Magnatone Panoramic Stereo 2 x 10-inch 12+12-watt Tube Combo Reviews

Best clean sound I've ever gotten out of an amp. Line outs provide a great sound for easy recording. Now I have 3 tube amps going up on reverb to cover the dent it put in my wallet. :-)

There's much hype, (and deservedly so may I add) surrounding a combo which is often compared to the Magnatone and that would be the Fender Vibroverb 63'. For whatever it's worth, I have both and I just prefer the overall richness, tone and flat response of the Magnatone. I'm not the worlds best guitarist by any stretch of imagination and I certainly won't be giving up my day job any time soon but I have a good appreciation for tone and what my ears tell me. I appreciate the Fender but there is something truly unique about the Magnatone and those who are into them will know exactly what I mean. I love this Magnatone amp and it will forever be my go to. - SEAL (Aecording Artist)

I have several rehearsals and a few gigs under my belt with the Pano. I feel confident that I now know it well enough to write a review. The first thing I'll say about this amp, and it's true with all the Maggies I've played, the EQ section is more dynamic in its range and curve than your standard Fender variant. You have to spend time with your guitar of choice while twisting the tone controls on this amp to understand.

This is a very clean amp. But it's not exactly "clean" in the JC or Twin Reverb category. It's super clear and defined with a hint of grit that goes where your pick attack and playing dynamics want to go. If you hit harder, it responds perfectly - but still maintains its clarity. Sloppy players will be revealed. Clean players will be rewarded. Note and string definition is just stellar.

The Pano is also much louder than every other 12-watt amp I own. If you want a ton of clean headroom in a 2x10 stereo format, this is hard to beat. It doesn't break up on its own until you're well in to the upper decibels. Honestly, that tube saturated break up occurs when it's too loud for the folks I play with. A good drive is pedal is essential for playing rock or blues. However, the vibrato is so good, I tend to leave it on more often than not and adjust controls accordingly. It does surprisingly well at adding that extra harmonic distortion that inspires you to play your best. You may be able to leave the drive pedal at home. If you're a classic country player or playing pedal steel style licks, this amp is probably all you need - for pedal steel, it's better than my Twin. (But I'm a student level steel player so buyer beware on that bit of advice.)

The reverb and AM / FM vibrato are beyond fantastic. The stereo spread certainly helps. The stereo field isn't huge like running two amps but it's full enough to take notice. If you're in the sweet spot in front of the amp, it sounds "amazing" with the vibrato pulsing. I used quotation marks because I really mean "amazing". It's truly panoramic. Just like a hi-fi system, when you leave the sweet spot, you can't detect the stereo imaging.

As a pedal platform, it's a lot of fun. I run a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo in to it at the rehearsal space and wow, pure joy. It's addictive. However, at this price point I would prefer the option of an effects loop but that's not really a thing in the 12-watt world.

Ultimately, the Pano is a very different amp, a very good one. I see no resemblance to tweeds or Princeton's as some have mentioned. I see even less resemblance to the Vox or Marshall sound even though it's an EL84 based amp. The Pano is it's own beautiful thing. It truly is a high fidelity experience. Advanced players will be rewarded.

I have a Deluxe Reverb and a Pro Sonic, I have owned Mesa Boogie, Rivera and many others. For a clean tone first, it is amazing. Rich and thick compared to the Deluxe. The Deluxe Reverb sounds like a toy next to the Magnatone.

The reverb sounds great but combined with varistor vibrato and in stereo is thick and fills the room. I can't wait to play it with a band.

Pedal friendly but not sure what pedals I want to use at this point. I threw my Archer and Protein at it and they sounded great.

I was actually sent this request for review over a month ago and am only writing a review now because before it was just too soon to make a good comment. I bought this amp after taking my time to review similar amps for the specific reason to own a hand built, hand wired amp. Of course, I also wanted one that sounded good as well.

Having chosen this amp, I am not disappointed with anything about it. The 'stereo' effect of the vibrato does exactly as advertised and the addition of the tremolo and reverb make this amp unique in it's style and price range . The fact that it is also a period build, retro amp is appealing to me as well. It has a '50's, early '60's look and feel about it that I really like.

