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another Kustom sighting [message #7204]

Tue, 18 July 2006 07:25

stevem
Messages: 4744
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

I do not know how I missed it but I did.In the july issue of guitar player magazine they have a article on tom petty(who`s music I generaly cant stand!)and they have a shot of his rehersal studio/warehouse, and amoung all the wonderfull vintage amps that you can see in the shot is probibly the only vintage soild state amp he owns.Up in the upper left hand corner on page 78, behind a row of fender guitars is a black Kustom 100 2-12 piggie back set up with out effects.I would take a guess that it is a 69 or latter model as from the shot I think it has the plastic port tubes in the speaker cabinet. It looks to be in mint shape, all though its pretty dark in that section of the shot. I guess thats why I missed it in the first place.

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7213 is a reply to message #7204]

Wed, 19 July 2006 03:58

QModer
Messages: 413
Registered: June 2003

Senior Member

Thats pretty cool Steve. I think that you are probably right on the value being a little off though. Some people around here think I'm a little weird for even having them. Then they see my Fender's, Vox's, and my various other gear and start wondering about them LOL..

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7218 is a reply to message #7204]

Wed, 19 July 2006 13:20

edforgothispassword
Messages: 202
Registered: July 2004

Senior Member

Actually Tom, who is a huge vintage amp buff...has, or has had more kustoms..and by a twist of odd fate.. I know that at one time he owned a 4x12 ported kustom cab...as I have the cover that went with it...it was a deal he had done with another kustom bud...he bought the cab..and it was later that the cover turned up..the seller went back to Tom and told him he had found the cover that he thought had been trashed...Tom said..don't worry about it.. I've got a road case built for the kustom cab...don't really need the cover..so the guy sold it to me.

as for the VG rag...many years back...we managed to get a small blurb about our first nashville meet..and I also got them to post a pic of the cascade hi freq frank rig that I own..it was in the back where they show the gallery stuff...but yeah..that's about all the kustom kredit that VG seems to cough up....the one saving grace used to be Mike Wright who does free lance writing for them...he is a fan of kustom...and included a nice section in his Guitar Stories book that was out about 10 years back...other than that..if it don't say fender on it...seems like its just not a real amp to most those boys...

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7223 is a reply to message #7218]

Thu, 20 July 2006 13:19

QModer
Messages: 413
Registered: June 2003

Senior Member

Fender is considered the quintessiental american amp. But in its day Kustom was right up there too. I have just as many Kustom's today as I do Fender's. But my Fender's do seem to command more respect.
But where ever and when ever I have appeared in a band with a lot of my Kustom's there they never cease to get more than their share of positive comments from the crowd.
They are really american icons too.

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7227 is a reply to message #7204]

Fri, 21 July 2006 08:26

stevem
Messages: 4744
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

Kustom just kicked fenders butt in the bass amp dept when Kustom hit the stores. I can not to this day understand why Fender did not come up with a good bass cabinet that would let them grab a larger share of the market back, they had optional JBL drivers, and the power section from their 80 watt RMS showman head would have been right there or better than the frank type heads output.I guess Those CBS engineers where just too tighed up killing off the sales that fender did have at the time by changing the good sounding circuits to ones that just dropped their sales level off a cliff, and the though the new silverface cosmetics would cover it up!

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7230 is a reply to message #7204]

Sat, 22 July 2006 22:10

edforgothispassword
Messages: 202
Registered: July 2004

Senior Member

it really did come down to a matter of timing...fender CBS was about corporate..it was about figuring out ways to make things cheaper...pressboard...etc..I do like the cosmetics of the silver era...but look at a kustom in 1970 compared to a fender product...so much more real wood and components ..like the tuck nroll, the ports..etc...you just got more amp...but alas..kustom electronics went corporate too..and Bud himself commented on questions he had about many of the later decisions after he was gone...the boys in the late 50s early 60s..they were serious about what to this day is still the state of the art in guitar amplification...with new speaker technology..and more powerful amps...there is no reason why Fender shouldn't own the bass market too...and yet.its GK, Eden, SWR...etc....but back in the day we had some good examples that Fender never did address...acoustic...sunn, ampeg....you now marshall never got it right either...a real let down on both company's parts...don't get me wrong.. I have an old black face showman... I love it.. I have a really sweet twin reverb and a deluxe reverb..and used to have a screaming super reverb which I regret selling..and yet the money from that one old ragged 68 amp funded the purchase of a 3x12 kustom w/200 head, a 100head and a frank head...all in pristine condition..for the price of a ragged out stained up super....I do like my fenders...but when it comes to collecting.. I'll punch up kustom on ebay all day long (grin)...

