Magnatone

[MistaGuitah]

I've never been much into simple circuit, clean or vintage amps but when I first heard a Magnatone Varsity, I was blown away with the sound quality. I always wanted one but could never find a good deal. Now they're so expensive that I'll probably never get to own one. As great as their amps are, I thought they were rather pricey before the pandemic. Now they're simply a novelty at current prices unless you're a studio player or someone who actually makes use of those kinds of amps. Bidenflation has murdered all my amp aspirations so this really sucks. In any case, when I hear amps that sound so beautiful and sparkly, it makes me want to start learning more clean styles.

 

[braintheory]

IME the amps with the best quality tone are the simplest ones (and vintage too). It’s like the simpler the amp, the more complex the actual tone is. Great trade off if you ask me

My all time favorite cleans are the early ‘60’s Vox AC30 Top Boosts,1964 Vibroverb, Schroeder DB, Schroeder Dozer, & Alessandro English. For the price, some of the old Ampeg’s can’t be beat for cleans and can hold their own with most of those amps. The only 3+ channel amps I kept have been my ‘90’s VH4’s (pre-silverface). Other than those, the other 3+ ch amps have been just too lacking tonally IME

 

[MistaGuitah]

IME the amps with the best quality tone are the simplest ones (and vintage too). It’s like the simpler the amp, the more complex the actual tone is. Great trade off if you ask me

My all time favorite cleans are the early ‘60’s Vox AC30 Top Boosts,1964 Vibroverb, Schroeder DB, Schroeder Dozer, & Alessandro English. For the price, some of the old Ampeg’s can’t be beat for cleans and can hold their own with most of those amps. The only 3+ channel amps I kept have been my ‘90’s VH4’s (pre-silverface). Other than those, the other 3+ ch amps have been just too lacking tonally IME

Have you ever tried an Allen amp? I played an Allen Accomplis once and it was better than any Fender. That may have been my forst experience with such immaculate touch sensitivity.

 

[braintheory]

Have you ever tried an Allen amp? I played an Allen Accomplis once and it was better than any Fender. That may have been my forst experience with such immaculate touch sensitivity.

I have not. Haven’t even heard of it, but will look it up now. Fwiw, the ‘64 Vibroverb (only made in 1963-1964) is considerably better sounding IME than the other Blackface amps like the twin reverbs, super reverbs, and even Vibrolux (I’ve done AB comparisons both through the same cabs as well as through their own). I’m not familiar with the Allen, it may very well be better overall to me as well, however if it’s a more recent amp, the one thing it likely won’t have over the Vibroverb is the same warmth & organic, raw quality that I’ve only heard so far in older amps

I actually do enjoy my 2 Schroeder’s & Alessandro’s more overall for cleans than my ‘64 Vibroverb and they are recent made amps, but they still don’t have those vintage amp qualities of my Vibroverb or ‘63 AC30TB’s. Those qualities to me are magical and without them I would’ve likely stopped being a gear head a long time ago