Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US $675 used
Submitted 08/07/2005
at 02:38pm
by John Scott
Email: john at iuvonet<dot>com
Features
:10
This amp was made in the mid to late 90's, not exactly sure when mine was. Everyone else has done a great job of summing of the features. 6x6550's outputting 300w into 2, 4, or 8ohm. Two channels, with the option of blending the two. Built in compressor (pretty advanced compression for an amp as well). This has more features than most solid state amps I've seen, let alone a tube amp. Definitely the most advanced all tube amp I've ever played.
Sound Quality
:10
I play a Fender Active jazz bass and run it through a vintage Ampeg 8x10. The sound is absolutely phenomenal, I fell in love with it the first time I played it (I got it offline without ever playing it, thanks to these other reviews). SO SO loud, which is great because I'm in a pretty loud indie rock band. This amp has the ability to be completel smooth and warm, or it could be chunky, or just full on distorted since it's got preamp gains for both channels. I tend to play the bass pretty hard with a pick, and so I run it in the first channel with the pregain at about 5 and the master volume around 3-4. It's the perfect blend of smooth tone with a bit of overdrive for punch. The EQ is excellent and I know I could find any tone imagineable in this amp.
I have always been a big Ampeg guy, and my dream amp was the SVTCL, but not anymore. I like this amp better than the SVT. Let's face it, everyone knows what an SVT sounds like, and that's boring to me. The Sunn has a much more original sound, and that's what I love about it.
Reliability
:9
I've owned the amp for about 4-5 months and have never had any problems with it. I'm saving up to buy a flight case for it, but so far we've just been putting it in the back of our van during drives to shows (I wouldn't trust this baby in the trailer with no case). It's been absolutely reliable, never had any trouble. I can't really afford to have multiple amps so I've never used or needed a backup.
I'll give it a 9 just because I haven't had it long enough to really comment on it's reliability.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
Never dealt with Fender (they made the amp) but I've heard some awful things about their servicing, so I hope I never have to. It's not under warranty, so I probably will never have to talk to them unless I need to order a part I suppose. But as far as FINDING a service center, you'll have no problem with the newer Sunn's because Fender takes care of all that now.
Overall Rating
:10
For me, this amp is perfect. I can honestly say that I will never sell this amp. It will always be with me no matter where I go. I may buy other amps in the future, just for fun, but this is one amp I could never get rid of. If someone stole it, I would buy five more just like it. I highly suggest this amp for anyone wanting an all tube amp with a lot of features who doesn't want to shell out 3-4 grand for some boutique amp that won't work in 5 years.
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US $650 used
Submitted 01/26/2005
at 12:24pm
by brian
Email: cabalofone at hotmail<dot>com
Features
:10
This amp is a '97. The amp has the best and most useable features of any bass head I've played. Huge range of tonal options. The passive EQ sounds good enough by itself, but with the graphic engaged, all manner of boosting and tweakage is possible. If you sit and spend some time with a recording you like, and dial the amp, you will be able to hit the desired tone. Covers really excellent vintage round r&b sounds all the way to the heaviest metal, and along the way can hit signature tones from yes, the who, deep purple, tool, whatever you like. I've never been frustrated at not being able to find what I wanted.
When I bought this I was mostly playing guitar, and there were a lot of features I didn't think I'd use. I picked this up because I'd seen a few bands with them and each time I was highly impressed; amazing, but unique tone. I'm not a fan of compression, and at first didn't use the onboard compressor, but I was playing in a band in pittsburgh called Io, and we definitely believe in the Hendrix 'feel the music' philosophy. This amp is capable of flubbing out an 8x10 cab, it's so powerful, and the compressor really makes a huge difference in tightening the signal back up at very high volumes. It's fantastic because you can compress the low or high signals separately, and then reintroduce whatever amount of gain you want. When the amp is full-on roaring, you can put a lot of punch and dynamics back into the signal, which is one thing that sets it apart from the dimed SVT sound.
