Early in 1963, a band from Oregon called The Kingsmen hit the charts with a catchy tune called Louie Louie. The Kingsmen became household names; their song became the party anthem of the decade.
With a hit single under their belt, The Kingsmen found themselves on the road for a 50-state tour. Bassist Norm Sundholm soon discovered that his bass amp, which was fine for hops and school dances, couldn't cut it in the large concert halls his band had ascended to. Norm enlisted the help of his brother, Conrad, and by 1964 the brothers Sundholm had designed the world's first high-powered concert bass amplifier. The other bands on the bill took notice, and began buying their own bass rigs from Norm.
1965 saw the demand for the Sundholms' amps increase to the point that the family garage would no longer serve as a suitable manufacturing facility. This was the birth of the SUNN Company.
As the years passed, countless pioneers of rock would rely on SUNN amplification to carry the weight. Endorsers included The Who, Moody Blues, Cream, Steppenwolf, Kiss, Rush, Queen, and a little music festival in Upstate New York.
In 1987, Fender acquired Sunn, a storied line of amplifiers whose past endorsees have included The Who, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones. This jump-started Fender's re-entry into the amplifier business by making accessible Sunn's manufacturing facilities in Lake Oswego, Oregon. But this was still an early stage of the "new" Fender, so Schultz put the Sunn line of amps on the shelf until the Fender name had been re-established as the world's leading amplifier.
1998 would prove to be a banner year for Fender and its subsidiaries. With Fender amplifiers once again enjoying a very strong presence in the market place, it was now time to dust off the Sunn line of amps. R&D had spent the previous three years studying the original Sunn products and developing prototype models that faithfully replicated the trademark Sunn sound. The timing was right, and Fender introduced the new Sunn line of amplifiers to an immediate industry acclaim.
http://www.fender.com.au/sunnamps/history.shtml
