Sunn T50C 112 Combo

Just an update form my previous post (the long one with the endless list of bulleted features)...

I mentioned in that post that I did not use the OD channel and, at that time, I didn't. Now, I use it exclusively instead of the OD on the pedal.

I now run my Zoom GFX-4 multi-FX pedal thorugh the tuube-buffered effects loop and use only the OD on the amp if I need OD.

To use the OD on the pedal, you need to run the pedal through the front paneland even then it won't sound as good as the amp.

Through the effects loop, the chrous/delay/reverb off the pedal complements the tube's OD well.

Even so, at the last band practice I forgot the pedal and had to use just the amp - slight reverb and OD and clean. We recorded our pplaying. You know what? The Sunn's naked amp tone sounded superb without any processing (as I forgot to turn on even the reverb on the amp). Absolutely superb for rock and blues.

I then cleaned up for Brown-eyed girl and once again got excellent tone.

To the guy below who states that he gets distortion even on the clean channel, either something is terribly wrong with your amp or you have it set to the 12.5W power mode and have it cranked.

My T50C plays very clean - squeaky clean, in fact. Granted you'll get some natural compression when cranked to 2 and above and some tube warmth, but distortion/OD, nah. There's not a raspy tone to be had on the clean channel. I like that. I throw in a little chorus/delay and I'm in hog heaven for jazz or clean rock.

I leave the pedal on that chorus/delay setting and hit the channel switch and I become - ta-da - distortion man! Excellent tone.

At low volumes, the amp does not sound great completely naked when on the clean channel. This is an amp that needs to be cranked. Then again, I don't use the low power switch much anymore as I did before and it sounded wonderful clean at low volumes with my jazz archtop.

As such, the T50C is not what I'd call a practice amp like Fender's Princeton Chorus or Blues Junior.

This review is for a new Sunn T50C. It has 2 channels and a foot swich which is enough features for me. However it does have effect loops, reverb and presence which doesnt seem to do much. (But I dont think that is unique to this amp, the preasence never does much at least in my experience) It has more features than I need. All I wanted was an all tube amp with a chunky clean and a dirty channel. I got exactly what I wanted. Dont waste your time if you are looking for metal amps. This amp is loud! I use it for gigs. I guess you could get away with using it in an apt. if you are good enough and it sounds pleasent to your nieghbors. If you are a beginner you nieghbors 10 houses down will hear you playing mary had a little lamb. That is the one complaint I have. It goes from off to LOUD even though it has a 12.5 watt swich that cuts the wattage. An all tube monster. 10 of them.

I have a 61 Gibson SG and a Mexican Fender 72 Tele RI. Both sound great. It makes the Tele sould like a better guitar. I play rock, some jazz ( great jazz amp! )and Radiohead/Mogwei/Portishead type stuff. Again, this isnt a metal amp. But the distortion is good enough to make it dirty. Nice and bluesy if you work the gain channel appropriately.

I dont see this breaking unless it was dropped from a plane, in the air, of course. No problems but I havent had it that long.

Just got the amp, and these are my first impressions... lots of features! Two channel amp with switching; dual effects loops - and this is the coolest thing - effects loops can be used to set secondary volume levels(as when taking a solo) which can be switched on and off with the footswitch. A very cool and useful feature! Do-it-yourself tube biasing circuitry; faulty-tube indicator light; full-power/half-power switch; individual tone controls for each channel, with global reverb and presence controls; standby switch on front panel; pop-out casters; these are some of the best and most useful features I've ever seen on an amp!

Clean channel: with my humbucker-equipped Les Paul-style guitar, the clean channel is very warm and musical-sounding - not harsh or piercing. This is with bass and treble set on 6 and middle on 4. Wouldn't mind a little more sparkle on the extreme top end(bright switch?), the presence control doesn't seem to do much, in my opinion. Not much clean headroom at all - hitting the strings hard produces distortion, even at low volume settings. Fortunately, it is a pleasing sound - just a little grit added to the tone, but I would prefer a clean channel that stays clean(unless I adjust it to do otherwise).
Overdrive channel: this is a good channel with a decent range of overdrive tones. Setting the gain from 1 to around 4 adds a nice, mildly distorted texture which doesn't obscure the individual notes in chords. The sound is a bit thin, however. Cranking the gain higher than 5 or 6 really fattens up the low end; it suddenly becomes very full and thick. But the distortion is more of a preamp tube induced variety, which tends to sound fuzzy at extreme settings. The amp does not venture into pummeling, nu-metal or thrash tones, but runs the gamut from blues to hard rock pretty well. Reverb is a very generic-sounding spring type.