Also *very* useful is the tuner mute button on the front, and the tuner-specific jack at the back. I couldn't afford an expensive stage tuner, but with the mute the amp is dead silent, and made my $10 korg chromatic tuner the most useful device in the world between songs.
The Gain available on the 2nd channel seems like a classic guitar distortion stage, and cuts some low end when used by itself. I tend to use a pedal, and the amp sounds amazing with a Rat or TS-808 clone with minor mods for bass. The on-board distortion is actually really useful when blended with channel one, keeping your huge, low, clean signal and adding some gnarl on top. I set the amp like this all the time when playing garage punk with fingers instead of a pick. very flexible amount of hair and snarl can be blended in. Awesome.
I really can't think of any feature I wish the amp had that it doesn't, and every one it has, I've eventually found use for between playing, touring, and recording. Straight-forward, versatile, and nothing frivolous.
Sound Quality
:10
This is probably the best amp ever made for sheer intense volume for heavy playing. I have used it for lots of more subtle, toneful applications, and the quality of sounds in every style is unbeatable; definitely on par with the great all-time bass amp classics. My roomate has a '72 SVT, and playing them side-by-side we both just kept complimenting each other's tone. One is not better than the other, so the final decision, if you had to take one, would probably be which features, price, and overall vibe you were going for. The SVT is more instantly intuitive and doesn't have the modern flexibility, but sounds sheerly amazing at its own thing. The Sunn is not duplicating the SVT tone; the main differences I hear are that the Sunn seems to have a bigger bass fundamental; The SVT seems to have more girthy, distorted low mids, while the Sunn seems to emphasize roaring upper mids; both amps can be very bright when overdriven, but the Sunn has more very high frequency presence, which can make it sound harsher. With the compressor on the Sunn, you can get more tailored frequency punch at high volumes, where the SVT is just hitting you with the full frequency range. The SVT fights like a naked beastman swinging a tree trunk; the Sunn fights like an evil hellish knight swinging a spiky mace in one hand a large black axe in the other. I've also played it side by side with the Sunn 1200s, Ampeg V-4, top-o-line GK, SWR, Ashdown, Eden, and Bag End amps, and I wouldn't trade it for any of them, but I prefer the all-tube tone and feel by far.
The guitarists in my band ran a Hiwatt 200 on one side, and a '74 JMP with 6550s (150 watts) on the other. Full stacks always, often 1.5 and sometimes double full stacks, dimed. I run into an Eden Nemesis 8x10, but also borrowed SVT 8x10s occasionally for 16x10 power. I have pretty shitty basses, (Yamaha BB and Peavey T-40) which were decent for the money and sound better than most stuff in the price range. Despite cheap pickups and running the channel and master volumes on the Sunn at 7-10, the amp is quiet when muted. At full volume it will feed back like a banshee if you don't mute your strings and stand in front of it with your boost pedal on, but if you don't, it will just emit a very quiet sinister hiss to remind you that it's ready to put out upwards of 300 watts when you move your hand. At anything lower than insane volumes, the amp is extremely quiet, not buzzy or noisy. at fully reasonable gigging volumes i could lean the bass against the cab with the bass volume up and the amp wouldn't start feeding back unless someone bumed the strings.
This amp has the most ferocious, howling tube amp distortion when up loud of anything; yes the clean channel distorts, i think, but it could also just be that your eardrums are peaking and being overdriven. I witnessed a train hitting a car when i was 6 yrs old in Pataskala, Ohio, and it sounds like that.
I know it sounds like all a care about is noise, but I'm otherwise pretty geeky about tone; it's just that the power of this amp is so impressive. It makes my crappy basses sound professional, it made my roomate's 70s Jazz bass sound sweet and pure and thumping, and although I prefer guitar, this amp made me into a bassist. It sounds so good I never want to stop playing it, and it was after I got this amp that I began to learn bass solos I liked and actually work on my bass technique; fingering, tap, slap, and general touch treating it like its own instrument instead of a guitar with thicker strings.
