zeppelin john paul jones sunn rig

[noel]

Hey all,
I stumbled upon this and thought it was cool.

[HRobert]

Yes Very COOL indeed!!  Are those 1000 or 2000 S amps?

[noel]

Your guess is as good as mine because the pic isn't very big.  I would guess 200s...and it looks like the other is a 2000s!?!!?  The headbox on the right is consistent with the size of a 2000s.  Also looks like some very early cabs based on the sunny emblem. 

[CLD]

The cabs look like 200S- size but those heads look wider than 24 inches.

[noel]

I agree CLD.  Either way I think this was probably a marriage of convenience as sometimes happens on the road with gear.  I've never heard or seen zeppelin using sunn any other time.  They were both certainly around at the same time but its a cool pic none the less.

[mckinnon audio]

   Yes it's a cool pic ! Where is Green Lake ? I'm guessing it's somewhere in the U.S. Check out that multi-cell horn in the guitar rig !! Glad I wasn't in front of that ! Mel.

[EdBass]

   Yes it's a cool pic ! Where is Green Lake ? I'm guessing it's somewhere in the U.S. Check out that multi-cell horn in the guitar rig !! Glad I wasn't in front of that ! Mel.

Yeah, and that looks like a couple of compression driver lenses above the multi cell. Also, based on the size compared to the Sunn heads, that's a big Marshall, maybe a Major?
Talk about piercingly loud... 

[loudthud]

I think the multi cell is on the PA stack at the front of the stage.  The cab under the Marshall seems to be duplicated on the Bass amp line but Page is partially blocking view.

[ROCKETBRO2]

Green Lake is in Seattle and I was at Woodland Park Zoo, across the street, that day.

[loudthud]

I don't think Zeppelin was mentioned in the Buck Munger articles. Hendrix, Cream, The Who, but no Zeppelin. Ofcourse later Jones used Acoustic 360s.

[ROCKETBRO2]

They were mentioned in the December 2009 postings on that thread.

[MikeL]

What is under Page's Marshall is a Rickenbacker Transonic cab with two high frequency horns; because of the angle of the shot there's the illusion that it's part of the PA. On Zeppelin's earliest US tours, they had a full backline of them, not because they were great amps(they we not)but because Page wrangled an endorsement deal so that the bands' UK gear would not have to be brought over(Page being tight with a shilling). The Ricky Trans amps were transistor, their answer to American Vox Super Beatle's with multiple channels and on-board FX, and just as shrill sounding. The cabinet design was trapezoidal, an 'inverse' to the Vox heads. One saving grace was that the cabs all featured Altec speakers with the white magnet cover. The speaker configurations were: one 15" and two 12", two 15"(probably what's over on Jones' side, but obscured), and two HF horns and a 15". Jones rig looks to be a 2000s head on two 200s cabs(to accomedate the width plus a 200s on top of the Ricky cab, and then a third 200s cab by itself. Obviously, with each subsequent tour(and they toured the US in '69/'70 multiple times)the increasing popularity of the band(and increasing money coming in)meant that they could afford to bring full Marshall stacks, as well as Jones' deal with Acoustic coming through, and they ditched the Ricky's. As far as their use of Sunn gear, probably in this situation, the equipment truck didn't get there in time for the show, and if it was indeed in Seattle, I'm sure there was plenty of Sunn amps available for rent, with Oregon being next door.

[EdBass]

I think you are right, it's an illusion. Those have to be Transonic model 202 cabs under the Marshall, that shape is too distinctive to be anything else.



Those Zeppelin Transonics, the actual Transonic 200 series units use by Zep on that US tour, are still being used by a major touring act. They didn't make the trip for current European tour, but while touring North America they are still being cranked up night after night after 40+ years.
The SS amp chassis have been converted to tube amps though, but still in the Transonic cases to look original; they sound pretty cool. He uses the model 201 cabs without the horns though;






SO THE QUESTION IS...
Anybody know which well known player bought those old Zep amps, and still uses them?

[MikeL]

Does this question count toward the final grade ? All kidding aside, which band is it? Back in the day, Steppenwolf did actually go out on the road with a Transonic backline for a while as they were major users of Ricky guitars and basses. Australian band The Church used them as props in their "Under The Milky Way" video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaXLOgZldl0  but never used them on the road(Vox/Roland/Ampeg being their gear of choice at the time). Guitarist Marty Willson-Piper is a friend of mine, and a long-time official Rickenbacker endorser(endorsee?), and he told me that while visiting the Santa Ana headquarters they just gave him the heads and cabinets as they were 'cleaning out the back room'. They were actually stored at my house for a while, so I have a little first hand knowledge of how they sound; the on-board fuzz provided some of the nastiest 'spitting' sounds I've ever heard, not unlike some of those wacky Devi Ever fuzzes. I know some other barely notable late '60s band used them, but I can't recall who(by-product of actually having been around when these things were made).