Vintage Sunn Coliseum and Concert Bass Heads - Pros/Cons?

[Ron Plichta]

I have a chance to get either head for about the same price. Both are the later era models with the black faceplate and red trim. I might match them up with my EBS Classiclines 410 cab (4 ohm) for now. Would like something that can fill a medium sized room.

[KramerBassFan]

I'd get a Coliseum over a Concert ANY day of the week. More power. Plain and simple.... Also, all the coli's were 2 ohm capable. The Concerts, im not sure on actually. But the Coliseums can definitely do 2 ohms.

[Din Of Win]

Either one should fill the room fine.

I owned a Coliseum Sunn head at one point. It was VERY loud for it's low(ish) posted wattage.


Now... in my hublest of opinions... i don't think Sunn heads are 'all that'. They WERE a great deal years ago... but they now have a VERY hyped hip-factor to them that drives their price WAY up.

So, just make sure you are, in fact, getting a good deal and either head should fill the room fine, especially with a 4 ohm 4x10. IIRC, the coliseum is a bit higher powered than the concert. Both heads also LOVE 2x15's!

[Corey Y]

I've owned one of each and liked both. I agree that the Coliseum is preferable in almost any gig situation volume wise. Both blew up and the estimate to fix was more than I paid for the amp. The more expensive they get online the less worth it they are, imo. The thing that made them so popular was just that they were a decent sounding amp with some gain on tap for a cheap price and there are plenty of 80's to current solid state amps that fit that bill for extremely cheap. They have a sound, personally it worked great for my taste and what I used them for, but not for everyone. Good for punk, heavy rock and metal in my opinion, but I wouldn't want one for any kind of very clean/"hi-fi" sound.

[Ron Plichta]

I was planning on using it for classic rock, so it sounds like it will be a good fit.

[craig.p]

I owned both, too.

The Concert was a joke/toy in my opinion. Okay for small clubs and low volume, but beyond that, forget it.

The Coliseum could get somewhat loud but it was a very tight and lean-sounding amp. I had to use an external EQ to dial it in for what I needed at the time.

Both amps will benefit from efficient speakers that have an extended low end.

I don't miss either amp in the least.

[OldHack]

Originally Posted by Din Of Win

Now... in my hublest of opinions... i don't think Sunn heads are 'all that'. They WERE a great deal years ago... but they now have a VERY hyped hip-factor to them that drives their price WAY up.

+1 I didn't ever expect to see "vintage solid state" amps ever become a desirable thing, but here we are..

Originally Posted by craig.p

I owned both, too.

The Concert was a joke/toy in my opinion. Okay for small clubs and low volume, but beyond that, forget it.

+1 I ran my Concert dimed all the time into 2 15's and even biamped with a Marshall 100 full stack the thing just ran out of steam. Didn't keep it very long.

If you need a vintage looking amp for your gig, there are better rigs to look at that you'll enjoy more. IMHO

[Jim C]

You'd have to try one; personaly, I think they look better than they sound

[Ron Plichta]

Thanks, all. It's a moot point now because the Coliseum head was sold yesterday afternoon. I'll just stick with my other rigs for now.

[ericmonster_tm]

Hello-

I purchased a Sunn Coliseum 300 and a Sunn 215B cab last year. I wanted a smaller rig to my main rig and a back up in case my SVT-HD dies.

Well..my SVT-HD has been having some problems and I've been using the Sunn Coliseum 300 as my back up. After dialing in everything the way I want, it works like a charm.

I currently have it running 2 Ohms to a 4x10 and a 2x15 and it sounds amazing. Low end for dayz and low mids to drive you crazy. I cut through so well and both guitarists praise the sound.

That said, I'm selling the Ampeg and getting another Sunn Coliseum 300 cause it kicks the SVT-HD's ass in tone, low end and the EQ is way more flexible. I had to use various pedals to get what I wanted out of the SVT. I got rid of all those and Im just back to a fuzz and a volume pedal.

