Sunn Beta Lead

This is the loudest 100 watt "mammer-jammer" amp I've played through hands down!! Thank God I have three of them to play through as well. Each amp has a footswitch that turns on and switches off the channels and reverb. The effects loop is one of my favorite features to use. Once my effects are turned off it goes back to the sound that can only be described as turbulantly clean.

The sound of this amp can be changed by remembering that is doesn't work like your standard amp. It has CMOS technology in it. Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconducter(CMOS) was Sunns hybrid way of getting the tube(valvestate) sound out of a solidstate amp. The bass, mid amd treble knobs are like equalizers. The bite comes from too much treble..turn it down to about 2/3 and it gets real sweet, as long as the mid is about 4/5 and the bass is about 6/7. This unleashes the "monster" that lies beneath. The trick is to set the drive at 6/7, turn the master volume to about 6/7 and use the level knob as the VOLUME. Crazy but give a try...AWESOME sound, equal to a Marshalls distortion.....Gotta love it...Try your own settings once you get used to the idea of them being EQ's...Hiss means CLEAN THE POTS! Any good tech can spot the CMOS chip in and replace it if needed. I play all 15 of my guitars through it..Les Paul, Strat, Charvel STX Deluxe, even my acoustics.Yes it can play clean too.Choose a channel...Experiment y'all. The Feedback is there just find it!! Try that with other solidstate amps

These amps are very reliable if you take care of it by blowing the dust out every once in awhile. The two 12" Square magnet speakers made by Eminence handle the volume real good...If you need to replace them, or upgrade, I recommend the 150 watt Patriots. Then CRANK IT..AWESOME again!! My 17 year old nephew has a Patriot speaker in his.I gave him one of my Sunn brains and made a cabinet from the dims I took from one of my dual speaker cabs...He loves it! I use mine at every gig I play with an extension speaker that has two 12" Peavey Scorpion speakers in it. Stereo is so sweet!!

Customer service is where you can find it. Find a good tech and he will thank you for letting him work on your vintage amp. Locally I use Earhart Electronics...Mike and Frank are "The Masters Blasters". If this amp is well taken care of, it will last for ages...You might or might not want to pass it on to your offspring to jam with.

Since I have all the serial numbers to all three of these amps, if it or they were stolen I would replace it. Gotta love Ebay for those chances. Just not a Fender made Sunn...y'all know what I'm talking 'bout. After playing as long as I have, you learn what is quality and whats not. This is a quality amp designed by two brothers (Conrad and Norm Sundholm)and then the company was sold to the Hartzell. They stayed with the specs!!
I also have a Jack Daniels 30 watt tube amp and a 40 watt valvestate Marshall I use.

i don't know when this amp was made but i have followed it since its original owner in 1977. 2 channels and the footswitch lets both scream at once (bridged i suppose from the sound of it). I don't play out but if i did this would be my amp. versitile, almost a blues-tube sound, but not quite. More distortion than the law allows. louder than a room full of screaming banshees and more dangerous than a Puff on acid. Wanna play outdoors? this amp will do it, but must load it up with lots of speakers to absorb the power. i run mine thru a 6x 10" and 1 15" cab & I can't turn it up past 3-1/2 before i totally drown out the (loud-ass) drummer. After 4/5 it don't get no louder, i need more speakers. Also can't play under 2, amp just ain't happy. for a solid state amp, this machine gets it. reverb could be more intense (of course i like a fender deluxe reverb although they have NO power).

I play heavy blues, mostly on the treble P/U with the amp set on "Shatter" bass, "screaming mimi" mid-range and nominal treble. This amp cannot play at low volume without hiss, turn it above 3 and its clear and loud as hell. I love a full range sound and this amp delivers on the low end and has to be cut back on the high end.

this amp fritzed out on me once (it was only 34 years old at the time) the shop told me it wasn't worth repairing (like i could replace it for under $500, but they were the penis-heads at "Swing City")so i gave it to a freind of mine to fix, which he did for $35.00. I don't think i'd play out on this head as it seems awful light and i wouldn't want to subject it to serious brutalization. but then again, tube amps will fuck-up mo often.

no opinion, it lasted longer than the life-time gauruntee to the original owner.

if this amp were to be stolen i'd commit many felonies to get it back. I've only been making noxious sounds since `74. my other main rig (bass) is an ampeg SVT-200t head and a `72 rick 2001. my back-up machine is an `83 gibson corvus I (fo slide) and a `75 unixox high-flyer (fo da res). Xtra-lites wires w/ medium pick.

