Emergency Bass Rig

[that_sustain]

I'm starting to check out keyboard amps for my bass.  The one's I'm seeing are all in pretty good shape, probably came from a school or church.  There's a Peavey KB300 400w online in near mint shape for only $350!!

[edwin]

OK, well a Sunn 200S dropped into my lap from Craigslist. The price was right (~$300) but it only has one JBL. However, it sounds amazing with the Showman. Big and clean. Last night we had to scramble to get on stage with very little time to get organized. I had told the soundguy that I wanted to mic up the cabinet with the RE20 I had brought with me. He was skeptical, but in the confusion to get going, my DI never got a mic cable. 3 minutes into the set, he came up to the stage and flashed me a sign saying Where's your DI signal? At the end of the set, I told him that it never got plugged in, but he didn't care. He told me he wouldn't even use it even if there was one, because the mic sounded so good.
 
So, the next step is to get another JBL happening, fix up some of the infrastructure issues (it's missing the original screws for the back, the washers and the bolts holding the speakers in and maybe get a Courtenay Pollock for the front. It's so weird to go back to basically the rig I had in the 70s in high school and realize it's what I wanted all along! I think maybe if I had known about flatwound strings, I would still be playing my original set up.

[that_sustain]

Do they still make parts for the Sunn?  Most Peavey's never get maintenanced.  I've got a few days to think and look for the right thing.

[sonicus]

The Sunn 200S is a fairly simple tube  circuit with two 6550 output power tubes .  I had one many years ago as  well as  the larger more powerful 2000S powered by four  6550's  .  Those tubes are easily available along with the preamp and rectifier tubes.  Where things starts to get expensive is if you have to replace transformers both power and output .  The rest  of the parts such as caps and resistors should be accessible as well .    
 
  Back in the day  ,   I also had a Dual Showman back then (4 6L6 power tubes) .  It is interesting that    I liked the combination of the Fender and Sunn amps as well.  The combination seemed to work well for me at the time . I had them pushing 2 JBL k140's  in Alembic A15 cabs  and a JBL  K155 in  a dual throat folded horn design cab.  
I made the liquor bottles all the way in the back of the venue rattle from the folded horn and the dancers up front would grove  and feel the bass by the stage from  the A15's. Under some circumstances the combination might be considered taboo sonically ,_____but it seem to  work in this situation.  
 
     lately there are inexpensive GK 800RB's popping up and I find these  to be a good catch on the cheap .
 
(Message edited by sonicus on June 16, 2013)

[keith_h]

Wolf,
Sounds similar to my speaker setup back when I had a stronger back and a lot less wisdom. Two Acoustic 301's with two single JBL K140 loaded cabinets on top. Still have the K140 cabinets. I've always preferred solid state for bass so I drove mine with an Acoustic 370 on the 301's and a Yamaha B100 on the JBL's.  
 
Keith