I was wanting something that was a single channel, master volume with lots of low end and low mids that broke up really well - it was sitting unplugged for 6 months next to my main rig right there in my face!

I play stuff that borders on the line of Deep Purple, ZZ Top and Sabbath with some kinda pyschadelic parts here and there. This amp NAILS it on the spot.

Other amps I looked at were the Orange AD-200 and the Verellen Meat Smoke. The Meat Smoke sounds amazing, but if I can get the tone I want at a fraction of the cost and not have to worry about tubes, frailty and biasing -then I'll stick with the Sunn for now.

I dont like the newer solid state amps cause they dont poses a "roundness" that these older solid state ones do. The Overdrive sounds very natural and tibe like. Im anxious to try old Acoustics and a Peavey Centurion now!

[rllefebv]

Originally Posted by Din Of Win

Now... in my hublest of opinions... i don't think Sunn heads are 'all that'. They WERE a great deal years ago... but they now have a VERY hyped hip-factor to them that drives their price WAY up.

I agree with this about 75% in regards to the solid-state heads... Great amps for what they are, but they're getting a bit hyped (although I wouldn't sneeze at that Sunn rig in ericmonster_tm's sig!). A lot of folks are looking for the logo (but hey, to some extent we're all somewhat 'brand concious')... I recently had a Concert Bass, and it was a very loud 200 Watts... Also delivered that '70s solid-state sound that I remember so well. Definitely a dated tone, but if I was looking for that sound I would've stopped right there... And yeah, it loved multiple speaker cabs!

Now, if you're talking about my 200S, well, them's fightin' words!

-robert

[mark107]

Originally Posted by craig.p

I owned both, too.

The Concert was a joke/toy in my opinion. Okay for small clubs and low volume, but beyond that, forget it.

The Coliseum could get somewhat loud but it was a very tight and lean-sounding amp. I had to use an external EQ to dial it in for what I needed at the time.

Both amps will benefit from efficient speakers that have an extended low end.

I don't miss either amp in the least.

Same here. I used the 200S and the 2000S quite a bit prior to the Coliseum coming out. When the Coliseum, came out, I thought, that's the end of SUNN. And it was, more or less. The great tone that was SUNN is not in these amps. "Early solid-state" says it all.

[edbass]

Originally Posted by mark107

Same here. I used the 200S and the 2000S quite a bit prior to the Coliseum coming out. When the Coliseum, came out, I thought, that's the end of SUNN. And it was, more or less. The great tone that was SUNN is not in these amps. "Early solid-state" says it all.

Whatever someone personally likes/dislikes is fine and not really an arguing point, but as far as I'm concerned Sunn started it's downslide to oblivion when Conrad Sundholm sold it to Hartzell.
As the players who have the fortitude and perseverance (as well as strong backs) to gig them know, the 200S/2000S were, and still are superlative performing bass amps; albeit being dated, archaic dinosaurs by modern standards.
No offense intended to those who worship them, but the only thing the later "vintage SS" models share with the Sundholm era tone monsters is the nameplate.

Actually the first SS Sunns were the Sundholm era vintage Aquarius, Dymos, and Orion series. I think the only one to actually make it to production was the Orion, and it had the power amp in the speaker cabinet and a separate "control module" preamp head (ala the Acoustic 361).

The Who used them in '68 briefly, not many were sold even though they had extremely hip and groovy striped grill cloth.
They might have some collectability as an "early solid-state" just because they were so rare, I don't know how they sound; I've never even seen one other than in pictures, but I think generally speaking the collectable vintage Sunn gear has vacuum tubes.







Again, IMO there is nothing wrong with the Concert and Coliseum series Hartzell Sunns, and there are certainly lots of ardent supporters, but they are a totally different animal the venerable Sundholm era 100 and 1000 series Sunn hand wired tube amps; as I inferred, the only thing really “Sunn” about them is the nameplate.