Designed by Paul Bigsby for Magnatone, the Mark V was the company’s highest-end guitar model in the mid and late 1950s. While best known for their amplifiers, which featured true-stereo fidelity, Magnatone built a few guitar models during those first years of operation. Today, the Mark III, IV, and V guitars are quite rare, and it’s not often you’ll come upon one.

This example is particularly lovely despite some honest playwear. It’s completely original but for new frets that were installed in our shop. We also made a pair of wooden risers for the pickups to get the balance and power dialled in properly. The guitar is set up perfectly, plays cleanly and easily, and sounds tremendously good.

The Magnatone Mark V is a hollow body guitar with neck-through construction. As such, it’s lighter than you’d expect at 6.8 lbs, and offers excellent acoustic resonance. It features an original Bigsby tailpiece and unique single-coil pickups which are both warm and bright and measure 4.7 and 5.1 KOhms. The neck has a Fender-like round carve, with a 1-5/8” nut, 1st fret depth of .821” and only a bit of thickening by the 12th fret, where it measures .868” deep. Scale is 25”, string spread at the bridge is 2”.

Original Kluson tuners with original screws and bushings, original finish throughout, original hardware and wiring. There are a few replaced screws, but it’s otherwise as straight as you can ask for.

The Magnatone Mark V was designed by Paul Bigsby soon after he abandoned building ‘electric Spanish’ guitars in favour of spending his time making pedal steels and focusing on Bigsby tailpiece production. It is among a very small number of electric guitar models in which Bigsby is directly credited.

With original hardshell case