Guitar Archeology

Eric and Buck

I had one last shot to get an exclusive deal with Cream. The gear demo was set up for an off day in Los Angeles. Sunn would set up a full backline for Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce at the Aquarius Theater on Sunset, across the parking lot from the Sunn offices. At Eric and Jack’s request all the speaker cabinets were loade…d with 12” Altec Lansing speakers rather than Sunn’s standard JB Lansing units. This was a huge engineering departure for Sunn since every Sunn unit built so far, had JB Lansing speakers. The word “Exclusive” was used in marketing. But Eric “thought” it was the Altecs he wanted, so it was Altecs he got. The Aquarius Theater had a giant stage and was the perfect venue for the Cream demo. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any real security and the curious passers by began to peek in to hear who was playing the lick from “Sunshine Of Your Love” over and over. Shortly, there was a good-sized crowd. Sunn had gone all out for this pitch and Bob Selby, Sunn’s marketing vice president flew in from Oregon to make sure Clapton knew we were serious. I saw several other LA area Sunn dealers, and two individuals that gave me a cold chill, the JBL engineers that had installed the stereo system in my office. How they found out about this demonstration I didn’t know, but I did know if they realized the speakers in those cabinets weren’t JBLs, Sunn would have a problem. Eric finished doodling after about ten minutes. There were no outbursts of joy or A-ha moments. It was obvious he wasn’t impressed. He huddled with Bob Adcock a moment and walked into the lobby. Adcock came over to me and shrugged “It’s a pass”. Jack Bruce came in and plugged his bass in. He opened the amp up wide and began a series of rapid runs. He played for a while at full volume then turned down low and put his ear close to the speaker, shaking his head “I’m afraid not,” he said. “It’s the speakers”. Bob Selby and the Sunn people were visibly frustrated. They were passing on us because of the custom speakers they had us put in. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the two JBL engineers had screwdrivers and were removing the backs of the speaker cabinets. There will be blood. Bob Adcock came over to me and said, “Say mate, would you know where we might be able to buy some Marshall gear?” I walked Adcock, Clapton and Bruce across the street to Wallach’s Music City, and watched them drop 15 thousand dollars on Marshall stacks.

Jack Bruce checking out a Sunn Amplifier