Sunn.......AND????

[RichBriere]

Greetings All,

I'd like to take just a moment to thank all of you who have written to me over the past year. Your sentiments were much appreciated and meant a great deal to me.

To update you. I sold a lot of my SUNN gear to pay lawyers, etc., so my collection took quite a hit. I've also left Fender and now belong to the legions of 50 year old unemployed males roaming the hills of the Southern Tier in NY.

I continue to have heroes in my life, the Sundholm Brothers being two who loom large in that department.........and I hope to get back to contributing to this site as well as adding more to the SUNN Shack which is located on my personal site: www.richbriere.com

Some of you have Emailed me and found that my Eddress no longer works. There's a reason for that. Ya know all of the SPAM that you receive in your mailbox every morning?? Well, I don't get ANY!!  The good thing about posting your Eddress on sites is that you become "accessible" to like-minded good folks. The bad thing is that you become accessible........to SPAM Spiders.

OK.......enough questions answered.

MY question for the day: It's obvious that we're all addicted to SUNN, for many good reasons........but what else do you use? What kind of bass, guitar, electric accordion, etc. What types of music do you play?

Bass-ically Yours,
RB
The SUNN Shack

[bcomnes]

Rich...I have enjoyed and used your site....a belated thanks foryour effort. As for your questions I am not a professional musician only a hobbyist and I also am an intermediate-skilled tube amp geek who likes to put old stuff back together and sort of revive it....I tell my wife its a lot cheaper than old cars

I got into Sunn stuff trying to get gear for my kids at a reasonable prices. First purchase was a Concert Bass for my son (14 now but 8 at the time). He plays a Fendar J-bass through that and switches cabinets between an old Acoustic 2X15 cab  in the garage with reconed Sunn Transducers, or the small 1X10 bass cab project  by L Moskowitz inside the house ( and yes it really does get down to 43HZ) or a 1X15 home made cab that he uses at high school jazz band.  He also now has a Kevin O'Connor bass homebrew preamp (1 - 12AX7) on top of a Concert Slave and when mom's out of the house we get to plug in a 1200S with 4-6550s and twin rectifiers (screw the neighbors!). He also has an Oliver bass head (an Ampeg clone that's on my bench for rebuilding - it has 2 7027As) He'salso got a bunch of pedals, the favorite being EH's Bass Balls

My daughter plays violin  (celtic) and when she gets out her electric fiddle shes using an old Sunn Studio PA that has been recapped and has a new PT (yeah its solid state, but ..) she runs that into some old Peavy monitors.  The fun part is when she puts her fiddle through an ART ECC effects box. she took that rig to burning man and ripped the joint.

Is this confessional what you are looking for?  Basically I like Sunn stuff 'cause it sounds good, is vintage, but is still afordable and not in the exalted collector's gun sites destined to sit on a shelf.

[RichBriere]

B.....a fine post indeed!! I give it a 9.5.......I can dance to it and it's got a great beat. Sounds like a well adjusted family as well.  

Bass-ically Yours,
RB

[Geoff]

I'm playing:

Rickenbacker 4003 (and sometimes a Hamer USA-made bass -- unknown model) through a Model T/215B in my cover tune band.

For guitar, I play mostly a Yamaha Studio Lord set-neck Les Paul copy (a favorite guitar -- here's a pic of me playing it: http://www.geoffbullard.com/images/011031_geoff.jpg ) or a Gibson Explorer. I use my Sonaro and a Rat or original Sansamp pedal through a Coliseum 412 or a retrofitted Model 2.  I wish my finances allowed more Sunn purchases.  I see 'em on ebay all the time but I just can't afford to give them a good home.

Between my brother and I, we have several guitars and amps here and there.  He played through high school with a Beta Bass combo and an old Fender Mustang with the competition stripe!  His PA included a set of Sunn column PA speakers (can't remember the model right now.)

Geoff

[rumblethump]

Hi Rich,

   I was very pleasantly surprized to see you posting again.  I too can relate to the over 50 looking for work status.     The spam, lets see, since 11/1/02 I've received 800 in my blocked senders file and thats after going through my isp spam filter.  "Don't start me talking, I'll tell you everything I know" James Cotton Band.  

  Until a few years back my main amp was an Acoustic 360.  Bought new in 71.  Then a good friend told me about a Sunn 2000S that used to be a studio amp in Stockton Ca.  I tried it out at an outside jam with my Carvin 2-10 and an old Fender Sidekick 15 cabinet with a Carvin Speaker.  BTW that cabinet design looks very very similiar to a 70s sunn cabinet.  I was completely impressed with this amp.  It was THE sound/tone that I had been searching for.  I sold the Acoustic soon after purchase.  I play a Carvin LB75, Cort Headless with barts, Yamaha BB200 w/SD SPB2, and a 68 Gibson EB0 that has been highly modified.  You can see pictures at my unfinished homepage.  http://www.geocities.com/rumblethump/  Note to self, got to finish that BIO.  I also have an SWR Workingman 300 that I use for pratice, backup and extended tube life for the Sunn.  Its never been needed for backup but the Sunn is 33 years old  

  Anyways, thank you for the great info posted at YOUR site.  It filled in most of the many questions I had about Sunn after I got this amp.  Aguilar Smaguilar, I know a spectacular tube amp when I hear one.

