Sundown Rebel 100

i bought this amp head with a cabinet for $50 (i know, THAT'S INSANE!) well, when i got it, the amp sounded bad, i was getting any pick up or signal, so i looked up where to get it serviced, turns out that there's a place in edison, nj where they service it, i got there and met the guy who designed it, he offered me $300 for it broken, at the time i was like "uh-uh" and got it serviced for like $50, new tubes and all, since then i've used it in live shows and it KILLS! the sound is so awesome, but now (and here is the sad part) it's sitting in storage NOT BEING USED. i itch for the day to play again, but present circumstances prevent me. overall great f$#%in amp head.

got it repaired to original schematic design by the designer/engineer himself.

Other musicians tell me this thing was made back in the 80's. I had never seen or heard of Sundown amps until I saw this one in a pawn shop in Tampa,Florida. It came with the matching 4-12 bottom. At $400 I thought I would try it on for size.

This amp is very LOUD and no distortion pedal is needed to make this baby sing. I had the tubes replaced because I thought it sounded a litle dirty.....wrong!! The new tubes made no difference in this amps' sound. This thing is just plain "Scratchy". If you play the blues, I think you'll like this amp ( If you can find one)

I have owned this amp for five years now and have never had a problem with it.

Since the company no longer exist,you will be on your own if it ever needs repair.

Compared to my other amps,this one was a steal.

(It should be noted that the Sundown Rebel 50 Head, one of which I also own, would be evaluated almost exactly as I evaluate the Rebel 100 head here. The Rebel 50 is identical to the Rebel 100 except that it, of course, has 2 rather than 4 6L6 power tubes and thus 50 watts of output power rather than the Rebel 100's 100 watts.) The Sundown Rebel 100 Amp Head, like all Sundown Amps except those made from parts sold to others after Sundown went out of business, was made between 1982 and 1987 by Dennis Kager (who has now had a major role in designing the new Reverend Hellhound Amplifier with Joe Naylor) and his employees in Edison, New Jersey. This amp, I believe, is proof that one need not go to extraordinary expense to get an amp with extraordinary tone, solid construction and modern sound. John Martin (a great, rather new amp tech in the Phila. area with a growing army of devotees)has told me that the Sundown Amps used a very advanced circuit design for the time. Further, he informs me that the Sundowns do not at all deserve their reputation, likely acquired due to the size and shape of their combo cabinets, as Mesa "clones." Apparently the circuits are not particularly similar to those used by Mesa. -- The amp fits the styles of music I play quite well though those who need an ultra - clean sound with considerable head room may not find this amp very useful. The transformers are large, and this is a very, very LOUD amplifier which gets gritty which any greater than very low volume. The distorition, though, is very warm and rich. -- The amp chassis is mounted to the bottom on the head cab, and the control panel faces the front. It uses 4 6L6GC power tubes and 3 12AX7 pre-amp tubes although originally a 12AY7 was in the middle position of the three pre-amp tubes. The rectifier is solid state. -- I've rated the features at "8" only because I'm of the philosophy that, with instrument amplifiers, the simpler-the-better. One who likes a variety of controls, dials, options, etc. would likely rate features on this amp a "10." On the front panel, controls are as follows: Gain (pre-amp volume) control, master volume, treble, middle, and bass. There is also a "governor" control which is a built in power attenuator, a presence control, and a "RMS" control which is a wattage control. If you pull out the gain knob, you get a major gain boost. There are two inputs, low and high impedance, as well as a ground switch and a power/standby toggle switch along with the Sundown logo power-on light. The back panel includes four speaker jacks which allow 1 8-ohm load, one 4-ohm load, 2 8-ohm loads, 2 16-ohm loads, or any combination of these. Options for speaker cab combinations are clearly labeled and diagramed right on the back panel. I think this is a very good feature. Further, there are send & return jacks on the back panel for both pre pre-amp and post pre-amp. While this is technically a one-channel amplifier, the gain-boost feature makes is virtually a two channel amp. Inside the chassis is a combination of PC board and point-to-point hand-wiring. Support for the pre-amp tube sockets is rather weak, but this necessitates only that one is careful to not push too hard when replacing pre-amp tubes. I don't especially like the RMS and Governor controls, and the gain-boost is so extreme that I find it pretty useless (I'll write about this more in "Sound."), but, of course, one never needs to use these features. The only thing I immediately disliked about this amp head was the ridiculously heavy & oversized, ugly cabinet. That problem was easily solved, though, by building a lightweight, compact cabinet for this amp head and its apparent twin, the Rebel 50 Head. I've used this amp at home, on countless gigs and for recording. It has been dependable and great-sounding in each context.

