Sunn Enforcer

[doomedfuzz]

I ran across one of these today, going to buy it - really good price. Got to test drive it, needed pots cleaned but was awesome, even with the shitty LTD guitar I used to test it with (and I was using an Orange PPC412). Any info on these? Didn't have the footswitch either. I know they are low production, pre-Fender, and made in 1980. I play stoner/doom, was perfect. Actually sounded a lot like my Beta Lead even though its a tube amp. I also heard these are basically Ted Nugent signature amps basically.

 

[doomedfuzz]

I saw some old threads about manuals and schematics. If anybody could shoot me copies of these, I'd appreciate it. Also, I wanted to ask about the footswitch -- doesn't come with one and of course I'd like to leverage the channel switching capabilities. Any thoughts on that?

[doomedfuzz]

No thoughts, insight, info? Picking up this weekend...

[EarthRumbles]

As far as i know its basically Nugents signature model and they only made a hundred or and far far less as a combo amp. Ive never heard one but it should be bad ass, I know I would pick it up if I spotted one, let me know how it is.

[doomedfuzz]

Just picked it up today, sounds killer but going to my tech for a full go through this week. Has 4 big 6L6s in it. I'll take it up to the studio tonight and crank it up fully. Very old school tone and very non Marshall sounding. My guess is that its based on a Fender type design (I know the guy that designed it posts here occasionally so maybe he can confirm), the cleans are actually kick ass, the drive cranked gets that 70s sounding dirt (which I like). Not modern sounding at all, reminds me of a cross of cranked Bassman and a Beta Lead with the dirt on (nice!). OK reverb that works well. Appears to be all original, has the biggest freaking transformers that in that I've ever seen. I need to either find or have a footswitch built for it - standard 1/4 inch input but needs to be able to channel switch (A/B) or combine both (A and B), the same a Beta Lead for instance (luckily I have the original footswitch for my Beta!). Pix later, have to take my kid to a birthday party now...

[doomedfuzz]

Some initial pix - guts and transformer pix tonight, I got these before my camera died:

 Full Head:


Channel A:


Channel B:

[madaradio]

Very nice!  I like the look of the head.  simple.  clean.

I just picked up a 2x12 combo version on ebay no too long ago and I really like it!  Mine came with a foot switch too, bonus.  From what I've read in the manual, channel A is your classic fender sound, pre-distortion eq.  Channel B is your Marshall/Orange/Hi Watt british sound, post-distortion eq.  Two very different sounds out of one amp.  So far channel B is my favorite.

Although I haven't really got much playing time on the amp since I was unwittingly running the amp at the wrong impedance for the speakers and I blew two of the power tubes... ah well.  the combo has an option where you can switch it from 100w to 60w and only use 2 of the power tubes.  I could probably run it at 60w and be ok but I dont want to rish damaging the transformers.

You're right.  It does have it's own sound to it.  I'll take some pictures  if I remember.

oh ya,
here's a link to the manual.  http://sunn.ampage.org/site/svcmans/enforcer/  it's from this site.

[doomedfuzz]

Played for half of band pactice tonight, sounded fantastic. I ran a combination of both channels and had this just killer, dark growl going on. Matched up really well with our other guitarist's Matamp GTO 120. I usually play on the neck pickup, but with my Flying V, I played the  bridge more tonight. Tried a Hartke 4x12 guitar cab and was OK, switched over to a better cab, my Orange PPC412, and oh yeah, it rocked! Didn't want to punish it to much before it gets the once over from my tech, so I switched over to a Marshall DSL that I use for rehearsal. No comparison, the Sunn smoked it tone wise. I kind of want to use it for a gig Sat night, but until it gets checked out, I'll hold off. My Orange RV100 sounds great so its not like I have to sound like ass or anything lol. And since I don't have cleans (until I get the footswitch figured out) I'd have to run two amps, which I did tonight when I used it, I have an ABY switch and used the Marshall for cleans. I'm very happy!

[madaradio]

I'm just curious, how much did you get the head for?

[doomedfuzz]

I paid $350 for it. Best $350 I've ever spent on gear but its a hard piece to even price - blue books value them at nothing almost (like $100) but how can you value such a rare piece really, same price I paid for my Beta Lead 2x12 combo in fact. I don't ever spend much, in fact my entire Orange Rockerverb 100 halfstack (head and cab) I paid $1000 for, long story, but true - I had an Orange combo that was given to me by the owner of the company I used to work for and I traded it in and added $400, the cab I got off Craigslist for $600. $499 for my Gibson LP Studio (new in box), $550 for my Gibson Flying V (new in box). Gotta shop hard and look for deals and be willing to negotiate and even walk away.

[grimniggzy]

I paid $350 for it. Best $350 I've ever spent on gear but its a hard piece to even price - blue books value them at nothing almost (like $100) but how can you value such a rare piece really, same price I paid for my Beta Lead 2x12 combo in fact. I don't ever spend much, in fact my entire Orange Rockerverb 100 halfstack (head and cab) I paid $1000 for, long story, but true - I had an Orange combo that was given to me by the owner of the company I used to work for and I traded it in and added $400, the cab I got off Craigslist for $600. $499 for my Gibson LP Studio (new in box), $550 for my Gibson Flying V (new in box). Gotta shop hard and look for deals and be willing to negotiate and even walk away.

Damn, looks like you've made out like a bandit more than a few times over.