Magnatone Varsity Reverb, Point to Point

Fifteen watts of EL84 chime with a tube-driven long pan reverb, at home on a stage or in a bedroom.

Fifteen watts through a pair of EL84s in push-pull is one of the more useful configurations a guitar amp can have. There is enough power to hold a stage with a drummer, and enough sanity to turn up at home without the neighbors filing a complaint. What matters more is where the amp starts to break up, which on this one lands somewhere you can actually reach.

The EL84s give it a bright, lively voice with plenty of color and harmonics in the top end, and the pair of 12AX7s ahead of them keep the preamp voiced in classic American territory. That combination is a little unusual and it is why the Varsity Reverb does not sound quite like anything else in its size class. You get the chime and immediacy that comes with EL84s sitting on top of a warmer, rounder foundation.

The reverb is worth going into. Magnatone used a tube-driven long pan with four counterwound springs, which is more than a small combo typically gets, and the difference is audible. It opens up around the note without washing over it, and it stays out of the way of what you are playing. Turn it up and you get space. Turn it down and it just adds a little dimension.

The control set is simple enough that you can find what you want in a minute. Chimey and clean at one end, smooth breakup at the other, nothing in between that requires study. For a combo this size it puts out a bigger, more authoritative sound than the specs suggest.