What to do with my old Sunn Concert?

babsobass · #1 06-14-2010, 08:56 AM

Hey guys, I have a OLD Sunn Concert bass head, the silver face one from the early seventies, with its matching footswitch (not everyone still has those!). A couple of years ago I fired it up for the first time in years. It was weak sounding and had the scratchy pots thing going. I ended up replacing all the electrolytic caps in it, including the big power supply filter caps (those I also upped the capacity on). With that and some cleaner for the pots the thing came back to life! Sounds really good at this point, full and clean.

Question, do you guys think this would be a good gigging head in this day and age of ultralight, powerful heads? Or should I just sell it and get a MB, GB, GK, or something similar? The weight isn’t a big issue, I can deal with the lugging. But is the tone and power rating of this beast good enough for gigs, say with a couple of 1x12 cabs? I play rock covers, mostly on the classic side, but some newer stuff as well. Thanks!

bmc · #2 06-14-2010, 09:04 AM

Back in the 90's, I had one of those as well as a Sunn Model T. The growl and force of the Model T make the Concert sound less than full.

To it's credit, it's a functioning, reliable 150 watt head that you have on your hands. Sexy, it isn't. Versatile? Not overly. The EQ is very simple, yet effective.

Considering that it doesn't have much market value, I'd say hang onto it. You never know when you need a spare head, or an amp to run a small mixer through for an imprompu PA set up. Perfect for small gigs.

I say keep it and save up to buy something else if that inspires you.

Let us know what you decide. Good luck.

Din Of Win · #3 06-14-2010, 10:53 AM

Keep it. Everyone needs a tank-like back up amp. (Mines a Peavey Mark VI) If you sell it i can almost guarantee you will be lamenting the decision later on in a "gear i wish i had never sold" thread...

Jaybird1969 · #4 06-14-2010, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmc

Considering that it doesn't have much market value, I'd say hang onto it.

I'd definitely hold on to it too, but old Sunn amps have really gone up in price over the last ten years or so (mostly due to the drone-metal band by the same name using them)- I see the later red-knob Concert heads going for $300-$400 on ebay and craigslist pretty regularly. I think he could easily get $300 for it if he sold it.

BigOldHarry · #5 06-14-2010, 11:00 AM

If it sounds odd, there may be a problem. I had one of the black-faced ones many years ago and it was, at the time, a premier piece of gear for a poor working musician like myself in 1979...

Id take it to a tech for a check-out. May be a dried out cap - that has been known to happen on old amps...

craig.p · #6 06-14-2010, 11:17 AM

Another vote here for keep it.

If you want to put it into service, it'll do best with speakers that are really efficient, and terribly with speakers that aren't. Those 150 watts need every break they can get. I say this from personal experience.

babsobass · #7 06-14-2010, 11:33 AM

Thanks for the advice! Yeah, I’m strongly considering keeping it. I was considering selling if I could get more than $300 for it. That would go a long way toward a LMII or something similar. But I do have the feeling I might regret selling it, if only for sentimental reasons! I’ve had this amp for a long time.

It is a tank and very reliable. In the 80’s when I did gig with it I had no problems at all. I played through a JBL D140F cab (which I believe is pretty efficient) and it sounded good.

No one has talked too much about their impressions of the tone of this thing. To my mind it is clean, but not a “flattering” clean if you know what I mean. Maybe it’s the early generation SS technology that can make it sound a bit harsh, not sure. Anyway, curious what people think of it tone-wise.

St Drogo · #8 06-14-2010, 11:42 AM

You wonder if the tone is good enough for this day and age? If it was good twenty years ago, it's good now. Tone preferences may change over the years, but that's only because manufacturers make different stuff nowadays and so a difference in tone may be prevalent. That has nothing to do with taste. You just have more options today than say, twenty years ago.

I always find this idea kind of strange where tone has to be up to par with today's "scene" of whatever. The more you try to sound like everybody else the more you, well, sound like everybody else. Guys in ye olden days just got an amp they could afford and ran with it. It makes me think of how Nirvana and sonic youth used to buy jazzmasters and stuff because they were cheap at the time, not because that was their be all end all of tone. Now these guitars are quite expensive again. Why? The tone hasn't changed dramatically. It's because they played those and their fanboys wanted them too.