[bm]

hey rich,

our band is really just getting into the sunn stuff........we picked up an old 1200s that our bassist is using with an ampeg 8x10 cabinet, he has a 70's SVT too but it is apart and being reconditioned. he plays only fender basses...jazz or precision. We have retubed the 1200s and have de-comissioned the reverb for the time being...will also be converting the mid boost switch to a bass boost switch for the time being. I was gonna use the amp for guitar but haven't been able to get him away from it to do so!!!

the latest find is a 350L head and (per the ad) 3x12 cabinet that we're supposed to pick up very soon. Hopefully i'll get to use that one! my other gear consists of a sovtek tube midget head and a 70's marshall 2x12 cabinet...sometimes a 60's marshall cabinet that has old celestions...it used to be an 8x10 marshall cabinet but somebody cut it down (don't blame me). I use a clean boost/od pedal, looper a-b, boss tu-2,fuzz factory,70's big muff,rat and an old EH deluxe memory man. all the pedals are true bypassed for guitars I use a 69 sg, tokai sg or sometimes a 67 reissue flying Vee or a tele I put together with parts.

oh yeah...about the music...it's a mix of indie/punk and straight up rock (all original)...we're a 4 piece with fem. vocals and guitar/bass/drums

we're loving the sunn stuff because it is accessible, affordable and it really sounds good...i'm thinking the 1200s is overkill in the wattage dept, but that's a post for another time......

any questions?
-bm

[RichBriere]

Rumble!!!!   Good to hear from you Sir!  It's nice to know that you're still walking through the front door of the SUNN Shack on ocassion as well.

I'm always amazed at how many folks visit the site www.richbriere.com and hit the SUNN pages. I've been VERY fortunate to get the help of the Sundholm Brothers, Buck, Jack Shelton and others who were around when being a "Legend" actually meant somethng.  You guys still out there? The music business needs you!!!

Bass-ically Yours,
RB

[onewoodenleg]

good to see you posting again, hope youre doing better.   to add to the funn i am using two sunns a 1200s and a coliseum p.a. with some minor mods. i ues both heads with two, 400 watt each, homemade cabs, one is a 4x10 the other is a single 18, in addition im planning on making a 6x15 soon, the bass in an old garnet jazz bass copy. for guitar i use one of the two heads, an old music man 4x12 cab with origional speakers and an electra les paul copy with a set neck, and am looking for one more 4x12.  plenty loud, sounds rad.     pat

[Tom Loizeaux]

Rich,
  Tom Loizeaux here. I'm glad to see you back in circulation. You've certainly had an impact on keeping Sunn's name in the music scene.
  I bought my first Sunn head, a 200S, in 1969, I believe, because it was the amp that made my Fender Precision sound its best. The 1-15 Sunn cabinets I added really gave that bass a rich, deep, powerful sound. I still use them! I've moved "up" to Sunn vintage Model T heads and have put EVMs in those single 15 cabinets, but I still get that wonderful Sunn tone that I can't find anywhere else.
  Thanks again for being so supportive of the Sunn legacy.

Tom

[RichBriere]

Thanks for the kind words Tom.     I know that you, too, have been out there doing your best to spread the word according to Sunn.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about Sunn users is the fact that we're all one big family. Each time we walk into a music store we're secretly hoping that some old, smelly piece of Sunn gear will have just come in on trade and we'll be able to pick it up for a song. Alas, they're getting more difficult to find.......but we all keep looking anyway.

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about the Sunn line was how interchangable it was. They didn't waste a lot of time coming up with 7,000 different models that nobody needed or wanted. Much of the line was built on the same frame and only power changes and speaker changes were different. If you look at speaker cabinet dimensions, Sunn had efficiency down to a science.

I, truly, treasure the work that the early Sunn Team did and the sound that their early amps produced was (and still is) nothing short of awesome. More than that, however, I thank the Sundholm brothers every day for what they gave the Rock and Roll world.

I worked in a music store in the late 60's and I can vividly remember loading TONS of Sunn gear into the vehicles of proud, new, Sunn owners. My DREAM was to be able to afford a 200S with 2 cabinets. Zowie!!! Could life possibly get any better than that???  

Even today, my MTD basses sing like birds through the rig that I waited a couple of decades to be able to find.......and once my life gets back to "normal", my search will continue.......as will yours.  

Happy Holidays to the "Lurkers" who haven't posted yet, as well as many thanks to those of you who have

Bass-ically Yours

Rich Briere

www.richbriere.com

[sunnamps]

Hey,
I purchesed a 1970 Sunn solarus about a year ago.
The reason i bought it was those huge hunks of iron on each side of the amp head and those tubes AKA "6550s" that seemed huge at the time.
I was like woah i get one of these so i saved up $300 and bought a solarus amp head. best musical purchase I made. I have fixed the amp up alittle since i got it got NOS SUNN knobs (man that was harder than hell to find those) and cleaned the tolex which is in great shape, cleaned the corners and got the rust off and polished them.
I messed with the tubes and got new sylvania 6550s and GE 6an8.
I have to say there were times when I wanted to get rid of the amp but I must say the long restorations are part of the FUNN  with old Sunn's.
I am glad i kept my amp and didn't sell it, Thanks to everyone on the sunn site i have been able to keep my Sunn alive and LOUD AS HELL.
Thanks for your help rich AND everyone On the forum.
Thanks Conrad and Norm these amps are great for bass so loud and punchy.

Oh before i leave what is the Bias range for a solarus like 26 Ma or what i am playing bass throught it so i need a clean sound.

[Anonymous]

ohh kay ok im nto a regular but ill go anyways


i use a 1994 jackson pro with a floyd rose tremelo.

oh yea and a 1998 sunn model T
with a 4-12 carvin cab
 i know i know its not the classiest set up but it does its job.
super dirty drone sludge..

[RichBriere]

Super Dirty Drone Sludge??     Hey, it takes all kinds of music to make the world go 'round. And you're doing it through a Sunn amp, right? How much better could life possibly be, my friend??  By the way, welcome to the site.  

Bass-ically Yours,
Rich Briere

www.richbriere.com

[youDEVILyou]

yea sunn all the way


im looking to get an original

model t.

id like to run them together...see what happnens

hopefully not a fireball