Magnatone Typhoon

Strat-like, with a heavy dose of Teisco Del Rey mixed in. Jazzmaster-like vibrato that locks at inconvenient times. Zero fret with a metal cap that's SUPPOSED to keep the strings in place, but doesn't really. Four switches: three by the high E that do various combinations of pickups and phasing (I haven't figure out what yet), one by the bass E that (according to someone else) switches between the two volume pots. One of my pots does nothing, so the switch acts like a on-off switch for now. Nice, skinny neck that plays surprisingly well, and fast. Rosewood fingerboard that's relatively flat. The body at the neck joint is rounded off, a surprising feature that is very comfortable. The finish is kind of a yellow sparkle, with the sparkles spread out. Mine has divots in the back of the neck (not real bad ones) and some on the body. This thing's ben AROUND. Oh, and I have the original case for it! For its time, this was a pretty interesting guitar.

I like the out-of-phase sounds the best. I haven't taken it apart yet, but it sounds like some of those switches bring in capacitors that damp the high end, and they damp it too much for my tastes. There's a lot of tones, though, and hardly any of them sound anything like a Strat or LP.

I wouldn't have a clue how this bugger was originally set up. I put 10's on it, lowered the action, and it almost plays like a Jem. There's a lot of flaws, some described above, but most attributable to age and neglect. The single-coil pickups have adjustable polepieces on them; a nice touch.

Reliability? The silly bugger's lasted THIS long, so there must be something to say for it (it seems to be a 60s-model guitar).

These guys are LONG gone...

I have a variety of guitars; Strats, Gibsons, Hamers, Parker, Gibson, etc. I use this thing, with a Gorilla practice amp, in my bedroom just for practicing and hacking around. I'm amazed by it everytime I pick it up.

The Magnatone Model X-20 Typhoon was Magnatone's top of the line guitar when made in the mid '60's. The guitar has three single coil pickups and three controls, with four slide switches mounted on a three layer plastic pickguard, and 21 frets on a 25.5 inch scale. The neck is bolt-on lacquered maple with a rosewood fretboard and clay dots, and the body I would guess is poplar with a thin metallic blue finish, which is not quite a metalflake. The body shape is a fairly typical offset double cutaway, but the body edges are fully radiused, and the body tapers to about half thickness at the top edge where your arm rests.

Although this sounds a lot like a Strat clone, the Typhoon is a very different instrument when you look closer. Probably closer to a Fender Jaguar, though I'm not that familiar with the Jags features. The vibrato tailpiece is just that, vibrato only, no dive bombing possible, with a modest up and down range. The tailpiece has a unique "Lever Lock" feature, which locks the arm when it is rotated to within a certain range, although it takes some very careful set up to make sure that the lock position is exactly in tune with neutral.

The bridge is a set of six individually adjustable round bars in a shallow U-shaped cradle with a blade extending into the guitar body. The blade rests in a V-shaped support which can be raised or lowered by four screws, leaving the bridge free to rock forward or back with the strings as the tremolo alters the tension. No friction, but the entire assembly is free to come off the guitar when the strings are removed. Many of the Typhoons still around have suffered the loss of the original bridge parts because of this, and almost all are missing the cover which snaps onto the bridge assembly. If these parts are lost, all kinds of bad and ugly things can get put in instead.

The tuning keys are quality Kluson "Six-In-Line" machines with chrome buttons, and the nut is a "Zero Fret" with a metal retaining bar just above it. A thin plastic panel covers the truss rod adjustment above the nut, and a black decal on the headstock says "Magnatone Typhoon".

Where the Typhoon really stands out is in the sophisticated use of passive electronics to create a truly astonishing range of tones.
The three controls are Volume, Volume, and Tone instead of Volume, Tone, and Tone like a Strat, and instead of a three (or five) position lever switch, the Typhoon has three two position slide switches below the strings, and another on the upper horn. The switch on the horn selects which of the two Volume controls is active, and also significantly affects the tone, kind of like the "Lead" and Rhythm" switch positions on a Les Paul. The three switches below the pickups are not simple "On and Off" controls, but select one, two, or three pickups in and out of phase, in series and in parallel, and also adds in some capacitors to darken or brighten the sound depending on the switch settings.

With eight settings possible on the three switches, and two flavors of these eight from the upper switch, the Typhoon has about sixteen different tone settings on tap. For those with a gentle touch, you can park the upper switch in between the normal positions, just like the lever switch on an old Strat, and get another eight tones with both of the volume knobs active for balancing them. That's 24 tone settings without even touching the Tone control. And only two or three of the switch settings result in tones which aren't very distinctive from all of the others. Quite an accomplishment for a forty year old instrument.

As you might expect with all those settings, tonal variety is the main strength of the Typhoon. You can get a full bodied "neck pickup" tone or a bright sharp "bridge pickup" tone, a twangy surf sound or a deep dark blues. Just about all the in between tones you could ask for are in there too somewhere. Some of the bright tones are a little bit thin sounding, and most are subject to a modest single coil hum, but there are a few which are strong and nearly silent as far as hum goes (out of phase perhaps?).

There's got to be something in here for everybody, especially when played through modern effects and amplification. I play a melodic rock style, and through a Digitech 2101 the Typhoon is a real tonal chameleon.

Biggest complaint is a relatively low output from the instrument, as the pickups aren't as hot as a Strat's single coils. Heavier strings set low over the pickups can compensate for this a little, and the output is hardly wimpy unless strung super light, but you probably won't get to overdrive heaven without a booster.

