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bigtonemusicbrewery
| Copyright 2011 BigToneMusicBrewery |
"Maggie" SV280 Stereo Vibrato:
The Magnatone 280 is considered the holy grail of
vintage true pitch vibrato by just about anyone
who's ever played one. There are lots of
magnatone-like vibe pedals out there. Some of
them come pretty close. A lot of them don't. But
none of them have yet to nail it. And none of them
have even come remotely close to getting the true
stereo pitch vibrato of the 280 right. It took nearly
3 years and dozens of prototypes, but we finally
got it right.
The BTMB Maggie sounds exactly like the real
Magnatone 280 because it basically is. We've
simply translated the original circuit into a low
voltage solid state form. Right down to replacing
the 8 varistors that were in the original circuit with
JFETs. The most important part of replicating the
tone of real Magnatone vibrato is the dual phase
LFO (low frequency oscillator). Without it, you
cannot have the push-pull effect that gives the
Magnatone its lush rich warble....not even when it's
in normal(mono) mode. And you certainly can't get
the stereo effect that the 280 had where the sound
coming out of one speaker was bending the pitch
up, while the sound coming out of the other
speaker was bending the pitch down.
This isn't your garden variety "stereo" effect that
just splits the signal at the end of the circuit and
uses an out-of-phase buffer for the secondary
output. The BTMB Maggie has a left and a right
output with vibrato circuits that are independent of
one another for a true stereo effect. You can plug
both outputs into any amp that has 2 or more
inputs and get the sound of the Magnatone 280.
Even though this doesn't create much of a spacial
stereo effect, it's what the real 280 sounds like
since both of its 2 sets of speakers were housed in
the same cabinet. Plug the outputs of the Maggie
into two separate amps, switch the Maggie into
stereo mode, space the amps far enough apart so
that you can appreciate the true stereo vibrato,
and prepare to get seasick.
The BTMB Maggie features all panel mounted
hardware and through-hole components and is
meticulously assembled, entirely by hand, in our
shop here in the US. And despite the fact that this
is a true stereo effect, it still has mechanical true
bypass switching. Operates on a single 9V battery
or a standard 9VDC power supply.
The Magnatone 280 is considered the holy grail of
vintage true pitch vibrato by just about anyone
who's ever played one. There are lots of
magnatone-like vibe pedals out there. Some of
them come pretty close. A lot of them don't. But
none of them have yet to nail it. And none of them
have even come remotely close to getting the true
stereo pitch vibrato of the 280 right. It took nearly
3 years and dozens of prototypes, but we finally
got it right.
The BTMB Maggie sounds exactly like the real
Magnatone 280 because it basically is. We've
simply translated the original circuit into a low
voltage solid state form. Right down to replacing
the 8 varistors that were in the original circuit with
JFETs. The most important part of replicating the
tone of real Magnatone vibrato is the dual phase
LFO (low frequency oscillator). Without it, you
cannot have the push-pull effect that gives the
Magnatone its lush rich warble....not even when it's
in normal(mono) mode. And you certainly can't get
the stereo effect that the 280 had where the sound
coming out of one speaker was bending the pitch
up, while the sound coming out of the other
speaker was bending the pitch down.
This isn't your garden variety "stereo" effect that
just splits the signal at the end of the circuit and
uses an out-of-phase buffer for the secondary
output. The BTMB Maggie has a left and a right
output with vibrato circuits that are independent of
one another for a true stereo effect. You can plug
both outputs into any amp that has 2 or more
inputs and get the sound of the Magnatone 280.
Even though this doesn't create much of a spacial
stereo effect, it's what the real 280 sounds like
since both of its 2 sets of speakers were housed in
the same cabinet. Plug the outputs of the Maggie
into two separate amps, switch the Maggie into
stereo mode, space the amps far enough apart so
that you can appreciate the true stereo vibrato,
and prepare to get seasick.
The BTMB Maggie features all panel mounted
hardware and through-hole components and is
meticulously assembled, entirely by hand, in our
shop here in the US. And despite the fact that this
is a true stereo effect, it still has mechanical true
bypass switching. Operates on a single 9V battery
or a standard 9VDC power supply.
$249
in stock and ships immediately!
$249
in stock and ships immediately!
| MAGNATONE 280 vs. MAGGIE On the slower settings you can really hear how the dual phase LFO creates an uneven wobble. This is one of the tonal characteristics that we worked so hard to capture. At it's slowest setting the vibrato is almost imperceptible, but it makes a great tape warble sim that sounds amazing in the FX loop of your delay. |