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Can anyone tell me about my Kustom amp? [message #7082]

Fri, 30 June 2006 09:56

powderthedonut
Messages: 2
Registered: October 2004

Junior Member

Hello,

I have a Kustom Frankenstein head that I've had for years - picked it up about 15 years ago along with two 2x15 Kustom cabs from a friend's brother for $500 worth of hockey cards (which I'm sure have since depreciated in value greatly!). In the trade I also got an Ampeg scroll bass which I STUPIDLY, because I was young and foolish, sold and bought an Ibanez. That might be the only regret I have in this life. But anyway...

Can anyone tell me about the amp's wattage, ohmage, etc? The serial # is 10043 and the model # is C-595. (Attached is a photo.)

And related to the amp, I put 2 new 8 ohm 400-watt Carvin PS-15 speakers in the 2x15 cabinet and wired them series @ 4 ohms. I can maybe turn the volume knob to 12 o-clock before I start to hear serious distortion in the speakers. My bass has active pickups. I would think I should be able to turn up louder before the distortion occurs. I've tried different amps with the cabinet and have the same problem. So I'm wondering if its the speakers that are bad or if what I'm experiencing is normal?

Thanks for any and all help!
Kevin

http://www.kevingoodgion.net/kustom_5x7.jpg

[Updated on: Fri, 30 June 2006 10:28]

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Re: Can anyone tell me about my Kustom amp? [message #7085 is a reply to message #7082]

Fri, 30 June 2006 13:15

chicagobill
Messages: 2005
Registered: April 2003

Senior Member

PTD:
Cool looking amp! Being a high-brow type myself, welcome to the club. Too bad about the Ampeg Scroll. Imagine what that's worth today.

Your amp is rated at 100 watts R.M.S. and likes to see a 4 ohm load. It originally came with CTS speakers and could be used for either bass or regular guitar.

I think that the distortion you are experiencing is normal for your outfit. I don't have any personal experience with the Carvin speakers, but as long as you did wire them in parallel (not series) for 4 ohms, you should be ok. If you did wire in series you would get 16 ohms and that could cause your K200 or any modern solid state amp to lose power.

If you search the board, you can find a post from Steve, with power output tests for a number of different heads, and you can also find out what year your amp was made by looking up the serial number in a post from Les.

Bill

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Re: Can anyone tell me about my Kustom amp? [message #7087 is a reply to message #7082]

Fri, 30 June 2006 13:35

stevem
Messages: 4733
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

Hi, your amp is a c595 model, which was also the list price of the amp back in 1967 when it was made. If you do a search for my post here that I did called "amp wattage review" you will see that this head put out 62 watts RMS in my test at 4 ohms, and 36 watts RMS at 8 ohms. Here are some problems to check out.1)active pickups put out more signal than these 1967 preamps need, so eithier run your guitar volume down some or get a 68,000 ohm 1/2 watt resistor and solder it across the hot and ground lugs of your or a guitar cord or across the input jack you use in the amp, or make up a small adapter cord to stuff the resistor in. This will cut the guitars output by 3 DB which is what amps do when they have a jack just for active pickups.2) I have never seen the specs for those carvin drivers so thay may want a bigger cabinet internal volume than that cabinet has, you need to check, also if your 1967 cabinet is like mine kustom was not using port tubes yet, but the baffle did have two port holes behind the grill cloth. You can go to parts express and get port tubes in the right size to glue in and pick up 2 to 3 DB more cabinet output.3) you need to check to see if your speakers are phased right. Get a 9 volt battery and place the small terminal of the battery on the tip of the end of your speaker cable and the bigger terminal of the goes on the long ring section of the plug. when put on and off the jack you should see the speaker cones moving out not in.Also their is one crititcal paper type cap in these amps on the driver board that by now is 25 years to old and should be replaced even if not bad yet it does not have much longer to go and even now is having some effect on the amps output.62 watts RMS for bass in not alot even with 2 good 15" drivers if you are playing out, the latter 100 watt RMS heads are the smallest I ever use and a 5 string bass will tax that 100 watts pretty good!By the way, nice amp my 67 is silver too but its starting to yellow, yours looks great.Hope some of this may help.

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