Sustain is also somewhat lacking, again similar to a Jaguar because of the open length of string behind the bridge. I've seen some after-market parts for Jaguars which place heavy bar behind the bridge to hold the strings down harder and improve sustain. The Typhoon would probably benefit from this as well, especially to hold the strings down, as heavy chords struck near the bridge can cause the strings to slip off the bridge bars, which is not a good thing.

Overall, the breadth of tones more than compensates for the minor quirks in playability.

No idea what the factory settings were on this axe, but the neck is fairly thin with a comfortable fretboard radius and is dead flat down its length, with narrow frets which show a fair amount of wear. The action is quite low, especially in the lower positions because of the zero fret. The pickups like to be as close to the strings as possible for the best sounds, but the middle pickup doesn't have adjustable pole pieces. You can't raise the the pole pieces on the neck and bridge pickups too far either, as they are machine screws with heads that can snag a string if you play really hard. Keep the pole pieces low enough so that the bottom of the head is below the rim of the pickup, and that won't happen.

Overall action and intonation is very good, and the appearance of the guitar is typical for a vintage instrument. The neck and body have their share of chips and dings, and the finish has plenty of lacquer checking, but the metal parts show no evidence of rust or any kind of corrosion, so they must be either stainless steel or chrome plated.

The electronics are in good shape, with a little scratchiness in the volume controls which some spray cleaner would probably cure, and the switches are absolutely silent, with no pops or chirps when changing tone settings. The switches have little tapered plastic caps on them, which gives the guitar a definite 50's and 60's vibe, but don't really help you make tone changes quickly.

This Typhoon is definitely a survivor, having nearly reached forty and still going strong. The hardware looks like it could go another forty without any problems, and (pardon this offense to the vintage purists) a good refinish could make the body and neck look new.

Certainly tough enough to gig with, and with all the tones, you'd probably have to have more than one backup to cover the same range.

No way. Magnatone is gone, and didn't leave enough of these gems behind to interest anyone in Taiwan. If any of the more commonly missing parts are gone, like the "Veg-O-Matic" switch caps, the top hat knobs, or the easily detached bridge parts, finding another guitar to scavenge is about the only hope of replacing them.

Magnatone did make several similar guitars in this series, including the X-15 Tornado with two pickups, and the 3/4 size X-10 Zephyr with a single pickup. Some parts from either of these two instruments may be interchangeable with those on the Typhoon.

I'm also about a forty year veteran player, and I've played Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, PRS, and many others. To me the Magnatone has a personality just as distinctive as any of these recognized classics.

It's by no means perfect, and doesn't respond to thrashing or reward a player with a heavy strumming hand, but it is a uniquely responsive guitar with a remarkable breadth of tones, and rock solid "Made in USA" construction.

The only thing I wish it had was a blue book value like a vintage Strat, but then I probably never would have tried it out, and I certainly couldn't have bought it.

Made in the US in 1967 I believe. The company is more famous for making amps. 21 frets. Looks like a Strat, though it's not a complete rip-off of the design. It's creamy white with a white pickguard. A bit of scratches & dents here and there but nothing major, I guess you could rate is as "Very Good".
3 pick-ups, 2 volume knobs and 1 tone knob. The switches are kind of like a Fender Jaguar, there are 3 different switches where you combine the different pick-ups and there's one switch to toggle between 2 different settings you've set. The good thing is that all the different settings really make a huge difference (unlike a 3-pick-up Epiphone SG I once had) ranging from deep bass to almost twangy.
The bridge is really old style, but has individual saddles for each string. The strings do not rest on grooves though, they just mount the smooth saddles. Intonation-wise it's not bad, or at least so i am told after a more knowledgable friend of mine set it up for me. The neck is very skinny, which I like, but you can't slide very fast on it, I don't know, maybe I have to grease it or something. The frets are normal I guess. The wood is dark and cheap-looking. What kind, I'm really not sure. The tuners are also cheap-looking, but do the job, and the tuning in general is quite good. It came with a cool original hard case.

The sound of this guitar is what many people would call not very good. I like the diversity of it. It can really get very boomy. It's also quite muddy and unclear on practically any setting. Normally, this is something I hate (i'm not the Gibson type), but it offers something my other guitars don't have. The pick-ups are very microphonic when you put a bit of gain on the amp. All in all, the sound is very rich and full, especially in a band situation, but it's also noisy and muddy. It has its advantages, let's put it that way, but I prefer my other guitars. I like when you strum barred chords with a bit of distortion, it sounds very much like stereolab. I guess this guitar suits me because I like noisy stuff.

How this guitar originally came from the factory, I have no idea. I can only comment on its state now (I bought it less than a year ago). The action is quite high, which is fine with me as I'm used to it by now (all guitars I like need high action and heavy gauge strings for some reason). There are no factory flaws i can spot, and overall the guitar has held remarkably well for its age. The only thing is that some of the selectors are noisy, but I've had that in every vintage guitar I ever had (i know, change the hardware)

This guitar looks pretty solid, and it has lasted long enough already, I hope it'll go on like that. I can depend on it, within reason. I wouldn't use it on a gig without backup, but that goes for every guitar I have

The company as far as I know no longer exists. I've never tried to get it repaired, and I don't know how easy it will be.

I've been playing the guitar for about 5 years. My other guitars are: a Fender Jazzmaster (Jap. reissue), a Galanti Grand Prix special (with natural pickguard and lots of switches), a Meazzi Hollywood Jupiter and a shitty no-name electro-acoustic. If it was lost, ideally, yes I would buy it again if I found it for a similar price in a similar condition, which is not likely. My favourite feature of this guitar is, ironically enough, its sound as it complements my other stuff.