TC Electronic Magus Pro recreates the LM308 op-amp for analogue distortion tones
A new analogue high-gain distortion pedal
5,0 / 5,0 | 
TC Electronic has just dropped the Magus Pro a new distortion pedal the Danish brand says delivers sweet, heavy drive tones. Billed as a “classic analogue high-gain distortion pedal”, it features three distinct modes and has plenty of gain on tap. And as you’d expect from TC, it’s keenly priced, too.
TC Electronic Magus Pro
With this new Magus Pro analogue distortion pedal, TC Electronic has used what they are calling “a specially designed circuit to recreate the classic slow slew of the infamous LM308 op-amp“. TC’s engineers, of course, are using readily available modern components to simulate the way those old op-amps reacted. The layout looks straightforward: three controls of Gain, Volume and Filter, plus a three-way toggle switch that accesses the three modes. The Filter control is essentially a Hi-cut filter, allowing you to tailor your top-end and tame the highs, a bit like a ProCo RAT.
TC Electronic Magus Pro · Source: TC Electronic
Modes
The three modes gives you different clipping behaviours, called Fat, Classic and Turbo. Each one gives you progressively more gain and oompf. Classic is essentially the classic RAT-style gain mode, while Fat gives the low end more boost. Turbo just kicks it into higher gain and adds in a pair of LED clipping diodes. That could be a go-to sound for players needing more cut.
TC Electronic Magus Pro with three distinct modes · Source: TC Electronic
Check out the official video below to hear it in action. For the price, it’s a decent little Rat-style distortion pedal. Having three modes is a neat little bonus, making it more versatile than other distortion pedals on the market.
Just like the recent TC Skysurfer Reverb, it’s a compact pedal with top-mounted jacks and true-bypass switching, making it well suited to pedalboards.
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Video
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5 responses to “TC Electronic Magus Pro recreates the LM308 op-amp for analogue distortion tones”
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Why is the LM308 infamous? I would call it “famous.”
You’d have to ask TC as they refer to it as ‘infamous’ in their marketing.
Cheaper ($59US) over here in the States.
Everything is cheaper in the US. We pay 20% plus tax throughout most of Europe/UK and so our prices are high from the off.
“The LM118 series are precision high speed operational amplifiers designed for applications requiring wide bandwidth and high slew rate. ” Well, that’s what national semiconductors say about the 308.