Sundown Artist-36

Followup after two years of ownership: Features are as described. It takes a while to sort out all the different sounds this box can make - from VoxAC30, to Fender, Ampeg, Marshall, etc..

At first I was pleased but overwhelmed by all the neat dials. Now I'm just pleased!

Wooof! Anything from blues to Mesa Boogie territory. My Mesa MKII head sits on top of the Sundown! I've A/B'd them (same speaker) with and without distortion/overdrive. The Sundown runs away for the clean Vox/Blues/Fender sounds, while the Mesa s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y takes the overdrive category. Slightly. Both have master volumes which I appreciate - can practice while the wif/kids sleep.

Yes, the Sundown is that good. But don't buy this amp!!! (I don't want the competition, heh, heh)

Oh yes, sounds. I recently sold my Marshall Valvestate and Gibson GoldTone RVS and kept the Sundown. 'Nuff said. Seriously, the Boogie is in trouble....

I do not give '10's' lightly.

Made like it was meant to last. Probably could withstand a nuke. I did re-cap it, but all 20 year old amps need that. Have been swapping tubes in and out for sound testing, and so far all is well.

OK, so Sundown jumped in right when the amp business started the big 1080's decline. Some 2500 were sold in USA and/or exported.

I called Dennis Kegar just to thank him and had a great chat. He sent me the manual and a tip on how to pump the amp from 36 watts to 42. (Hint: replace the 1k 9watt resistor in the power supply with a 500 ohm, 10 watt). Besides being the all time AMpeg guru, and co-developer of the Reverend Hellhound, Dennis is reagrded well in the industry.

OK, to date your amp, take the first digit of the serial number and that's the year in 1980's with the second and third digit the month. So an amp with serial 710123 would be October, 1987.

The A36 and A50 are basically the same amp, by the way.

The poster with 4 tubes has an A100 amp, not the 36/50 series.

Note that after the Sundown company folded, the extra parts were sold off and another company put the amps together - these are not desireable as quality suffered.

I have an Sundown Artist Combo amp that puts out 100 Watts easily. The Amp is fairly versitile but I bought it for its raw sound. The Clean Channel is spectacular it has everything I would come to expect from a fine tube amp. The power section with 4 6L6 Power Tubes is hot the driven chanel is fairly flexible and I definetly love the Governer, it lets me dial up the sound I want and reduce the volume so I don't blow out my ears or my band mates.

I use a Les Paul Custom that is wired to alow the Humbucking pickups to function as single coils so I have alot of flexibilit in my Guitar. I play mostly rythem guitar so this amp has all the power I need our band covers many different musical styles so I am going to have to pick up a good distortion pedal and a chorus as well. The clean channel is clean as loud as I dare play it.

I only had this amp for a week and I haven't used it at a gig but I expect great things from it.

Sundown is out of business so I can't comment. It would be nice to find a schematic for the amp so If I had to have it repaired the tech would be shooting in the dark.

I've been playing for 30 years my curraant band has been together for 14 years. I own a 63 Guild Starfire Guitar and an ovation acoustic. I also play Keyboards in our band so I have a Kurzweil PC88mx, a Yamaha Motif Sampler with a Roland VK8M organ module. I have a Warwick base and a combination SWR and Trace Elliot Bass Rig. I did compare this to a couple other amps but nothing touched it near the price. This is the coolest Amp I've ever owned. With effects Loops for each channel and ability fto drive another cabinet this amp will do anything I need.

Unknown year made. Features as previously described, plus mystery knob below input jack - pull and boosts mids (?). Speaker was replaced with 15 watt Fane Hiwatt run from 8 ohm output.

Wow! I had hoped for a decent tube amp but am more than pleased. Warm tube sounds from clean channel (although the 'clean' is, thankfully,not hi-fi 'clean')that can be gained to a mild bluesy distortion.

Standard gained distortion varies from rectified to violin sounds (hint, use the RMS control) - way many dials and settings to play with. If you can't get your sound from this box, then take up knitting.

The boosted distortion can get muddy, but that's your fault if it happens. The master volumn knob is handy, but the governor control is way cool - set Master at half rack and roll the volume back with the governor. The same tones are kept but at reduced volume. On my amp the lowest governor settings cause a bit of tremelo effect - I am re-tubing tho since I suspect the cheap Chinese tubes it came with (not original tubes).

Bottom line - if I can find another I'll have two: Definitely a sleeper of Marshall/Blackface/Mesa/Hiwatt kin.

Guitars used Les Paul, Tele, Strat, Buner, Gibson L6, Carvin CM140 (a 'best buy' sleeper!), etc, etc. All sound good.

The 9 rating ain't a ten 'cause the tubes with it are suspect in quality.

Don't know - built like a shick-brithouse tho.

Dennis has been out of (Sundown) business for many years - but who cares? Any good tube dude can fix these.

I am looing for the schematics and manual tho - so if you have 'em let me know.

See previous comments

I have no real idea when the amp was made; however, if I had to guess, I'd say late 70s-to mid-80s. The amp is certainly versatile, what with its two channels, RMS, Governor, excellent reverb and boost selectors. While I haven't used the effects loops, there are two channel independent loops existent. Like the other Sundown owner, I wish it more gain and less progressive compression.

I've used this amp with American Fender teles, Rodriguez guitars, and other "Frankensteins." I play in a Tom Verlain, Marc Ribot kind of style; thus, the reverb and excellent clean channel w/ excellent break-up distortion suits me quite well.

Bought the amp for 225; put $360 in it in the last two years. The channel switching mechanism seems questionable. (and the relay is difficult to get at...)

I plan on calling Kager -- will let you know later.

Cool amp, important to my style, if it was still working.

This is an extremely versitile amp. It is a two channel affair with separate tubes for each channel. the clean channel (indicated by a green LED) has a level, bass and treble controls. The dirty has gain, master volume, bass, mid (w/boost),treble, govenor, and RMS limiting. There are reverb and presence level knobs on the back panel. Each channel has its own FX loop. There is no headphone jack. One cool thing is that the logo lights up whe the amp is turned on. However, I wish the on/off/standby switch was on the front panel. This is an all tube amp with 5 12AX7s in the preamp and 2 6L6s in the power section. It puts out about 40 watts, and is definately very loud. I came with a Boogie labeled Celestion. One great feature is the governor control. It acts like a power soak so that you can saturate the power tubes at low volumes and also there is a high gain preamp. You can get what ever combination of preamp/poweramp distortion you want.

This is a very quiet amp, there is no extraneous noise (except for my strat pickups). The clean channel is lush and bright, almost too bright for my strat, but I just adjust the tone on the guitar) The reverb is very lush sounding also, and not at all sproingy. The dirty channel can be set up for any amount of poweramp/preamp distortion, although gain boost makes my strat sound muddy. The govenor works on both channels, and you can crank the clean channel and overdrive it at low volumes. I play rock and blues and have no problems getting lots of decent sounds out of it. The distortion is not brutal at all it is warm and tubey, just the way I like it.

This amp is well built and have no reservations about depending on it. I would not ever use any amp on a gig witout a backup. I called the maker (Dennis Kager) and he walked me through a problem and helped me fix it. He also faxed me a schematic for free even after I offered to pay him. He's a great guy. There is a cirucuit board in the preamp section, but the power amp section is all point-to-point wired.

Dennis was extremely friendly and helpful even though Sundown is now out of business, which is a shame as he made an awesome product.

I traded for another just like it and also have a 100wat combo and a 100 watt head. I love all my Sundowns. I hate the mushiness when the high gain boost is pulled out, but that can be revoiced. I also wish that it had more gain.