Soak Up The Sunn: New Amp Day: Sunn Solos

I told myself that I was through buying amps.  But that's like a junky saying this is his last hit.  The last amp I bought cost me a lot, and I wasn't happy with it.  I ended up getting rid of it quickly.  After losing a good amount of money on both repairing and trading it, I said no more amps.

But then, and there's always a, "but, then," I saw it on Craigslist.  It was advertised as a Sunn Solos 2, possibly being made from 1969-1974.  I am a huge fan of Sunn amplifiers.  In fact, I own a Sunn Alpha 212R that has never let me down.  I knew I had to have this amp.

I talked to the owner on and off.  I was trying to trade equipment for it, but he wanted cash.  I drove about as far as I could drive to South St. Petersburg without driving into the water.  Truthfully speaking I was dang close to the saltwater.

He let me check out the amp.  I have to admit, it didn't sound great.  It was supposed to be a copy of the Fender Twin Reverb, but with a solid state power section.  It did have three tubes in the pre-amp section.  That made this one of the earliest hybrid amps I had ever seen.

I started checking it out, and was kind of disappointed.  I saw a few things that needed repair.  Honestly, it was both good and bad.  The speakers were completely shot.  As in, they were rusted and falling apart.  The power cord had tape wrapped around it, so I knew that needed replaced.  As old as it was I'm sure it needed a solder job.  It also made an insanely loud hum whenever the reverb was turned up.

Now here's the funny math.  Do I buy this amp at a discount, but have to invest so much into it that would cost more than I could actually buy a Twin Reverb?  However, I can go to any Guitar Center or Sam Ash and buy a Fender Twin Reverb.  I can have them search their inventory and have them ship me certain models of the Twin Reverb any day of the week.

What I can't do is buy this amp any time or place.  To be honest, I had never even heard of this amp.  I had never seen one, and this was the first time I was ever playing one.  So what do I do?  Do I buy the ultra rare amp from a company I love, or do I buy the time tested best known Fender amp?

I decided to buy the Sunn amp, and here's why.  The seller already had it lower than market value.  He then knocked the price down again.  I knew I would have to acquire two new speakers for the amp.  The good news was I already had one that was perfect for it.

So I bought the amp, and headed directly to ProAudio Electronics Tampa.  Mike J. has run the shop for a long time, and absolutely knows what he's doing.  Rex, the tech who would be working on the amp came out, and looked it over.  He pointed out where a cap was leaking and needed replaced.  He noticed the tape wrapped around the power cord, and said that wouldn't pass inspection.  I agreed.

I told him he had plenty of time to work on it since I was headed out hunting.  I told him I had one speaker for him, and would order the other one.  He should just worry about getting it working, and he could add the speakers last.  I then headed out hunting two days later.

In the middle of the next week we talked on the phone.  He told me that three (out of six) of the caps needed replaced.  Also, one of the speakers was completely dead, and the other one was in bad shape.  It also needed a solder job in some places, plus the standby switch needed replaced.  I told him to go ahead and get it working.

Before I had left, I bought a Jensen C12K speaker for the amp off of Reverb.com.  I already had a WGS G12C/S sitting at the house.  So while I was hunting, I had my Mom drop off the speakers to ProAudio Electronics.  That gave them a chance to play it, and see how it sounded.  If there were any problems they would be able to hear them, and sort out the problem.

Once I made it back I was able to play it at the shop.  Two of the guys said I'd better not leave that amp around the shop much longer.  They liked it too much.  As I tested it out I had to say it was very different from the amps I usually play.

It had a very interesting clean sound.  It wasn't tinny like so many clean amps are.  It had a full sound, but was clean.  When I turned it up it started to slightly overdrive.  It completely took me back to an era before my time.  I could hear that vintage sound that defined so many artists.

Rex the technician told me something that I had completely missed.  He told me that this amp wasn't the Sunn Solos 2 as had been advertised.  It was the first model from 1969, the Sunn Solos, version 1.  That meant that this one didn't have an X20 circuit.  The X20 would engage a circuit that would add distortion to the amp.  The only problem was that you couldn't control the amount of distortion.    But since this model didn't have it, I didn't have to worry about that.

