Should I get a Sunn 2000s?

[songwriter21]

Funny, as soon as I started reading about the Mountain stuff, the detail shop below my floor (work at a dealership), started playing Mississippi Queen.

Weird.

 

[Sunnmon]

Mulder7 I have a little experience with the Noel Redding amp. DMN is correct. Application is the key here. An OEM 2000S into it's Native 2000S bin loaded with a pair of D140's is plenty loud. It's how you set the tone controls. @ high volume it's time to ditch the Bass Boost switch, works similar to the "Loudness" switch on old 1970's stereo receivers. Sucks up power. Don't be shy about testing the beast through various cabinets. The Elvis Hawaiian Concert bassist used a 2000S atop an ACC301 1x18" bin. Buy it or tell me where it's located and I will.....ha ha here's a few examples of 2000S cab combinations to consider. 10"-12"-15"-18", it's all good. Peace and Happiness to all.

 

[Jim Carr]

As an owner of too many fEARfuls (which is just enough!), I understand.

 

[bobyoung53]

They were amazing. How many cabs and heads did Felix usually use indoors? It was before the "bass always in the PA era."

I saw them twice during the early 70's and just remember a wall of Sunns, had to have at least three 2000S set ups, sounded kind of muddy to me though.

 

[SactoBass]

here's a few examples of 2000S cab combinations to consider. 10"-12"-15"-18", it's all good. Peace and Happiness to all.View attachment 1141992 View attachment 1141993 View attachment 1141994

Wow! Sunnmon, that's an *awesome* collection of Sunn amps! I see that you are in Sacramento. I'm in Roseville! I'm 62 years old and I had a Sunn amp rig back in the 70's (the amp was solid state, not tube). I have never had the opportunity to play through a Sunn tube amp. I'll bet it sounds great!

 

[bobyoung53]

Someone is trying to a sell a Sunn 2000s for $1000. This seems like a really good deal, considering how much I've seen them go for. Also, how loud can this amp get? I hear it's only 125 watts. Can it get loud enough to play with with a loud band and still be clean? And lastly, I was thinking of pairing it up with my SWS Goliath Sr. 6x10 cab. It's 4 ohms. In your opinions, would this be a good cab to play it through? Thanks for any advice

Hey did you ever buy that head?

 

[Hundred proof]

Having been in the Hi-Fi stereo biz "back in the day" I'm told and please correct me if I'm wrong that the "bass boost" switch on the old Sunn tube amps is NOT like the old loudness switch you find on old home audio gear. I've been told that on the Sunn amps boost in the Off position actually rolls off bass response to match the speaker cab roll off ... I never engage the "boost" except at low practice room volume.

 

[Stumbo]

I used a Sunn 2000s and 2x15 JBL cab with a Fender Jazz bass for a few years. Back in the day. I heard others play through it many times. Always clean, clear, full and loud enough.

I still have a few of them along with a 200s, 1200s and some 200s JBL cabs.

Yeah, get it if you can. Get it checked out to make sure everything is good.

Have fun!

Check out this 2x15 cab:
RS215T | RevSound

Whatever cab you use, an HPF will work well with it and keep the low end tight.

 

[deathness]

View attachment 3102293 Having been in the Hi-Fi stereo biz "back in the day" I'm told and please correct me if I'm wrong that the "bass boost" switch on the old Sunn tube amps is NOT like the old loudness switch you find on old home audio gear. I've been told that on the Sunn amps boost in the Off position actually rolls off bass response to match the speaker cab roll off ... I never engage the "boost" except at low practice room volume.

This has been my experience with my Sorado. To my ears, with the bass "boost" disengaged, there's a low freq roll off. With it engaged, it sounds like a natural extension down to the fundamental on my 4-string. I'm not a tech so maybe someone else will contradict on solid grounds, but that's what I hear when I compare it to my red-knob Concert Bass. I always have the both boosts engaged and bass/treble set to flat (2, 2) and I don't find it eats up too much headroom... but I do like a little grit in there. Others may disagree.

 

[daveobieone]

Mulder7 I have a little experience with the Noel Redding amp. DMN is correct. Application is the key here. An OEM 2000S into it's Native 2000S bin loaded with a pair of D140's is plenty loud. It's how you set the tone controls. @ high volume it's time to ditch the Bass Boost switch, works similar to the "Loudness" switch on old 1970's stereo receivers. Sucks up power. Don't be shy about testing the beast through various cabinets. The Elvis Hawaiian Concert bassist used a 2000S atop an ACC301 1x18" bin. Buy it or tell me where it's located and I will.....ha ha here's a few examples of 2000S cab combinations to consider. 10"-12"-15"-18", it's all good. Peace and Happiness to all.View attachment 1141992 View attachment 1141993 View attachment 1141994

As someone who has admired the Sunn 2000s amps for a LONG time, I've gotta through out an OMG to Sunnmon for preserving the history of this fine example of bass amplification!!! What a beautiful collection!

 

[Rumbledore]

they drowned out the crash cymbals, and everything else too, every time i used 2000S . # extremely loud ime

 

[Rockbobmel]

I was just playing my Sunn 2000S through a pair or Reeves 1-15s. The amp has a 4 ohm tap(brown) that I swapped out with the 16(yellow). Stock photo--

This is how mine was wired.

Plugged into the bright channel, I had the bass boost off and BC on 1.5 and it is frightening loud in my apartment. I dare say, I like the tone slightly better than the Reeves C225 but the Reeves gets me there better because I only gig with one of the cabs.

 

[baddarryl]

My pedigree? Graduated high school in 1969.

Gold!!

 

[dbase]

Sunn 200S was my workhorse gig rig back in 1968. Being 22 years old I could easily hump that monster around between gigs. Not today. Dumped a Kustom and Ampeg B18 for a Sunn. Should have kept it all these years.

 

[mc2ny]

Just saw all the SUNN 2000S talk. I’ve used them forever. & have a pile of SUNN bass gear.

 

[mc2ny]

Some others…

 

[Rockbobmel]

That must be mind numbing to have all of them at once!

 

[rodl2005]

Some others…View attachment 4540867View attachment 4540868

What are the Orange cabs?

 

[mc2ny]

What are the Orange cabs?

Um….well, they are Orange cabs. hahaha

More seriously…those are old early 1970-ish, rare Reflector 2x15 bass cabs, made by the original Orange company. Pretty rare cabs. I actually have FOUR of them, plus some other real early Orange bass stuff….like Noel Redding’s old OR200 heads. Also had John McVie’s early Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac Orange head and a pair of his 2x15 cabs.

 

[rodl2005]

Um….well, they are Orange cabs. hahaha

More seriously…those are old early 1970-ish, rare Reflector 2x15 bass cabs, made by the original Orange company. Pretty rare cabs. I actually have FOUR of them, plus some other real early Orange bass stuff….like Noel Redding’s old OR200 heads. Also had John McVie’s early Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac Orange head and a pair of his 2x15 cabs. View attachment 4541770View attachment 4541771

Very cool, congrats. And, thanx for the info.
So, forgive my ignorance here, but the Orange "W" bins, are they 2x15" loaded cabs too?
The ones in top pic under the 2 Sunn 2000s