It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:02 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 18 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
Post subject: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:56 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:53 am
Posts: 5
Is there any hope of Sunn Amps making a comeback? With the band of the same name making an impact, as well as the reissue of increasingly esoteric vintage instruments of Fender past, perhaps FMIC will reissue Sunn products? I dunno, just hoping for more cool stuff from Fender. Maybe a Custom/Maverick or Fender XII reissue as well?

_________________
Gear:
2006 Fender Milonga Stratocaster
PRS SE Mikael Akerfeldt Signature
Line 6 Spider IV 75 Watt
Vox AC4 British Racing Green
Wishlist:
Sunn (O))) Model T rig
Custom ADE Tele
Binson Echorech
Interfax Harmonic Percolator
Veleno Guitar
EGC TB-500


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:23 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
Fender already tried that -- they released an amp that featured a traditional Sunn amp name (the Model T) but it bore little resemblance to the original. They also released an all-new tube platform with Sunn badging (the T50C) but it too was a flop. The only Sunn re-issue that enjoyed any success at all was the 300T bass rig (which, with the second demise of the Sunn brand, would become Fender's 300T).

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:28 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:53 am
Posts: 5
Retroverbial wrote:
Fender already tried that -- they released an amp that featured a traditional Sunn amp name (the Model T) but it bore little resemblance to the original. They also released an all-new tube platform with Sunn badging (the T50C) but it too was a flop. The only Sunn re-issue that enjoyed any success at all was the 300T bass rig (which, with the second demise of the Sunn brand, would become Fender's 300T).

Arjay


But wasn't that in '03? If so, then 11 years would've been plenty of time to analyze the original Sunns, then reissue products faithful to the originals, right?

_________________
Gear:
2006 Fender Milonga Stratocaster
PRS SE Mikael Akerfeldt Signature
Line 6 Spider IV 75 Watt
Vox AC4 British Racing Green
Wishlist:
Sunn (O))) Model T rig
Custom ADE Tele
Binson Echorech
Interfax Harmonic Percolator
Veleno Guitar
EGC TB-500


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:33 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
Why ask me?

Send an e-mail to Fender's consumer relations people. They have all the answers (or at least they think they do).

:lol:

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:42 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:53 am
Posts: 5
Retroverbial wrote:
Why ask me?

Send an e-mail to Fender's consumer relations people. They have all the answers (or at least they think they do).

:lol:

Arjay


Hehehe, ain't that the truth. Took them a month and a half to ID my Strat. The request probably got to Larry Thomas at one point.... :roll:

_________________
Gear:
2006 Fender Milonga Stratocaster
PRS SE Mikael Akerfeldt Signature
Line 6 Spider IV 75 Watt
Vox AC4 British Racing Green
Wishlist:
Sunn (O))) Model T rig
Custom ADE Tele
Binson Echorech
Interfax Harmonic Percolator
Veleno Guitar
EGC TB-500


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:08 pm
Offline
Amateur
Amateur

Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:31 pm
Posts: 175
How about a Sunn Coliseum 800 bass amp. Now that was an awesome bass head. Really loud with a slight distortion...
WOOOOOOOOOSH
That would sell


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 3:38 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:03 am
Posts: 9449
Location: NL Canada
I remember back in the late 60s Sunn amps entered into a sponsorship agreement with of all people-Jimi Hendrix,where they could use his name and picture in ads and they would in turn supply the Experience with a full compliment of Sunn amps.The catch phrase of the ad campaign was: "Have you ever felt a sound?" The Jimi Hendrix Experience uses Sunn amps.Jimi and company used Sunn amps for part of a tour but the amps were so unreliable and prone to breakdown that Jimi just had to stop using them because the amps were actually starting to contribute to ruining concerts.They did however continue to use the Sunn Coliseum P.A. heads as guitar amps.

