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Sunn Concert bass... Crap?

IguanaFish

IguanaFish

May 28, 2018
29
9
Guadalajara, Mexico
#1
Hey! I´m new here in the forums! Its great to start this thing off with this kind of question (seeing that nobody has asked this in a long time).
I just bought an 200W Sunn Concert Bass Amp, the one that has the black logo and a large silver stripe on the front, and an 8 ohm acoustic cab, for 128 dollars (yeah, a strange number, due to the currency that my country uses).
Listening to it its better than I expected, but I don´t know, I wanted to read your opinions on the sunn amps and the cabinet, Was it worth the money?
 
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#4
I think its probably a perfectly good amp and cab, particularly for the money.
But, if it does not work for you then it is crap (for you). There is no one perfect amp for everyone. Tone goals and what you hear in your head as "the perfect bass tone" varies wildly.

So, really... only you can decide if an amp/cab combination is crap or not.

and welcome to TB :thumbsup:
 
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#5
... in the early 70's I was using Sunn bass amps, mostly a Coliseum, but there were Concert bass and lead amps in the mix during that time as well ... for what we knew, they had more going for them coming from the old Bassman tube amps, but there were some woes, we had two Concerts shut down mid show on us, but the big brother Coliseum never had a single issue ... I used the Concerts with a custom built folded horn w/ 15" Gauss, and the Coliseum was pushing either one or two Vega 18's ... can you say LOUD?

Every now and then someone will pop up on here with either of the heads ... they have their fans ...
 
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#6
How did you figure it to be 200 watts? The original version(black and silver front, NO red knobs)was always listed as 150, and that’s going into 4 ohms(it was paired with a 2x15” cab wired that way). A reasonably decent amp for the early 70’s, it was essentially a mid-price amp, ‘trickle down technology’ from the higher powered Coliseum line that came before it. The distortion circuit was pretty useless, but I guess they were trying to emulate tube grit. This amp was issued after a conglomerate bought the company from the Sundholm brothers(who started it)and was intent on phasing out tube amps, save for the Model T.
 
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#7
tjh said:
... in the early 70's I was using Sunn bass amps, mostly a Coliseum, but there were Concert bass and lead amps in the mix during that time as well ... for what we knew, they had more going for them coming from the old Bassman tube amps, but there were some woes, we had two Concerts shut down mid show on us, but the big brother Coliseum never had a single issue ... I used the Concerts with a custom built folded horn w/ 15" Gauss, and the Coliseum was pushing either one or two Vega 18's ... can you say LOUD?

Every now and then someone will pop up on here with either of the heads ... they have their fans ...
Click to expand...
Damn, thank you for sharing the experience, i´ll be cautious with it on the gigs hahaha!
 
#9
Michedelic said:
How did you figure it to be 200 watts? The original version(black and silver front, NO red knobs)was always listed as 150, and that’s going into 4 ohms(it was paired with a 2x15” cab wired that way). A reasonably decent amp for the early 70’s, it was essentially a mid-price amp, ‘trickle down technology’ from the higher powered Coliseum line that came before it. The distortion circuit was pretty useless, but I guess they were trying to emulate tube grit. This amp was issued after a conglomerate bought the company from the Sundholm brothers(who started it)and was intent on phasing out tube amps, save for the Model T.
Click to expand...
It is written on the back of the amp, maybe it was because its a version made in Mexico, I dont know, and yeah hahha That "Distortion" cant be listened hahaha
 
#10
tjh said:
... in the early 70's I was using Sunn bass amps, mostly a Coliseum, but there were Concert bass and lead amps in the mix during that time as well ... for what we knew, they had more going for them coming from the old Bassman tube amps, but there were some woes, we had two Concerts shut down mid show on us, but the big brother Coliseum never had a single issue ... I used the Concerts with a custom built folded horn w/ 15" Gauss, and the Coliseum was pushing either one or two Vega 18's ... can you say LOUD?

