Founded by
Conrad Sundholm in 1965. Conrad's brother,
Norm Sundholm, was the bass player for northwestern garage rockers
The Kingsmen, notorious for their rendition of
Richard Berry's "
Louie Louie". Norm was dissatisfied with the amount of
volume produced by his
bass cabinet when the Kingsmen went on tour. He enlisted his brother to help rectify the problem. After building his first amplifier in 1964, an increase in demand from guitarists and bass players led to Conrad founding the Sunn amplifier company. In 1969, Sunn amplifiers powered the sound system at the
Woodstock Music and Arts Fair.
Sunn amplifiers have enjoyed favor with demanding musicians over the years, used by such bands as
The Who and
Rush. Most recently they have enjoyed acclaim from those in the
doom metal and
sludge worlds, with artists from powerhouse doom label
Southern Lord such as
Goatsnake,
Burning Witch, and
Khanate championing them.
Joe Preston of
The Thrones also uses a Sunn amp. Another Southern Lord band featuring members of some of the afore-mentioned groups has even paid the company tribute in it's name, calling themselves
Sunn 0))).