No idea what the year is, but it was made before Fender owned Sunn. It works great for any style I play. Has a master effects loop, one for each channel, and they double as line in/outs. I wish it had two different types of reverbs, because one is barely an accent, which I like, and other's i've owned have a concert hall sound. I use it for practices for guitar and bass, paired up with an old traynor bass amp on the line out. It's solid-state which gives a clearer, more transparent sound, but I like tube too. the previous owner put 2 carvin british series 12's in it.

I use it with an Ibanez and RG thing, has a humbucker in the bridge, mini-bucker in the neck, an old squier strat, a standard p-bass, Suits all I play, funk, grunge, rock, punk. I can do great overdrive, superb clean mode, a cool dual channel so you can have clean with an overdriven backround. The eq is great, seperate drive, lo, mid, hi, reverb, level for each channel. then a maeter vol. GREAT OVERDRIVE.

I would gig it, but for safety, I would put a CPU fan in it. Never failed me, but just for the heck of it, just to keep it cool. It has vents on the back, luckily.

Never had to deal with them, but I'm sure I couldn't get anything for this old amp.

It's great, been playing for a few years, i think 3. I would be very anrgy if it were stolen. If I could find it or afford it, I would definitely get one again, or just another one. I love everything, except the plastic shafts on the controls, one was broken when I got it, and I doubt radio shack could find anotherone like it. I liked it better than the marshall's I tried.

Not alot of features. Clean channel. Dirty channel. Foot switch. And reverb. That's it. But I knew that when I bought it.

When I still had the amp I used a washburn Falcon with two hums. The sound was fat. I loved it. The clean was nice and warm and the dirt reminded my of angus. It was my first ear splitting amp. I was 19 when I got the amp. My brother in law who was a kick ass southern rocker said he really liked my gear. He was my guitar hero then so I really loved my amp after that. 11 years later i think I'd still love it.

It worke great most of the time I had it. I loaned to a friend who was a singer and he used as a P.A. I don't Know what happened to it but when he returned it it had a hissing crackling weird sound I can't explain any better. It still worked if i pulled the cord out a little bit and moved it around. It probably would have been fine had I not loaned it out. DON'T LOAN OUT YOUR STUFF!!!!

I miss that amp It was loud as hell. I was poor when I had it. I sold it to buy my wife and daughter a christmas present. I would still have it to this day if it wasn't for being broke. When you were 20 in the eighties it was rough. If i find another I'll probably buy it.

I purchase these models in 1981. They are vesitile. I heard the amp used from rock to jazz. The beta had two channels while the alpha only had one. The cool thing about the beta lead was the two channel feature.The two channel feature allowed you to have both channels on simultanously which you could have one channel clean, and one channel
distorted. having masters on both channels allowed the user to blend the dist and clean sounds. My complaint of the Sunn beta/alpha was the pre-amp section
(using digital c-mos technology ha, ha, ha,.)
Hex inverters were used instead of op-amps
and were noisy both is the high freqs as well as the mid-range.
I also used the direct out and the amp had terrible undertones
below the guitars lowest note 80hz. I had an frequency analyzer
that measured 30hz especially during the strick of the pick.
in addition, the analyzer measures freqs between 10k to 20k at
too high an amplitude to be desirable. Although the high freqs get filtered because of the freq response of the 10 or 12 inch speaker,
the added high freq content that is not highly noticable through the 10/12inch speakers does affect the clarity, phasing of signals,and flat freq response. In other words Terrible sound reproduction.
Visit my web site http://www.ioc.net/~hansen and click on the link Toxic era recordings at mp3.com and you'll hear some tracks using Sunn equipment (Miked). Then on my site http://www.ioc.net/~hansen click on the link My most recent recordings at ze-box and compare the sound Quality. Although the guitar equipment on my most recent recordings
are from 1984 long before ther were speaker simulator circuits and without the use of a direct box that filters like a speaker simulator. I recorded direct to the mixer using Roland sip300's pre-amps. One thing I do like about the Alpha and Beta Lead is the Power Amp section. The power amp was very clean and had great Freq response.
I would bypass the pre-amp section with My roland sip300 pre-amp
and had good results. This set-up was great also for bass. It would give a meaty sound close to clipping and would have the
Jaco Pastorious/Victor Bailey sound.

