There's actually two things up with it:
1.) the bright side doesn't work unless you jump the inputs from the normal side, any ideas?
2.) it (or the cabinet, idk which it could be) makes a white noise kind of buzz whenever the amp is on and no notes are being played...is this an easily fixable solution or do I have to take it somewhere?
On most all Kustoms white noise is common and for the most part normal at idle. I'm going to guess that the left (Bright) side has a semiconductor problem. Are you saying when you jump from the inputs on that side to the right (normal) channel your bright channel becomes fully operational, as in the volume and tone controls all work on the left (bright) channel? Sometimes using effects boxes can really overdrive the pre amp and cause damage to the aged components to the point of breakdown. If it was me I would pull the chassis out and take my multimeter and test the three transistors at the top of the pre amp. I've had the one right above the bright switch blown in a few I've worked on. That would be the first thing I would check.
stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Hello.
Someone has been in the amp and rewired something with the input jacks if bridging the normal channel is the only way to get signal into the brite channel.
White noise and buzz are two different things to us techs, so to help you out we need a better discription.
White noise is like a hiss or the sound that is made by old style radio when its in between stations.
A A/C voltage produced buzz is different, a bad version of a 60 cycle buzz/hum can be heard by placing your guitars pickups near the right side rear of the amp as you face it, as this is where the power transformer is mounted.
Another type of A/C buzz is at a frequency of 120 cycles which is made by the power supply diodes.
A thrid type of buzz is due to grounding issues. if the amp is still set up with its original 2 prong power cable you can get rid of this buzz with the on/off/on switch. if the amp has been refitted with a three prong grounded cord, then sometimes you can not get rid of it with out the use of a ground lift adapter, but then you stand a change of getting shocked form touching another item of gear thats plugged in.
Uhm, I don't gave too much of a problem with the 'buzzing' I guess you'd call it. I'd just like to know if there's a dimple way to fix the bright channel's mishap....and I'm not a tech person at all, so no offense but I didn't understand any of that :/ and everything on the bright side works when I bride the connections from the normal side, as I it's actually plugged into the bright side
There are a few things to consider here. First, can you take the chassis out for some diagnosis work? Secondly, do you have and know how to use a multimeter to do the testing? If you find the the problem to be a component breakdown, do you have the tools and ability to remove and replace defective components safely? That shouldn't be problem for a qualified tech to figure out so your talking around a $100 with the standard bench fee to fix. It would be well worth the money to have a tech look it over if you cherish the amp in the event you are lacking the above conciderations. With that said, I'll do what I can to help you figure it out and correct the problem if at all possible.
I have a friend that has all sorts of stuff for that (he fixes guitars) and I know e has a multimeter, but I don't know what the chassis is.....the big cylinder looking things?
OK" you must have the chassis (This is the metal box that holds all the amplifier components) out of the Tuck N Roll Case if you see the cylinders (Those are the Power Filter Caps). Look inside the amp at the "Low" and "High" input jacks (Where you plug the guitar into) on both channels. It should have a long blue wire soldered to the low jack on the bright channel and a long Blue and a long black wire soldered to the low jack on the normal channel. Can you get a some good pictures from a couple of angles posted so we can see whats going on with the input jacks?
Okay, I plug the instrument (guitar or bass) into the high jack on the normal side, then with another cable I connect the low end of the normal side into the high end of the bright side. Then when I turn the bright side on it works fine
OK you say that you plug your guitar into the normal side and with another cord you jumper it to the Bright side and you control your volume and tones by turning the knobs on the bright channel. How is the normal channel responding to this? Is it funtioning with full control of volume and tones as well? Is your amp being driven by both channels independently at the same time? Hmmmmm that is a good one!!! Does your bright channel do anything if you only plug a guitar in one or the other of its inputs without the jumping thing? I mean anything like pop click hiss hum or something. Make sure the 2 blue wires coming from the control boards through the wire harness and are soldered next to each other on the driver board mounted on the back wall are still soldered in there good and also where all the blue wires go into the pre amps also.