToneKing was a far better put together and better sounding amp.

Anyone have any knowledge or observations please?

We are stocking them again, we’ve worked something out with Magnatone so they won’t be as expensive ...delivery is due in December so you can come and compare to the Tone King, I believe we have a panoramic stereo head and cabs in stock right now if you wanted to check that out but I can’t confirm until tomorrow 

Doug - Thanks for that update. Very useful . If I'm not sorted by December I will be making the trip.
Kind Regards
Jim.

StuartMac290

They are loud amps, so you'd want an attenuator. I used mine for a TV thing a wee while back and used a Tone King Iron Man II, which worked really well, although it was a minor faff hooking it up. There IS a low sensitivity input but, as is often the case, it doesn't sound quite as good as the "proper" input and is still bloody loud anyway.

The reverb is exceptional too, if that's of interest.

Keef has indeed been using them in the studio, and Ronnie uses them live. I think they're using Single Vs though, which are based on one of Neil Young's Tweed Pros (his tech worked with Magnatone to nail the sound exactly). The Single V is a tremendous amp, one of my favourite "big tweed" amps (as opposed to Tweed Deluxe types) and to be honest I'm a bit gutted I no longer have one.

Neil Young himself has been using a pair of Twilighter 1x12s live.

jimkehoe

StuartMac290 said:

They are loud amps, so you'd want an attenuator. I used mine for a TV thing a wee while back and used a Tone King Iron Man II, which worked really well, although it was a minor faff hooking it up. There IS a low sensitivity input but, as is often the case, it doesn't sound quite as good as the "proper" input and is still bloody loud anyway.

The reverb is exceptional too, if that's of interest.

Keef has indeed been using them in the studio, and Ronnie uses them live. I think they're using Single Vs though, which are based on one of Neil Young's Tweed Pros (his tech worked with Magnatone to nail the sound exactly). The Single V is a tremendous amp, one of my favourite "big tweed" amps (as opposed to Tweed Deluxe types) and to be honest I'm a bit gutted I no longer have one.

Neil Young himself has been using a pair of Twilighter 1x12s live.

Thanks once again.
Helpful.
Not too worried about the overdriven sound.Just require a sublime clean. Happy to use pedals for overdriven sounds. Although I suppose an attenuator would be useful. 

Majorscale

Jim, I own a Twilighter 1x12, apparently the first in the UK. Sounds fantastic. Thoroughly recommend it.

jimkehoe

Majorscale said:

Jim, I own a Twilighter 1x12, apparently the first in the UK. Sounds fantastic. Thoroughly recommend it.

@Majorscale. Thanks - Personal experience is worth so much.
A low noise floor? Will it work at home volumes? 

Majorscale

Certainly does work at home, but it can get really loud too and definitely giggable which is what mine's primarily for! The vibrato is beautiful and I'm not normally a fan of those wobbly effects. Compact and relatively lightweight.

It replaced my Lazy J40, because it sounded a lot clearer and less woody, but not sterile either. A quality amp.

Majorscale

(Yes it's quiet from a noise floor perspective too)

jimkehoe

Majorscale said:

(Yes it's quiet from a noise floor perspective too)

Brilliant. Thanks.

mattacjones

https://reverb.com/item/16378265-magnatone-twilighter-22w-combo-amp-pitch-vibrato-and-tremolo-reverb

mattacjones

Nothing to do with me, just checking them out ... your neck of the woods I think? @jimkehoe ;