Sunn amps were never regarded as being on par with any of the top amps of the day,even though they were roughly in the same price bracket.They were looked upon as just being marginally better than Harmony and Silvertone etc.I can't see Fender releasing a line of amps that had at best a mediocre track record.In the meantime I will try to find one of my old Hit Parader or Song Hits magazines that I kept from back in the '67-'68 timeframe_they were actually decent magazines back then and try to find one of the Sunn ads,I know that I do have them but the trouble will be finding them out of the thousands of other old music magazines.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:08 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:13 pm
Posts: 19026
Location: Illinois, USA
Welcome to the Forum John. Sunn was/is a favorite amplifier. I have an old Sunn 2/15" bass cabinet. The 13 ply birch combined with those old 86 oz. magnets make it very heavy and give it a unique low-end thump. Fender customer service has always been helpful to me. Should you obtain information from those good folks about the Sunn brands future let us know. :D

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:32 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
guitslinger wrote:
Sunn amps were never regarded as being on par with any of the top amps of the day,even though they were roughly in the same price bracket.They were looked upon as just being marginally better than Harmony and Silvertone etc.


:roll: :roll: :roll:

It's almost a crime to argue with an unarmed man......

Image

Image

Image

And make no mistake, pilgrim......your holster is empty.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:40 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:13 pm
Posts: 19026
Location: Illinois, USA
:lol: :wink:

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 6:24 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:03 am
Posts: 9449
Location: NL Canada
I have read accounts in several of the books that I have about Jimi of how Jimi's experience with the Sunn amps sponsorship deal was abandoned because the amps that they were supplying constantly breaking down during the concerts that they were playing during that touring period and they subsequently abandoned and dealings with Sunn and only chose to keep some of the heavy duty speaker cabinets and the Coliseum heads.Jimi's dealings with Sunn was supposed to last 5 years but as Roger Mayer has stated in the Hendrix Gear book about the amp's fragility,"....and the transformers were falling off,so they were not very good. Jimi's soundman Buck Munger said: "Jimi was used to big numbers and when he turned his Sunn amps up,he got a lot of noise he didn't like. The book also states Jimi severed his deal with Sunn which only lasted 14 months and used Marshall amps almost exclusively after that.

I admit that I was being a bit rash with the Harmony etc. put down but all the Hendrix info I have picked up has been verified by some of the closest members of his inner sanctum.If Jimi had all that trouble with Sunn gear,it would be strange if a guy like Townshend didn't because he gave gear a somewhat less than kid glove treatment...lol.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 6:31 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
Perhaps if you had some hands-on experience with the brand you seem hell-bent to trash instead of merely parroting some moron's jaded interpretation of reality you wouldn't be so quick to waste a bunch of bandwidth trying to impress everyone with how little you really know.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:17 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:03 am
Posts: 9449
Location: NL Canada
I wasn't trying to trash the brand Arjay,and in the second post I admitted in being rash in what I has said about Sunn amps that was either bit derogatory.As for Buck Munger,I'm not all that familiar with him so I don't know how credible a person he is or is not.I do however have to take Roger Mayer's opinions and what he has to say seriously since he is widely recognized as being an electronics wizard as he made quite a name for himself for creating very important classified electronic surveillance devices for the British armed forces before going on to design and develop the Octavia and do other mods on gear that gave Jimi Hendrix his unique and inimitable sound and is producing a large array of high quality and innovative effects plus he is planning a line of amps to be released next year.He is a very informed and knowledgeable man-not to mention filthy rich- so I imagine that he has little to be jaded about.Again I admit that I was out of line with my critical assessment of Sunn products as I haven't played any brand new ones and any I have played were of unknown vintage,so I admit that I was at fault by being swayed by the opinions of others but I wouldn't be the first person to be guilty of that and I take full responsibility for making that mistake.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 6:06 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:51 pm
Posts: 25353
Location: Witness Protection Program
I used an early 70s Sunn Coliseum rig for several years and it withstood a lot of abuse and took a lickin' but it never stopped tickin' - well, once it did, but the lifetime guarantee made it an easy quick fix.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Sunn Amps Reissues?
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 5:20 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:16 pm
Posts: 18677
Location: In this country town, where the laughter sounds...
Doing big venues with the Sunns in the late 60's into the 70's were no issues. And those Sunns got used extremely hard, and banged around hard from one show to the next. PITA amps back in the same time for big venue failures, Marshalls.

_________________
"Electric Lady"
Image


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 18 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: