Author Topic: 1970's Sunn Sorado Speaker Replacement  (Read 3395 times)

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Offline Crispy James

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1970's Sunn Sorado Speaker Replacement
« on: October 03, 2015, 12:29:52 pm »
Hello all,

I am a new user to this forum, and I'm not exactly savvy on the technical side of my equipment, so please excuse any dumb questions on my part.

I am a guitar player, and a few months back I picked up a beautiful, near perfect condition Sunn Sorado head and cab from a pawn shop. Unfortunately, I recently noticed some clipping noises coming from the cab starting at about 40% volume and took it in for repair. I tested the head on a separate cab and it sounded fine, so I knew it had nothing to do with the head. My repair guy is telling me that I am going to need new speakers, so I figured I would consult the forums to see what some people with a bit more experience in the matter have to say.

This is new territory for me so I'm looking for some advice as to what I could/should try for replacement speakers. The amp currently has the two original 15's in it (or at least i believe them to be original), and they have a lot of versatility. One of the reasons I have fallen in love with this amp is its ability to play beautifully clean, and still take some of the heavier stuff (fuzz & overdrive) when the need arrises. I'm not sure if the speakers broke because of age, or due to me pushing them too hard, so any input from the community is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Offline EdBass

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Re: 1970's Sunn Sorado Speaker Replacement
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2015, 01:13:12 pm »
If it's the cab that originally came with the amp, it was loaded with Sunn Transducer labeled woofers, probably CTS bass  drivers. What you load it with going forward should depend on what you want it to do, probably nobody can give you real accurate advice on getting that "tone in your head" that most players are searching for; after all, it's in our head. If you can find sound bite examples of what you want, and share these, people can probably give you some direction.
Your Sorado is a strong 60 watt, clean, moderately high headroom amp designed for bass guitar use. They will get nasty, but the stay clean pretty far up the SPL level compared to say a Fender or Marshall rig of comparable output. As you have discovered, even though it's a pretty "hi-fi" amp, it takes pedals well and as such is very versatile for guitar.

The fact that you are looking for 15" guitar drivers narrows your search a bit, as with current production guitar speakers 15's are lees common than 12's or 10's are.
I'd say that pound for pound it's hard to beat Eminence for tone and value, also WGS Speakers are a quality, reasonably priced driver.
WGS also make an  AlNiCo 15" that is kinda expensive, and I've never heard it in person, but...
I have a lot of only positive experience with WGS, and the word is that it's a killer 15" guitar driver; they can't build them quick enough to stay on top of demand. I personally have enough respect for their company and products to drop $500+ on a pair if I were to decide to convert a Sunn 2X15 bass cab to guitar use, however at that price point I'd stop short of trying to convince someone else to, without personally having "hands on" experience with them.

Of course, a pair of vintage JBL D130F's wouldn't suck either!

Offline Ryan Phelps

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Re: 1970's Sunn Sorado Speaker Replacement
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2015, 09:11:12 pm »
Another approach is to re-cone those original speakers. If you don't like the sound, you can install some new modern speakers. When you sell the amp, re-install the original speakers and make a Sunn collector happy!

Offline Crispy James

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Re: 1970's Sunn Sorado Speaker Replacement
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2015, 07:49:33 pm »
Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. I will have to look into those speakers, and do a bit of research on each of them. Re-coning them isn't a bad idea either even if for the sole purpose of keeping all the original parts for in case I ever want to sell it (unlikely though). I'll have to talk to my repair guy and see what he thinks about it.

As for examples of my sound, here are a few youtube videos. I know it's not the best source for sound quality, but it's enough to get a good idea of what I'm going for.

I do a lot of fingerpicking, so I loved the clean tone of the Sunn for stuff like this, where the sound has to be very clear and articulate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de1bt5dc2t0

On the heavier side:

I have a few different distortions/overdrives, but at my heaviest, I try to emulate this next video. The heavy tone that I am going for starts at 3:25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct5PmDrY5TY

Another dirty tone that I try to emulate can be heard in the first few seconds here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdaB3_1qscU
The chugs are nice and thick, but the leads are still smooth and "creamy".

I realize that I am all over the place, which makes it difficult to advise, but it is a testament to the amp that it did a great job of accommodating all of these sounds.

Again, thanks for the feedback! for now I have a good starting point at least.