Magnatone traces its roots to the late 1930s, when Delbert J. Dickerson founded the Dickerson Musical Instrument Company in Southern California. After changing hands through the 1940s, Art Duhamell acquired the business around 1946 and renamed it Magnatone. The brand earned its place in amplifier history by inventing the electrical vibrato circuit in 1957 — a true pitch-shifting effect using silicon carbide varistors and vacuum tubes that set Magnatone apart from the tremolo circuits found in competing amps. Rock and roll pioneers including Buddy Holly, Lonnie Mack, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley, and Scotty Moore made Magnatone amps part of their sound throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The original company ceased production in the mid-1970s.

Ted Kornblum, whose family founded St. Louis Music Supply in 1922, revived the Magnatone name in 2013 with a line of hand-wired boutique amplifiers built in St. Louis, Missouri. The relaunch drew on input from Billy Gibbons and Neil Young's longtime guitar tech Larry Cragg, blending faithful reproductions of vintage Magnatone circuits with modern refinements. The revived lineup includes the Traditional Collection (featuring models like the Twilighter, Panoramic Stereo, and Varsity Reverb), the Master Collection, and signature lines developed with Slash (including the Super Fifty-Nine M-80 and Lil' Viper) and Billy Gibbons.

Magnatone's artist roster spans generations and genres, from Neil Young, Keith Richards, David Gilmour, and Pete Townshend to Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, Jack White, Dan Auerbach, and Kurt Vile. The brand's hallmark remains its proprietary vibrato — marketed as "True Dimensional Sound" — which produces a lush, pitch-modulated effect distinct from standard amp tremolo.

Magnatone has 94 products cataloged on Equipboard, including Combo Guitar Amplifiers, Guitar Amplifier Cabinets, and Guitar Amplifier Heads. Their gear is featured by 56 artists, with the strongest followings in Rock, Folk, World, & Country, and Pop. Notable users include Jason Isbell, Alex Turner, and Nick Valensi. Most Magnatone products sit firmly in the high-end, boutique range.