Magnatone Guitar, Part 2
Zooming in now, as the Magnatone geekfest continues! I’ve looked “under the hood” at a lot of guitars, and this one showed me some things I’ve never seen. The pickups are completely non-adjustable, unusual for the time. The black sections are plastic, and the chrome rings are plated metal. The parts, especially the baseplates, have the stamp of a Danelectro-like ingenuity, are made simply and still work and sound fine.
The wiring is very neatly laid out and all these parts are high-quality U.S.-made stuff, the same parts Gibson and Fender, among others, were using at the time: CTS pots, Switchcraft jacks and selector switch, and Cornell-Dubilier capacitors. I suppose the pickups were made in-house or specifically for Magnatone. I haven’t managed to track down any info on that yet.