Sunn Coliseum 300

The Coliseum-300 was made in the early 80's, and from what I've read was made toward the end of Sunn's existence.

One of its great strengths is 7 bands of EQ, and each one has its own preamp! Unlike most amps, you don't just turn the gain of each frequency up or down a bit, you can turn each one from OFF to full ON. The audible result of this adjustment is a huge variation in sound. More than any amp I've seen, you can tailor your sound with this one. The Contour switch gives a bass and treble boost and Sunn claimed it would be handy at low volumes.

It's 38 pounds, 24" x 7 3/4" x 11 3/4", so it's not small. But it's no heavier than most powerful bass amps.

Power rating is 300W @2 Ohms, 200W $4 Ohms, 120W @ 8 Ohms. Because of this, consider your cabs before buying this head. it tolerates much lower resistance than most heads, but you NEED to get your cabs under 8 ohms if you want to get the power potential from this head.

One very cool feature is that on the head's rear panel, there is a complete flow chart of all connections. It's easy to figure out what connections affect others - VERY handy. On the rear panel there are two speaker outs, a power amp in, preamp out, and Hi and Low send and return. one unusual feature is that you can biamp - separate your high and low frequencies - and a knob on the front panel lets you determine the frequency at which the hi/low separation occurs.

All in all, this amp has a lot of features that are actually helpful and useful, not just for show.

I play a variety of solid and hollowbody basses through a 4x10 and 1x15, or through both, depending on the event. This amp can be set up to give a beautiful, warm sound with just a few tweaks of the EQ knobs. If you're looking for bright, woody, warm or just about anything else, this amp can probably deliver it.

I don't think you'll drive it into distortion (I really haven't tried) unless perhaps you try jacking up the input gain way too hot - but I figure that's what pedals are for. I play surf and classic rock, so distortion isn't a priority for me - I use a Humphreys-modified Bad Monkey for overdrive sound.

I don't find it noisy at all - there is an audible sound to the fan, but no one will hear it if they're more than five feet away.

This amp sounds as good with my 60's Precision as it does with my new Gretsch solid body Electromatic Junior Jet or with my Univox hollowbody.

The amp has been working for 20+ years, and so far hasn't faltered. Sunn is long gone, but I'm not concerned about durability of this amp. Schematics are available by searching the web, as are copies of the owner's manual. I have put the complete owner's manual online at: http://tinyurl.com/qp9m9d.

No sunn, no support, but the Sunn amps are near-legendary and have a strong following. If I need it fixed, a schematic will allow any competent service person to repair it.

I began on upright bass in 1964, played through 1973 and took a 24-year layoff, but started again in the late 90's. I currently have 8+ basses and a variety of amps and cabs. This Sunn is the King-of-the-hill, go-to amp in my lineup - I love the way it sounds and the incredible adjustment it offers.

I'm 59 so I don't really need a heavy tube head, and this one offers the features I really want - if this head were lost or stolen, I'd definitely start looking for another. I bought it on speculation because it had such a good reputation, and that chance has really paid off! In today's world, the head isn't super-powerful, but it offers all the power I need even for playing outdoors gigs. I graded it down just a bit in this category because you have to get your cab load to 2 ohms to get its full power - not very practical unless you have a lineup of 4 ohm cabs.

I have been playing bass for over twenty-five years and I've seen amps come and go. I'm glad I found this one! I love vintage stuff and this amp fits the bill. Great features for an amp made in I'm guessing early eighties. Wish it had a direct out but thats alright.

I use a five string Jazz with active pick-ups,play mostly funk-fusion if you will.Have experienced no distortion which to me is good,I want it clean and punchy.Have noticed some noise at higher volumes,but what can you expect from a twenty-six year old amp.Probably just needs a good cleaning.

I just use it for backup,but have plans to use it more often,as far as I can tell it has been very well taking care of but it looks very road worthy.

As most folks know Sunn amps are not sold any more, but I know I can still get a manuel for it. I know a lot of people in the repair business so the only concern would be parts.

I currently use all Mesa equipment,but I would have no problem using my Sunn if need be. I feel lucky to have found it in a pawn shop. I don't plan on selling it.

extreme tone adjustments via the EQ. so many jacks for bi amp, effects and who knows

can get extremely deep lows and the brightest highs. kinda noisy unless you use it as a slave or use wireless. I'm not impressed with lack of punch. you'll be lucky if you can get it to distort. I've turned the volume all the way up, and it won't distort unless you turn all the tone knobs all the way up. I run 2 huge 18" vegas with it, and believe me, it will definitely make them move!

I bought it used 15 years ago and still working fine

i don't know when this was made, but it is one of the later sunn amps (red/white logo, black tolex). it has 'normal' and 'bright' inputs to use for different basses so that you don't overload the preamp. this is pretty helpful since my active jazz bass has such a hot signal. when using the normal channel, the sound is much heavier and clips at low gain/eq levels. the bright input allows you to get more punch out of powerful basses. the amp also features an effects loop for low and high frequencies (which can be adjusted by the crossover), as well as a compressor, contour button and many EQ knobs. the crossover is the best part since you can run either the full signal through a second power amp OR any frequencies above or below the crossover knob. it also runs 300w @ 2ohms, which is absolutely wonderful. it may be solid state, but it really packs a punch. overall, this amp has everything that i need to tweak my sound any possible way without a bunch of gimmicky extras.

i usually play with a fender active jazz bass, and my styles range from jazz to hardcore and metal. it can create a boomy acoustic bass sound very easily, and it can also push mids/highs to fit other styles of music. there is a very very faint hiss that increases with volume, but that can be taken away by dropping the highest pot (and who needs that when you're playing bass!) the amp can make any sound you want, and it really doesn't color your sound at all. there is no onboard distortion, but there is slight breakup/clipping when the amp is dimed and the power amp is maxed out. it doesn't sound too bad and sounds like overdrive growl! my only complaint is that it doesn't come with a fan and it tends to get pretty hot. after an hour or two of loud playing, the sound quality tends to get thinner and plunky. i usually aim a fan at the back and it sounds fine.

this thing has fallen over several times and has never broke. it came with a missing button, but that's the only damage aside from broken outlet plugs from careless people. i would expect that it could survive anything. it's a beast!

i've never had any serious repair issues. sunn is out of business, but the manuals are still available through fender so any tech should be able to fix it.

if this were stolen or lost, i would definitely buy another. i have never seen another one, but it would be worth the effort to hunt another down. i love everything about this tone monster.