Messages

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.

One of the builders of my hardtail Mary Kaye Stratocaster from June asked me if I had a tap tremolo he could borrow.  I had build the v2.1 board of Dave Rolo's Twin Peaks Tremolo, and he loved it so much, he asked if I could build him one.  I was stoked to find that Delyk had traced the v2 circuit, and put it on 1 PCB!

If you've never had the chance to build this particular circuit, and you're a fan of tremolo, you're missing out.  I own a '63 Blond Tremolux as well as a '59 Magnatone 260A, and as an admitted addict to vintage tremolo, I can attest this thing really sounds fantastic.  Add in the tap functionality and wave shape, and this may be the 1 trem to rule them all.

Graphic design was at the request of my friend.  I tried to talk him into pitchforks and the font from Queens of the Stone Age's "Songs For the Deaf," but he liked this, and I think the etching turned our really well.

BIG thanks to Haberdasher for hooking me up with a TAPLFO2 chip; my TAPLFO3 chip showed up from Europe yesterday after ordering it in the middle of July .




The blue tape with a little loop at the top on white boxes with the recipient's name has become somewhat of a signature of mine.

I was able to order another pot, and got the wafer replaced.  I had to create my own panel mount lugs to get it into the existing PCB.  Thanks everyone for the help!

It turns out 1M-C pots are easier to find if you search for them in standard (15/16") vs metric (24mm).

I have another one coming.  I broke the last wafer trying to turn some solder lugs into panel mount pins; I'll be considerably more careful this time.

While trying to straighten the pins, i cracked the damn wafer .  Oh well, I'm sure sourcing another 1M-C will be super easy  .

Anyway, I see what to do now.  After taking the wafer off the original pot, it was nearly worn through.  Parts of the left terminal were connected to the middle one too!  I tried cleaning off the original wafer, but there's still places where the connection fails.  I'll start looking for another pot though (perhaps with a different taper) and see what I can find.

Ok, I got this 24mm pot.  How do I replace the wafer?

Yeah I've been down that road before, you'll probably have to keep an eye on ebay for used lots of old potentiometers.

It's not ideal but the rate pot is more dependent on taper than the 'balls' so you could switch those around and try out a standard log or linear for the feedback which are a little easier to find in 24mm.

You can also try and repair the wafer (I know pinkjimiphoton uses a pencil to do it) but perhaps if it had been fiddled with before, that might have already been attempted and failed.

I ended up finding a NOS 1M-C on eBay.  Once it's here I'll attempt to replace the wafer.  It also appears whoever did work on this before I did put in a 3M (idk what taper) pot, so it will be good to restore that to the spec'd value.

After some more testing, I am pretty sure the pot is shot.  I disconnected it from the board, and realized that someone before me had spliced the pot into the traces after burning some of them out. 

After talking with a guitar tech / synth restorer in Seattle, I've decided to try the replacing the wafer thing as the shaft and thread size would be virtually impossible to find today.  However, finding a 24mm 1M-C pot is proving trickier than anticipated.

My amp tech gave me a vintage Maestro phaser MP-1 to repair (the ones in the silver metal box).  He said the effect doesn't go slow enough.  And sure enough, the first part of the Speed pot has no change on the effect. I assume that the pot may be worn out and needs replaced.  For those who have worked on vintage effects, is this something that may be true? 

Also, the pot that may need replaced is a panel mount 24mm Reverse Audio 1M with a pretty long shaft.  I've been searching around for an exact replacement, but I've not had luck finding one.  Should I opt for a solder lug pot and connect it myself, or is there some place I could find something like that?

If I fix this, he said he'd tune up my Magnatone Varisty from the 50s, so I'm trying really hard to get it working for him .

Thanks!

If you're looking for a PCB with all of the options, Aion's Solaris fits the bill.  I own one to help others looking for a particular fuzz sound dial in their tone, then try to replicate it without that many controls.

I also greatly support the Vero/Stripboard option.  My first pedals were Joe Gore's tonefiend projects, and I think there's a lot to be learned by building on that medium.  Plus, the Fuzz Face is a simple enough circuit that the layout shouldn't be too bad.

I think I have one of Drolo's phaser boards that needs the same chip. I let this project sit in my to-do pile for way too long. I'll have to look into that TAPLFO3 shoehorn.

Build it man, it's awesome!

AGREED.  I have both the tap phaser and tremolo.  The phaser has come off after finishing the Bi Phase, but that trem is amazing.

Thanks!  If I'm not able to source a v2, I may go with this.

Yeah, kinda figured.  Maybe I'll try to source one of the old TAPLFO chips.

I lent a friend my Twin Peaks tremolo I built a few years ago.  He liked it so much that he asked if I could build him one.  I know that Dalyk sells PCBs for that circuit, but it requires the TAPLFO2 chip. I looked at the pinout on the new TAPLFO3, and I don't believe it's backwards compatible. Am I correct here?

That is a great looking guitar. Strats are just not my thing, but seeing that one makes me think there could be an exception made. It is all very tastefully done, congrats man, no go forth and make the Rock.

SAME.  When it comes to Fenders, I've always been an offset guy.  When I saw a vintage Mary Kaye though, I knew I finally found a Strat I would play.