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New Member! [message #6610] Thu, 02 February 2006 08:08   Ikoman Messages: 3 Registered: February 2006 Junior Member New member here, I thought I would tell you about my Kustom head and cabinet. The Id tag on the head reads the following. Model: Special PA Serial No. 13780 Color: Black I am guessing it was manufactured around 1967 from the reading that I have done. The black tuck 'n roll is in very good condition. All knobs, switches, and the pilot light, which is red, are in working order. The only thing that isn't is the reverb unit, which seems to be quite common. I also have the original dust cover that came with it. The cabinet is also black tuck 'n roll, which is in very good condition but has a few small tears on the bottom edges. The cabinet contains 2 15" speakers, on the bottom at the speaker input the tag reads KEI. I am guessing this is model 2-15J: 2 15" Special Design KEI Speakers, from I found in the price list information on this site. I have the dust cover for this cabinet as well. I was using it as a bass amp, currently it's not being used. I understand that the 2-15J is a guitar cabinet. I tried playing a guitar though it, but the sound was too "muddy". So I just stuck to bass, which I know doesn't have as much low end as it could, but it sounds really nice. Now for a little history on the pair: I bought these together in May of 1994, with my highschool graduation money , at a furniture/guitar store in Fort Scott, KS. I had seen the set there a few time over the years, but was always scared off by the price, which was $395. The day I bought them I was able to talk to the son of the store owner, he ran the guitar part of the store which was tucked into the very back of the building. He said that the set was purchased by his father directly from the factory in Chanute in the late '60s or early '70s, he couldn't remember. He said that the set had been sold but traded-in a couple times since then, but had been only rented everyonce and awhile since the late '80s. As I was loading them into my car that day, he said that if I ever wanted to sell them to comeback and they would give me a good deal. I don't think I will ever sell them, I love the damn set! I did happen to stop buy the store when I was visiting my parents back in 1998, the guy still remembered selling me the set. Well that's my story, I hope you were all entertained. Report message to a moderator

Re: New Member! [message #6611 is a reply to message #6610] Thu, 02 February 2006 12:56   stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY Senior Member Wellcome aboard!Glad to hear you had the good luck to have the covers for the amp and cab, more of these amps would be in better shape if the original owners kept the covers.I almost lost a set of mine at a club we where playing. I had done the norm and tossed them off to a dark corner of the stage and during one of our breaks I spotted some guy trying to walk off with them.Your non-working reverb may just be broken wires. In all reverb pans their are 4 small wires that bring the signal from the jacks mounted on the outside of the pan to the floating spring section of the pan. The spring section vibrates quite alot when a head is in transit, and after a certain amount of movement its a given that one or more of these wires will break off at their connection to the jack.If you can turn up the reverb control, bang the head around a little and still hear the reverb crashing, their is a good chance that the pans 2 little transformers are OK and it is just a matter of resoldering a wire.The latter 70s metal face Kustoms came with the lock that hammond made to go with their reverb pans so the floatting section can be locked down for transit and cure the wire breakage problem. Report message to a moderator

Re: New Member! [message #6612 is a reply to message #6611] Thu, 02 February 2006 16:10   Ikoman Messages: 3 Registered: February 2006 Junior Member Thanks! Yeah, I took the head out of the casing a in about 1996 and tighten all of the transistors. I was in school for music/video management at the time and we had access to a sound engineer. He took a look at it and said the same thing about the reverb, he was also amazed at the condition it was in. It unit was very clean and the transistors only needed minimal tightening save for one which as a bit more loose that the others. Maybe I will check everything again next week, couldn't hurt. Report message to a moderator

Re: New Member! [message #6613 is a reply to message #6610] Fri, 03 February 2006 07:47   stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY Senior Member The big transistors you torqued up are the output transistors, do not make them to darn tight or you will break the insulating washers that keep the mounting screws from shorting out the transistor case to the chassie. Report message to a moderator

Re: New Member! [message #6614 is a reply to message #6613] Fri, 03 February 2006 20:38   Ikoman Messages: 3 Registered: February 2006 Junior Member Thanks for the tip! Any other things I should look for while I am looking it over? Report message to a moderator

Re: New Member! [message #6617 is a reply to message #6610] Mon, 06 February 2006 07:20   stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY Senior Member As far as the reverb problem goes, heres another way to test it.Unplug the RCA cord from the pan marked output, and touch the tip of the male jack, with the reverb control up you should hear a buzz just like like if you touched the tip of your guitar cord when pluged into a channel.If you get no buzz than the RCA cord of the reverb return amp in the head has a problem.If that checks out and you have a volt meter, set it for low A/C volts(less than 10 volts if it does not have a auto range feature)Unplug the RCA cord that goes to the pans input jack and hold of clip lead the meter to it(you will not get a shock if you hold it, its all of 1 volt)If you see some small voltage when playing thru the amp, then the reverb pan is at fault,the send and feed circuits are fine. Report message to a moderator

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