I checked out the serial number, and realized that it read 001XXX.  As in, it was only around the 1000th amp ever made by Sunn.  In other words, this was an early model.  I tried to find information about it on the internet.  It turns out there are very few things written about the Sunn Solos 2.  There is almost nothing written about version one.

The only thing  I could find that was they made versions one and two in 1970.  After that, they strictly made version 2.  I was on a music forum where I read a post from a musician who had bought one new in 1970.  He said back then the Solos amps were more expensive than Fender Twin Reverbs.  I have to say that surprised me.

So here are the photos:

It's in what I could call "good" shape.  It's roughed up a bit, but I wouldn't call it fair or poor.  Something equipped on this amp that I have never seen on another amplifier is a control for depth and rate of the reverb.  I've seen depth and rate for a tremolo effect, but never a reverb.

It took me a while to find the right setting for the reverb.  The reverb is not very deep at all.  The Twin Reverb beats it hands down.  However, with the rate and depth controls it acts like a tremolo/reverb if that makes any sense.  I ended up putting the reverb to 10, the rate to 10, and the depth to 7.

Rex explained that the depth control grounded the signal.  So the more you turned it up, the longer the delay between notes.  So it was acting like an analog delay.  It was very subtle below 7.  Once it was turned up beyond that, it had some serious delay.

Here are photos of the speakers.

I have to say these were the perfect speakers for this amp.  I was worried that the WGS wouldn't be bright enough for this amp.  It actually hadn't been very good in a few other amps I had, but it was perfect for this.

I didn't have to worry about the Jensen since it came standard in the old Twin Reverbs.  I did notice that both speakers needed broke in a bit.  They were very stiff.  Once I adjusted the EQ, and played the amp a bit, they started to sound better.

Oh, remember how I said the other speakers were shot?  Yeah, here's what they looked like.

You can see why I wasn't worried about replacing them.  Also, they weren't original to the amp anyway.

I've been writing this blog since 2008, and it kind of surprises me which of my blog posts end up getting large amounts of views.  I think this is going to be one of those posts that ends up continually receiving views since there are so few pages dedicated to the Sunn Solos amps.

There used to be a webpage called the "Sunn Muesum," but I think the owner took it down.  It had a great amount of information about Sunn products.  I'll admit, I would have liked to have seen what it had to say about the Solos amps.

But for now I am happy to have an awesome amp to play.  It takes pedals really well.  It probably goes without saying that my Biyang reverb pedal sounds like an angel coming through the amp.  Every one of my overdrive pedals work well with it.  So, basically I am having a lot of fun trying all sorts of settings and sounds.  It's so much fun I might not have to buy another amp.  Yeah, I'll keep telling myself that.

Amp Repair Day: Time To Rock Out With My ... Amps

Admittedly, my title might be misleading.  It's true that I spent a day repairing my amps, but I didn't do anything hard, such as repairing the circuitry.  I have two amps that needed exterior parts repaired on them.  For this blog post I made sure to take lots of photos so everyone would know what I'm talking about.

First up is my Sunn Alpha 212-R amp.  This is the amp that I recorded my album with.  I'm partial to it since no other amp I've played has exactly, "my sound" like this one does.  This amp was built in 1977, so I've repaired/replaced a few things on it.  Lately I'd noticed the grill cloth was near the end of it's life.  So I decided to improve the grill cloth in a few ways.

First up is the "before" photo of my amp.

And here I have it laid out for repair.

Next I removed the grill.

You can see some of the dings here.

Here's the back of the grill.

Say, do you think they put enough staples in the corner?

Just kidding.  I understand why they did that.  Next came the fun, and by fun I mean tedious part.  Pulling out all the staples.  Again, it's not hard, just time consuming.

Boy, that has seen some wear hasn't it?

I bought the old style Marshall grill cloth to replace the old one.  I know purist would say I should replace the original grill cloth with an exact replica, but let's be honest, no amp is original.  Caps, resistors, and tubes are replaced all the time on amps. 

This amp has had a fair amount of work performed internally plus the speakers have been changed.  All in all it's a much better amp than when I bought it.  Since I'm going to keep this one until I die, I'm going to customize it the way I want.

Next it was time to staple the grill cloth on the grill.  Like I said before, it's not so hard as it is time consuming.