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7235 is a reply to message #7227]

Wed, 26 July 2006 02:12

QModer
Messages: 413
Registered: June 2003

Senior Member

Yeah its amazing what and old Fender is worth. I have and orginal 66 Bassman. Its sale would fund a lot of Kustoms. But like some of my Kustom's I have had it since 1970 so it has a lot of sentimental value.

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7236 is a reply to message #7204]

Wed, 26 July 2006 07:42

stevem
Messages: 4744
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

Of all my 29 amps which are broken down to half tube and half soild state, I do not know which I would sell if I had to.They all have meaning to me or memories.Oh! all of my SS amps but for one traynor and a vox are Kustom.A friend of mine has a Fender PS 400 head(435 watts RMS) and the 4-12 gauss loaded cabinet for guitar, but their choise of making the output transformer so that you had to use eitheir three of the 4-12 cabs for guitar, or three of the folded 18 cabs for bass to get full power I could never understand!With one cabinet and 135 watts RMS for bass you might as well have a silverface bassman amp so you don`t break your back on the ps400 head that you will only have 1/3 the wattage from anyway. That ps400 head is a 2 man job to move!

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7237 is a reply to message #7204]

Thu, 27 July 2006 03:24

QModer
Messages: 413
Registered: June 2003

Senior Member

I had'nt ever really thought about it. But I have six tube amps and nine SS amps. I saw a lot of Fender's on Leno the other night. The Bass player was using two Showman's with one fifteen cab and one head each.
TP was on there the next night with a lot of Super Beatles. Kind of unusual to see that many Super Beatles in one place at the same time.
As far as tube amps I am really enjoying my new all Tube Kustom 36 Coupe. The tone circuit of it is susposed to be and exact copy of the 60's Kustom's and it sounds like one of them thru the clean channel.
The clean channel is really clean too like a Twin Reverb and more so than my old SS Kustom's. But the sound is the same big fat and round as well as deep of a Kustom.
The dirty channel is a bit too dirty to sound like a standard overdriven tube amp. But like Kustom itself it is distint. I find the over all quality of this amp to be deserving of the name of Kustom. It is certainly a step in the right direction for the Kustom company of today.

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7238 is a reply to message #7204]

Thu, 27 July 2006 07:34

stevem
Messages: 4744
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

If you find out which tube is the preamp for the distortion stagein your coupe( I have never seen a schematic for that amps yet) you can can change out that 12AX7 tube that has a amplication factor of 100, for a 12AT7 with a factor of 70, or a 12AU7 with a factor of 20 and get better use (less dirt) out of the grit channel.The super beatles are a cool amp, I would love to get one of the speaker cabinets just to get the 4-12 celestion alinco drivers. If I recall things right, that was the first soild state amp to break 100 watts RMS although they where not too stable, I think when the beatles started turing with them they took along 2 extras!

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7246 is a reply to message #7238]

Fri, 28 July 2006 23:54

QModer
Messages: 413
Registered: June 2003

Senior Member

I believe that you are right on both accounts of the Super Beatles. They were the SS amps to break the 100 watt bearer and the Beatles did take along extras due to them being some what unreliable.
It may have been due to that the first Super Beatles were really protype amps send to the Beatles first before production. Although production amps were still prone to break down those may been even more likely to.
I understand they are a real rats maze to work on as well. But they sure are cool looking amps. That was really cool seeing with the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers all over the stage on Leno.
I have heard some folks say that those on stage that night had different amps stuffed into their heads. But I never heard anyone verify that for certain

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7274 is a reply to message #7204]

Wed, 09 August 2006 12:16

BC
Messages: 583
Registered: March 2000
Location: Kentucky

Senior Member

Here is a blast from the past....episode #72 of "Hee Haw" originally aired on 2-26-72 has a black Kustom Kombo II organ in a performance segment with Roy Clark singing with a large group of backup performers. Picked up the DVD at the Public Library. BC

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7276 is a reply to message #7204]

Wed, 09 August 2006 12:32

Kono
Messages: 17
Registered: August 2006
Location: Queens, NY

Junior Member

...and a blast from the present: there's a sesame street episode on one of the tapes my little 3yr old likes to watch. the muppets are on a stage with real people and the guitarsist is playing through a blue sparkle K100. Nicest thing was when my daughter saw it and yelled: "hey, that's a Kustom amp!"

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Re: another Kustom sighting [message #7281 is a reply to message #7204]

Wed, 09 August 2006 12:49

stevem
Messages: 4744
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

I have some pictures of lenny cravits ads from the 90`s, and he has 3 black k200 2-15 amps in the back ground.Also in this months guitar player mag the Vanzant bro`s are turing with the new coups in the Kustom ad.

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