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Troubleshooting Sunn 2000s

opivy3056

stardust in a light beam
Oct 14, 2004
1,050
449
Spangereid, Norway
Hey fellas,

Im gonna bring the amp to a tech soon (short on cash atm) but I'm wondering what might be wrong with it.

My Sunn 2000s is a 1969 with a solid state rectifier. Lately I cant get nearly as much volume out of it as I used to, it distorts rather early as well. I used to be able to not crank it past 4 and a half or so on the volume, but now I cant get any clean headroom. Its weird.

I have no idea how old the tubes are....but I'm guessing theyre pretty aged.

I'm praying that its not a transformer. Diagnosis???

-Thanks!
 
Things I'd check in no particular order, power tubes, filter caps, output switching jack. Does the amp have the correct fuse or a circuit breaker? Have you been unsing the standby switch correctly? How many speaker cabinets do you use and are they the correct impedance? I wouldn't worry about the transformers unless you have been abusing the amp.
 
Since you live only about 30 min. away I will take that raggedy piece of dog doo off your hands. It weighs too much it uses tubes:eek: and most of all it's old. In fact I'll let you pay me $50 bucks to drive it over to my house. I played those when they were new and wouldn't think of you suffering through this another minute. Oh you have the cab too. Shame. Okay I'm so embarrassed for you. I will really help you out. What a sucker you have been to use up space at your house for such junk.
So that being said the idea that you would have it worked on and spend more money is just wrong. PM me and I will gladly relieve you of this stain on your reputation.
 
Since you live only about 30 min. away I will take that raggedy piece of dog doo off your hands. It weighs too much it uses tubes:eek: and most of all it's old. In fact I'll let you pay me $50 bucks to drive it over to my house. I played those when they were new and wouldn't think of you suffering through this another minute. Oh you have the cab too. Shame. Okay I'm so embarrassed for you. I will really help you out. What a sucker you have been to use up space at your house for such junk.
So that being said the idea that you would have it worked on and spend more money is just wrong. PM me and I will gladly relieve you of this stain on your reputation.

haha! I'm going to have it worked on, I just wanted to make sure its not going to be something that costs a half grand to repair.
 
haha! I'm going to have it worked on, I just wanted to make sure its not going to be something that costs a half grand to repair.

As far as I know, there's only one way to find that out for sure...;)

I agree with what Loudthud said, but depending on how fast it went south my first suspect would be filter caps. Most power tube issues I've experienced caused slower power degradation (not to say one couldn’t just flame out on you, particularly if you pound on the amp regularly). If it went weak all of a sudden I would suspect it to be a jack or some other electro/mechanical issue.
That's amp is a tough old hoss. Pretty straight forward, easy to fix for any competent tech.