raygehringer Messages: 2 Registered: December 2023
Junior Member
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from a new member, Ray.
My son got a real flea market find for Christmas and hopefully there is some info available. It is an old Kasino amp. The only marking on it is a badge that simply reads 200 on the front grill cloth. There is a built in solid state power amp that is inserted through the back amp panel and screwed in. On the back is a metal plate that only gives electronics info.
Output = 100watts Primary = 120V FREQ=60Hz. INPUT=1.8Amps
I don't have a power chord for it nor would I have plugged it in if I did.
When I took the full back panel off and disconnected the speaker leads from the amp to the speaker jumper strip there was a white Kustom Amp stamp in the junction between all four speakers.
The speakers don't have a brand name on them but have the following info stamped on them:
5 8122 18
8 OHM
137 7138
038-0011-00
I guess the 1st question I have is does anyone know what exactly do I have? I could not find a single piece of info on this particular piece anywhere.
2nd question is can the cabinet as is it is without the solid state power amp powered up be used passively?
Any historic or functional info on this amp/cab would be GREATLY appreciated.
stevem Messages: 4742 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Hello and welcome to our obsession.
What you have there is a good bit rare.
The Kasino's where Kustoms cheaper line of products, cheaper in that they had no Tuck & roll, but the electronics and speakers where all the same as the T & R products.
What you have is a booster cabinet.
It's designed to take a preamp signal off of one of the Kasino combo amp models .
If you go to this sites Literature section and look at the 250/ 500 series amps you will see your cabinet, but without the T & C.
If you have any other guitar amp that has a 1/4" line out jack on it you can drive the cabinet with that, but you may not get the intended volume level out of it since that booster cabinet needs up to 3 volts to yield its full wattage and most non Kustom line outs only have about 1 volt.
The 137 code stamped on the speakers means they are CTS brand.
If you wanted to, yes you could use just the speakers in the cabinet.
They are wired up for a 8 ohm impedance load if I am not mistaken.
This you could prove out with a ohm meter as you would read less then 8 ohms.
You could use just two of the speakers and wire them for a 4 ohm or 16 ohm load impedance.
PS.
It sounds like you have the booster cabinet for the model 424 Kasino amp which can be viewed in the Literature section .
raygehringer Messages: 2 Registered: December 2023
Junior Member
Steve M,
Thank you very much for the info on my cabinet. It seems to be one of those oddly & weirdly cool pieces of gear that had come and gone from the music scene over the years.
My son has two old Kustom tuck and roll amp heads, one bass and the other guitar, both black, and a black cab with I believe 2x15 speakers... tempting as it is to try out the Kasino cab with the power amp engaged using one of the Kustoms I would have to have it checked out by an amp tech first. One thing I noticed is that on the transformer is a little bit of what looks like hardened goo and I don't know wether that is adhesive of some sort or if the transformer got smoked at some point. I'm not an electronics guy.
Odd that my son found this for me because he didn't know what it was other than a speaker cabinet and he likes and has two Kustom amp heads and as a kid I had a Kasino Little Joe for a little while... the amp would sort of lose volume intermittently and I wound up selling it back to the person I bought it from. I was surprised to actually see a few Little Joe amps for sale currently during the course of trying to find some info on my new/old cab.
Lastly I never ever knew Kasino was a Kustom brand until now and that they are basically a Kustom Amps without the tuck & roll.
Thanks again, Steve. I will also check out the literature section as you suggested.
stevem Messages: 4742 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
These amps have a thermal circuit breaker that shuts the amp down at 182 degrees, so I doubt that there's anything wrong that PT.
It's just the remains of the potting that they use to stop 60 hz vibrations .
If the fuse is good I would plug it in .
If your son has a K200 B head then the output of the RCA jack on the rear of the amp can be fed right into that amp in the 4-12 cabinet.