Sunn Solarus as a gigging amp

[danbress]

I am starting a band with some buddies of mine, and last night we had our first practice.  While playing through my '68? sunn solarus stack(2x12) I noticed the amp at times sounded like it was fading in and out.  I also noticed the top speaker was jumping fairly heavily with the amp turned up to 4.

My first question is, does anyone else use a solarus for gigging?  Does this amp supply enough power, and does it hold up against constant use.

Also I have decided the sound fading in and out could be a result of one of the four problems
1) The head needs servicing, and has trouble operating at higher levels
2) The speakers need servicing and have trouble operating at higher levels
3) We are drawing too much power from the circuit causing drops in current to the amp
4) We are playing in a very very small rectangular room, with flat stone walls.  And I think possibly the sound waves bounce off the walls and cancel each other out?  I just took a physics class and learned about this, but is this a real world possibility?

I have thought about taking my head to a shop and playing on different cab's to determine if the head is functional.

I did just get the amp serviced and had all the tubes replaced and biased by someone who knows what they are doing.

If anyone can give me any advice on the subject it would be greatly appreciated.

Dan

[Fred Cook]

There are others better qualified to answer than me. That said:

-- I had a '67 Solarus combo. It is a loud amp. With EL-34's it should move into distortion better that some other Sunns.

-- The speakers that I had had monster ceramic magnets. Should go super loud. There will be serious cone displacement at "4" on the dial.

-- The question is whether the two speakers displace the same amount. If not, you have a problem with one of them.

-- Amp fading in and out? Hmmm. Bad tubes? Bad capacitors (very possible in an old amp)?

I would get thee to a good amp tech, because you should have a great amp!

DiploStrat

[danbress]

I think the problem is my speakers.  I am going to try and take the head into a music shop, and play through a similar 2x12 8ohm cabinet.  The original speakers are still in the cabinet, and I assume they are the problem.  Does anyone recommend any replacements for a heavy sounding punk guitar player?