Reliability
:7
well; i got it used, and it has the original tubes. Obviously I've been using it at the threshold of what it was designed for; I've toured the east coast and the south/southwest/west in two different years, without a case, in a bumpy van; it's been dropped during loading and unloading, and it's never failed me.
After I owned it about a year, one of the fuses blew on the tube pairs. One of the best features on the amp is that each pair of the 6 tubes is isolated in the circuit, so if one tube goes bad, the amp just automatically shuts down that pair and you keep running at 200 watts instead of 300, down to 100 if you want. This reduces the headroom somewhat, but keeps you playing and it still sounds great. The amp also has very useful external bias test points, and a bias pot for each pair of tubes, so you can get yourself setup without paying someone else $100 to retube. The proper fuses (10ma)were kind of a bitch to find for the individual tube pairs, because they're small and uncommon to guitar amps, but actually swapping tubes, rebiasing, and replacing the fuses is easy to do quickly if it dies on stage (provided you're quick to get the back grill off with a screwdriver.) I replaced the original pair with a pair of kt-88s, which sounded killer for a while, but then that fuse blew again in about 2 weeks. although i'd been told the kts were exchangeable with the 6550s, i figured maybe i had that wrong, or was biasing that pair improperly, so i replaced with 6550s, rebiased to specs, and played for only another couple of hours before blowing the fuse again (this at practice volumes, not full rage.) I figured that something else around the power supply must be bad, maybe i fried a resistor or something. I haven't had the funds to repair it, so i just left it. i've been running on 4 tubes instead of 6, and the sound is uncompromised. The clean headroom is reduced, but there's still enough power to compete with the marshall/hiwatt rigs live. I was amazed by that, and now feel confident that you could only kill this amp totally by smashing the chassis with a hammer. i wish i knew what caused the initial failure, or what is still wrong with it, but until more serious problems (like a 2nd tube set failing) force my hand, it's still one of the best amps money can buy, at 2/3rds strength.
Customer Support
:1
When I needed the fuse for this amp, I called fender because I couldn't find it locally anywhere; too small for radio shack or any of the local guitar shops. Everyone said they'd need to order it, which i could do myself. Fender had a very tough time even connecting me to the right department, and i was disconnected twice, with long hold times. This was 2002, and Fender had dropped production of the Sunn line by then, so who knows if that would've made a difference. It was still a recent enough product that I'd think they'd care. When I finally got to the service department, they couldn't even find a listing for the fuse the amp uses; they referred me to their parts supplier All-Parts. I called All-Parts and had similar problems; when they finally figured out what I needed, they said they were out of stock on this tiny fuse, and it would be 2 months before they could ship my order. Forlorn, I finally got real help at Mouser; they initially couldn't find the fuse, but then found the same rating under .1 amp, rather than 10ma as the fuse is labelled. They were fast and friendly, and even offered help on reading for bias voltage on my multimeter. The Fender people barely knew how to run their phone system, and seemed not to know what i was talking about.
Overall Rating
:9
I've played guitar for 12 yrs, bass for 8, but only got legitimate about considering myself a bassist after buying the Sunn. I run the Sunn with an Eden Nemesis 8x10 cab, which is a quality step below their standard Eden cabs, and rated at only slightly lower response frequencies than the SVT cab (about 5hz difference on the low end) but it's noticeable, and the cab is flubby compared to a vintage SVT cab.
I am usually a pretty objective reviewer, but I'm simply thrilled with this amp and proud to own it, and would never want something else instead. I'd love to find, in addition to this amp, an SVT, an old Orange/Matamp bass head, a fender PS400, or a traynor YBA3a. I'd give the new Eden and other boutique bass all-tube heads a shot, but don't think they could match the toughness and meanness of this amp. I've played several boutique bass rigs worth double my Sunn, and they always leave me cold. even really good hybrid tube preamp bass heads like the Ashdown have a lot of touch, percussiveness, and harmonic range, but lack the power, depth, and follow-through of the sunn or SVT. I'd consider this one of the two best bass heads of all time. This was actually designed by the man that designed the SVT, and reportedly he claims that the 300T was the finest amp he's built. That could be Fender's propaganda, but I wouldn't argue the point.
