For Fun: Suppose SUNN came back and...

[walkbassman45]

My experience with Sunn happened around 1973 or 74. My older brother was a bass player with a 60's jazz and big Sunn amp in his bedroom. His bedroom was upstairs and being the oldest had it to himself.
One afternoon he was out somewhere and I had snuck into his bedroom. I hit the power button strummed his bass strings. It was loud! Mom yelled at me. Lol A year later I had my first " P" bass.

 

[Munjibunga]

Nah.

 

[coreyfyfe]

the form factor would be important to me, also SUNN themselves (NOT fender) would have to make them [for me to be interested]

Buy a Conrad amp, otherwise what's the difference. Not even sure if he's still building as the website is down, but last I saw Conrad was doing one off tube amps by order and had a few new solid state designs. Sunn as a company no longer exists so saying it would have to be a Sunn design is a little bit odd to me. If you just wanted a clone of a Sunn preamp with a modern power amp that's easy. Lots of people out there doing that.

Sunn bass amps were the first specifically developed for the instrument(as opposed to refurbished guitar amps).

I'm sure there were others but Ampeg was a company for ~20 years before Conrad Sundholm built his first amp in the mid 60s so I'm going to have to disagree here.

 

[chadds]

Sunn 2000s (and 200s when not cranked) were capable of a pure hifi bass tone that pardon me the SVT couldn’t do.

Not poo pooing the SVT! It did/does what it did/does. Different sound. We had choices.

 

[basscapes]

Sunn???

Heck, I'm still waiting to see what Yamaha is gonna do with Ampeg (all my hopes are for the best, of course)!

 

[40Hz]

There’s a new pedal called the Burning Sunn made by a small company (Ground FX) that’s a very close recreation of a Sunn Model T preamp.

Put that into your effects return and you could get a bit of Sunn for a few hundred.



It’s been many years since I last heard a real Sunn or plugged into a Coliseum head. But that demo definitely kicked the cobwebs off some old memories such that even my befuddled brain is shining brightly, quite…um…sorry…what was it we were just talking about?

Anyway, if it doesn’t sound like a Sunn, at least it sounds like what I remember them sounding like. So it’s all good AFAIC.

 

[NeonVomit]

If Sunn O)) won't use them, it ain't Sunn.

 

[stringthrough]

I owned the transistor Sunn Concert Bass head (initially with a Sunn 2x15" cab, then with a 1x15" cab) and a classmate owned the tube 100S head. Both sounded amazing.

I'd look over new Sunn offerings, but since the 70's there have been a good number of quality bass amps produced by several manufacturers, so the new offerings would not be so compelling.

 

[flam]

The market has quite a bit of competition now, so I don't think a Sunn revival would work well unless they reissue the amps that made them famous. If I were to buy a new one it would have to be something like the coliseum PA, and a couple of 2x15's or something.

 

[basscapes]

View attachment 3085012

That's a neat, if somewhat weird looking amp... just went over to their site. VERY interesting, indeed!

Hafta wait until I get home to hear the clips- the Day Job doesn't provide us with sound options at our desks (something to do with Engineers streaming too much content and hogging up all the bandwidth)...

 

[SoulReflection]

Yeah I had one of those goofy little Dynaco's too. I was like 16 or 17 and it sound great! New '72 Precision Bass, Dynaco amp with 6l6 gc's and 18" speaker haha! Damn...

My goofy Dynaco was purchased around 1967 from Kelly-Deyong Sound in Vancouver with a custom made 2-15 JBL Cab. Loudest 60 watts I've ever heard!

I was reading up on the Sunn story and was surprised hear the early amps used Dynaco's. In fact, I recall seeing an inside pic of a Sunn amp and the Dynaco label was on it.

 

[PaulJSmith]

Not sure I'd be interested in that 412 cab rig ... but if they started making the Beta Bass combos again, I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat. I have a friend who has an old 115 combo that I used in rehearsals many years ago, and I've never found another amp with tone I've enjoyed as much as that amp. My '73 Ric 4001 through that amp was a thing of beauty.

 

[Lefty McGee]

Through the 70's and early 80's a Model-T with 4x12" cabinet was my main rig. Loved the power they had. If they were reissued and actually made by Sunn I would get one in a nanosecond

 

[J-Mags]

I think we're just beginning to appreciate the peculiarity of 70s solid state gear. There could be a future for heavy duty, non-class D solid state. 70s Sunn (for the grind) and Acoustic (for the clean stuff) had a fearsome sounds that are difficult to duplicate with Class D. They'd be expensive to reproduce but they wouldn't weigh a ridiculous amount.

The market for cabinets that weigh a ton might be limited, however.

 

[briandavismurph]

I wish I could find the right drivers for my Sunn BH215!

I thought Eminence could provide anything you might need. Have you trie their tech support? Awesome customer service awaits you.

 

[1960jbass]

My all time favorite sound came from a Sunn Concert Bass head. The only problem with it is that it would suddenly cut out when pushed hard. If there was a reissue released (made in USA) with the reliability problem solved, I would be selling my GK gear right now.

 

[Lowbrow]

I had a 2000s powering two JBL-loaded 200s 2x15 cabs. Today I have a D800 and two 2X12 GK lite cabs that crush that old rig. Wouldn’t go back to the Sunn setup.

 

[Altitude]

I had a Coliseum in the 80s and some of the 90s. There's nothing about it that I would want back at this point.

 

[BogeyBass]

Everyone wants the real thing.
Vintage units.


Get off my lawn.
Everything is heavy n loud around here.

 

[Rumbledore]

Sunn as a company no longer exists so saying it would have to be a Sunn design is a little bit odd to me.

oh heck! you clearly DIDN'T EVEN READ THE TITLE!