Sunn Amps?

[ricmic]

A friend of mine has a coloseum bass head but I haven't played through it enough to get a good feel for it. Mark

[gearhed289]

i never much liked speakers such as JBL with the metal dust caps. i found them more harsh and tinny sounding compared to the paper cap. this is why i prefered EV or eminence for my bass rigs.

I agree. EV and Eminence for me too. Not a fan of Hartke. They sound OK with their own heads, but any time I've plugged one of my Ampegs into one, they sound like they're on the verge of death.

[collin]

Bit of Sunn trivia....but the guy who started Sunn was the brother of one of the guys in The Kingsmen (yes, of "Louie, Louie" fame). He built the first Sunn amp because nothing big enough was available for his brother's rig, and the two of them started Sunn amps as a result. Neat!

[gbarchus]

Not to be annoying, but I LOVE the sound of JBL speakers, especially 4" voice coils and AlNiCo magnets. AND, they go great with an all-tube Sun 0))) amp. In the early '70s I used TWO Sunn 200S cabinets (2X15 JBL D140 speakers each) with a '69 Ampeg SVT and a burgundy '72 4001 with Rotosound flats.

In the '80s I used a Sunn Model T with two JBL Cabaret cabinets (1X15 K145 speaker).

I wish I had them all back again.

Gale

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

Bit of Sunn trivia....but the guy who started Sunn was the brother of one of the guys in The Kingsmen (yes, of "Louie, Louie" fame). He built the first Sunn amp because nothing big enough was available for his brother's rig, and the two of them started Sunn amps as a result. Neat!

nothing big enough ? ampeg svt, fender 400ps, hiwatt 200/400, marshall major ??????? what year did he start building amps ? marshall, orange and hiwatt had the 100 watters in the '60's. vox ? stramp ?

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

i never much liked speakers such as JBL with the metal dust caps. i found them more harsh and tinny sounding compared to the paper cap. this is why i prefered EV or eminence for my bass rigs.

I agree. EV and Eminence for me too. Not a fan of Hartke. They sound OK with their own heads, but any time I've plugged one of my Ampegs into one, they sound like they're on the verge of death.

i used the hartke aluminums (4x10 and 1x15 cabs x 2 each ) with an old svt and it sounded fabulous !

[winston]

nothing big enough ? ampeg svt, fender 400ps, hiwatt 200/400, marshall major ??????? what year did he start building amps ? marshall, orange and hiwatt had the 100 watters in the '60's. vox ? stramp ?

Norm and Conrad Sundholm built the first amp in 1963 Ron. Sunn had more orders than they could handle by 1965.

[doctorwho]

nothing big enough ? ampeg svt, fender 400ps, hiwatt 200/400, marshall major ??????? what year did he start building amps ? marshall, orange and hiwatt had the 100 watters in the '60's. vox ? stramp ?

Norm and Conrad Sundholm built the first amp in 1963 Ron. Sunn had more orders than they could handle by 1965.

Yep, and remember that even a Fender Twin Reverb in 1963 produced only about 75 watts, and that was for guitar, not bass.

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

so what were the power outputs of the '63 or so sunn amps up to late '60's ? the beatles, i believe were using vox 100 watters at some point on their second us tour ?

[gbarchus]

In '63 a bass player was lucky if s/he had an 85 watt Fender Showman with one 15" JBL D140 speaker. I didn't start playing electric bass until '65. The first Sunn amps used Dynaco power amps that were rated at 60 watts RMS (2 KT88s). The biggest Sunn amp was the 2000S which only produced 120 watts RMS, but I'm sure it could produce 250 watt peaks.

Not long after this ('67 or '68) Standell amps produced 200 watts of solid state power. The Beatles were mainly using Vox AC 30 amps producing 30 watts. Paul used a solid state Vox T60 (60 watts) on tour but gave it back for an AC30. In 1964 the Beatles started using AC50 amps for guitar and AC100 for bass. On the '65 Beatles tour of America they used solid states Vox AC100 (Super Beatle) amps made in the US by Thomas Organ Co.

I saw the Animals perform in Madison, WI in 1966 and the bass player, Chas Chandler, was using a Vox Wesminster amp. I HAD to have one and actually bought the one he used in the backline. At the time I was unaware that it was a Thomas Organ Co., solid state 120 watt/18" speaker version, not the all-tube British amp; big difference.

In '68 Acoustic introduced the 200 watt 360 amp and in '69 Ampeg introduced the 300 watt SVT. I paid $1000 for an Acoustic 360 in 1969 when I started playing professionally and got a used '69 SVT head for $400 in '71.

I got two Sunn 200S (2X15) cabinets with JBL speakers in '71 to go with my Ampeg SVT and and didn't get a Sunn head (Model T w/4X6550 tubes) until the early '80s.

Gale