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NOBAD

#41
edbass said:
That material was originally used for the seat covering on old Pullman train cars, so any "mod" properties would likely be coincidental ;) .
Mr. Sundholm used it on the original split chassis rigs for the first few years of Sunn production. IIRC he told me he bought a bunch of it cheap.
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Having been used in train cars, it must be a well wearing materal. Love that connection.
 
#42
Kirk Bryant said:
New old bass amp day. I swear there was a thread titled something like name some tube amps nobody's ever heard of, or something like that. I really searched for it way too long, like 20-30 mins or something. Anyway this is one of those.
I have sort of half a$$edly been looking for one of these on CL for many years.
So just for fun here's an amp that I'll bet nobody's ever heard of. (Outside of maybe Or. Or maybe Wa. Id.) I know not too many were made and I believe only for a very few years. About my senior year in HS which was 1970' I bought one of these because it killed my Silverface Bassman which had 2 matching 212 cabs, with roughly the same wattage and a single 215 cab w/JBL D140's.

So I'll bet no one here has ever seen one of these. I picked up the non working head several years ago and it sat in the closet untill about a year ago when a friend brought it back to life. It sounds great but still needs the preamp gone through and figured out. He didn't want to take the time last summer. But it's strong loud and clean.
The amp itself is a DynaCo Mark III. You see the builders were cloning the Sunn 200S bass amp. So we have here a very early Sunn bass amp clone.
Last Friday. I was cruising CL and saw a "no name" bass cab very cheap. I called the guy and snagged it. It has crap speakers (70's Rola's really more like stereo speakers) but is in amazing condition considering its 40 yrs old at least. I mean the Tolex is almost perfect and the grill cloth has just one hole in it. It's really not too heavy, probably 50-60lbs max.
So bonus points to anyone who can name it. So here's some pics and l'll be back shortly with more history and a pic that shows the name. Any guesses?
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I believe actually Sunn copied Dynaco, the Mark III was first made in 1957 and Sunn started in 1965. I had one of those years ago, used to use it as one channel of my stereo system, the other channel was a Dynaco ST-70 bridged for mono. No idea on the amp although I have seen that star insignia before, what the heck I'll guess Guild.
 
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#43
beans-on-toast said:
The Mk2 had a 5U4 rectifier tube and EL34 output tubes. The MK3 used a 5AR4 rectifier and 6550 or KT88 output tubes, and a different output transformer. The amps are different. In my opinion, the MK3 is better suited for bass with a bit more headroom.
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The MkII was rated at 50 watts RMS @ < 1% distortion and the MKIII was rated at 60 watts RMS @< 1% distortion
 
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#44
Bobyoung53 Sunn didn't "copy" DynaCo, they actually used DynaCo amps.

Also fair guess, but I already spilled the beans. It's a Polaris amp built in Eugene Or. In the early 70's. I guess I should call some folks in Eugene that I'm pretty sure know who built them and give credit where credit is due.
I seriously doubt if they built more than a few dozen at most, the only other one I've ever seen is the one I owned from about 70' to 74-75.
It's kind of bizarre that here 40 years later one falls in my lap. I have had my eyes open for one since I moved back to Oregon over ten years ago.
 
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#45
Kirk Bryant said:
Bobyoung53 Sunn didn't "copy" DynaCo, they actually used DynaCo amps.

Also fair guess, but I already spilled the beans. It's a Polaris amp built in Eugene Or. In the early 70's. I guess I should call some folks in Eugene that I'm pretty sure know who built them and give credit where credit is due.
I seriously doubt if they built more than a few dozen at most, the only other one I've ever seen is the one I owned from about 70' to 74-75.
It's kind of bizarre that here 40 years later one falls in my lap. I have had my eyes open for one since I moved back to Oregon over ten years ago.
Click to expand...


When I read your original post you said: "The amp itself is a DynaCo Mark III. You see the builders were cloning the Sunn 200S bass amp. So we have here a very early Sunn bass amp clone." I thought you were saying that Dynaco was cloning the Sunn 200S bass amp when you said the builders, maybe I misread it or didn't really read it slowly enough to get your meaning correctly. Now I see what you meant, that the Polaris company was cloning the Sunn 200S amps, my mistake.
 
#48
Ok so here a little more history on the Polaris amp. Shout out to Mike Nemeth at Twisted Wires, a repair shop in Eugene Or. He's a long time local repair guy down there that both knows the builder and has worked on these. He's also a treasure trove of vintage amp knowledge.
I originally found Mike when I was researching Audio Guild amps (I own 2) which were used by both Jack Cassidy and also Carol Kay on a lot of hits in the 60's and early 70's.
A fellow named Greg Nance who is a bass player was stationed in Oakland Ca. In the late 60's. When he looked at the early Sunn amps he thought, I can build these! So he ordered the DynaCo power sections and added his own home brew preamps and, viola! A Sunn bass amp clone was born.
Moving to Eugene he started his company out of his garage and began building and selling these. The market was changing at this time to solid state so he started building SS amps too. Although we have no hard numbers on these Mike (Twisted Wires) thinks between 100-200 at most were built.
They were marketed through a regional company called Music West. According to Mike, his SS amps weren't all that and they also marketed guitars under the name of Polaris. The name having a further connection to Sunn by way of Polaris, the North Star also in our night time sky's.
 
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#49
I learn something every time I come to read a new post here it seems like
Kirk Bryant said:
Ok so here a little more history on the Polaris amp. Shout out to Mike Nemeth at Twisted Wires, a repair shop in Eugene Or. He's a long time local repair guy down there that both knows the builder and has worked on these. He's also a treasure trove of vintage amp knowledge.
I originally found Mike when I was researching Audio Guild amps (I own 2) which were used by both Jack Cassidy and also Carol Kay on a lot of hits in the 60's and early 70's.
A fellow named Greg Nance who is a bass player was stationed in Oakland Ca. In the late 60's. When he looked at the early Sunn amps he thought, I can build these! So he ordered the DynaCo power sections and added his own home brew preamps and, viola! A Sunn bass amp clone was born.
Moving to Eugene he started his company out of his garage and began building and selling these. The market was changing at this time to solid state so he started building SS amps too. Although we have no hard numbers on these Mike (Twisted Wires) thinks between 100-200 at most were built.
They were marketed through a regional company called Music West. According to Mike, his SS amps weren't all that and they also marketed guitars under the name of Polaris. The name having a further connection to Sunn by way of Polaris, the North Star also in our night time sky's.
Click to expand...
 

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