For the record, Fender has reissued this design as their own fender bassman(400?) with cheesy faded color decals on the front panel, and in all likelihood cheaper components through out. I played one in Reno this summer and it seemed more sterile than my head, which i was on tour with at the time. It's pretty shitty of Fender to buy the Sunn name, make a half-assed attempt to revive it with vintage players, then kill it off completely just long enough to reissue the designs as their own. I wish they would've just let the Sunn legacy remain unscathed, but then I guess they are the ones that bankrolled this beautiful amp, so they've contributed something. This might be the last Sunn ever designed worthy of the Sunn name.
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US $700 used
Submitted 08/22/2004
at 11:50am
by Scottgun
Features
:10
Welcome to the ultimate option anxiety amp. If you are contemplating the move to tube amps, you probably already know about the Ampeg SVT and the Mesa Boogie 400. This one is a probably lesser-known than those, but stacks up just as well, is usually cheaper when found used, and has oodles more features. Put simply, the 300-watts of tube power will allow you to cut through the mix in virtually any situation. In fact, in my 15 years of playing, this is the first time I've been asked to turn down. The only minor complaint is that the front grill is not really meant to be taken off (it has some rubber seal on it that will look ugly if you tear it up). This makes access to the pre-amp tubes difficult. Also, the tube sockets are recessed under a metal panel, so you have to fiddle around to get the tubes in. In addition to the input gain knob, there is a chn 2 volume knob, a post-eq gain/trim slider and a post-compressor gain/trim knob in addition to the master volume. This can be intimidating at first when trying to set up a decent gain structure, but when your molars start rattling from the sound, you won't care.
Sound Quality
:10
I am playing a Fender J and a Fender P through this for straight up loud rock. This puts out TONS of low end. So much so that I find myself rolling back the bass knob all the way to control the volume. There was an earlier review commenting about the unnaturalness of the overdrive channel. I believe this was designed to use a blend of each channel. That is, you dial in your clean sound and then mix in the overdrive. I haven't really had a need to use overdrive, but it looks like it would take some time to really tailor a good overdriven sound. The sound itself is fantastic. I've had other bass players come up after our gig and tell me how great it sounded and what kind of amp is that?
Reliability
:10
I've had numerous practices with this and three long-driving distance gigs with this amp without a backup. As long as you don't drop it's solid.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
N/A Although I need to point out that the earlier comment that Fender is a big company is not exactly an argument.
Overall Rating
:10
I've been playing 15 years and have owned the obligatory beginners peavey amp, a yamaha amp and a G&K 800RB. Before I have always had trouble getting a decent sound that cut through the mix. This amp has solved my problems and is probably the last amp I will ever need. If it got destroyed or stolen I would replace it. Speaking of which, this amp lives on as the Fender Bassman 300. Same amp. I have heard rumors of them discontinuing it, but as of this review, it is still advertised on their website. I believe this amp is more reliable than the Ampeg and cheaper to retube than the Mesa. Not to run those fine amps down, but one should have no anxiety about buying one of these.
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US $700
Submitted 04/04/2004
at 12:12am
by scotty p
Email: penaltybox57106<at>yahoo dot com
Features
:10
I bought one off of ebay from a music store in Ohio, had it shipped. This thing is a monster. We played pretty heavy stuff, and like others have noted, it would drown out the entire band if I'd had the notion. More than enough power for nearly any environment. Although it IS heavy, once you have it set up and running, you'll forget all about having to haul it home after the show. I'm running it through an ampeg 8x10, and it's the last bass amp i'll ever buy. Stuff for pros, made by pros. shame the line ended, but good for those of us who picked one up while we could.
Sound Quality
:9
Alternative/drone rock. this thing worked perfect, every time. Once the house sound guy gave me some grief that he couldn't get any signal via the back out, and a switch in the front solved the issue. a real screamer, yet can be played in any environment, subtle or absurd levels
Reliability
:9
had it serviced once after i bashed the volume pot moving it from the van to the studio. my local service guy replaced the pot, no problems. still running on the stock tubes after over 5 years... i have replacements but haven't found the need to switch them out.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
haven't had to deal with fender, if the thing fizzles (which i've never heard of) just bring it in to your local yokel fly surgeon and he'll set you up.
