DEATH TO SHORTS AND FLIP FLOPS.
Except do it right this time. And if you can get Eminence to make JBL clones for your '65 Deluxe Custom, then you can get them to make a D or K140 for a proper Sunn replica.
Except they aren't handbuilt, they're parts guitars. Allparts or USACG IIRC.
I don't think they so much "did it wrong" last time as they didn't make enough things. I have one of the "new" model Ts and it's a very good amp. Is it the same as the original? No, but you also don't have to turn it all the way up to get overdrive, and it has better pre drive than just about any guitar amp I've ever heard, and switchable output power. Also, yeah, it's "only" 100 watts instead of 150, but I'd argue that a 150 watt guitar amp is kinda silly, anyway, especially since you have to turn it up all the way to get any drive from it. Which, don't get me wrong, sounds great when Rebecca from SubRosa does it, but I think even she's started using pedals for overdrive live now. And at least for me, especially with a guitar amp, if you still have to use pedals to get any overdrive, that defeats the purpose of having a badass amp. Also while the model T was supposed to be a guitar and bass amp, the red knob version is arguably better for bass, but gets a lot of hate from guitarists.
And as cool as the 2000S head is, I have to admit I probably wouldn't buy it over other offerings if they just did a carbon copy reissue of it. I'd want a separate gain and master knob on it somewhere. A two channel 2000S similar to the Superbassman 300 (one channel very simple vintage, the other channel with overdrive and an active EQ) would be something I'd buy in a heartbeat, though (if I could afford it). The issue with the Sunn 300T was, I think, that it was a bit too complicated, and yet still didn't have the one feature really important to me (I need a mid knob a lot more than I need separate compressors for low and high, or really any compressor at all).
What I would like from a revived Sunn, would be maybe the following models:
1. Model T guitar reissue. Based on the original, silver knob version. Additional features would be either an extra gain stage or a second channel identical except for having more overdrive.
Switchable output power, or power scaling. Also preferably 100 watts, not 150, because that's just silly. Or versions in a couple different power ratings.
2. Model T bass reissue. Based on the red knob version, with 150-200 watts. Switchable output power or power scaling would be nice.
3. 2000S reissue, but with a second channel with active EQ and overdrive. Or at least power scaling. Also blendable channels.
4. Coliseum bass. Because just, well, it's cool.
5. Some sort of smaller guitar amp with a similar pre to the big ones.
6. Some sort of small tube bass combo or something.
Or possibly a bass amp that's a fusion of the 2000S and red knob Model T. One channel 2000S, the other red knob Model T. Obviously these should be blendable. Same power amp as the 2000S, which I think is still fairly similar to the Model T (big transformers and 4x6550). Rated the modern way at 5% THD to be competitive with everyone else who's rating their amps that way.
Bass cabs would be based on the 200S and 2000S designs with either K140 clones or 15PR400s.
I like rustic instruments, like Dismal Ax and the like. Stuff made out of reclaimed wood and hammered brass and bakelite knobs and that sort of thing. The whole relic on a new style instrument thing just looks gross to me. Then again, I take really nice care of my instruments. I want a 30 year old instrument that looks brand new, not a brand new instrument that looks like someone dragged it behind a truck down a gravel road. Especially rusted hardware. I do not want my hardware rusted, I've owned actual old instruments that looked like that honestly and they were hunks of junk (and I paid less than $100 for them). I had a National tele copy in the 90's that looked like it was recovered from a shipwreck and you couldn't adjust the bridge saddles if your life depended on it. I owned that because I couldn't afford a Squier at the time, let alone an actual Fender. Selling a Fender copy with a relic jobs seems to me like trying to get more for your lifted 70's Bronco truck by spraying it with mud, putting bald tires on it and knocking out one headlight.
Of course, everyone has different tastes. People can spend their money however they want and should. I'm sure plenty of people would think my taste in gear aesthetics sucks donkey butts.
To me it's too much like, I guess, cheating? It seems dishonest. Like those jeans you buy brand new that already have holes and tears in them.
I also would prefer a "rustic" looking instrument to any sort of relic.
I always thought a good use for it would be if a band was playing like an auditorium/theatre setting and the binaural mic was set in about the middle of the crowd, to help flesh out the sound of a live recording by giving some feeling of being in the audience. Also to bring in like crowd noise in between songs. Often with live recordings to me it sounds like the perspective is sitting onstage, or that the audience and the band are equidistance away, which has this odd effect of making it seem like you're somehow floating high above it all instead of really being immersed in it.
Yeah, like that, where you actually hear the crowd settling in. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I think that adds a really neat quality to it. Maybe not wanting to hear coughs and snorts through the entire performance, but to mix in during the beginning and ends of songs is cool.
You know, I hear a lot of bands and musicians going on about how they record using analog equipment to make their songs sound more like how older records do, recording to tape and what not, but I have yet to hear a record that actually sounds, production wise, like it was convincingly recorded in the 60s or 70s. Now, certainly degradation of the masters could account for ome of the sonic difference, but I think it'd be interesting to do an experiment to try to get as close to XY (chose some example recording) as possible. It seems modern recordings, even ones that tout using analog gear and the like, sound far more present and bright. And I think micing might have a LOT to do with it. I think you're right about the close micing. When I took my production class, pretty much all of the techniques focused on close micing amps and drums. I watched some additional material for the course that went into more distance micing to get a better sense of the room, and when we recorded some sample songs to practice mixing I went for a more distant approach on the micing. We put a mic up on the amps and then ones further back, and then used a simplified Glyn Johns technique for the drums, and even with a really rough mix I thought the balance and quality of the sound far outpaced most other recordings I've done where everything was close mic'd. I used very little of the close mics in my mixes, and other people in the group went with mostly close micing and it made a huge difference in the sound. The only change I would make would be to do closer micing on the drums than we did just so they don't sound so live in the room.
So, in short, less close micing.
I dunno, I think it's partly in how you record, and how extremely you EQ things. I guess it's taken as gospel that you have to take all the "boxiness" out of drums, for example, when in my opinion that's part of what makes the older recordings sound the way they do.
I actually think the sound on Neurosis' more recent albums is a bit more classic sounding, especially in the drums.
A bit more top end roll off than in many modern recordings, too. I think it is actually more classic sound in a lot of doom records, actually. Less emphasis on clinical clean like you find in death metal or a lot of metal recordings of the early 00s.
Yob's
Atma is fairly old school sounding, too. Not quite low-fi, but definitely not as polished as most modern recordings. To me it sounds like the drums weren't as close-mic'd as is common these days. I talked to the bassist and the bass actually isn't close-mic'd, either.
What everyone's preferred power supply. My voodoo labs PP2+ tanked yesterday and I have a show before the warranty repair turn around. I'm considering an MXR Isobrick. I like two 18v outputs as I want to run my Octron and ODB at 18v.
I use the voodoo labs pedal power 4x4. Which replaced the iso5 I was using earlier.
