Magnatone Custom 280 (1960)

This is one of those special amps, very rare, and magical. It has been a labour of love to restore this treasure to the state you see it in now. It almost couldn't be more original or more authentic sounding. If you've heard the Magnatone varistor driven vibrato you will have some idea of what this amp sounds, sweet, mellow, exquisite. Only the the vibrato is sitting on quite a beefy amp, the Buddy Holly/Richie Valens amp, not a pretty diversion but a real player in the heart of rock 'n' roll. And, yes, the stereo vibrato effect is in rude health, balanced and bonkers at the same time.

The speakers are brilliant, original and recently re-coned, lucky as the cardboard on all these amps is falling apart. The handle is a replacement, again the original flimsy leather handle never survives this long. The leaking filter caps have been replaced. The external footswitch appears original, and clearly doubled up as an ashtray for some of it's life.

This amp is impossibly rare, expecially in this condition, if you've ever had a yearning for one of these now is the time to act, it's only going to become more expensive. Oh yes, and Magnatone never re-badged top-of-the-line products for Noble, except here we are.

This amp requires a step down transformer to operate in the UK.