Every now and then someone will pop up on here with either of the heads ... they have their fans ...
Click to expand...
Yup. I went from a Bassman head powering a Sunn 200s for awhile and then borrowed a Concert top for a couple of months. A lot more power over the Bassman, loved the tone, but in any sort of warm weather I had to put a large box fan behind it to keep it from shutting down because of over heating, you'll notice there are no cooling vents on the head plus a sensitive circuit breaker. I liked the distortion control, I could turn it on to about 2 and it sounded a little more like a tube amp, less of the sterile transistor sound that to my ears was inherent in most solid state amps at the time. Eventually got a Ampeg V4B.
 
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#11
I had a friend with a Sunn Concert bass amp that somehow shorted and sent 120 volts back through the guitar cable, cooked the innards of his Fender P-bass, and nearly killed him. I don't know how, but it happened. I fixed his bass myself.
 
#12
IguanaFish said:
It is written on the back of the amp, maybe it was because its a version made in Mexico, I dont know, and yeah hahha That "Distortion" cant be listened hahaha
Click to expand...
That ‘200 watts’ printed on the back is the amp’s power consumption, nothing to do with audio output. I find it hard to believe it was made in Mexico. The strictly black and silver stripe front amps, even though the company was owned by Hartzell, were still manufactured in Oregon, USA, from 1972 through the mid-70’s. In that time period, if you had an amp made outside the US, aside from any European/Canadian brands, it was made in Japan(and that was usually budget stuff). Toward the end of the 70’s, cosmetic and design changes were made, most notably to a black front with signature red tipped knobs. By that point quality control began to slip, and by the early 80’s the company folded, with Fender buying up the brand name, using it for PA and lighting gear(Fender also applied it to a series of Strat style guitars made in India intended for the Asian market). In the late 1990’s they issued a line of ‘Sunn’ guitar and bass amps, but, aside from cosmetics, had nothing to do with the gear of the late 60’s glory days, and died a fairly quick death. Some of that stuff may have been manufactured in Mexico, but I don’t know; most fans of the original company(such as myself)don’t hold the Fender made stuff in high regard. The old Coliseum heads, which first hit the market circa ‘70/‘71, had a fan installed on the underside; the original Concert series, as it was a scaled down line, did not, so it is in the realm of possibility that this led to occasional heat-related component failure.
 
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#14
OK, I stand corrected. There were ‘black face’ Concerts made in Mexico, looks like late 70’s/early 80’s cosmetics; I don’t know if those were ever distributed in the US, but they’re from the period when the quality was really going downhill, sorry to say. Very little to do with the classic early 70’s heads.
 
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#16
The amp is decent enough. Most Concert Bass heads go for a minimum of $300 USD, so $128 is a steal. I think I paid $325 for mine.
Agreed with above, that the Concert Bass can be a little "clanky" and lacking in low/low mid punch. This can probably be somewhat alleviated by cab, I would assume. I use a 215BH with it, and it is loud and gnarly, but not terribly warm. The EQ is a little wonky.... you pretty much have to crank the bass and dial in very little mids and treble before it starts getting too "clanky" with a Jazz bass. Honestly, it's probably a better sludge guitar amp than a bass amp, but I have seen them played in a context that worked very well for the particular player and tone they were going for. The Distortion channel can be a nice touch at low volumes. As mentioned above, it can add a little hair on the tone that spices up the crystal clear transistor tone of the amp. The boost launches this amp into total gnarly, but the Distortion and Boost only work if you have the foot switch.

Cranked, the amp can be pretty fun, but perhaps not completely usable for a variety of tonal options other than gnarly.
 
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#18
I gigged a Sunn Concert bass amp and Sunn Magna (1x15") cabinet hard in the 70's. Good sound and reliability for 2 decades. Nice tolex covering. Would not categorized as "crap". Paired it with my Rick 4001. As I remember the cabinet was heavy but efficient. Stock driver was later changed to JBL D140 which improved things. Was the amp rated 150 watts RMS?
 
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#20
Love my red knob Concert Bass. As others have said, a very bright amplifier, but that's what I like. I played one with a P-bass into a 215BH with Eminence Beta speakers and it was one of the most crushing tones I've ever achieved.
 
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