I love Magnatone amps. Just a great, warm sound all around. I've worked on dozens of Varsity amps, but not the Varsity Deluxe. Completely different circuit, more like an early tweed Princeton. I do own a Magnatone Model A646 that is similar to this amp circuit wise except it uses a 6SL7 rather than a 12AX7 for the preamp. This amp loses the Hawaiian theme, a move from the 40's to the 50's. Classic Jet Age style.
Typical single 6V6 tube with a 5Y3 rectifier and 12AX7 preamp. 5 watts, 8" speaker....
Grounded it, re-capped the power supply, fired it up for the first time in probably more than 2 decades (pulled from an old studio that had 100 amplifiers in various states of neglect 17 years ago!).
Sounded like crap.......
A little secret. The ceramic caps in these can sound terrible. Just change them. These amps aren't worth much so why have 'originality anxiety'? I replaced them with some Mallory 150 caps and the amp came to life. It sounds fantastic. Punchy, good volume, lots of warmth and harmonics. Great jazz tone with mild breakup. The earlier Varsity amps had great signal caps. If they are still working I leave them alone. The later ones use those lovely Ajax blue pill caps that Fender used. But these? Pure crap. Trash them and enjoy your amp! These can hold their own with any other small amp from the era. Transformers are excellent and the speaker is a nice little Jensen. Worth re-coning if it's fried.
-JB
Typical single 6V6 tube with a 5Y3 rectifier and 12AX7 preamp. 5 watts, 8" speaker....
Grounded it, re-capped the power supply, fired it up for the first time in probably more than 2 decades (pulled from an old studio that had 100 amplifiers in various states of neglect 17 years ago!).
Sounded like crap.......
A little secret. The ceramic caps in these can sound terrible. Just change them. These amps aren't worth much so why have 'originality anxiety'? I replaced them with some Mallory 150 caps and the amp came to life. It sounds fantastic. Punchy, good volume, lots of warmth and harmonics. Great jazz tone with mild breakup. The earlier Varsity amps had great signal caps. If they are still working I leave them alone. The later ones use those lovely Ajax blue pill caps that Fender used. But these? Pure crap. Trash them and enjoy your amp! These can hold their own with any other small amp from the era. Transformers are excellent and the speaker is a nice little Jensen. Worth re-coning if it's fried.
-JB
