I don't own a single Pee Vee. But I have five Kustoms and nine Fenders and I'm only likely to own more Kustoms, more Fenders, and possibly a Vox. I don't even have any Pee Vee's in my Pa most of it is Yamie and plenty of them. But one of the places I work does subcontract for Pee Vee and the quality control is quite good. I have see parts in the dumpster there all the time that did'nt make spec. So they toss it and make another one. If it does'nt met spec its gone. Thats says volumes for them right there.
But as you can see I have plenty of Kustom and Fender gear so pee vee has nothing to offer me that I don't already have in spades. Now if Kustom were to create a new line well?
fuzzy4dice Messages: 49 Registered: June 2004 Location: NJ
Member
Glad to hear the good news re: Peavey.
I have an old tube head that I run my Rhodes through that has never let me down...and I would NEVER trade my Classic 50 for ANYTHING! The thing is a monster.
Yes Forgerty is a living legend. No matter what else he will ever be. That would have really been cool though if they would have let you put those Kustoms up on stage just for looks anyway. Just like Kiss has those stacks and stacks of 4x12 marshalls for the show effect and Paul Mc'carnty always has some Vox amps on stage too in all of that mass of cabs and amps that he has. You know that all of that stuff is not hooked up. Paul always uses his trademark Hofner too even though its old as the hills and he could have any bass he wanted.
I guess the sad thing about the Kustoms not being there when they could have been is all of these Kustoms that you see in modern roc videos. Like Sheryl Crow for instance and even TV shows. Then theres the fact that CCR made the old original songs with Kustom amps and quite liberal use of Rickenbacker guitars.
Elliot is a good guitar player and thats no dout the reason CCR has him. He probably just felt that the Tele sound was more in line with what CCR actually did sound like back in the day. You can really go two routes. Use a guitar with hot pickups to get your roc tone or use one with weak pickups and crank the amp. I have a 66 Strat that will jangle like that (my other two don't).
I noticied too that Forgerty did'nt have pedal one and his signal was wireless thereby leaving the Pa sound man to compensate for whatever tone. The only time I saw him personally intervene in his tone once a song started was to go over and get some feedback outa those Marshall cabs. His only other active movement in changing the tone from the stage was changing guitars so often.
fuzzy4dice Messages: 49 Registered: June 2004 Location: NJ
Member
Two things...
1. I had heard that Fogerty really used Kustoms in live settings and almost never in the studio. I think he fancied the harmonic clipper thing and - the the crappy live equipment decade of the 70's - appreciated the fact that a K-200 was LOUD AS HELL!
2. I wonder if the Kustom's that Sheryl Crow is seen with are plugged in...and if they are...are they new tube versions or oldies? I am betting they are for show...much like Drew Barrymore's at the end of "Charlie's Angels".
I remember when I was a teen also hearing that Fogerty was using other amps..fenders etc in the studio...and understandable...volume levels, what was available when traveling to a remote studio.etc...but live..yeah...kustoms were there for real.
As for Shery Crow...we've had her here in Charlotte....and no...the kustoms are plugged in..just stacked...they were a conglomorate of 4x12s and 4x10s...new stuff..it was 2 years ago at the speedway and the kustoms were actuallly still new and the guys had to literally pull them from the cardboard boxes.
the last time I saw her on TV though it looked like she had a couple old real kustoms mixed in with the rest and the players at least had a cable running into them...course that can be for grins too cause they'd be running into a DI first anyway.
I've backlined a number of acts this year..particularly for the quickie speedway deals where its mostly tracks and the backline was for show and never even wired up...even when theband is actually playing, and we have 10 or so Marshalls stacked up...there will be only one half stack, maybe on full stack that's actually hot and mic'd..the rest are just backdrop...but I get paid the same for em all ...so I love it....but its amazing how many groups are running on top of tracks.
the drummer keeps the track in his ears and the band plays off of him..it works..just miss the days of real bands.
John the other night on A&E was defintely running wireless to the engineer for his rack of tones...man I miss the old days..
It certainly does take away from things for us guitar players if its only for looks and just a board thing. However I thought for the first two albums that really counted though that Forgerty relied on his Kustom with the harmonic clipper. Those albums were certianly covered with pictures of them. I can remember seeing pics of him in concert too with just one Kustom behind him but he had two heads. I suspose in case one of them gave up the ghost. He had a fairly Lennon like 325 Rickenbacker with him a lot then too.
But times have changed and there no new Kustoms to use or stomp boxes on the floor. Its all just to mime to the prerecorded message. There still are a few though who when they appear live they are live stompbox and all. Guys like Ted Nugent come to mind. He is still gonna have a huge Fender set up that will be real, hooked up, and he will have X's marked all over the stage floor because the byrdland will feed back on this note if he stands there on that spot.
C4ster Messages: 686 Registered: June 2001 Location: Mukwonago, WI (Milwaukee...
Senior Member
Hi guys,
Like I said in earlier posts, I'm sitting here in Russia, feeling sorry for myself and spending the last hour reading most of the posts on this thread. I think I'm hooked to the Internet with a 9600 baud wireless and it takes 30 seconds to a minute to change messages. So I have had a lot of time to address the new/old thing. First off, I have to ask, why create a new reissue in the first place? (hands upturned, stupid look on my face, that part is easy) I think that we have the most unique brand of equipment EVER to come from any manufacturer. It is that uniqueness that creates the aura that is exclusively Kustom. It is like drooling over a '55 Vette or a '68 Hemi Charger. You CAN't recreate that once the original is finished. Even later runs of the same thing, get old. If Bud had not sold his company and continued building T&R, would they be the same today?? Not a chance. Then they would be just another Marshall, Fender or PV. Trust me, I'm not ripping those amps. The original Fender Bassman, Showman and others were handwired, no printed circuit board masterpieces. But by moving on, that just made the original better. I agree that a solid state Kustom 200 can be very bland for guitar. I read that as being no distortion or overdrive. But they are the purist sounding amps ever. That doesn't make them bad, just different. And it is that difference that draws us to them in the first place. Early on in electronics, I'm talking the '20's and 30's, companies were trying to get amps that DIDN'T distort and had a low hamonic content. They wanted to reproduce the sound perfectly. When did that get to be a bad thing?? I'm seeing more clean specimens coming out on eBay every day. The beat up crap seems to have been weaned out and we are now seeing that vintage '64 GTO not a '76 Yugo or worse a 2004 Honda ricer from the "Fast and the Furious". We have something that produces gasps of delight and amazement. Let's leave it at that and revel in our wonderful hobby.
Conrad
Yes they are unique and will remain so. But I still would'nt mind a reissue. The Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue has been in production for longer by several more years than any Fender amp ever made. True the new one is pcb not ptp. But it does'nt seem to bother all of the thousands of people who are buying them.