Overall Rating
:10
I've been playing for ten years, and all i'll say is this: I'll never need to upgrade from this bad boy. from the lightest, smoothest music to scream metal, this thing can handle whatever you put in front of it.
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 02/29/2004
at 12:52pm
by Anonymous
Features
:8
It's got plenty of features, too many actually for a tube amp, including a complicated and not very usefull compressor. Tons of EQ, bright and deep swithes,etc...
Sound Quality
:7
I personally have nbot heard a better tube amp than the original SVT, which is what all bass amps are really judged by. This has more tone shaping options but less vintage tube tone. Also, has a pretty good distortion if that's your thing.
Reliability
:5
This is the main problem area. I am an electronics tech and have also been playing bass for 20yrs so I feel that construction and reliability is critical. I hate working on these amps! If it breaks down after the warranty expires, be prepared to pay. They are not very serviceable due to the extremely large one-piece ckt board design. They are also rather complex and your average tube swapper will be in over his head with all but the most basic repairs. Good luck if you decide to risk it.
Customer Support
:5
This is Fender, a very big and diverse company with many constantly changing product lines and employees. It may take a while to navigate through the phone menu and then to wait on hold until they get around to you but eventually they usually help you,
Overall Rating
:6
I don't own one of these, nor will I in the future, knowing what lurks inside the chassis. But, I have to admit that the distortion is cool and the tone shaping options are pretty extensive. The compressor however, is a mistery to me. I tried every setting from min to max and all I heard was differences in volume but very little actual compressing or limiting. It's also freaking huge! As if the SVT wasn't big or heavy enough, better have roadies for this one. So in conclusion, it's big, heavy, loud, complicated and expensive to buy and maintain. If any of these features turn you on, go for it.
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US $800
Submitted 02/08/2004
at 07:21pm
by Craig
Email: craigdamage<at>yahoo dot com
Features
:10
Plenty of feuteres.Too many actually.2 channels,compressor,graphic eq.The features this amp has that is by far the most important is this:TUBES!---BIG FAT WARM JUICY TUBES.You can see 'em glowing right through the front grill.
Sound Quality
:10
Thick.Deep.Warm.Crunch and more crunch.Loud.God-awful loud.Stupid loud.If you are a snap-crackle-pop bassist with your baggy pants and backwards cap with your $2000 + active bass with gold hardware...etc.
stay away from this amp!--IT WILL HURT YOU. If however,you play a FENDER or GIBSON or RICKENBACKER and you know what "Geezer" or "Bruce" or "Entwistle" means--this is for you.
Reliability
:8
Solid but you will have to replace tubes from time to time.
Construction of this head is top notch.Heavy though.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
SUNN is dead.I have heard many bad things about FENDER customer service.FENDER is who actually made this head.
Overall Rating
:10
I had a GK 800RB before I got the SUNN.The GK was only ok if you played roundwounds with a pick.When I started putting flatwounds on my FENDER Precicion and Jazz(both USA)I really noticed the tonal limitations of the GK.It was flat and transparant sounding.I switched
to the SUNN 300T,a massive leap forward.
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: 2500 (AU)
Submitted 02/03/2004
at 04:17am
by Andy I
Features
:10
Bought new in Sept 2003. Vintage tube power with modern features - this thing absolutely pumps! With 2 channels, Graphic EQ, and compressor the tonal possibilities are quite remarkable, and all easily accessed via the footswitch. I like the extra grunt of the compressor, and usually set up a solo sound with a boosted volume on the graphic to punch in via the footswitch when the time is right. It has separate high and low frequency knobs, but I wish there was a mid as well, although the mid notch button is pretty cool. I've played a lot of SVT CL and this thing is definately more versatile. If anything it has too many knobs - they are easy to bump out of place when setting up so I have to go through and make sure everything is set properly before starting the gig. One knob if bumped can make a very big difference in the sound! Check out mrgearhead.com for some cool settings (set up by a pro) that you can download.