You have an amp there that's quite solid, or so I've been told (haven't heard it myself). Furthermore, you've put some love and work into it, which makes it "your" amp in my eyes. You say the weight is not a problem. If you can get it miked when the gig is too big, you're set, I'd say.

BigOldHarry · #9 06-14-2010, 11:50 AM

[quote=St Drogo;9265030]You wonder if the tone is good enough for this day and age? If it was good twenty years ago, it's good now. Tone preferences may change over the years, but that's only because manufacturers make different stuff nowadays and so a difference in tone may be prevalent. That has nothing to do with taste. You just have more options today than say, twenty years ago.

/QUOTE]

I don't entirely agree.... I think it is accepted that today's amps / speakers are *much* better than those of even 20 years ago, let alone 40 - - But the big change has been clarity of tone and flatness of response. If you don't need that - if you just need to make the "earth move", so to speak, then you are right: Old Acoustic & Sunn heads were dandy for that. I wouldn't want a Sunn Concert Bass head now, since sometimes I like snap & Crackle in my tone. But for basic Rock & Roll? Sure!

Add to that, having an old Sunn head on stage is pretty cool mojo...

St Drogo · #10 06-14-2010, 12:00 PM

Oh I'm with ya. If you long for a tone that old stuff just can't give you, you can just get someting else because it's out there. in the old days your options would be diminished greatly, compared to now.

All I'm saying is "If you like the tone you have, you like the tone you have", be it from an old beat up amp or a hi-fi modern set. Nothing groundbreaking I'm saying, sure, but the OP asked if his tone was good enough, right?

EDIT: You could always go the other way around: You have a SUNN, therefore, you must make DOOM. Heh.

babsobass · #11 06-14-2010, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by St Drogo

You could always go the other way around: You have a SUNN, therefore, you must make DOOM. Heh.

No Doom. I'm a little too old school, and hopefully intelligent

, for that!

And you guys are right, if I like it, I like it! But I like the newer stuff too, and have wondered if a LMII of RH450 (if I can afford one) would be a better option. Selling the Sunn would fund such a purchase.

Thanks for the responses so far.

Din Of Win · #12 06-14-2010, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by babsobass

No Doom. I'm a little too old school, and hopefully intelligent

, for that!

hahahahahahahahaha

awesome

With the prices the Sunns are fetching, you could totally use it to help fund that new head you want!

nysbob · #13 06-14-2010, 02:43 PM

When I was very poor and making the switch from playing cover music to original (late 70's) I had a marshall major that I had been using to drive a pair of JBL 15"s go belly up. I had a sunn concert lead head and used that with the 15"s. Was it a tone monster? No. Did it provide adequate juice to move some air on stage? Absolutely. I wound up using it for about 4 years. The band became somewhat successful during that time...then one day a guy brought an SVT head to the gig for me to check out, and that was that. I'm still using that SVT today.

s_mcsleazy · #14 06-14-2010, 02:50 PM

get it fixed and give it too me

or keep it

**JayAmel** · #15 06-14-2010, 02:50 PM

If you don't know what to do, then give it to me, and I'll know what to do with it. I promise it will live in a comfortable house and treated with love...

Seriously, every time I read "Sunn Concert Bass", I end up crying of being so stupid to sell mine, some 30 years ago.

Not the better amp from the past millenium nor the interstellar miracle of amps, but a very good bass amp that sound like a... bass amp (espectially if you pair it with the matching 215 cab).

I loved this amp. Really. Glad there are still some working out well by these days.

craig.p · #16 06-14-2010, 05:09 PM

On the question about tone, mine was... boring and two-dimensional. And rather lightweight-sounding, too. I don't know how else to express it. It was "there," and you could hear it, and that's about it. Had I known anything about electronics back then, I would've benched it and found out why, and maybe tried to do something about it. I will say, though, it made a pretty good show of things into the 215BH I had for a while (just to reinforce Jay's point).