Optyk Messages: 125 Registered: August 2006 Location: Texas
Senior Member
No kidding. Well, I knew I didn't stand a chance if someone was actually going to be willing to make a $3000+ bid on the unit, so I posted about it here. That rig should be in the Rock & Roll museum, although I would suspect anyone willing to pay $3000+ for it intends to take good care of it.
I'll admit to wanting to own it, of course, but my life won't be incomplete if I never do. And don't fear me in the auction, LOL. It's already beyond my definition of sanity.
Rod
There's only two kinds of music. . . . blues and zippity doo dah.
stevem Messages: 4728 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Something is very very fishy with that speaker cabinet!
The face of the port tubes have three screw holes on the grill side holding them to the baffel, and no tube clamps on the inside with no marks of screw holes every being their from clamps.
Also each speakers serial number is miles apart.
pleat Messages: 1452 Registered: June 2004 Location: Belding, Mi
Senior Member
The aluminum port tubes used 3 screws to hold them in place. When Kustom changed to the chrome plastic port tubes, they used internal ring clamps to hold them in place. A lot of cat claw marks on the cabinet. I wouldn't think many cats were on stage at CCR concerts. Another thing I was wondering, why the wires to the top speaker were grey and blue, and the not the standard red and black wires from that era. Good catch on serial numbers but at least that could be explained by having a blown one replaced at some time in the life of the ownership. Working in the Tool & Die, we used letter and number stamps and adding a K on the JBL is one hammer stroke away. I wish the seller luck, but without documentation, it's just a used kustom. I always say in a country that bought millions of pet rocks in the early 80's, put a good spin on anything and the american people will buy anything.
pleat
stevem Messages: 4728 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Also the drivers are not stamped Kustom in white ink, so I do think they are original to the cabinet and Kustom always seemed to run the wires down the right side of the cabinet as you view it from the back.
Interesting piece, I didn't look up the serial number to see when it was made.
The seller doesn't offer any kind of authentication with the amps. You'd think that if this was really the amp that JF used as his #1, there would be more information available about it.
It may have been owned by CCR but beyond that, it would take John Fogerty's authentication to prove the story.
As for the condition, I really would expect the amp to be in worse shape than this if it was really toured and used.
Optyk Messages: 125 Registered: August 2006 Location: Texas
Senior Member
OK, I just emailed the guy that is selling the unit using ebay's "contact the seller" routine. Here's what I asked:
***************************
What kind of documentation do you have that this is indeed the amp that John Fogerty used and will that documentation come with the unit?
***************************
We'll see what he says. Whatever response I get, if any, will get posted here.
Bill, when I was looking at the pics, I was thinking the unit was in rather rough shape for an amp that John Fogerty cared enough to keep and use for 40 or so years. I would have expected it to be in better shape.
I've seen some other threads on here about Fogerty and his amp, etc. Several of those, along with some photos I've seen show John's speaker cabinet with two heads sitting on top of it. Was he running two cabinets with separate heads? Was he using the RCA outputs to jump from head to head?
See, I told you I was tall on questions and short on knowledge.
Rod
There's only two kinds of music. . . . blues and zippity doo dah.
Optyk Messages: 125 Registered: August 2006 Location: Texas
Senior Member
OK, I got a quick response from him. Here's what he said:
********************
Hello,
it came directly from one of the families. I am waiting on the loa.
Thank you for looking
Scott
********************
So, I wrote him back immediately with this:
********************
OK, so, is that a yes or a no? Is that indeed the amp that John Fogerty used or not? And if "loa" means letter of authentication, will you include that letter of authentication with the unit?
Thanks for the quick respons
********************
We'll see what he says.
Rod
There's only two kinds of music. . . . blues and zippity doo dah.
Optyk Messages: 125 Registered: August 2006 Location: Texas
Senior Member
OK, here's the answer I got from my 2nd email to him:
***********************
Hello,
it is the one John used, obtained from Doug Clifford's collection as mentioned. If I can get the letter before the auction ends, it will be noted in the ad and absolutely inlcluded.
Thank you
***********************
OK, I'm guessing that letter won't show up before the auction ends. I'm also starting to doubt the validity of the claim that John Fogerty owned that amp. Hasn't John been using his Kustom rig for years? Wasn't there a big rift between CCR folks, enough for John to state on record that there would never be a reunion of the band (yes, I know Tom died)? Whatever the rift was it was between John vs Stu and Doug. Anyway, if John and Doug were at odds, how would Doug end up with John's amp? Now, if John doesn't know Doug has got his amp, and then find out he sold it, my guess is the rift is getting larger.
The plot thickens. . . .
Rod
There's only two kinds of music. . . . blues and zippity doo dah.
ZoukBoy Messages: 24 Registered: June 2009 Location: New Mexico
Junior Member
Just to add to the prevailing smell of fishiness, John Fogerty ssaid in an interview within the last few years (I'll see if I can find it) that his Kustom head was damaged (the plexi front panel was cracked) when it rolled off a stage in Japan (he also said it still worked fine) and so he decided not to tour with it anymore.
So, *if* it were John's amp it would either have a cracked front panel or show evidence of it having been replaced.
My interest is merely morbid curiosity. There's no way I could or would spend $3500 on that unit. It's a shame that eBay doesn't have a routine where other users could make comments on a particular auction while the auction is still running. Then one could post suspicions or corrections regarding a particular auction for others to see.
Fishiness is a good term for this one, though.
Rod
There's only two kinds of music. . . . blues and zippity doo dah.