Sound Quality
:9
I play 99% fingerstyle and it has a super warm tone (probably not quite as much as an SVTCL). But I think it is louder! I am yet to put it much above 3.5 on the master volume before sound guys are telling me to turn down. The distortion is great as well if you like that type of thing. I find that the input tube can't take too much - it has a 6db pad which should probably be 10db as I can't put the input gain much above 3.5 before the preamp is overloaded (indicated by a red light on the front of the amp). I even have the pad on for my passive bass and the same problem still exists. But it is still very bloody loud, and sounds great at high volumes. Its not really a straight plug in and play type of amp - you'll have to sit down for a few hours and really screw around with all the different features to come up with a sound you'll really like - but when you do - killer!
Reliability
:5
Bad news so far. It broke down 2 weeks after I bought it, and again 3 months later. Obviously under warranty but did not expect this from such a high end product. Blew a fuse due to a faulty output transformer the first time and badly wired fuse caused a small short in the circuit board the second time. I'm not a tech-head but both were fixed hassle free. Won't do a gig without a backup though, which is a pain in the arse sometimes coz this thing weighs as much 3 average amps. Invested in a hardcore road case to protect it from bumps ect.
Customer Support
:10
First breakdown i was on tour in Sydney, home of the Fender warehouse in Australia - took it straight to them and they were great. Lent me another for the final gig and shipped mine up for free with a few goodies - although it was only 2 weeks old when it happened. Fixed hassle free 2nd time. Fender have been very supportive and easy to contact in OZ.
Overall Rating
:9
Overall this is a super amp! As stated before it is also ridiculously heavy - especially with the roadcase I have this is a two man lift. If you fly around this is not the amp for you - the freight would send you broke! One other thing of note - I have had problems with the line out (xlr) - some gigs were fine and others I've had to use a seperate DI because the sound guy could get no level from the preamp. I had it checked and apparently it is in working order but is wired very 'non standard' so I carry around a DI just in case of this scenario. Like I said, I'm not a techy so I don't understand why this happens about 1 outof 5 venues. Not sure if anyone else has had this problem?
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US G
Submitted 12/03/2003
at 11:19am
by woso hun
Email: lordmorley<at>hotmail dot com
Features
:No Opinion
probably made in 99-2000, 6x6550's sunn logos+symbols over the knobs, but the back panel reads Fender model:Sunn 300T. Currently available as the Fender Bassman 300. two channels, mix knob, 10 band eq, switchable lo + hi boosts + mid notch,lo+hi switchable comp,.
spkr outs, line+xlr outs, slave out, tuner out,ohm8-4-2 switch, unreal.
Sound Quality
:10
Loudest of all heads I've ever used. powers four
4x12cabinets,usually used with two 4x12s. switch on the eq, and the hi(4k)boost,drive the mids, and you can make inferior grade walls flex. channel 2 is quite dirty too for what they say is a bass head. They could sell a million of these to guitarists, I know I want another one, to use a stack of eight cabinets.
Reliability
:10
seems quiet and well mannered so far. I wouldn't trust any fender rep anyhow.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
n/a
Overall Rating
:10
Unbelievable US head!!. Ideally one would seek too acquire as many of these as possible The only thing comparable is that head of Burton's
I think his fender is from the eighties, and has eight 6550's, Marshall, please, This thing puts 1+2 into a mix like the plexi, plus Destroys tone and volume wise, anything this side of what was made by US manufacturers in the 70s. ANd yes, fender stamped their logo on the Svetlana 6550 power tubes, and preamp tubes. what bozos.
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US $1,000 used
Submitted 08/22/2003
at 02:56pm
by Zane
Email: IBZANE3<at>aol dot com
Features
:10
I've been playing solid state heads since I've been playing (4 yrs). So this was my first all tube amp. Now I know what all the fuss was about.. I really liked the modern features that are melded with this all tube amp.(2 channels and seperate EQ, channel 1-2 mix , with all the features a "Grown up" amp should have.
