My First Sunn

[voiceguy]

I'm 43 years old and have known about Sunn my entire life, being a music nerd and all.

Today I bought my first Sunn amp. It's a Concert Lead and I got it off Craig's List for $200. Cosmetically, looks a little rough. I plugged it in and all the pots were dirty, some even cutting out a bit. But the volume.....oh wow!

One question...I think this is a 1972 model, just based on an ad I saw online for The Who that had my exact amp in it. My question is about the "distort" knob. Mine either isn't working at all, or maybe that's normal? I honestly couldn't hear or feel any gain.

I plan on taking it in to a tech I know who did great work on some Taurus pedals I had. Any suggestions about the Distort problem? If it's out, are parts out there?

Thanks in advance.

[siamesetwins]

You'll need a footswitch with an RCA plug to turn the distortion on. If you're not picky one of those new Fender reissue ones will work, otherwise you can track down an old Sunn footswitch, low end you might be able to snag one for $60-70 on cl/ebay.

[voiceguy]

OOHH, that makes sense. I noticed the jack on back for the distortion switch. So it isn't on, unless a footswitch is plugged in?

So a universal on/off footswitch won't work for that?

[siamesetwins]

It's not on without a footswitch, correct.

Come to think of it, a universal switch should work, so long as it's got an RCA connector.

[voiceguy]

Great!

Thanks so much for your help! I'm taking it in tomorrow for a thorough cleaning and general fix up.

[george]

Buy an RCA connector and create a "short" by soldering the connector's terminals together. Plug this in the back and use the Distortion control pot to turn the level up or down.