Do You Use Sunn Bass Amps?

Do You Use Sunn Bass Amps ?

If You Do Here is some interesting information I scraped from the internet I find it a bit more interesting Because these factories are in my neighborhood,  But still a very cool and interesting read if your a fan of the Sunn product line, Or even if you are familiar with the song Louie Louie or the band The Kingsman they were also from the Portland ,Oregon Area.  So Yeah Enjoy…

In early 1963, the Kingsmen, a band based in Portland, Oregon, became known for their hit version of the song “Louie, Louie”.

After its hit single, the band soon embarked on a 50-state national tour.

Because the band was used to playing small hops and school dances, many of the members found themselves ill-equipped with the amplifiers that they were currently using. Put it bluntly they were not ready for the Big Time ,or at least their gear was not ready.


Bassist Norm Sundholm discovered that his bass amp was not nearly powerful enough to play larger concert halls. Like they were now facing.

Sundholm enlisted the help of his brother Conrad to help solve his problem. ( This is the origin of the now famous name Sunn Amplifiers comes from the last name of these Brothers ).

By 1964, the Sundholm brothers had designed a high-powered concert bass amplifier.

The early Sunn amplifiers relied heavily on tube amplifiers designed by David Hafler and preamps sold by the Dynaco Hi-fi company,

With many of the first units actually containing power amplifier chassis sold by Dynaco (models MKII, MKIII, MKIV) as well as modified Dyna PAS1 preamplifiers.

By 1965, the demand for Sundholm’s amplifiers had increased to the point where the family garage could no longer be used as the manufacturing facility.The demand had gotten too big for the space in their garage to be able to keep up with production needs..


At this point the Sunn amplifiers still relied on the Dyna power amp circuitry, reworked to fit Sunn’s own chassis but still employing Dyna produced and branded transformers and the same electronic design.

Thus, the Sunn Musical Equipment Company was founded.

Although the original Sunn Amplifier line they employed used Dynaco designed and built transformers (up to the 120 watt MK VI transformer set)

And Hafler based power amp designs until Sunn stopped producing the original line of tube amplifiers in favor of the solid-state Concert and Coliseum models.

Later Sunn produced the electronically unrelated Model T tube amps.

Then Fender acquired Sunn in 1985, relocating operations from Tualatin, Oregon to Lake Oswego, Oregon .

A move that was all of about 5 miles.

The stated intent  for Fender was to both revitalize the Sunn Amplifier lines and to produce some Fender-branded models as well,

Which included the Standard Series (Princeton Chorus and Ultra/Ultimate Chorus, both solid-state) and M-80 Series, and are identified as USA-made amplifiers with an “LO”-prefix serial number. for Lake Oswego,

 Unfortunately Fender shut down the Sunn operation in 2002. And the rest is history.SUNN MODEL T BASS AMP