At Last, my own 200s!! now what...

[Isaac]

Last night I poured some chocolate syrup over my ice cream, which I ate as I pored over the latest posts.

[EdBass]

Drat... Busted by the homophone police again!

[Isaac]

Poor boy!

[Bugeyed Earl]

Last night I poured some chocolate syrup over my ice cream, which I ate as I pored over the latest posts.

That much sugar would wreck my pores.

Eager to see how the amp turns out!

[Smoothwound]

Well I finally got the amp back, and I feel GREAT!! and a fool.

First, I'm all excited to get this thing home and plug it in. Takes me 30 minutes to get downtown and another 45 to get home. Hal at Guitronics is a super nice guy, a seasoned Bluesman, and knows his tube amps. Total work was everything suggested here except the master filter Cap. He said to check it out and then if it still needed it, he could work with me on it, but said the cost might be around $200 or so. Total cost for work done was 148, but since he had no change, he settled for 140. Like I say, stand up guy.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/113361253@N05/

Get home, Plug it in, fire it up, hit standby and go start dinner. Come back all nervous the thing is going to blow or something, (suddenly realize I never bought that fire extinguisher I meant to), and plugged in my Fender Jazz Special.

Turn everything down to zero and hit the standby. Play a note, slowly come up on the amp and the bass, and ...nothing!!, I'm Like, are you kidding me?!@!#$!! So then I think back to the first day when I took it apart. I had an instinct all along that it wasn't the head but the cab since it played great when I bought it in the guys house, so I removed the back and check out the jack plug.

 Big Dumbass me had bent the contact back thinking it was some kind of clasp to keep the jack in place...must be the carpenter in me. Sooooo I fix it, try again and MANOMANOMAN
i never felt or heard anything come out of me that good or a sound like it in my life. Volumes are way low cause if there was ever a poster child apartment building not to get a sunn amp, its mine, but the guy upstairs is cool so I tool around with it. Set everything dead flat and she sounds like a recording studio. Hit the Lo boost plus bass and i'm in sub-zone like never before, the Treble boost sounds like Jaco with my jazz pickup, I just can't stop playing the thing. Three simple buttons, so many sounds. I'm really glad I didn't go for an ampeg, even though sounds are great, too much fiddlin' about for me.

I plugged my Yamaha SG 3C banana bass which looks cool but hardly holds up to anything modern and it sounds like a dream! Can't wait to check out the Vox Apollo IV on it. 

I"M SO GLAD I DID THIS, it's gonna change my life.

The old Mullards sound great but Hal suggested getting new tubes if I "really want to hear what it can sound like." I'm including the invoice as you guys can probably make more out of it than me at this point, but I'm studying hard. The bias on the one tube is 30 AND THE OTHER 23. You might make out the rest if you can read his writing.  Anyway, I'm hoping this baby ends up on recordings and some live gigs as well. Gotta sneak in some more time before its too late.

Cheers and thanks for all the support. I plan to make some youtube videos as I could find squat with a bass, and if so, I'll let you guys know.
Thanks Again!

BTW any further suggestions are always welcome.  Since the voltage issue is still out there, and this amp will probably not travel frequently, I was thinking of just using a variac in stead of changing the rectifier filter cap, ...not even sure if I'm making sense.

SUNN YES!!!
One HAppy Happy Guy!!

[bigobassman]

You really sound stoked.  Gear should make you feel that way, IMO.  If it doesn't, you're expecting too much, or gear needs attention.  Looks like you've got it where you want it.   Very cool. 

[Soundmasterg]

Well I finally got the amp back, and I feel GREAT!! and a fool.

First, I'm all excited to get this thing home and plug it in. Takes me 30 minutes to get downtown and another 45 to get home. Hal at Guitronics is a super nice guy, a seasoned Bluesman, and knows his tube amps. Total work was everything suggested here except the master filter Cap. He said to check it out and then if it still needed it, he could work with me on it, but said the cost might be around $200 or so. Total cost for work done was 148, but since he had no change, he settled for 140. Like I say, stand up guy.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/113361253@N05/

Get home, Plug it in, fire it up, hit standby and go start dinner. Come back all nervous the thing is going to blow or something, (suddenly realize I never bought that fire extinguisher I meant to), and plugged in my Fender Jazz Special.

Turn everything down to zero and hit the standby. Play a note, slowly come up on the amp and the bass, and ...nothing!!, I'm Like, are you kidding me?!@!#$!! So then I think back to the first day when I took it apart. I had an instinct all along that it wasn't the head but the cab since it played great when I bought it in the guys house, so I removed the back and check out the jack plug.

 Big Dumbass me had bent the contact back thinking it was some kind of clasp to keep the jack in place...must be the carpenter in me. Sooooo I fix it, try again and MANOMANOMAN
i never felt or heard anything come out of me that good or a sound like it in my life. Volumes are way low cause if there was ever a poster child apartment building not to get a sunn amp, its mine, but the guy upstairs is cool so I tool around with it. Set everything dead flat and she sounds like a recording studio. Hit the Lo boost plus bass and i'm in sub-zone like never before, the Treble boost sounds like Jaco with my jazz pickup, I just can't stop playing the thing. Three simple buttons, so many sounds. I'm really glad I didn't go for an ampeg, even though sounds are great, too much fiddlin' about for me.

I plugged my Yamaha SG 3C banana bass which looks cool but hardly holds up to anything modern and it sounds like a dream! Can't wait to check out the Vox Apollo IV on it. 

I"M SO GLAD I DID THIS, it's gonna change my life.