Just bought the amp, so no input on reliability yet. The thing is built like a brick outhouse, and very meticulously laid-out, so I don't anticipate any problems. Besides, it's made by Fender, and although this is my first Sunn, I have owned many Fenders and never had any problems with any of them.

Not sure what the warranty is, but purchase any gear from a reputable dealer and you can pretty much be assured of good service in the event of a problem. Fender has a good warranty on their amps, I see no reason why these should be any different.

I've been playing over 25 years and have tried a lot of gear. This amp is beautiful and extremely well-made, but the sound doesn't knock my socks off. I'll probably use it for a while, and then move on to something else. If it got stolen, I would take the insurance money and buy a Matchless. But it does have some great features, and the tone doesn't suck, I just can't give it a 10, so I will rate it a 6.5 overall.

Brand New amp, 2001. Features include:

* 5-year Fender transferrable warranty
* 2x6L6 power tubes for 50WRMS
* 7x12AX7 preamp tubes and phase inverter (I assume)
* 1x12AT7 reverb tube
* vintage style, long reverb tank in naugehyde-like bag
* SS rectifier
* 3 button footswitch to toggle channels, reveb, and the effects loop
* footswitchable dual channels (clean and overdrive) with seperate EQ and volume controls for each
* 1/4 power switch (50 down to 12.5 WRMS)
* single 1/4" guitar input
* footswitchable mono effects loop with 2 send and 2 return volume controls - one per channel. Without effects plugged in, the effects loop send/return controls acts as an additional volume control per channel. If you ruun a cable form the SEND to another device without looping it back into the RETURN, the amp's speaker system is muted, but you get the full volume through the SEND.
* Stand-by switch on front-panel modeled after vintage Sunn amps
* on/off switch on back
* 4-8-16 ohm selectable switch for different speaker configurations
* 12", 16ohm G12 75watt Celestion Silver series speaker
* slave amp in and out jacks
* internal speaker 1/4" jack
* external speaker 1/4" jack
* plywood cabinet
* over-sized transformers
* removable heavy-duty casters
* 75lbs
* PCB construction
* Front panel has switch for channel selection
* Bass/Mid/Treble controls per channel
* Master reverb control
* very pro looking amp, nothing cheap about it's appearance - nice silver, heavy duty grill cloth
* semi-closed back (about 3/4 of the way)
* external bias testand set poijnts as well as power tube balancing means you can do all the adjusting needed when swapping out power tubes. Just make sure the tubes are matched.

This amp does not have: tremelo or headphone jack (though the effects SEND jack can act as one as it cuts off the speaker).

This amp has more than enough power to not only hold its own, but drown out another guitar (Fender Princeton 65), small (1200 watt and 2 nice-sized 15" monitors) vocal PA, unmic'd drums, and a bassist with a 15" cab and a GK head.

I own the matching 1-12 extension cabinet, but it would have been way too much with the band complement I mentioned above, so it gets left at home during band practice.

For features, I give it an "9", but for versatility (rock, blues, jazz) it gets a "11" with an average of "10" :)

This amp lists for $1,700 and sells today for about $1,200 though a few places had cut prices some on clearance. It's not a cheap amp, but then again it looks expensive and sounds wonderful.

I use the amp primarily with a recent Gibson ES-135 semi-hollow archtop equipped with two covered '57 Classic humbuckers. I have also run my piezo-powered flattop through it, but only in personal practice.

I front-end the clean channel on the amp with a Zoom GFX-4 multi-effects pedal for chorus, reverb, OD, and the like.

The native tube-driven reverb on the amp is OK, but nothing like the ultra-deep 'verb you find on a Fender DRRI or a SFPR. So, if you need surf reverb on the amp, this one is not the one for you. This amp's reverb is on par with Fender's newer $1,000 Vibrolux Reverb (which also does not have that deep reverb).

This amp leads Fender's foray into higher gain amps - ala Boogie, but retains that Fender shime on the clean channel.

Now that the Sunn has set (Fender has made the line dormant), Fender has used the same guts in this amp (except for tube-driven tremelo) in their new Pro Reverb amp. Same wattage and features, though the PR is a bit cheaper than the Sunn (Sunn has a Celection, PR has an Italian-made Jensen).

OK, let's talk about sounds...

First, there is a difference between playing iin personal practice when it's just you and low volume suffices and playing in a band situation when you've got to cut through everyone else without overpowering everyone else. This amp does nicely in both categories. We don't gig out, yet, but have very loud practices and this amp is mroe than sufficient!

