What is Sunn all about? (taken from The Sunn Shack)
The amplifier that spawned
the explosion of power line-ups throughout the '60's and '70's.
The amplifier
used by Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, Pete Townsend, John Entwistle,
Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee,
Brian May, by modern bands like SUNNO))), Grievous, The Whip,
Khanate, Cave In, Weedeater, Goatsnake,
Buried at Sea, Alabama Thunderpussy, Big Business... starting
to get the picture?
With truly power mad guitarists
such as these, the name SUNN had quickly established its musical
foothold,
becoming synonymous with the blood curdling, bone crunching, rock-and-roll
that would infect an entire
generation. And all of this can be attributed to the one band
who's music will forever be remembered in rock
history: The Kingsmen.
The Kingsmen? That's right!
The band who brought you the party anthem "Louie Louie",
and quickly faded
into anonymity, also brought the amplifier that paved the way
for so many that would follow.
"SUNN's legacy reads
like the history of rock," explains Richard McDonald, Marketing
Manager of SUNN
Amps. "To paint a little picture, just take a look at the
inside cover of your Woodstock album, and you'll get an
idea of the magnitude that SUNN amplifiers had in revolutionizing
early rock music."
Jump back a couple of years.
The concert scene of the late '50's and early '60's was dominated
by groups
touring together. It was very common to have four or five bands,
sometimes more, sharing a bus and playing
on the same bill. And remember, "arena rock" was not
yet a term. Most venues at the time were either theaters
or small clubs, and portable amplifiers seemed to do the trick.
For a while at least.
Obviously, rock music enjoyed
a growing popularity. With that, venues were getting bigger to
accommodate
the larger numbers of people that were going to concerts. Still
though, bands would plug in the same amplifiers
that they were using at the smaller venues. Why? Because that's
all there was at the time.
Enter the Kingsmen. Norm
Sundholm, bass player for the band, frequently complained that
his bass amp was
getting lost in the noise from other the other members' amps and
from the audience. So he called up his brother
Conrad, an electronics enthusiast, and asked if he could rig something
up that might help him out.
"Things weren't real
scientific back then, not like today with computers," explains
Conrad. "So I built this cabinet
I had, which became the 2-30/C60... that first one was a real
beast." That "beast" that Conrad had come up with
was a bass amp that would set the music world on its ears.
Other musicians soon heard
the Sundholm brother's amplifiers, and were absolutely in awe
with their power.
Norm and Conrad started to receive orders from guitarists and
bass players who had to have one just like it. So
Conrad set up shop in his dad's garage, started building what
would become SUNN amplifiers, and turned a
small project for his brother into rock-and-roll legend. The SUNN
had risen!
Unfortunately for Sunn Amps,
it was soon to set. Although the Brothers Sundholm had enjoyed
a great deal of
success, receiving endorsements from the Rolling Stones, The Who
and Jimi Hendrix, they had quite different
views on running the business. At the end of the '60's, Norm
sold his interest in Sunn to Conrad and went on to
pursue a career in real estate."
Then in 1971, Conrad sold the rest of SUNN to the Hartzell Corporation, a Minnesota based conglomerate.
Hartzell continued to make
SUNN amps throughout the '70's and into the early '80's, until
a tragic plane crash
took the life of its President, Tom Hartzell. His surviving family
did little with SUNN amplifiers, and decided to
sell it a few years later.
Enter the next player in
the saga, Fender Musical Instruments. Having recently purchased
Fender from corporate
giant CBS, Bill Schultz (Fender Chairman & CEO) had seen the
opportunity to re-build SUNN into the powerful
company it had once been. However, Fender still had to tackle
the job of re-building itself in the wake of CBS, and
put SUNN on the shelf until the timing was more suitable.
Now jump forward a few years.
With Fender back and better than ever, the timing seemed right
to bring in their
world-class Research & Development team of engineers to resurrect
SUNN from the ashes. And resurrect it
they did!
The SUNN Model T was redesigned
as an all-tube, tonal assault machine. For unrelenting tone and
muscle,
match it with the SUNN Model T 412 enclosure and get ready to
rock. For bassists, the new SUNN 1200S delivers
the power and presence to handle any situation. With a supporting
line-up of bass and guitar heads and enclosures,
SUNN amps are blazing an all new trail into rock-and-roll history.
(Fender no longer makes SUNN heads or cabs... the amps are lost forever. FInd one used, buy it!)
Two Sunn Beta Lead amps,
two Sunn Beta Bass amps, an 8x12 Eagleworks cab, a 4x12 Ampeg
cab, a 4x12
Crate cab, a Big Muff pedal, a Turbo Rat pedal, a Gretsch guitar,
a Memphis guitar and barritone D'Addario strings
The Unofficial Sunn Musical Equipment Website