There, now that looks pretty nifty.  Let's install it on the amp.

Wow!  That looks even better than I thought it would.  I'm really happy with this.

So now it's time to move on to my next project.  My Laney GH-100-L amplifier head. 

Now there's a large backstory to this amp.  Luckily I wrote about it years ago when I bought it.  Here's the links:

New Broken Amp Day

New Broken Amp Day, Part 2

New Broken Amp Day, Part 3

The Amplifier is a Foot!

The short version of this story is that, I took a broken down Laney amp and got it working again.  However, there were two things I never got around to.  The first was finding a handle that was the right size.  The second was to put a vented backplate on the back of the amp.

First things first.  I took off the old Fender sized handle and installed a "British" style handle.

As you can see the Fender handle was too small.  It left no room for me to wrap my fingers underneath the handle.  So it came off, and the new one when on.

Well, that's the short version of the story.  The new handle wanted to fight me the whole way while installing it.  That, and the receiving piece on the underside of the amp wanted to come loose.  In the end I managed to get it working.

My next project was to install the mesh to protect the tubes.  As you can see the backplate is completely missing.

So I bought a "cut it yourself" mesh to fit.  It should be noted that the mess is insanely sharp, and cut my fingers completely up.  I was aiming to show a photo of my hands on here, but blogger.com might now allow it.  It might violate one of the rules on here, so I decided I'd just skip the gore.

My main point is that, if you ever aim to do this wear gloves.  Bite the bullet and wear gloves.  In the following photo you can see me measuring and preparing the mesh.

Here's the dry fit.  After a bit of fine cutting work it fit perfectly.

Now was time to install a few screws to hold the mesh.

Boom!  It was perfect!  So I finally completed what I aimed to do four and one-quarter years ago.  I want to note that all parts were bought from Mojotone.com.  They are expensive, but everything fit as it should.  I will say this, all parts were of high quality.  I doubt I'll have any problems with them in the future.

So I feel right.  I feel complete.  I managed to knock a few things off my "to-do" list that I'd been aiming to do for years.  Now it's time to rock out.  Yes, I should really be one of those guys who spends more time playing, than he does on the computer talking about playing.  Rock on everyone.

All About That ... Well, You Know

I finally bought a piece of musical equipment that I have never had.  A combo bass amp.  But before I get into that, let me catch you up.  You see, I bought a Dean Razorback for a great price.   Here's a picture of it.

However, I didn't really have a use for such a metal guitar.  I don't really play metal much anymore.  And even if I do, I still have a few other guitars that I would use to play that style of music.

So I decided that I really needed a Fender Blues Jr., Mark 3 combo amp.  It would be perfect for carrying and playing coffee shops.  So I traded the Dean Razorback for the Fender Blues Jr. 

I didn't really care for the sound of the EL-84 tubes, but then I read on the internet about a "mod" kit to make it better.  So I did that.  I also added $80 worth of expensive tubes.  Not only that, but I added a pretty good speaker to it.

Guess what?  I still didn't like the sound.

Here's the link to everything I did with that amp:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2016/08/fender-blues-jr-new-mod-day.html

So I sold it off.  Now I have money burning in my pocket.  What to do?  Should I hold on for a rainy day?  Should I buy another guitar amp?  Maybe this time a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with the 6L6 tubes? 

But I thought about it, and realized I already had amps that were better than that.  What I didn't have was a bass amp.  I had two basses, but no bass amp.  I had been using an old SUNN Alpha 212R combo amp for a bass amp.  It came from the 70's when both the guitar and bass players plugged into the same amp.

A bass amp is what I needed, but what kind?  The immediate answer that most players would say is, "Buy an Ampeg and be done with it."  But there's kind of a problem.  St. Louis Music which used to own Ampeg sold it off.  The new ones are made overseas, and they have had nothing but problems.  My former bass player had one of the new ones, and it was in the shop something like over 15 times.

I thought about Kustom amps, both the old and new models.  However, they don't really have a gain setting on them.  They are some of the best looking amps, but looks don't make the sound. 

So they were off the list.  So I went into Guitar Center, and tried out a few amps.  I also made the smart move of taking one of my own basses.  The bass amps that really impressed me the most were the Acoustic Amp series of amps.  (Acoustic is the brand name.  It is not an acoustic guitar amp.)  They were big in the 70's, and had recently come back from the dead (business wise.) 