Clean, the amp is excellent and sounds wonderful with my Epi jazz archtop for good, round warm jazz tone without additional effects. My band does not do jazz, so this is a personal thing.

The clean channel is also superb for rock and blues with my Zoom GFX-4 pedal, which is the setup I use with the band. It makes my overly mid-happy ES-135 sound like a wonderful blues/rock axe with round, clear tones, giving me a very distinctive tone when compared to the other guitarist who usually sports a Tele or Strat.

The clean channel stays clean up loud, but cranked will OD the 6L6's, but I never get that loud.

I don't use the OD channel with band practice as I just don't want another pedal on the ground to switch back and forth between the two channels. At home, the OD on the amp is excellent, going from just slightly overdriven blues to full-tilt Molly Hatchet.

This amp likes pedals. I've not yet tried the pedal through the effects loop, but plan to do so. I've just been happy the other way around and have not gotten around to trying it.

Is it noisy? Not by itself, it's not. Put a pedal on the front-end and if the pedal is noisy, say in the compressor or phaser, the amp will amplify that.

I was som impressed by the amp's performance during my past band practice and it's utter untapped power, she get a "9" easy.

Haven't had it long enough. It's a tube amp, so keep spare 12AX7/12AT7/6L6 tubes around. Got it brand new, but it had a problem with a pot on the back and now the 12AT7 reverb is microphonic. The pot was a fluke and the 12ATY7 tube is par for the course for a tube amp.

Excellent! I had to take the map in to a local Fender warranty shop the first week or two due to a fauly pot on the back. It's not something I'd ever use much, but I wanted my new amp to be perfect. They had it repaired under warranty and back in my hands by the end of the week.

It was hard to find a Fender authorized shop willing to help. One shop had too many amps backed up and didn't want to take anymore in due to insurance concerns. Another shop just lieks to service Fender gear that they sell due to having mass music retailers CG and MARS jsut up the street. These shops sell the amps cheap and then send them to this other shop for warranty repair, overwhelming the other shop.

The last of the 3 auth Fender shops in my area (Audio Light and Musical) were very nice and did not give me a hassle at all. They had the amp back in my hands before the end of the week. Guess who I'll think of first on my next big buy?

I've had other instances with Fender. They are very bit as helpful as Gibson.

I've been playing about 7-8 years. I've been thoruhg a boat load of amps, lookig for a gig worthy rig for our band. I've owned a Reverend Hellhound, Peavey Prowler, Peavey Delta Blues and many others. None of the comes close to equalling the the tonal palette, volume, features and looks that the T50C offers.

If this amp as lost, I'd buy it again with the insurance money.

One thing... this amp should come with a cover for the price they charge, but bsides that I wouldn't change anything.

I give it a "10" for value as a combination of features, price, sound, versatility, power, and looks. On price alone, it may not get a "10", but price is only part of the equation.

Better snag one of these amps before they are all gone. I've got a feeling that they'll be worth more in 5 years than they sell for now.

Already listed below. The back panel has more controls/jacks than the front of most two-channel amps. Celestion 75 watt speaker. Switchable from 50 watts to 12.5 watts on back. Standby switch on front (nice).
Tube function indicator on back. Switchable 4-8-16 ohms.

I use a heavily modified strat and a Les Paul. Sounds good with both.
I like the LP better with this amp for the blues and rock especially on the gain channel. Sustain is endless with gain cranked, rich harmonics. Start sounds a little glassy clean. LP sounds deep and bluesy. I can't tuen the volume past 3 cuz it will shatter my windows,
and that's on 12.5 watts!! Reverb is OK but not great.

It's a Fender in a Sunn skin.

I've had fender products for over 25 years and haven't had a problem yet.

Been playing since the days of Ed Sullivan (who?) yeah, the Who used these amps back then. Incredible power and clear sound. Gain sounds better than Marshall amp. Best of both worlds, clean Fender tube amp,
Scorching feedback (if you want it) of a high-gain tube amp. More bells and whistles than any amp I've seen yet in this class. A little pricey ($1200) and weighs a ton (80 pounds?) but built like a tank.

This is a real, heavy duty good ol' American tube amp with plenty of volume for most club gigs unmiked. Two channels, each with independent tone and volume controls - though the presence and reverb controls are shared. Tube driven effects loop with independent volume pots. With no effects plugged in, the effects loop can function like a Mesa lead boost (i.e., second "alternate" volume for each channel). Switchable 16/8/4 ohm gives you plenty of versatility for plugging in various speakers/extension cabs. This is a loud 50 watt amp that can be switched to 12.5 watts (which is still plenty loud for most situations, believe it or not) to give you great overdrive tone at more tolerable volume levels. There are master/slave inputs, to enable you to stack or chain these combos for added volume when need be. External bias adjustment points. No XLR or line out is the only drawback I can see featurewise.

