zeppelin john paul jones sunn rig

[MikeL]

Aha! So, I'll do my research ahead of posting next time..doh!   http://jzu.free.fr/rick/amp/transonic.html   
I forgot completely about Cheap Trick, and they were on Austin City Limits not too long ago! As I recall, the pre-Cheap Trick band that Nielsen and Petterson were in(Fuse)did some U.S. gigs with The Yardbirds in their waning days with Page; Nielsen actually played drums on a last gasp singles session where Page and vocalist Keith Relf were the only band members present. As Nielsen was an equipment wheeler-dealer at the time(having sold a Les Paul to Jeff Beck, for example), he probably kept in touch with Page during those early LZ tours and took those Transonics off of Page's hands.  One bit of mis-information in that link(but it's understandable)is that Jeff Beck used Kustoms...at ONE gig at the Fillmore East he and Ron Wood had a backline of east coast made Plush amps, a Kustom look-alike brand with tube circuitry very similar to Fender design. The Plush company got quite a bit of mileage out of that show as they used photos of the gig in multiple print ads(I used to see them in Hit Parader magazine when I was a kid). Check out this link:
http://ledzeppelin.com/image-galleries/led-zeppelin/1968-1969   
As you can see(make sure to go through all the pages--no pun intended)on those early tours, LZ used whatever was available...on a New Jersey gig, Jones is even using an early SVT(or V4). There's also a slightly better shot of the Seattle/Sunn gig.   

[EdBass]

Go to the head of the class, Mike! 
I don't know how Tom Petersson actually got the Zep Transonics, but I know he has them and as of the last time I saw him he was still using them.
The only time I ever played them (Transonics) IMO they truthfully sounded like crap even by early SS amp standards, but I've never played through Tom's "new and improved all tube Transonics".

I've heard them, but only with Tom playing and frankly that's kind of cheating. Mr. Petersson is a seriously underrated player in my estimation.