Well here goes,
I began my association in 1979 when my sound man became an QC tech at Sunn. We used to be able to use equipment there for our own purposes. Sunn was very hip in those days cuz everybody from the VP of marketing on down was a musician or sound man. Bob my sound man became an engineer in 1980 (I think) and thats when he and I began collaborating on designs. He was the electronics wiz and I was the practical human interface sort of production engineer type. Our first effort was the
Stagemaster amp. We incorporated a c-mos chip in the front end that emulated tube type asymetrical distortion when driven with high (for an
IC) current. We had built an amp with that design for our own use and when they heard it they wanted to produce it. Only trouble was that c-mos chips burn up after 3 months run at that current so we had to drop
it down so the chip would live. A small sacrifice in the addition of odd harmonics to the sound was noticable but still much better than transistor amps of that era. The big change for Sunn was having an amp with real cool fender-like reverb. Next they came to a gig and heard the internal reverb on our SPL2224 mixer and decided that they would incorporate the mods into the line which also turned out to be a cost savings. In 1980 we had also developed a lighting system, just for the band, that did away with all of the extension cords utilizing a power module w/triacs and a single mic cord for a 16 channel multiplexed controller (which I still have and use). In 1982, since all of the design work was done as a skunkworks, Sunn decided to market the system and the Sunnspots were born. We continued to develop the system but Sunn was up for sale by then so future lighting was shelved. I went to work for Sunn in 1983 leaving an automotive tech job w/cadillac and became the inventory control person. First we were for sale then we weren't then we were again - nobody really knew what was going to happen untill Tom Hartzel Sr. died and his son took over. He began tapping all of the
assets, closing Williamstown, moving speakers to Tualatin and cabinets to D&D Bennets in Troutdale. People began to jump ship sensing the demise of a company we all cared for. I took over 5 jobs that year
working 12 hours a day as did many of us trying to save the company. Bob, with all of his great ideas, left to form NSI which has done very well. Key upper management gravitated to Biamp another company started by Conrad. The fender buy-out wasn't pretty. The idea was to give
credability to the fender name in PA. In my opinion the Sunn name lost more than fender gained. After that I went back to auto for a while but continued with the sound company that Bob and I had and eventually built
a recording studio and began teaching recording technologies at Portland Community College which turns out to be the only recording school in the state. Enter present day - After finding this site I contacted old
freinds and aquired as much documentation as I could. I hope to be either scanning in op-guides and schematics or making them available mail-order for some fee that covers duplicating costs and time. So there you have it.
Don Thompson
