Technical differences between the 1200s and model T?

[hosebeast]

Hey dudes, I'm just curious if anyone of you with more of an inside knowledge of how amps actually work can shed a little light.

I know these are both quad-6550 amps and I know the 1200s is only like 120w as opposed to the T's ~150w, but otherwise that's it. Are these amps really that different as far as tonestack (I know the 1200s has reverb and tremolo) or what their actual output is or how they actually amplify a signal?

I'm kind of a layman here, but I own both of these amps (the 1200s is out of service for the time being and I'm currently waiting for the T to get back from the tech) and I'm wondering if I can get away with using either one, so I can maybe just sell one to cut down on redundancy.

Thanks a ton for any input!

[Isaac]

Seems to me that you, owning both amps, would bu i. a better position than pretty much anyone else to say what the differences are!

First question, which Model T? 1G? 2G? I assume you don't mean the 90s version, which was not a 4x6550 amp.

[hosebeast]

Sorry for not being clear - while I have experience with the T, the 1200s I own has been out of commission since I've owned it and I can't even get it to the tech until I get the T back. I have no experience with the quad tube S-model sunns, though I have played 100s and 200s amps before.

So yeah while I own both of them, the only one I've spent any time with at all is the T. And the T I own is a 2nd gen, but by the time I get it back will hopefully be closer to 1st gen specs, as I've asked for my dude to figure out something with that miss switch and the volume dip issue. Definitely not talking about the Fender one. Also, the 1200s I have is the tube-rectified one, not the SS-rectified one.

I mentioned it but I'm just trying to get an idea if these amps are pretty close tech-wise so maybe I can sell one because I don't really NEED to own both of them. I mean, out of the 10-15 Sunn tube amps I've played they all have a pretty similar character and I know that both of these are quad-6550, Dynaco (I think both of them are?) transformer amps. I just don't know much about the rest of the amps' paths.

[Isaac]

I've never used a 1200S, but I have several of the 2x6550 amps from the same era, and I believe that the preamp sections are similar. Generally speaking, they sound great clean, take pedals extremely well, but don't sound that great driven into distortion.

The 2G Model T is a different beast. It has a completely different tone stack, and a mid boost control that is always on. Even at zero, there is some boost. That gives it a different tone. I have a 2G Model T, and I've modded it a little. I removed the blue/white wire that causes the volume to go down as the master volume goes above 8, and modded the mid control so that there's no mid boost when the control is set at zero. I haven't modded the tone stack.

So I'd say that they are rather different amps. The preamp gain stages are similar, but the tone stacks and the splitter/inverter circuits are different, though I don't know how much difference that last makes. In my experience, the T is better for distortion. In addition, it has the master volume, allowing distortion at low levels. The mid boost can make the cleans sound odd, though, and I would expect the 1200S to be better for that.