The Magnatone Custom 280 is probably most closely associated with Buddy Holly. It looks amazing, but its warmth and stereo vibrato are just magical...

This über cool "Maggie" was made in 1957 in Inglewood, California, USA and has that lovely brown fabric covering finish that shows the marks of a legend. It is fully functional and sounds amazing with a true stereo power section and stereo pitch shifting vibrato that is beautiful and immersive, with a certain vintage charm you can only find in these old circuits. It features its original transformers, speakers etc etc with a lot of vintage tubes in there as well.

Just look at the way this looks. It has been around in studio's, homes, podiums all over the world. It has been loved and played. And then some..... You want mojo? We've got it!!

Originally founded in the 1930s as the Dickerson Musical Instrument Company, the re-dubbed Magna Electronics Company began focusing primarily on guitar amplifier design after being acquired by Art Duhamell in 1946. Although also producing guitars, it was the amplifiers that became popular amidst the first Rock 'n' Rollers, most notably Buddy Holly and Lonnie Mack. Magnatone amps were distinctive for their pitch-shifting vibrato effect, which came in stereo form in flagship models like the 280, setting them apart from amps with the more common volume-varying tremolo.

The Model Custom 280 was one of the company's top models in the late 1950s, packing impressive features and a whopping 12 tube circuit to accomplish its signature stereo vibrato and dual power-amp format. All this cost a pretty penny with the amp listing for a whopping price of $395.00 in a 1957 catalog, even more than Fender's flagship Twin and Bassman amps at the time.

The amp features two channels, one vibrato and one normal, each with their independent two inputs, volume, treble and bass controls, as well as mellow-normal and normal-bright switches, respectively. In addition to the standard intensity and speed controls, the vibrato can be switched between stereo and mono operation and switchable by footswitch or instrument (via a TRS connection on the first channel one input).

Two independent output stages put out around 30-35 watts of power combined into the two 12" speakers and their respective 5" tweeters. The iconic vibrato effect alternates between the two stages to create a hypnotic stereo effect that is arguably the closest electrical approximation to a Leslie speaker effect ever built into a guitar amplifier. The two gold "V" letters in the lower right corner of the speaker grille stand for "Vibrato Vastness", which is what Magnatone dubbed their effect in their 1957 catalog: "a sound Big As All Outdoors - the Vastness of the sky combined with Magnatone's Big "V" Electronic True Vibrato".

The History of Tremolo and The beginnings of Vibrato

Simply put, Tremolo is a cyclic change in volume. Tremolo, a.k.a. amplitude modulation, is a very pleasing effect and probably the first built into an amp, starting in the late 1940's with Danelectro, Gibson, and Premier. In 1955 Fender introduced the Tremolux (model 5E9). This was Fender's first amp with Tremolo. Meanwhile, in nearby Inglewood, Magna Electronics known for student lap-steel/amp combos was manufacturing real professional amps that incorporated unique designs and revolutionary new features such as Stereo Vibrato.

So in 1956 Fender introduced the Vibrolux. The Vibrolux supposedly had Vibrato (pitch modulation), but in reality this was just another variation on the Tremolo already found in the Tremolux. In fact, NO Fender amp has EVER had true pitch-bending vibrato, regardless of catalog hype to the contrary.

- Try this Experiment at Home
Plug your guitar into your amp and power it up. Now strum a chord and turn the volume control up and down rhythmically and repeatedly. You will hear Tremolo. This is what Fender and many others called Vibrato.

- Now try this
Fret one of your guitar strings and rhythmically rock your finger back and forth in a sideways motion stretching the string slightly. Notice the pitch is changing: this is Real Vibrato.

Learn something every day... ;-)