Sound Quality
:10
I try to stray from the norm, and try other products, And not try to buy what everyone else is buying. I play a Carvin LB70 4 string bass. and play the 300 T through the 15 x 2 (JBLs) Cabinet that came with this head. (Do the words "bone jarring" mean anything to you..) I played this thing at the music store where I bought it, and I could'nt load it up fast enough. Blues is my music of choice, and there's no better match for this amp with those 2 15s behind it. for what I play, it is perfect. Solid, super low, fat bottom...Just like the girls you made fun of in high school..I felt it was a great value at $1,000. (For the head, and the 2 x 15 cab that came with it)
Reliability
:10
I've had this thing for 2 going on 3 years, and have'nt had to do anything to it.. Not even replace a tube...I'm not a gigging musician, but I cart this this thing around to friends houses, and family gatherings enough to bump and jar it like a full timer does...
Customer Support
:No Opinion
Since it's never broke on me, I have'nt had to deal with repairs..
Overall Rating
:10
I've been playing for 4 years, and tried a couple of other axes on this thing, but so far my Carvin sounds the best.If this thing were stolen, I'd have to be thankful that I did'nt have to confront the person that picked up, and carried off this thing..(It is very heavy)
I would try to find one, but this is the only one that I've ever seen, and I don't think I'd wanna pay the shipping bill on another one...LOL I would be very sad, and look for one close by...
I compared this amp side by side brand new trace elliot amps , and for what I play, this one sounded better, and was waaaaayy cheaper.
The only thing I wish it had with it was a 400 lb. Somoan guy to carry it for me... I'd appreciate anyone else's tips and tricks for this amp, Since I'm new to tubes, I'm curious which tubes will sound like what with this amp....
Product: Sunn 300T Head Price Paid: US $720/00
Submitted 06/20/2003
at 10:56am
by Bassist of AREA 69
Email: XTurb0negr0X at aol<dot>com
Features
:10
Mine is the first year of re-issue by Fender, 1989. It has everything you could ever need. 2 channel's one clean one distorted with a foot switch that controls the channels, the compression and EG. It has everything any high end amp has. Effects loops, direct out, ohm selection, ect. Everything is very stait forward and user friendly. If you haven't used tube amps before it may take some playing with to find your sound. 2 good practices with your band and you'll be dialed in where ya wanna be. You can get just about any sound emaginable out of this thing. Sharp high end or stomach turning lows. It's all there.
Sound Quality
:10
I play with a 1999 Rickenbacker, a old Ampeg 4x12(8 ohms), and for now a Carvin 4x10(8 ohms). I have been told by other people on the internet that i should get the matching cabs if i want its full potential, but seeing as it's discontinued I'll have to wait till I run up on them. It has a slight 60 cycle hum in the house. Not bad at all. Usually at venues i get very little if any noise even at high volumes and if you use the compressor (which i don't) you dont get any noise. Naturally the compressor changes the tone and i just havent found a tone i really like it with the compressor activated. Now if you kick in channel 2 you get distortion and it vaiers with the way you set it up. You can use it as a clean or dirty boost hell you can do anything with this amp.
Reliability
:10
I haven't had it long but so far so good. It's basically what the new Fender Bassmen 300 is now so being a Fender you will never run outta parts or techs.
Customer Support
:10
Fender what more can i say
Overall Rating
:10
Been playing 14 years. I have so many amps laying around between home and the practice room I don't even remember. I give this thing a 10 all the way. It has plenty of power. You can change the tone to any style you wish. I really can't say enough good things about it. I love mine and would die without it. If your a solid state man then you haven't plugged into one of these. There is no comparison. They seem to be reasonable priced at 800.00 and down. Where else you gonna get this much amp for that little money...answer, no where else I know of.
Looking for the Sunn 4x10 and 2x15 cabinets that go to this head. They are 8 ohms email me if you have one or both for sale