ZoukBoy Messages: 24 Registered: June 2009 Location: New Mexico
Junior Member
I can imagine the real amp bringing quite a bit, especially for a charity and with John's cooperation. I just bet he still has the one and this, if it did come from Stu, was perhaps a back up that the bass player ended up with after the break up. Some of the old footage from the 70s shows John with two heads sitting on top of one 2x15 cabinet, presumably daisy chained together with the second cabinet on the other side of the drummer. Maybe this is the 2nd one. Maybe not.
pleat Messages: 1452 Registered: June 2004 Location: Belding, Mi
Senior Member
If you look closely at the photos there is a K stamped in the JBL signature part of the label. Kustom did this before the Kustom ink stamp came into being. It was the factorys way of telling if the JBL's were from a kustom amp. That is what I was referring to on the metal stamp K.
pleat
ellum68 Messages: 71 Registered: November 2007 Location: Sioux City, IA
Member
Well, I put $5,243 down on it and was outbid with five seconds left. I'm kinda glad because when you get down to it, it's still a busted A-4 with a JBL cabinet. I spent several hours going through old concert footage. I had positive alignment on the cabinet stencil when I overlaid things in photoshop. I also had a good match with using the stencil on Stu's head at rockstarguitars.com
ellum68 Messages: 71 Registered: November 2007 Location: Sioux City, IA
Member
The K150-7 is back on there again. According to the forum, the 150s didn't start production until Jun/Jul 1970 and Cosmo's Factory (album) was already released in July of 1970. However, I have a couple pictures of them in the studio when they were cutting the album Pendulum and I can just barely make out Tom Fogerty's ES-335 plugged into an amp that looks just like a K150. So, that little amp may be heard on songs like "Hey Tonight" or "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"
Woodstock, Royal Albert Hall, and the Colesium were already in the bag by the time that amp came on the scene. What was left was alot of fighting, bad feelings between the band and a couple of the group's lesser hits. I guess I don't feel the same wonder and awe I did the K200A-4 that was for sale. I wish I coulda had a crack at it the first time when it didn't sell. It's a shame because I would have gone over that piece with fine tooth comb and woulda shared it with the world via here and YouTube. I have fears of that thing going overseas or even worse, some fool using a 6v bulb in the pilot light!
Hi,
The last K100 combo that I am aware of was made about 6/26/70, and the first K150 combo that I am aware of was made about 7/7/70.
I think it was would be safe to say that the production of K150 combos began sometime around July 1, 1970.
Are sure the picture is definitely a K150?
Except for the "K100" lettering, the K100 combo looks identical from the front to the K150 combo.
-Les S.
ellum68 Messages: 71 Registered: November 2007 Location: Sioux City, IA
Member
I'm not as fortunate to have the same quality footage as what I did when I reseached the K200. All I have are two pictures in an insert that came with a CD. The pictures appear to come from when they were recording for the Pendulum album. In one picture, you can see a 4x10 cabinet with what appears to be a K200 with circuit breakers on top it. To the left, I can see Kustom Combo sitting on top of a chair with a mic up to it. The picture is far too poor to tell anymore than that. I would say the K150 in the auction is legit.
I think John Fogerty was lying in the Preminition video about the K200A-4 stack they wheeled out was the one that he "recorded his very first hit record on". "Susie Q" wasn't recorded until January 1968. I'm thinking that amp shoulda had circuit breakers on it if it were that old. I betcha that amp that I can see circuit breakers on was the one that he really did it with. I'll try to post my pictures in a day or two
The production of Kustom amps without the two front-mounted circuit breakers started about late Nov 1967.
The very few Kustom invoices to dealers that I have seen show that Kustom amps were shipped to dealers between two and six weeks after production.
So it is possible that a K200A-4 (no front circuit breakers) made in late Nov 1967 could be at the dealer in 3 weeks or more, and could be in a customer's hands by the end of December 1967.
ellum68 Messages: 71 Registered: November 2007 Location: Sioux City, IA
Member
Well, lie might be a little strong of a word. Let's say "suspect" then. The video can be found here. I wasn't quite sure when the non-breaker amps started to appear.
It sounds like they got their first Kustoms in December of '67. You can read about it here. Page 40 sets a time frame for the amps and page 111 provides us with the Kustom name and at least part of the cost. Anything's possible, but it would mean getting an amp practically off the delivery truck and taking it right into the studio.
zcvxww Messages: 6 Registered: May 2010 Location: Los Angeles
Junior Member
I contacted the seller when I saw this, and he said that this as well as a 150 he was selling (I guess other stuff too) were in a storage unit of Doug Cliffords. Doug had his kid clean the unit out and that is who this buyer supposedly got these amps from. He said that some songs were "writen on the 150 backstage". JC may have played these back in the day, he may have had multiple rigs. I saw him at the Greek in LA in 98 (The Preminition tour) and he commented at the concert (it is also on the "Preminition" live CD) that he was playing the "very same amplifier" that he recorded Suzy Q on, and had at Woodstock, etc. So the E-bay rig ain't the one he sleeps with...
Shaun_Musings Messages: 323 Registered: April 2009 Location: Reading, MA
Senior Member
I swear, this one is obsessive for some people I searched for the better part of six months before finding the one in Florida. Naturally, I was excited about it
And, of course, I posted about it, and someone called the guy up and tried to buy it out from under me
It is snuggled on top of my 2x15, and anyone can have it when they pry it from my cold dead hands