The old Mullards sound great but Hal suggested getting new tubes if I "really want to hear what it can sound like." I'm including the invoice as you guys can probably make more out of it than me at this point, but I'm studying hard. The bias on the one tube is 30 AND THE OTHER 23. You might make out the rest if you can read his writing.  Anyway, I'm hoping this baby ends up on recordings and some live gigs as well. Gotta sneak in some more time before its too late.

Cheers and thanks for all the support. I plan to make some youtube videos as I could find squat with a bass, and if so, I'll let you guys know.
Thanks Again!

BTW any further suggestions are always welcome.  Since the voltage issue is still out there, and this amp will probably not travel frequently, I was thinking of just using a variac in stead of changing the rectifier filter cap, ...not even sure if I'm making sense.

SUNN YES!!!
One HAppy Happy Guy!!

The problem with running the amp on a variac is that you need to have a variac that can meet the current requirements for the amp, nd these are as expensive or more expensive than doing the cap work unless you already have a 5 amp variac?

The other thing to consider is that there are other voltages in the amp besides the B+ voltage, and if you are going to play around with the AC supply with a variac, then it will affect these voltages too. The bias voltage, the heater voltage.....all of these will change if you change the AC supply, but they won't change linearly....in other words if you change the AC supply by 5 volts, it doesn't mean than the DC voltages in the amp will change by the same amount, and the AC voltages like the heater also won't change in proportion necessarily. The bias would also have to be readjusted to run the amp at whatever lower voltage you plan to run it at, and once that is done you can never run it at a higher AC supply without readjusting the bias.

It is much easier to go with series connected caps for the first two filter stages in the amp and get 700v rating, use a 500v cap for the third section, and a 450v cap for the last section. The can caps are stressed in these amps and discrete caps are much cheaper anyway than cans these days. Another possibility you might consider would be the cap boards the Triode sells. Personally on the Sunn bass amps, I like using higher filtration in the plate and screen supplies, which are the first two stages. The bass tightens up and the hum goes down....though if you decide to do this using a solid state rectifier is mandatory if you go over 60uF filtering on the first cap stage.

Greg

[Smoothwound]

Since I got my 200s, I have been playing at barely audible volumes in my apartment, loving what I was hearing, but still wanting to know what this baby actually sounds like. Well finally, last night, I  lugged it to the school I teach at and turned it up, and man, the windows and walls were shaking!!

Holy SH_TE this thing packs a punch! I really need some time to spend with settings for different applications but WOW some serious sound.

I did get some very disturbing pops from the input jack whenever I touched it, and a friend who brought his 62 Jazz bass to test drive her got some serious grounding sounds as he touched the strings and bridge. I wonder if the 1/4" cords from that era were incrementally just that much more girth than todays? Any suggestion for good cables from head to speakers and from head to bass is welcome.

All in all though I was stunned at the power. I never went past 7 and had to realistically keep it around 4.5 for any sound bearable to hear and feel in that room, but wow.

Anyone have any suggestions for effects or pedals that love this amp and sound good through it?

Cheers,
Smooth

[Isaac]

Do you have the full amp, or just the head?

The 200S head is pretty much flat with the tone controls on zero and the "boost" switches on. The 200S cabinet is also pretty much flat from 50Hz to 2KHz. Given all this, whatever instrument you play through it is going to sound like itself. I love the sounds of my basses, so I love the way they sound through my 200S.

The volume control is a linear potentiometer, so you aren't likely to get much more output going from 7 to 10.

I suspect that modern ¼" jacks and plugs are really 6mm. Those two sizes are very close to each other, and are interchangeable in many applications, but ¼" is slightly larger (¼" is 6.35mm). Could be that the old 200S has ¼" jacks, and you have 6mm plugs. OTOH, I don't have any similar issues with my 200S. Has a 3-prong plug been installed? Does the polarity switch have any effect? This could be a potentially dangerous issue.

[Smoothwound]

Do you have the full amp, or just the head?

It's the full amp, there are pictures in previous posts of this thread.

The 200S head is pretty much flat with the tone controls on zero and the "boost" switches on.

I have been playing it this way and love the sound!

The 200S cabinet is also pretty much flat from 50Hz to 2KHz.

Not sure what this translates into volume wise?

Given all this, whatever instrument you play through it is going to sound like itself. I love the sounds of my basses, so I love the way they sound through my 200S.

The volume control is a linear potentiometer, so you aren't likely to get much more output going from 7 to 10.

I suspect that modern ¼" jacks and plugs are really 6mm. Those two sizes are very close to each other, and are interchangeable in many applications, but ¼" is slightly larger (¼" is 6.35mm). Could be that the old 200S has ¼" jacks, and you have 6mm plugs. OTOH, I don't have any similar issues with my 200S. Has a 3-prong plug been installed?

YES

Does the polarity switch have any effect?

WE TRIED THIS , and it didn't but it might have been his bass because mine didn't have the same issues...1968 Yamaha banana bass, orange, one PU.

This could be a potentially dangerous issue.

[Isaac]

With the 3-prong plug, the "death cap" should have been disconnected, leaving nothing for the polarity switch to do, so it having no effect is a good thing. The speaker cabinet having a flat response has nothing directly to do with volume. With a flat response, you won't get notes in one range being louder or softer than notes in another range, as can sometimes happen.

I had an issue on one of my Sunn heads due to the input jacks not being properly grounded. Sunn saved a little bit of wire by letting the chassis be the ground instead of wiring the jacks. I ran some wire to a convenient ground, and solved it. Your issue might be related. Standard warnings apply: don't open up the amp if you aren't experienced with this kind of work, lethal voltages can be present inside, even with the amp unplugged, and so on.