I think a lot of people here respect Conrad because of what he did with Sunn when he owned it and the products that he created and the sounds that they make. Sure they’re largely Dynaco derived, but that’s ok. He was in the right place at the right time and had some great ideas and here we are. The speaker cabinets were the important and influential component to the sound anyway in my mind, and that was all Conrad there. They’re best suited for bass playing instead of guitar, but that’s just me. The later Sunn products after Conrad sold the company are equally valid too. Sunn made a lot of good products over the years…..basically until Fender got a hold of them anyway. I’ve got a Sunn mixer from the mid 70’s that is great, and Conrad didn’t have anything to do with that. I think it’s pretty cool that someone like Conrad who started a company years ago chooses to spend some of his time talking to people who are interested in those products from years ago. You don’t get that personal interaction with most companies or former company owners.
Personally I’m not at all bothered if topics stray from Sunn to other things. It happens on just about every forum on the net. Sometimes they have separate sections devoted to those type of things and other times not. I think having a separate section here would be beneficial to the community, but we’ll have to wait to see what Tboy says. I’m also not bothered if people talk about his current products because Conrad was a member to this forum years ago before he was even doing his current line of amps, and he shouldn’t have to suddenly stop posting because he now makes a product that doesn’t have anything to do with Sunn. As I said before….you’ll notice that Conrad hasn’t come on here and made a big post and talked about his amps as if he is trying to get everyone to buy them. He’s answered questions about them, and referred people to email or his website when they want to know more. I’ve answered questions from one poster when he had them about the amps because I had something to contribute. You’ve attacked him and I because you are apparently opposed to this site having any subjects not having to do with Sunn on them I guess. Well where does it say that this site will only have posts related to Sunn amps? If it is a problem, then why hasn’t someone come along who is responsible for this site such as tboy and said no-no boys? I think it’s only you that have a problem with other subjects here Joe, and I say get over it. Bring up these other subjects you were talking about too….I’m sure lots of people here would be interested. We are after all mostly musicians and I’ve never met a musician who wasn’t curious about gear of all types.
I still don’t get the reference to tweed fender clones or clones of anything really aside from the look and chassis construction design? Just like any other designer, you take what is known, and you build on it, and add your own twist or tweak, and this is what Conrad has done. This Blues Jammer amp is completely different than the Rocket Vessel amp that he also makes and neither one is a tweed fender clone. I don’t think when people who aren’t associated with Conrad at all ask a question about his products and people answer those questions that you can consider it marketing either. If Conrad come on here and made a blatant sales pitch post and glorified his products and told everyone to go check them out….well I’d have a problem with that and would consider that marketing.
It is probably best if we can get some other section to talk about things like this so we can keep this area strictly to Sunn and head off arguments like we’ve had in the past. Then we can all be happy and move along. You can say that there are other sites devoted to other things such as the regular Ampage area, or AX84, but not all of our community is there. I’m going to wait to see what Tboy says/does about it, but in the meantime, it doesn’t bother me at all to have other subjects on here. Bring up whatever subjects you like Joe.
Greg