Sunn Sorado Restoration

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Postby oddioguy » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:36 pm

Alrighty then....One year later than I planned to start on this....I am finally going to rebuild the Sunn Sorado that was donated to me by luthier Paul Stephen.
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Postby oddioguy » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:38 pm

Sure, looks okay from the front, but a quick peek behind the scenes reveals some major issues.

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Last edited by oddioguy on Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby oddioguy » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:39 pm

Besides the obviously missing tubes, we have a power transformer that is held in place by pipe strapping..

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Postby oddioguy » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:40 pm

I can't even imagine what was spilled here...

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Postby oddioguy » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:43 pm

I'm going to have to build a bracket to hold the transformer, and fill the gaps left from the original tranformer.

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Postby oddioguy » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:47 pm

Here is an overview of the external work that needs to be done....
- Chassis cleaning
- Replace tube sockets
- Replace tubes
- Fabricate xformer bracket
- Re-mount power xformer
- Replace filter cap
- New knobs
- New jacks
- Convert to a 3 wire electrical plug

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Next posts......

A look INSIDE!!
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Postby oddioguy » Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:02 am

Well,
Not as bad as I thought it might be.
First, here is a shot of an original Sorado, for reference....

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...and here is mine from the same general angle....

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These shots expose the fact that mine has been reworked fairly extensively after a power supply failure.
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Postby oddioguy » Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:37 pm

That big orange cap is the biggest glaring difference between the original amp and mine.
A quick inspection of the wiring indicates that one section of the original quad section filter cap went bad, but instead of replacing the whole thing, somebody disconnected one section and subbed that big orange monstrosity.
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Postby oddioguy » Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:48 pm

Sunn chose a rather obscure tube, the 6AN8, for the front end of this amp. A combination triode / pentode, it does double duty as a preamp as well as a phase splitter.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_6an8.html
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Postby oddioguy » Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:08 pm

Okay kiddies....
I finally have a bit of time on the horizon (Friday night most likely) to resume the Sunn restoration.
New filter cap is here along with the clamp, and a replacement Cinch terminal strip.
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Postby oddioguy » Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:20 am

As you can see, Friday night didn't happen...I ended up working on a school install until 10:30.
Try again tonight....
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Postby oddioguy » Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:54 am

Well crap...most of the winter has flown by....we're into March and I've been busy with commercial sound in the evenings.

I'm going to take another swing at the Sunn head and see if I can get it posted here like I promised.... :oops:
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