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Unusual Console stereo's. Feeling blessed. Have you ever seen one of these?

McinBozak

McinBozak

Member
I felt really blessed to find three Ampex consoles each falling within a year of one another. But the latest find is so unusual and was sold as restored. Clearly it was not. Output tubes going into saturation I paid waaay too much for it but the cabinet is really beautiful unusual styling from 1958 guessing. The guy I bought it from had replaced the electrolytics in the separate power supplies. But it had wax caps in the tuner. when I buy I usually prefer no one having been into it and I will do it myself. I would probably not buy from him again. Restored means restored. I did have to replace all four 6973's which ain't cheap with NOS tubes few coupling caps and many resistors selenium rectifier. The power amplifier had all kinds of issues with voltages being way off. Anyhow it has been gone through and it sounds like a million bucks now.
It is a Magnatone, yes Not Magnavox. It is all separate components. Preamp, AM-FM tuner and then the floor mounted 6973 PP tube amplifier. My Ampex models use the same 6973's and are very potent amps.. What caught my eye about this is Magnatones are really great guitar amps. I have looked and asked all my older guys and not one of them has ever seen one. Anyone know????
 

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Magnatone built some absolutely killer guitar amps,with impeccable engineering and build quality. I can't imagine another company of the same name being in the audio game,and considering the use of 6973 output tubes,which was a Magnatone staple,this was probably from the same manufacturer.Grille cloth and knobs are similar too.
 
McinBozak said:
I felt really blessed to find three Ampex consoles each falling within a year of one another. But the latest find is so unusual and was sold as restored. Clearly it was not. Output tubes going into saturation I paid waaay too much for it but the cabinet is really beautiful unusual styling from 1958 guessing. The guy I bought it from had replaced the electrolytics in the separate power supplies. But it had wax caps in the tuner. when I buy I usually prefer no one having been into it and I will do it myself. I would probably not buy from him again. Restored means restored. I did have to replace all four 6973's which ain't cheap with NOS tubes few coupling caps and many resistors selenium rectifier. The power amplifier had all kinds of issues with voltages being way off. Anyhow it has been gone through and it sounds like a million bucks now.
It is a Magnatone, yes Not Magnavox. It is all separate components. Preamp, AM-FM tuner and then the floor mounted 6973 PP tube amplifier. My Ampex models use the same 6973's and are very potent amps.. What caught my eye about this is Magnatones are really great guitar amps. I have looked and asked all my older guys and not one of them has ever seen one. Anyone know????
Click to expand...
Side firing speakers.
 

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I wonder if it is a one off unit as I have never seen a Magnatone stereo component non guitar related that is ever. It sounded very good but not like the Ampex but since its restoration it is killer on par with the Ampex. Oddly it has separate Bass and Treble controls for each channel and a 3 way switch for loudness contour referred to as Tone Comp. Off, 15db, and 30 db. The output trannies looked small to me but it is potent and The Garrard RC121 MkII operates well but it will need a new idler at some point. It is a keeper for sure. Sound from the amp reminds me of a Mc225. Unit has really deep bass for a console. Funny but when I discovered the Ampex I sold the Maggie Concert Grand. I did enjoy it and the CG was no slouch by any means but it could never sound like the Ampex or the Magnatone. Now I have got to figure out which one to let go. I had listed a Philco that I guess I will keep. Not much out there on that stereo either. It uses 4 6L6's in a Integrated amp and separate tuner and has large electrostatic tweeters on it. Sound is fantastic on it as well. NO MORE CONSOLES! Yikes they do eat up the real estate.
 
The hardware in that thing from faceplate to rca jacks on the back panel just reeks of quality.
 
And we have a winner!! I knew I recognized the stylized Magnatone ''M'' in photo #4,and here we have it:)

RZ8Gt.png
 
Why, one might ask, did Magnatone never achieve guitar amplifier fame and accolades like VOX, Fender, and Marshall?

Obvious answer: It's because their advertising led with the boast that the "World's Champion Accordionist" switched to a Magnatone.



(Apologies to any accordionists out there.)




(Actually, no -- you guys should apologise to me. :biggrin:)
 
Actually,Magnatone instrument amplifiers are revered by many players,both past and present,and have been on as many recordings as Vox,Fender and Marshall.

At one time (thankfully long past) accordion was a serious market player,and many manufacturers continued to include an accordian input even when the electric guitar was clearly the target market and accordian was clearly declining. Most of the Ampeg fliptops and blue-check series had accordian inputs.The only exceptions were the bass amps,which cleverly had the accordion input labelled ''Instrument''.
 
Very cool, as long as the price wasn't ridiculous, I would have singed them twenties getting them out of my pocket so quick.
 
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