| kustum 250 [message #12504] |
Tue, 15 December 2009 19:06  |
ickyvonnothing@live.com
Messages: 1
Registered: December 2009
Location: lake elsinore ca.
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Junior Member |
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i have a kustom 250 amp (no cabinet) my uncle gave me. i have had it for over 10 years and just played it here and ther., never realy thought anything special about it. until it was lost and then found. now i married her.. ok so i have a few questions.
so she is obviously older, but
is there a way i can find her age?
all the nobs and ports are crackly when turned or plugged in can i clean these or do they need to be replaced?
if replaced do they have to be replaced with kustom parts?
there was 2 rca jack that broke off the front (i didnt figure out what they were for until after they broke)
do you get a cleaner sound from the rca jacks or is it just to amplify in stereo?
and lastly,
what is good maintanance for my girl.. she needs alot of tlc, and i would like to fix her myself.
thank you
and i would appreciate any feedback
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| Re: kustum 250 [message #12506 is a reply to message #12504] |
Wed, 16 December 2009 06:37  |
stevem
Messages: 4746
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY
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Senior Member |
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Hello and welcome to the board and the rest of use Kustom sicko`s!!
The K150 and K250 models first came to be in 1971, and ran thru late 73 with some still being sold in 74.
If the production tag is still on the back of the chassie I can email you a list of production dates to get close to the amps date of birth within about two weeks.
If the tag is gone the amp can be dated by dates on the control pots, power transfomer and the two large filter caps bolted down to the bottom of the chassie.
These amps where never producded with RCA jacks anywhere on them, no less the front!
If can post a picture of the inside of the amp I may be able to see if they wired them into the preamps of right into the driver/output stage.
Noisy pot and jacks can be cleaned, but due to the way Kustom mounts the pots on the circuit boards in these models the slot you have to spray the cleaner into is facing the board which makes it a tough job.
You might just want to take the amp to a tech for this work as both preamp boards must be take off the front panel to do the job right.
If you get control cleaner with a flex tube , not a hard stright tube it will be far easyer to clean the pots.
Just note that getting these boards off of the front of the amp can be a big big pain in the ass!!
Many of these amps have the nuts behind the knobs corrodid to the pot shaft and the only way I have been able to get the boards off at times is to cut thru the nuts with a small cut off disc in a dremel tool.
If you try to apply too much force to the nut you will rip the inside face of the pot right off and then have no choise but to replace the whole control.
I find that applying a spritz of PB blaster rust breaker from a auto supply store and the useng a deep socket on a 1/4" drive gives me more fine control than just a pair of plyers.
I also have found that tightening the nuts up a hair first can help break the bond.
Once you do get them apart apply some light oil on the threads to help in removal the next time.
Just note that even if you break the face of the pot and have to replace it which is not too major of a repair, you will still have to get that nut off of the face of pot that is dangling off of the face of the amp.
AS far as maintainence goes, check those two big filter caps by looking at their tops if the have the dimpled area swolen up like a pimple then they need to be replaced.
also be carefull with those two blue power switches if they are still intact as the plastic mounting section gets quite brittle with age, and pushing them in too hard can break them, and there is no 100% correct replacement for them.
It would be a good idea safty wise to install a three prong cord to stop the shock issue that these early amps had.
When you work on the inside of these amps make sure you have the amp unplugged, once unplugged these amps only have 40 volts sitting on those big filters for a few seconds and then it gets drained away, which after that you will have no shock issue.
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