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Kustom 605 [message #10736]

Sun, 12 April 2009 00:57

dockriss
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2009
Location: Los Angeles

Junior Member

Hello,

Thanks for the nice reply guys. After further investigation I have concluded that this indeed has JBL 15" speakers. It has two on the bottom and an odd shaped black horn on each of the four very large cabinets. The amp itself is very heavy and the system is in pristine condition overall. each connection on the back has two separate speaker outputs. Two together and four in total. So I can have new cables from Guitar Center simply plugged in to each bottom? Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but this is quite new for me. The amp lights up just fine, but I have not tried to plug any speakers yet, nor a mike or guitar. One of the guys at Guitar Center stated that this system is very rare which is cool, but perhaps good things come for a wonderful cause. My fellow doctor band mates plan to entertain at various USO facilities. I noticed a reverb lock and some funny anti something knobs on the front. It has eight channels with many master controls ass well. Early this week we will connect all the cords and slowly fire it up with the help of a engineer friend from the VA hospital. The blue sparkle material is perfect on each piece. Our bass player now wants a blue Kustom unit as well. Thanks again. I will kepp ou in the loop. During the examination an old twenty was found in the first cabinet.Doc

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Re: Kustom 605 [message #10737 is a reply to message #10736]

Sun, 12 April 2009 09:49

pleat
Messages: 1452
Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi

Senior Member

Doc, looks like your already up 20.00 by removing the back of the first cabinet. No telling what hides inside kustom cabinets. Now if you find a 50.00 in any of the other cabinets, do I get a finders fee for suggesting you look inside the cabinets. LOL. The real reason for opening up the cabinets it to make sure someone hasn't at sometime before you purchased the system didn't change out the JBL's for some other make of speaker. All cabinets should have a non vented 4" aluminum dome in the center of each speaker.
When you get new speaker cables, make sure you buy speaker cables and not guitar cables. I would suggest that you have at least two cabinets plugged in to the back of the amp. Since the amp has two groups of speaker outputs, use one output from each group. Once you have new speaker cables, just add the other two cabinets. The K600 amp used two 150 watt rms power amps inside the chassis. Kustom rated all their amps at peak power so your K600 really produces 300 watts rms or 600 watts peak power. So it is important to have at least one speaker cabinet plugged into each amp. In reality, you could use two cabinets for smaller gigs, and all four cabinets for larger gigs. I don't really recommended to power up the amp without any speakers connected.
I'd think that since Kustom only made that series for a couple of years, it would be somewhat rare only in the fact of manufacturing time frame. I was a kustom dealer in the 60's and 70's. We sold a lot of the 300 series PA's and I can only remember selling one K600 PA. The reverb lock on the back should be unlocked for operation and locked when transporting. Each of the 8 individual channels are volume, bass, treble, and reverb. These can be used to set the volume, tone and reverb of the microphone or guitar. The master front panel controls are in groups of 3. The master section has final control over all the 8 channels. The master section, first 3 should be the anti-feedback system that has three set tone filters that you can sweep to remove feedback. In simple terms the 3 knobs could be thought as low mid and high. Depending on if the feedback is a low howl or very high pitch squeel. The next group of three in the master section should be master bass, master volume, and master treble. The last three controls in the master section would be two tone controls for the reverb section and master reverb. Keep in mind that any changes made in the master section will effect all 8 channels. To get things fired up, Turn all channel volumes down, turn down or off the three anti-feedback controls, set master bass and treble half way, master volume just under half, tones on the master reverb half way and reverb amount just under half. Plug a mic or intrument into a channel and slowly adjust volume and tone. (Hint) the master volume should always be set higher than any individual channel volume to avoid distorting the pre amp. I always ran a 2:1 ratio, Channel volumes averaged around 2, master volume around 4. Based on 0 off and 10 being maxed.
Pleat

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Re: Kustom 605 [message #10739 is a reply to message #10736]

Sun, 12 April 2009 18:34

dockriss
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2009
Location: Los Angeles

Junior Member

Hello Pleat and JC,

Today we purchased four new speaker cables. Not sure I know the difference, but as per your instructions everything came on as you said. We plugged a Les Paul on low volume and the amp came to life. All four cabinets are connected. Wow..... Lots of pure POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really wonder if four cabinets are needed, but we are very pleased and want to thank Robert Bren, whom I bought this unit. It was seen in the classified ads on this site. A question? My band mates want all blue sparkle amps now. Any suggestions??????? Also, is there a way of doing some type of mini mix of the drums before sending the sound through the Kustom? Thks again, Doc Kriss

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Re: Kustom 605 [message #10740 is a reply to message #10736]

Sun, 12 April 2009 19:55

pleat
Messages: 1452
Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi

Senior Member

Ah, it sounds like the band now has Kustom fever. It's not treatable, so you just have to live with it. Buying more Kustoms is the only way to lower the fever but it's only temporary. We all hunt eBay, craigslist, pawn shops, music stores, garage sales etc. Finding all blue might be a challenge.
Difference in speaker cables and guitar/audio cables. Speaker cables are two conductor wires that run parallel inside the outside covering, guitar/audio cables are two wires inside the covering, the center wire is positive and the other wire is generally a braided wire that shields the center wire form outside hum.
If you do a seperate drum mix with a mixer, that mixer's output can be fed to any channel you choose. The input jack that is closest to the T&R covering is a stronger input than the one closest to the knobs. I'd suggest using the input jack closest to the control knob. It is not as strong as the first input and might give a little better control so you don't overload the channel pre-amp and cause distortion. If two mics are plugged into one channel then the input jacks balance themselves to equal out. If you can't get good results going into a channel, take the mixers output and plug it into the tape out and bypass all channels and master section. This will inject the signal of the seperate mixer into the power amps and will bypass all channels and master section. So the channel volume and master volume of the seperate mixer is a stand alone and start with all the volumes controls close to minimum and gradually increase the gains.
The only downside to all the kustom PA's of that era and older is they will accept only hi-impedance mic's. Most mic's today are lo-impedance and are the 3 pin XLR connector. You will have to buy matching transformers if you have lo-z mics to convert from lo-z 3 pin to hi-z 1/4 inch to plug into the K600.
A suggestion might be to use two of the four cabinets for PA and use the other two for guitars if you can find some matching kustom guitar heads. If you went that route, and one cabinet was used for bass guitar, I'd install a cut off switch for disconnecting the horn. You could make a plate to mount the switch and attach the plate to the back of a port hole, reach in to activate or deactivate the horn. Saves on taking the back off.

pleat

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Re: Kustom 605 [message #10760 is a reply to message #10739]

Tue, 14 April 2009 11:44

Shaun_Musings
Messages: 323
Registered: April 2009
Location: Reading, MA

Senior Member

Damn, wish you'd looked at the 'For Sale' area. I had a blue sparkly Kustom. It was on there for I think about 2 hours before Chris on here snagged it, lol!

Born on the Baaaaayou (Ok, in Massachusetts)

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