I really liked the B100 model.  It was a 100 watt amp with a single 15 inch speaker.  It also had a simple four band EQ, and a gain setting.  Frankly, it was everything that I needed and nothing more. 

It's perfect for small gigs and coffee houses.  Honestly, I'll probably use it more for recording than anything.  It's not too big, and it's not too small.  Although, I'm sure I will be told that I'm, "too loud" while playing in the house. 

Chasing Sound

Like a lot of musicians, I chase sound.  I am always looking for the opportunity to get that perfect tone.  So eventually this search ends up the same way.... with a lot of money being spent.  Lately, I've noticed a lot of instruments being put up for sale on Craigslist, but the truth is not many are being sold.  They are being traded.

Take for instance my WGS Veteran 30 speakers.  I had two of them.  I traded one for a different WGS speaker to use in my Epiphone Valve Jr. custom made combo amp.  So I put the other one up for sale, and got nothing. 

Not one person wanted to buy it.  I had one guy who lived 100 miles away try to trade for it, but nothing came of that.  I had another guy who was sketchy as hell.  Then, he wanted me to drive over to his place.  I said, that was not going to happen.  Then, I never heard from him again.

I mean, does no one want a perfectly good speaker?

So, as I was browsing Craigslist, I noticed a seller trying to sell a WGS British Lead speaker.  I thought about it.  My Sunn Alpha 212R amp has played well with the Celestion 75 speakers I have it in.  However, both are bass heavy, and I thought it might do well with a single speaker change.  That way, I can keep one Celestion speaker in it, and add a different speaker to balance it out.

First up, here is the Sunn amp.

I took out the Celestion speaker.

And added the WGS British Lead.

And here's the amp with the new speaker.

You can see the new speaker on the left.  Once I started testing it, I could hear that the guy I traded with was telling the truth.  He said it only had two hours of playing time on it.  After testing it out, I could hear that it was still pretty stiff.  Most speakers need at least 20 hours of playing time on them to start sounding like they should.

I have to say, it didn't sound that different from the Celestion 75.  At the moment, I can hear that it is not as bass heavy, but it is still a bright, British sounding speaker.  But after some playing time the sound will open up, and I can tell if I want to keep it, or trade it back out for the Celestion it replaced. 

Soaking Up The SUNN

A few years ago I was lucky enough to find an old SUNN amp in a pawn shop.  When I first heard it I didn't exactly like it.  But luckily, having a decent ear I could tell that the speakers weren't great and that they were probably wore out.  I liked that the controls (EQ, Drive) were very wide, thereby allowing a wide range of sounds.

For those unfamilar with SUNN amps, here's a great website:

http://www.richbriere.com/The_Sunn_Shack.htm

The back story is really cool.  A true part of rock n' roll history.

So, when I got the amp I decided to replace the speakers.  Long story short, I changed them out with Warehouse Guitar Speakers Veteran 30's.  This was when WGS were relativity new.  Here's their website:

http://www.wgs4.com/

And here's the link to the Veteran 30 speakers:  http://www.wgs4.com/content/vet30

They were great speakers, and the price was right, but they weren't my sound.  They had a bit too much of a mid scoop for me.  And even though I like a lot of treble, with this amp the top end sounded off.  I want to be clear, in that, this was with this amp specifically.  I have WGS V30's in a 2 X 12 cabinet, and they work great with other amps.

I managed to find a guy on Craigslist who wanted to trade a pair of Celestion 75's, for a pair of V30's.  Long story short, we made the trade.  As soon as I put the speakers in my SUNN amp, the sound was "right."  I've always loved the sound of the Celestion 75's, in that, they are the sound of rock n' roll.

They are also great for this particular amp.  The bass is right in-between the point of being full and tight.  It's just perfect.  The mids are also fuller, but that's to be expected with these speakers.  The highs are softer, more relaxed, and don't sound like a mosquito trying to bite me.

Overall, I think it was a great trade for both of us.  Lately I have had some good luck on Craigslist with trading musical instrument parts.  You just have to keep an eye out, and hope you run into someone that's pretty cool to deal with.