Very Rare Magnatone Mark IX Stereo Output Designed by Paul Barth Original Case 1959 Natural

Very rare Magnatone Mark IX... 

I bet you can't find another one... 

This is a sweet Magnatone Mark IX. This one was made in 1959 at Paul Barth's own facilities. From what I understand they attempted to manufacture these hollow-body electrics at the Magnatone factory. However, they were not very successful and most of the guitars ended up on the trash heap.

Paul Barth was a former Rickenbacker engineer. The first "Mark" models are sought-after mainly because they were partially designed by Paul Bigsby, though the second generation are the products of Paul Barth. This is one of the Paul Barth guitars. Very low serial number of M435... An extremely rare stereo output Mark IX!

To the best of my knowledge these guitars were made in sunburst so this was probably refinished at some point but is otherwise original (output jacks are replaced, originals are included).The original Barth pickups are single coils, with a nice bright neck tone. Being a semi-hollow body guitar, it's very resonant acoustically. The pickguard is unusual because it is made from fiberglass and not plastic. The fiberglass has slightly discolored over 62 years. The guitar can be used either in mono or stereo. In stereo splitting the pups to the left and right channels. Cool, eh...

The neck is maple topped with a brazilian rosewood board. The fretboard doesn't show much wear, and the frets are in pretty good shape except for a couple of small divots. Original Kluson Deluxe machines, original bridge and the original case... Sweet!

Description from the original catalogue.

The MARK IX

The Mark IX Artist Series STEREO guitar, when used with any MAGNATONE Dual Channel Amplifier, is an amazingly versatile combination-the ultimate in fine musical instruments. It offers the musician a range of tone never before available. It fulfills the current demands for brilliant highs, as well as retaining the rich qualities of lower tones and the overall full bodied quality of the guitar sound. It may be used either as a stereo guitar or as a monaural guitar at the flick of a switch.

The controls include dual tone and volume, dual output jacks, stereo/monaural switch and three way switch. The segmented bridge with multiple adjustment allows individual adjustment for each string for precise tuning and extremely accurate action control for the most exacting musician. Dual 8 foot cords included with each instrument.

Check out the pics because they don't lie... like always! The condition is, well, check out the pics!

Shipping quoted is to you in the CONUS, as always... includes the original case that has taken some abuse over the decades! I bet you can't find another one...