Sunn Coliseum 880

This amp's features sit somewhere between the Coliseum Bass and the Coliseum Lead: It has Volume, Lo Bass, Hi Bass, Mid and Treble controls as well as a Distort and a Sustain control. The volume has a 'brite' switch and the Mid and Treble each have a lo-hi switch. Using a '70s EB-0, The Distort control is minimal at best and is footswitchable. The Sustain works mostly like a master volume. I've only used it with a 4ohm Ampeg 8x10 so far. The EQ is very sensitive and has a wide range of tonal possibilities. The amp is very, very loud.

I bought the Sunn to replace a borrowed SVT I had, and I'm not disappointed. The Distort control brings in just enough crunch to make it bark when I dig into the strings. I usually have it set on 2. It works in conjunction with the Volume control though, so the louder it is, the more crunch. I usually have the volume on 10. The Sustain doesn't seem to add compression; it just acts as a 70% to 100% master volume. I usually have it set to 7. I play in a Stoner Rock band with two guitarists with half-stacks (one Ampeg V4, one Matamp) usually both set to 10. Our drummer plays very loud to punch through, and the Sunn holds up the bottom quite well.

I doubt there'll be any problems with this amp; it's 34 years old, and the caps are still decent. Very simple construction as well.

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I'm very happy with it; I originally wanted a Traynor Monoblock because they're easier to find in Canada, but I couldn't pass this thing up. As a tidbit of info, the 880 means 880W peak-to-peak, which translates to a hair over 310W RMS. This is roughly the amp's output rating into 2ohms.

Published specs were 320W into 2ohms, 200W into 4ohms and 100W into 8ohms. So if you want Earth-shattering rumble, get yourself a 2ohm cab! I'm fine with my 200 watts of 8x10 goodness.