Jimi Hendrix’s Sunn 100s

Sometime in early 1968, Jimi Hendrix signed an endorsement deal with Sunn amps. Allegedly, this idea was proposed by Buck Munger (Sunn Amplification PR) sometime after the Monterey Pop Festival.

I went backstage (Monterey Pop Festival), and by the end of the night, I knew what record label he was on. Someone invited me, I think it was Chas Chandler, to a gig in Los Angeles to come and see Jimi and talk about equipment. So I showed up at this gig, it was in Santa Barbara, and had a very quick conversation with Jimi wherein I said “I work for this small company in Oregon, and we make high quality stuff; we use JB Lansing speakers and Dynakit transformers: I had all my little buzz phrases, and I was a musician. He just said, “Hey man, set me up for this gig. It’s down here, this is the date, have all the stuff there and we’ll see what happens.”

Buck Munger, Straight Ahead Magazine 1996

Looking at the tour dates, Jimi played a gig at Robertson Gym in Santa Barbara on February 11, 1968. Interestingly, he was already using Sunn amps at this show, with Buck Munger seen in the background monitoring the performance. It seems likely that Buck and Jimi struck a deal sometime before the gig, marking this as the first time Jimi used a Sunn amp live.

Most sources suggest the deal was made after the Anaheim gig on February 2, 1968, during which both of Jimi’s Fender Dual Showman amps reportedly broke, allowing the band to play only four songs.

The amplifiers broke down during the first show, resulting in only four numbers being played during the second show. After the show, Chas and Jimi were approached by Buck Munger representative for Sunn Amplification who replaced their Fender gear (provided at the start of the tour, but not powerful enough for Jimi’s tastes) with brand new Sunn equipment.

1968-02-09 Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California USA

Models

Photo evidence shows that Jimi used what appears to be either a Sunn 100S or Spectrum II model (they look identical) for a very brief period. Just seven days after he started using Sunn amps, at Music Hall in Houston, Texas, he made a public statement criticizing the move. Jimi seemed increasingly frustrated with amps that couldn’t meet his needs.

… a nightmare jumps out to me, here in Houston. I was not at the gig, I was back in Los Angeles. But somebody called me, and said that Jimi got up on stage and did a long monologue about how shitty these amplifiers were performing for him here. By Houston, he was having a little trouble. After Houston, things started running downhill.

An interview from Houston Chronicle (19 February), further confirmation needed

Despite this, Jimi continued using Sunn amps for a short while. He was seen with a massive stack of Sunn heads and cabinets at The Scene in Milwaukee on February 28. By mid-March 1968, however, he had replaced the Sunn heads with a Marshall/Sound City head combo.

Sunn Cabinets

Initially, Jimi used four Sunn 100-F cabinets, with two more sitting horizontally on top. These cabinets were originally shipped with one JBL D-130 in the bottom and an L-E 100-S in the top. Later, at Jimi’s request, all the cabinets were fitted with 12″ Eminence speakers. These modified cabinets remained in use until the end of the 1968 U.S. tour, even though Jimi had stopped using Sunn heads by then and returned to Marshall.

We then went to four 12″ Eminence speakers at Jimi’s request, and we also took his advice that the minimum acceptable power at that time was 100 watts. [continued] Jimi was used to the big numbers, and when he turned his Sunn amps up, he got a lot of noise he didn’t like.

Various Comments About Jimi’s Gear, Crosstown Traffic

There is some speculation that Jimi continued using Coliseum P.A. tops altered to 120W for guitars, but no photos have surfaced to confirm this.