New amp day - Sunn T50C

[JohnH]

I've been lusting after my mate's T50C for years, and he recently decided to sell it and so now it is being loud at my house instead.

I love it. It's insanely loud, and honestly for my small studio it is too loud. We're planning on buying a bigger place next year, and one of the prerequisites is a much larger studio so I figure it'll really come into it's own then. In the meantime I'll just play on my day off during the week so the neighbours don't hate me.

[EDIT] I should point out that it's been converted to a head from a combo - the previous previous owner was a Fender amp tech, and did the surgery. It's still crazy heavy so I can't imagine what it was like lugging it around with a speaker too.

[Sonic Mountain]

Sweet, That'll go well with your other project.

[JohnH]

Sweet, That'll go well with your other project.

Ha ha, yeah. This amp is mostly the reason I started building the cab

[Simon Barden]

I've just got a Bugera/Behringer PS1 power soak unit, mainly for use with my Sound City 50W head.



Been trying it out today. For a low-priced unit, it's not bad. It's just resistive, so doesn't sound as natural as some more expensive units that have inductors in them as well, but still, it does allow you to use the amp turned up at a house-friendly level. I actually meant to buy the even cheaper Harley Benton unit, and typed that in to the search on the Thomann web site, but the Bugera came up top of the list and the price was about what I was expecting, so I ordered it without thinking. The Bugera unit does give a 3dB signal loss when placed in-line, so even when set fully up, you're still quieter than normal. It goes to whisper quiet, but can't be run as a pure load box with no speaker attached. It does have a straight line output with its own level control for recording and using your own speaker emulation software, and also a speaker emulated output, which is affected by the overall signal level), so you could take a feed to a mixing desk for live use if using the amp turned way up but heavily attenuated and too quiet to mic up.

So something like that may be worth considering. I've had a look at the prices in Australia, and they are considerably more than the £71 that I paid for it, $225 seems to be about the lowest I've seen it for. But it may be worth while seeing what the cost of shipping that or the Harley Benton unit (they call it a power attenuator) is from Thomann just as an exercise.

[fender3x]

I had one of their original bass amps from the mid-1960s, made in Portland Oregon. It also weighed a ton, even though it was only about 40 Watts RMS.





People everywhere else wanted an Ampeg. But if you grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the US you wanted a Sunn 200S or 2000S with a 2x15 cab loaded with JBLs. I never got one of those, but I was really pleased when Fender started selling them again. If I had been able to scrape the cash together I'd have gotten a 300T head. Not identical to the old Sunns, but really good sounding nevertheless, but by the time I had the money Fender had retired the brand.

[JohnH]

I think you're right Simon - I'll have to have a look around but it seems the best option. I really want a decent loop pedal, which might take precedence, but thanks to the wonders of Zip pay all things become possible, ha ha ha.

Fender3x, original Sunn is the dream! What ended up happening with yours? I'd love a model T, but they're hard to find and expensive - at least in this part of the world.

[fender3x]

It was getting a bit dangerous. I had been shocked by it a few times, and felt I really needed to either spend a small fortune having someone who knew what they were doing go through it or sell it to a collector. I ended up selling it to a guy who was trying to complete a collection of all the Sunn bass amps that there had ever been. He gave me a fair price, and I figured it was a good home.

It sounded great, but it was really pretty impractical. Aside from the occasional shock, it was way too big for a practice amp, but not really powerful enough for a gig with a bass. It was also about three times heavier than than the G&K 400RB that I replaced it with. The Sunn had a warmer tone, but I the G&K with a SansAmp BDDI sounded decent and was not trying to kill me.

[fender3x]

I think that the 300T may be a rebadged version of a Fender Bassman 300. You might find one of those used cheaper. Meanwhile Conrad Sundholm one of the founders of the brand was still building amps at least as of 2019. He has a version of the 300T that he calls the 300C ("C" for "Conrad"). Of course, that will set you back serious money...

[JohnH]

Yeah I thought I read the bassman and 300T were basically the same. I've decided to finally get on to an amp build, so I've spent the last few months doing a lot of reading about circuits, and saw this discussed a few times.

Since I've been working at the School of Music I've acquired some serious amp acquisition syndrome - there are just so many to play with, and they're all ace in their own way

[fender3x]

I know what you mean about about amp GAS. I thought about building, but have decided that I am a bit too dyslexic for that to be safe. I am happy to solder up guitars and the odd pedal. I did a pedal board power supply...but that's as far as I am comfortable. The voltages that run through even a 5w amp can kill you. There are folks here who've done it, though. I'd make sure to get a set of safety tips from them. Also, if you are right handed, tie your left hand to the chair before you start ;-)