Sunn Solarus Head

As far back as I can remember, this amp had volume, treble, bass, contour (which, electronically, was designed as an upside-down mid control), reberb, and trem speed+intensity dials. The amp was running with unmatched OLD 6L6GCs, BUT, the +560V on the plates made so it was STILL pushing a *measured* 72watts... Now how's that for running on the brinks! The amp was supposed to use EL34s or 6550s though, which would've (with 6550s) probably given something like 130W... That guy from the Kingsmen knew what he was doing!

This amp was used by my bass player through a '60s Fender 1x15 cab, but it just wasn't loud enough. She traded it a year ago for a Ampeg that had twice the 6L6GCs, but that *only* produced 73watts (grumble). 'Twas a very bad trade because the Sunn had the BEST sounding and most versatile tremolo I have ever heard. It's a transistor tremolo, but it could do percussive-style VOX trem as well as smooth power-tube-ish tremolo. Wow! What a sound... Oh, and the amp sounded REAL nice and clean too! Turn it up to 8, and it would crunch up really nice.

I was always affraid this amp was gonna blow up because of the old tubes, but it always held through just fine. When I'll buy it again (I know who has it heh heh), I'll slap some KT88s in there, and get that 130W!! Oh yeah, it had the BIGGEST transformers I had ever seen, so lots of power was on tap. The standby switch was dirty though, so sometimes the amp wouldn't turn on.

Dunno.

This was a great amp, and I'm gonna buy it again VERY soon. The fellow who has it now is selling all his gear to buy a MESA or something. Ugh... If you find one, try it out.

late 60s i think 69 all tube head with 2 x 12 sunn speaker cab. simply the best amp i've ever heard in my life. a lot of bass even if it's an open back cabinet and a rich bright tone.
Front panel: volume, treble, bass, contour, depth and rate (effect) and a spring reverb. 4 inputs (2 bright ans 2 normal) i only
use the normal section cause the bright id too bright! the tremolo effect on it is vey fine.

my guitar is an Ephiphone Les Paul custom with 2 Seymour Duncan alnico proII humbuckers and i use a Boss Metal zone distortion with it. that's it! i'm using it for heavy, rock, blues, jazz and its amazing! pretty versatile. perfect sounding for every style!!!

i can't live without it! i will never use an other amp.

Sunn is back, but i don't know if they offer suppurt for old models!

i'm playing since 1990 and i'm using it since that time.My father bought it used in 1969 (225$ CAN)and he gave it to me in 1991.(what a gift!!)I have tried other amps like Fender, marshall, peavey ... but
The Sunn Solarus the best one!

Late 60's 50 Watt tube head. Dual inputs with bright and normal. Volume, bass, treble and countour knobs. Swithcing for reverb and tremolo. I use this amp as a clean channel and I have a Marshall JCM800 for the crunch channel

I'm using a Fender USA Strat with Lace single coil pick-ups. This is certainly one of the best sounding amps I have ever heard. The amp has 6L6's in right now although it's supposed to have EL34's. I never really tried at high volumes. It was broken when I got it and I just got it fixed recently so I haven't had the chance to crank it.

It's a very old amp. The tech that fixed it said there was a bad welding job on a connection and there was also a preamp tube that wasn't working. But as far as reliability goes you can't really expect much from an amp that's been moved around a lot.

I know Sunn is back in business but they're not making this amp anymore.

I've been playing for 5 years now and I went through a few amps and I think I know my stuff pretty well. I'm not kidding when I'm saying this amp sounds awsome! I've never seen info on this amp on the net before so I don't I could find one again. Truly a collector's amp. This amp has all you need although I wouldn't mind the amp being 100 watts