Because of the under tones of the Sunn Alpha and Beta lead the amplifier would clip prematurely. This was not noticed until I had purchased a Sunn power + that had a clipping indicator. The problem with this is the amplifier rated a 100watts would clip in the 200 watt range due to the undertones and speaker damage was a common problem.

this amp has two completely controllable channels (vol, gain, rev, low, mid, high) and a footswitch that allows you to switch between channels, switch on reverb, and switch on both channels.

the distortion is a little on the fabricated side, but i have one channel as clean and one as a medium distortion and switch to both channels as my distortion. it rocks like hell. i will say that the gain does not enhance harmonics the way i wish it could, but overall, you can control the sound and gain on both channels so much that you can get damn near any sound out of it.

i bought this thing used. it had replacement speakers. they blew after about two years. i now run it as a head into an orange 4X12 and am in the process of buying new speakers for it. other than the speakers, which i have some doubt about the bozo that put them in, i have never had even a fuse go out on this thing.

not around

i spent almost $1000 on an orange halfstack, have been through vox, music man, acoutsic, roland, and orange heads and i keep coming back to this combo. my bandmate has a 100-watt marshall which is nearly impossible to control tone-wise and he has to tell me to turn down in practice... and i'm on 4.

This 135 watt solid state amp with two 12" speakers in a V configuration has two channels. Each channel has drive, volume, bass, midrange, treble and volume and there is a master volume for both channels. I use it mostly for rock'n'roll of the heavy variety. Generally it's an excellent versatile amp although it doesn't have have the balls of a Marshall, or the warmth of a tube amp.

The amp is nice and quiet. the distortion is very good and the reverb is created by a real spring (not a solid state facsimile) so it's awesome. One complaint -- the volume goes up to ten, but you really don't get very much after 3 (or maybe 5 if you're outdoors).

This definitely scores a 10. I had to have the amp repaired once when a transistor went, but you would absolutely not believe what this amp has been through and survived.

I haven't had much luck finding anything on Sunn. I don't think they exist anymore. Which is a bummer, becasue the amp came with a nifty pedal that allowed you to switch channels and turn the reverb on/off. I lost it and I'd love to get another one.

A cheap workhorse of an amp with some great features. Hey, it won't measure up against your top of the line gear but it's damn respectable. And hey at $400 Canadian ($300 US) that's a pretty good investment for 15 years of abuse.

I've owned this amp for 15 years, and it still stands the test of time. It has 2 separate channels with contols for each, and a combo channel that includes both. Controls include Drive (Distortion), Low, Mid, High, Level, Reverb, and a single Master Volume. It has separate Line Out jacks for each channel, a Master Line out, and an Effects loop. It has plenty of power- I have played some fairly large clubs with this thing, and have had bartenders tell me it's too loud (screw 'em). I bought it in Germany, so it was set up for both 110 and 220 volts. Nice touch!

I have played everthing from Jazz, Classic Rock, Alternative, Metal, and even Tejano through this baby- it is extremely versatile. My only complaint is that it lacks balls unless you turn the Drive up to at least 3. The distortion is top notch, but I use an effects processor, so I don't crank the drive past 3. I play an Epiphone Les Paul goldtop and a '57 reissue Strat through it, and they both sound outstanding. It has a nice, warm clean sound, almost tube-y, but it really shines with a Tube Screamer or similar effects unit.

I bought it used, and it looked like new. Since then, it has been around the world (I was in the Army). When I got it from the movers in Korea, it looked like it had been dropped off of a 5-story building. The cabinet was broken, and one of the IC's had come out of its socket. I pushed the IC back in, taped up the cab, and drove on. Lately, it's getting a little scratchy in the pots- time for another cleaning. In many hours of playing in clubs, it has never once broken down. (Thank God- I don't have a backup.)

I don't think that Sunn even exists as a company anymore. I do all of my own repair work, so I wouldn't dream of attempting to contact the manufacturer.

I have been playing for 20+ years. I don't own another amp, but am in the market for a tube job. If it was nicked, I would probably get another make- I love the amp, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth. I love it because it's very versatile- sort of like a JC-120 with a decent overdrive. I'm going to start gigging again, and I just don't trust it to hold up. In its day, it could blow away most other solid-state amps.