SUNN Amplifiers. The amplifier that
spawned the explosion of power line-ups throughout the
‘60’s and ‘70’s. The amplifier used by Jimi
Hendrix and Noel Redding, by Pete Townsend and John
Entwistle, by Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, by Geddy
Lee, by Brian May, by...starting to get the picture?
With truly power mad guitarists such as these, the
name SUNN had quickly established its musical foothold,
becoming synonymous with the blood curdling, bone
crunching, rock-and-roll that would infect an entire
generation. And all of this can be attributed to the one
band who’s music will forever be remembered in rock
history: The Kingsmen.
The Kingsmen? That’s right! The band who brought
you the party anthem “Louie Louie”, and quickly
faded into anonymity, also brought the amplifier that
paved the way for so many that would follow.
“SUNN’s legacy reads like the history of rock,”
explains Richard McDonald, Marketing Manager of SUNN
Amps. “To paint a little picture, just take a look at
the inside cover of your Woodstock album, and you’ll
get an idea of the magnitude that SUNN amplifiers had in
revolutionizing early rock music.”
Jump back a couple of years. The concert scene of the
late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s was dominated by
groups touring together. It was very common to have four
or five bands, sometimes more, sharing a bus and playing
on the same bill. And remember, “arena rock” was not
yet a term. Most venues at the time were either theaters
or small clubs, and portable amplifiers seemed to do the
trick. For a while at least.
Obviously, rock music enjoyed a growing popularity.
With that, venues were getting bigger to accommodate the
larger numbers of people that were going to concerts.
Still though, bands would plug in the same amplifiers
that they were using at the smaller venues. Why? Because
that’s all there was at the time.
Enter the Kingsmen. Norm Sundholm, bass player for
the band, frequently complained that his bass amp was
getting lost in the noise from other the other
members’ amps and from the audience. So he called up
his brother Conrad, an electronics enthusiast, and asked
if he could rig something up that might help him out.
“Things weren’t real scientific back then, not
like today with computers,” explains Conrad. “So I
built this cabinet I had, which became the
2-30/C60...that first one was a real beast.” That
“beast” that Conrad had come up with was a bass amp
that would set the music world on its ears.
Other musicians soon heard the Sundholm brother’s
amplifiers, and were absolutely in awe with their power.
Norm and Conrad started to receive orders from
guitarists and bass players who had to have one just
like it. So Conrad set up shop in his dad’s garage,
started building what would become SUNN amplifiers, and
turned a small project for his brother into
rock-and-roll legend. The SUNN had risen!
Unfortunately for Sunn Amps, it was
soon to set. Although the Brothers Sundholm had
enjoyed a great deal of success, receiving endorsements
from the Rolling Stones, The Who and Jimi Hendrix, they
had quite different views on running the business.
At the end of the '60's, Norm sold his interest in Sunn
to Conrad and went on to pursue a career in real
estate."....
Then in 1971, Conrad sold the rest of SUNN to the
Hartzell Corporation, a Minnesota based conglomerate.
Hartzell continued to make SUNN amps throughout the
‘70’s and into the early ‘80’s, until a tragic
plane crash took the life of its President, Tom
Hartzell. His surviving family did little with SUNN
amplifiers, and decided to sell it a few years later.
Enter the next player in the saga, Fender Musical
Instruments. Having recently purchased Fender from
corporate giant CBS, Bill Schultz (Fender Chairman &
CEO) had seen the opportunity to re-build SUNN into the
powerful company it had once been. However, Fender still
had to tackle the job of re-building itself in the wake
of CBS, and put SUNN on the shelf until the timing was
more suitable.
Now jump forward a few years. With Fender back and
better than ever, the timing seemed right to bring in
their world-class Research & Development team of
engineers to resurrect SUNN from the ashes. And
resurrect it they did!
The SUNN Model T was redesigned as an all-tube, tonal
assault machine. For unrelenting tone and muscle, match
it with the SUNN Model T 412 enclosure and get ready to
rock. For bassists, the new SUNN 1200S delivers the
power and presence to handle any situation. With a
supporting line-up of bass and guitar heads and
enclosures, SUNN amps are blazing an all new trail into
rock-and-roll history.
SUNN
has risen again.
