Product: Sunn 1200S Head
Price Paid: US $100 used
Submitted
04/16/1998
at
09:24pm
by
Nate Lamy
Features
:
No Opinion
Features? We don't need no stinkin' features! 120 watts RMS (conservatively rated, I assure you)when run at 4 ohms. no master volume. bright/normal inputs. trable/bass/contour(sorta like presence) knobs. Reverb AND tremolo. and a mid-range boost switch that really works. 4 x 6550's, built like a tank, looks cool, never needs winding. Free hernia included. It's big, just plain big. and loud. I run it through an 8 ohm 4 x 12 Sunn cab with the original CTS/Sunn drivers still working.
Sound Quality
:
10
I set the volume between .5 and 1 for superclean archtop jazz sounds. It breaks up nicely at 5 - 6, and gets into the Mississippi Queen thing beyond that. I may have to gain 200 pounds and buy a Junior soon. This is an in-yer-face rock amp. A fighting amp. I get variety using the tone knobs and the mid-boost, because there's not much else to play with. Basically, it's a one-flavor amp, at volume. Honest American distortion.
Reliability
:
10
The reverb tank has a lock, which is nice. It's highly reliable and has never failed to start, even in rough weather. I have used it without backup for years.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Mr. Sunn, he dead. The company somehow ended up making those incredibly stupid Alpha and Beta amps before its acquisition by Fender. Oh, the ignominy of it all. Service should be no problem: a monkey could repair this thing, it's so simple. A monkey could live in it too, for that matter, given the room inside it.
Overall Rating
:
10
The only useful comparison would be to Marshall, Hiwatt or Ampeg(V4) gear from the same era (@1970-1972) and it half-stacks up quite favorably. I'm amazed that these amps have virtually disappeared and that when they do surface, they are so cheap. And it's just too big and heavy to steal, so I'm stuck with it forever, I guess.