This is a well thought out and built amp. There is one thing that this amp doesn't have as advertise though but, I can't call it a flaw or a complaint and that is that it didn't come with 'two Magnatone Custom 10" ceramic speakers'. It came with two Jensen C 10 R ceramic(?) speakers. Having no idea what I may be missing with the afore mentioned speakers, I'm not disappointed with the Jensen selection. The amp sounds great as is. It also maybe the Magnatone uses Jensen's for their advertised speakers anyway and very well could be the C 10 R's. Outside of that, it's a great amp. You may like it.

Hearing this amp made all my other amps sound like they had a blanket thrown over them.Harmonics jump out of this thing and swirl around the room. I put some corner protectors and tilt-back legs on it. American made and the price was reasonable when you consider the sound quality this amp puts out.Love it!

Worked with my long term sales rep Will Newbill (many thanks Will) to get this glorious amplifier in my hands.
You can find plenty of reviews on Youtube so no need to rehash all the technical details and specs.
It is everything and much more when it comes to pristine clarity of the clean tone along with a bottom end bass that's huge and never flubs. The tremolo and vibrato is absolutely stunning to hear. This is an ideal pedal platform if you want to drive it at lower volume since there's only a single volume knob and it is a very loud amplifier. Everything thing about this amp is top quality and is the last amplifier I will ever need to buy. WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Some background. I"ve played lots of excellent amps - Victoria Silver Sonic, Victoria Regal, Supro 1624, Morgan AC 20 deluxe etc. I tend to have a preference for full-frequency, tweed-era tones. I tend to dislike deeply scooped amps, especially for drive sounds. While I am happy to use other sounds as required, the tones I go back to for basic inspiration tend to be what I am describing here as full frequency amps.

The Magnatone has one of the most beautiful clean sounds I have heard. The stereo vibrato thing gives a beautiful movement to the sound without lurching into seasickness. Get it into a decent space where the sound has space to move and you can"t help but close your eyes and let the sound envelop you - it is a very three-dimensional feeling. If you use a pair of external cabs to separate the stereo image more, it is an extremely full and dynamic thing - very haunting. The spring reverb is very full and good. It takes drive pedals well. The basic tone feels pretty full - there is no huge scooping or pushing but the emphasized frequencies sound a little different to typical tweed circuits - more upper midrange and treble. Again, this is comparative - it is not an overtly pushed or scooped sound. This makes it possible to do a lot of tone shaping. One of the things I like about tweed amps is that there is no abrupt drop into overdrive - there is a range over which you get increasing drive and compression. That is true here as well, which lets you do lots of interesting edge-of-overdrive things. Pairs beautifully with more driven amps.

If you a feature hound, look elsewhere - there are no multiple channels and effect loops and half-power switches and other sirens to lure the unwary. If you are a tone hound, check it out.

Great sounding amp ! Always a first class experience dealing with Sweetwater and Kevin Scott !

I love all sounds this amp makes...It has a beautiful warm and clean tone with a tubey edge and a truly 3D-sounding vibrato. It's sufficiently loud but compact and very light to carry. The stereo nature offers creative recording opportunities. Highly recommended...to me it's beloved.

This amp sounds really good without the reverb and tremolo/vibrato features and adding them makes it better. It's very easy to find good tone settings on any guitar, maybe because of the lack of a middle tone knob, but spanky single coils sound best. It does a decent job with acoustic and piezo pickups too. It's a little picky but it takes pedals well. Mine starts to break up fairly early especially using humbuckers. The tremolo/vibrato feature is a little noisy especially when the intensity is pushed but is no noisier than some effects pedals.

This amp sounds great. I could sit in front of this amp with the vibrato set to slow and just noddle all day long. The reverb is huge. I don't us a lot of reverb and end up with it at about 1/8. The vibrato is gorgeous. I haven't played much with the tremolo, because why not use the vibrato. I imagine I will be overusing the vibrato every time I plug into this amp.

I was concerned that at 12W per side it wouldn't be loud enough at a gig. I have not yet played a gig with my current band using this amp, but I have taken it to a couple of Blues oriented open mics. For a band that is at a reasonable level for a small/medium sized bar it holds its own no problem. One open mic that I took it to has a tendency to get very loud. I'm talking too loud even for musicians sitting in the audience. That particular open mic the amp had some difficulty keeping up. It did but I used every bit of clean headroom this amp has to offer.

At all the places I've played it so far, I've received a lot of compliments on how good it sounds. It's a relatively light amp that isn't difficult to get in and out of the back of my car. I'm not completely sold on the control panel location, but so far it hasn't been much of an issue.