I play a Rickenbacker 330 and a Fender American Tele pretty much straight in as a rhythm player in a classic pop/rock band. The stock tubes gave this amp a midrange heavy Fendery clean sound - great right out of the box for Beach Boys, etc.. The overdrive channel had loads of gain and distortion, but was somewhat flat sounding - both the deep and bright tones sounded thin. However, when I installed a couple of NOS preamp tubes (Mullard CV4004's) this amp truly came to life with gorgeous tone across the spectrum.

No problems with reliability - plus, the amp has a built in power tube trouble light that turns red when one of the 6L6 tubes goes bad.

Have not needed factory support, but it was built by Fender so I expect decent customer service should the need arise. Plus, Fender has more "factory authorized service centers" than anybody.

Overall, a great sounding and great looking heavy duty (and loud) all tube combo with plenty of features. You don't see one of these everyday, so it gives a great classy vibe in addition to volume and tone. A very nice alternative to Marshall (I traded a DSL401 and could not be happier).

This amp is very versatile and has every feature I could hope for. 2 Channels, reverb, effects loop (with separate send and return levels for each channel - this is great for boosting lost tone via pedals). The panel controls are: Clean - Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble ; Dirty - Gain, Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence ; Shared Reverb. Amp also has the ability to switch between 50 and 12.5 Watts. This thing is loud!

I switched out the 6L6 tubes for some KT66's and got the extension 1x12 for extra bass response and overall volume. The amp roars! The clean channel is very Fendery, I would put the tone of Channel 1 just below a vintage Super Reverb (which I've played side by side with this thing). A Super Reverb has just a little more of the sweet stuff than this amp. Don't get me wrong here though, the clean sound is fantastic. Channel 2 can be very subtle or very rude. I ride the gain around 3 with the volume at 6 or 7 and it produces a great overdriven tone without being too distorted. I use a Les Paul, old SG, and a strat with this amp and they all sound spectacular. I put a few tube screamers on the floor to add some flexibility and all sounds are amazing. My friend with the Super Reverb is a little jealous of the wide array of sounds I can achieve with the two channels and a few pedals. My signal is as follows: guitar -> Thomas Organ wah -> MXR Micro Amp (to match strat volume with Gibson volume) -> Tube Screamer 1 (vol 10, gain 0) -> Tube Screamer 2 (vol 10, gain 10) -> Amp, with a Boss DD5 delay in the effects loop. I love everything I can do with this setup. I think it's close to impossible to dial in a bad sound on this amp.

So far the amp has been very reliable, I have gigged with it without a backup most of the time. I know, not the smartest thing to do, but it has always performed for me and it's rock solid (and rock heavy!)

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing guitar for 12 years and have owned a Marshall JCM 900 Dual Reverb, Music Man HD-130 (130 Watt Super Reverb clone), Marshall JCM 600 4x10 head and cab and this amp. I sold both Marshalls and the Music Man once I got this amp. It does everything I need and does it well. I miss the JCM 900 a little because it had a magical overdrive, but this amp's clean channel absolutely destroys a Marshall and the drive channel is well voiced and I'm finding more tones every day. If this amp was stolen I'd cry and then replace it immediately. It is the perfect marriage of vintage tone and modern features.

Two ch. single 12, all tube, foot switchable effects loop, everything you could ask for!

Tone was too bright from the factory... this thing would tear your head off! I changed the 6l6s out for 5881 greens. Now it has a very fender like warm clean, and a jcm800 type crunch. Very good! It has a little noise on the high gain side, however nothing any differant any other high gain tube amp.

No problems

I think this is a great amp! However, it is 75lbs heavy... I also bought the 112 ext. cab. that adds to the bass responce. You must change the output tubes to get a warm tone.

Just plug in and go. Two channels. Clean is very "Fendery" and the drive channel has a very useful range from bluesy to molten metal. Finding a useful setting is quick and easy. The separate effects send levels on the back are at first a bit confusing, but become very handy with various effects and also for boost/cut per channel. There is a power cut switch on the back that allows 50 watt or 25 watt operation, and gives a nice "Deluxe" effect when slamming some blues through the clean channel.

