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Greg, I cannot thank you enough for sharing those photos and your knowledge with me! I had heard the switches were most likely unnecessary (similar to the polarity switch now that my amp has a three prong adapter). Any idea the respective years for those catalogue excerpts? I?m assuming the one is 67 as the 100s only has four knobs?
Thank Ryan! And thank you so much for you answers. I had a feeling there weren't manuals haha. I did check out that catalog thread and while it was helpful, it certainly left me with plenty of questions. I will check the amp more thoroughly for dates.
One more question(s). I understand the purpose of a standby switch for warming up an amp for a minute or two, but I find it confusing on this amp as it has the same On/Off positions as the power. Which way should it be when warming up!? Haha. Up with the power or down? Should it be left in either position? I did a search on the forum, but it's odd how little I could find regarding this switch. I know there are strong opinions about these switches in general.
There used to be a whole bunch of Sunn catalogs and manuals and what not on the old Sunn forum, but they have been gone since the forum got picked up by Tboy/The MEF, probably about 20 years ago now. I'll post what I have saved for the 200S.
For tube amps that use receiving tubes (receiving tubes are what all tube guitar and bass amps use), a standby switch is not required. In some cases depending on how the standby is wired, (Korg-made Vox AC30 reissue for example) it can actually slowly damage the rectifier tube when the standby is used. One of the myths about standby is that it is necessary to stop cathode stripping, which is where the cathode is stripped of the electrons it emits faster than it can emit them, which damages the material the cathode is made of, hence shortening the life of the tube. This is not a concern though with amps that have less than 1500V in them, and even the vaunted Ampeg SVT is only at around 660V. Leo Fender was likely the first to add a standby switch to guitar/bass amps, and it was more of a servicing aid than anything else. In Denmark they actually removed the standby switch from new Fender amps before selling them there back in the day as it didn't meet their regulatory approval and was deemed unsafe.
That said, the way the standby switch functions is that when the amp is in the on mode with the power switch, the standby switch should be in the same orientation for the amp to play....so the top of the switch will be depressed in the on mode. If you want it in standby, then the standby switch should have the bottom depressed. Most people would use the standby this way > turn power on, with standby switch in the standby position, let it warm up for a few minutes, then move standby switch to play position and rock out. You can use it that way, but it is unnecessary.
Greg
Thank Ryan! And thank you so much for you answers. I had a feeling there weren't manuals haha. I did check out that catalog thread and while it was helpful, it certainly left me with plenty of questions. I will check the amp more thoroughly for dates.
One more question(s). I understand the purpose of a standby switch for warming up an amp for a minute or two, but I find it confusing on this amp as it has the same On/Off positions as the power. Which way should it be when warming up!? Haha. Up with the power or down? Should it be left in either position? I did a search on the forum, but it's odd how little I could find regarding this switch. I know there are strong opinions about these switches in general.