I should preface my remarks here by saying that I've owned an embarrassingly large number of very expensive boutique, "vintage," and production amplifiers. I've had Matchless Chieftain, HC-30, Clubman, Superchief and Lightning. I've owned Groove Tubes Soul-O, Kendrick, Holland, Marshall and MANY Fender amps. Some of them were great-sounding and some of them were considerably less than great-sounding. These old Sundown Heads, usually available for between $200 and $450, can hold their own with any of these amps and surpass by miles many of them (although they cost from $850 to $4500). -- I ordinarily use a PRS Custom 22, a PRS CE22 or an old Schecter PT made with a solid rosewood neck & a solid Koa body through these amps. I do have a PRS Artist that doesn't leave home but that I've run through these amps occasionally there. All sound great through the Sundowns. Single coils may be a little too bright for many through these amps regardless of the settings. I run the amps to a Matchless ES1012 cabinet or to 1 - 4 small Mesa 1x12 cabinets with EVM12L speakers. I occasionally use a Klon Centaur with these amps (although it's really not necessary as they get plenty of overdrive with the right settings on their own)but no other effects or pedals. I am a Blues player and the thick, powerful sound of these amps is excellent for such music. I rarely have the amp over 3 or 4 on the master volume and 4 or 5 on the gain (pre-amp volume) because it's so LOUD! There's no trouble being heard even over the loudest miked drummer. If set VERY low, I don't particularly like the sound, but this is clearly not an amp made for your bedroom. The "governor" does significantly reduce volume, depending upon how much you dial it in, but it also reduces the sound quality considerably. I find the RMS control rather useless and keep it just barely above zero at all times. Turning it toward "10" seems to only make the sound less focused and generally poor-sounding, not really much louder (and, believe me, you don't need it to be any louder than it is already anyway.). (By the way, on the combos with reverb, I do not like the sound nearly as much. The reverb circuit seems to drain power and more importantly, tone considerably. There are a great variety of sounds available here, but I only find a couple useful. The gain boost is really over-the-top (It's already a very high-gain amp.)and feels a little like I imagine a nail in the temple would feel. Though it only has a couple of "voices" that I find useful, those it has are really great! I think it sounds much better with 6L6GC power tubes than with 5881's (I understand that the 6L6's are true 30w tubes while the 5881's are not.). Also, I think it's much better (stronger, fuller) with three 12AX7's in the pre-amp section rather than with two 12AX7's and one 12AY7 as it had originally.

My two Sundown Rebel Heads are at least 15 years old, and I have had very little trouble with them during the last 3 years (which is how long I've owned them) except for the poorly supported power tube sockets in one of them. This was due to a previous owner's maltreatment, not the construction of the amp. Dennis Kager, the original maker of Sundown Amplifiers, is still at Central Jersey Music, and he is more than than happy to answer any questions and even send schematics. He is straightforward and honest about the weaknesses of some models as he is about the strengths of the type reviewed here. My Sundowns have been serviced by a fantastic amp tech named John Martin (jmartin@moneynet.com) in Philadelphia. With his normal mainenance (bias setting, etc.), these amps have never broken down or needed major repair at all.

As Sundown is out of business for some time now, you wouldn't expect much. But my amp tech is able to work easily on these amps, and Dennis Kager is helpful if you need him. (See above in "reliability" about customer support as well.)

I've been playing for more than 25 years, usually in Blues or Blues & R & B bands. I'm primarily a vocalist who tries to add some complementing good guitar sounds beyond each of those band's main guitar player. While I've played Fender-style guitars for most of my life, I've begun to play PRS or other "Gibsonish" instruments in recent years. I've had far, far too many expensive "boutique" amps as well as "vintage" and production amps over the years. I would certainly buy more Sundowns whether these were lost or not. I would not buy the reverb-equipped models or those made with leftover parts sold by Dennis Kager after the business closed. I'd also stay away from the 2 or 3 models that Kager himself advises one away from readily. Summarily, I love the tone and strength of these amp heads; I hated the heavy, needlessly oversized head cabs; I find many of the features unnecessary and a little distracting. The Sundown Rebel 100 Head's best tone is most similar to the much more expensive Fender Tonemaster's Drive channel of the amps I've used in the past or use in the present. There is absolutely nothing I know of in the price range of the Sundowns that comes anywhere close to them. I only think these amps would have been better with a more moderate gain boost and elimination of the "governor" and RMS controls.

This amp is mainly a "dirty amp" for reasons that I'll go into later. I play blues and rock, and have no trouble getting good sounds out of it. It is only a one channel amp with lots of features. It has two FX loops, one for the preamp and one for the power amp. Sorry no headphone jack. This amp has lots of features, but I'd like it to have reverb and a user bias circuit. I use all the features on the amp including master volume, with a pull high gain cicuit, bass, mid, treble, and presence controls, a built in power attenuator, and a variable wattage control. It also has hi and low sensitivity inputs. This amp is actually more p power than I need, but the volume can be adjusted with the attenuator and the wattage control. The tube complement is three 12AX7s and four Fender branded Sovtek 5881s. This amp is louder than hell when run through a 4 x 12" cab.

It suits my style fairly well, I play blues and rock. I haven't noticed any noise, not that it would bother me as I play a strat copy with all single coils. This is a really dynamic amp, you can get a bluesy overdrive to a hard rock "paint peeling" tones. The one thing this amp doesnt' do is clean. Even with the master and gain both on two there is a surprising amount of dirt even when plugged into the lower gain jack. Hence there really is no "clean channel". The distortion can get vicious, but it can also clean up a bit and get bluesy. The way the amp is set up you can get preamp distortion or power amp distortion or any combination at any volume level

These amps are extremely well built. They use only a circuit board for the power supply and the preamp. The power amp section is all point-to-point wired. However, servicing the amp is faily easy as all the components on the circuit board are accesible without removing the circuit board. Also the manufacturer, Dennis Kager runs an amp shop in Central New Jersey. It has never broken down. And appears to be very reliable.

I talked to Dennis Kager and he is very friendly and helpfull. I am planning on sending him my Sundown Artist 100 chassis to restore. I buy all my amps used so there is no warranty, and Sundown has been out of business for about 10 years so no service center. But Dennis is available to work on the amp.

I did buy it again, I had another that I sold because I really needed the money at the time, so when I found this one, I snapped it up immediately. I love the variety of overdrive sounds, they are all killer. I chose it for the Sundown name. The only thing I hate about it is that it is missing the large logo on the front of the amp. (if anyone knows where I can get one, please e-mail). I compared it to a Marshall 50 watt JCM 800 head. The Marshall sounded more like a "real" marshal, but was limited to one sound. The Sundown is more versitile. I'd like to compare it to a Rebel 50, the 50 watt version.