For avearge club dates and recording, this amp rules. Any bigger venue will require sound reinforcement and it does mic very well. The back is almost closed and gives a deep tone. The drive channel exhibits excellent cleanup with guitar volume back-off. One could even play a whole set that way. It appears there are several gain stages through 12AX7's. Apparently Mr. Fliegler of Fender, the co-designer, has employed classic Fender circuit layouts, and stacked many lower gain stages to achieve a gorgeous, focused drive tone. At lower gain levels, it sounds like Stevie Ray's 'In Step' recordings and there are no sharp jagged edges to the breakup-just sweet compressed and musical tone. I play blues, rock and fusion, and find that most of these genres are accessable with one setting on the amp and varying my guitar volume, tone and pickup choices.

The clean channel works well, and the deep tone is very satisfying. Keep in mind that this is a 50 watt, two 6L6 driven amp. The speaker is a Celestion T-75. Outdoor gigs begin to show the limitations of this amp, but it still is a killer source of tone. There are lots of options for sends so stacking is possible.

Brand new in 2000. So far so good. I am a warranty repair center for Fender and Sunn and I havn't seen one come through yet. I have been running it for about 6 hours a week for better than a year (this is a prototype) and no problems. Having a backup set of tubes is always a good idea. A peek inside shows high quality components and well thought out design.

Hey, it's Fender folks. What-me worry?

Hard to imagine a world without it at this point. It has the most musical tone of the tons of gear I have gone through in 35 years of proffessional playing. It does weigh in excess of 50 pounds, so I have to be careful of my back.

new, hot off the press in early 2000. I play mostly rock, hard rock style and this suits those fine the thing is so loaded with features that they couldn't fit them all on the front of the amp. there is a huge array of knobs buttons switched light and dials on the back. the amp has switchable power from 12w to 50w. independent effect loops for each channel (it has 2) with return and send levels that can be used as volume control with the footswitch. pre-amp out, a power amp in, a power tube failure indicator, external bias adjustment point , multi ohm output switch (4,8,16), extension cab out and main speaker out. spring reverb also controlled with the footswitch. it has a 12" celestion G12T75 75w speaker and is rated a 50w on high power mode. the cabinet is semi sealed and tuned, it's alitttle bassier than other openback combos I've played. The only thing that's missing is a second 12" speaker. the amps seems to have way too much power for one little 12". that said I play in a band with another guitarist who has a jcm800 run through a 4x12 and I have no problem matching volume with him. I ran this through his cab once and OH MY! this amp would power a 2x12 or 4x12 with no problem, in fact the instruction manual has a bunch of example setups for the ohm switch that include a 4x12 extension cab.

I used a mid 70's tele and a kawaii(a from the 60's with 4 pickups, kind of sounds like a sg but 3 times as fat) the amp has a good hard rock sound. I looked at some fenders and ampegs when I was shopping for this amp and it kicks the crap out of any fender amp around (clean or overdriven), is capable of a much more hard rock than an ampeg but is not as 'metal' or (i think) generic sounding as a marshall. my only complaint is I'm having trouble dialing in different sounds I want at high volumes. this may be due to the amps advertised ablility to channel the sound of your guitar as opposed to other amps that really bend the tone of the instrument and give a bit more versitility(all settings with the tele sounds a little bit too tele). also at high volumes I feel like i'm going to blow up the speaker so adding a extension cab may help. My old dean markley combo acted similarly at high volumes, but wiht a 2x12 the beast was tamed. I've only had this amp about a month and so I have to say I have not fully explored all settings.

sunn has a good rep for reliability, but time will tell on this one

can't remeber any info in the manual about warranty, doubt I'll ever need it

I have been a solid state guy up until this amp owning a couple of dean markly combos. this is my first tube amp and I'm pretty happy with it. If it was lost or stolen I'd probably get it's big brother the sunn model t 100 w and sunn4x12 cab. This is mainly because this thing sounds great but desperatly needs more speakers. costwise, after buying a 2x12 or 4x12 to go with this you might as well get the head and 4x12 it migh cost you a little LESS. that brings me to my other main beef with this amp is it is a bit overpriced. $1700.00 list for a 1x12 combo, COME ON! This is a top of the line all tube amp but that's just too much. sam ash and musicians friend have it for $1200.00 which is still too steep considering the almost necessity of adding an extension cab(I special ordered mine at http://www.8thstreet.com/ ,who I reccomend). I guess you just have to think of it at buying a 50w head crammed into a 1x12 combo. And frankly anohter 1x12 in this cabinet would make it weigh a TON. I think it already weighs about 75 lbs. The amp sounds great though. I've been looking for something like this for a while. more hard rock than most of the vintage reissues out there (fenders and such) but doesn't make you sound like vai/malsteem or every other metal band when you turn up the distortion. A great alternative to a Marshall for the hard rock set