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Kustom 200B head [message #8172] Mon, 05 February 2007 07:43   SRI_AUROBINDO Messages: 4 Registered: January 2007 Location: Baltimore, MD Junior Member Greetings. This is my first post on the site. I've been looking around and can't find anything to directly answer my question. Sorry if this topic has been covered in the past. That being said, I just drove up from balitmore to new jersey on saturday to pick up this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=004& ;sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=14007738 2004&rd=1&rd=1 The head looks A LOT more worn in the pictures than it does in person. Anyhow, as you can see in the description, the bright side isn't working. The normal is perfect. I was worried that it would be really noisy bc I've seen a lot of people complaining about that on here but it's as quiet as I'd expect an old solid state to be. So I took out the chassis and i instantly saw what I thought might have been the problem. One of the reverb springs was not connected. Also, one of the smaller "corner" springs that suspends the pan was broken- i was able to fix this right away. I think I may need to buy a new tank though bc the TINY pieces where one of the long springs (the one closest to the knobs) hooks into are both missing. one was actually still rolling around in the pan but I can tell that i won't be able to just pop it back in. When I was testing it out at home I put a footswitch into it and the switch caused it to make noise through the speakers. This would mean that the output stage/drivers are ok, right? Then I tried to disconnect the tank and "bridge" the reverb rca jacks on the board by connecting one to the other with the rca cable. I don't know much about amps and i assumed that this would work, but it didn't. Is that bc this will NEVER work, or is something else on the bright channel messed up? Also, one of the speakers must be blown in one of the columns bc the top pair is not working on one of them. I assume it's 2 pairs in series then parallel. How many ohms are the speakers? I'd assume they're 8 each. Is it ok to run the 4 10s in the one cab and the 2 10s in the other, or will the impedence mismatch be a problem? Sorry if this was long winded! Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mike Report message to a moderator

Re: Kustom 200B head [message #8175 is a reply to message #8172] Mon, 05 February 2007 11:36 chicagobill Messages: 2005 Registered: April 2003 Senior Member Welcome to the board Mike! You are correct in assuming that your power supply, power amp, etc. are ok, because the normal channel shares all of these sections, and if the normal channel works, your problem is located on the FX board. If you listen to the amp while turning the controls up and down, do you notice any changes in the background noise? More hum? More hiss? The problem could be as simple as a bad connection on the board, or could be more involved, like a bad transistor or cap. Try and isolate the problem to a certain section, and you will probably find it. As for your reverb, jumpering the tank out isn't needed, because when the reverb control is turned down, the entire circuit is basically bypassed. Start by getting the pre-amp to pass a signal and them work on the reverb. Your reverb tank will probably need to be replaced, especially if the two small spring hooks at the end are missing. Each one of the hooks has a small ferrite bead magnet (that little black thing) that is needed for the tank to work. Good luck, and keep us posted. Bill Report message to a moderator

Re: Kustom 200B head [message #8177 is a reply to message #8172] Mon, 05 February 2007 12:56   stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY Senior Member Hi, you`ve got yourself a guitar head along with k200 PA speakers their, and I guess like you said it needs a good scrubbing with a tooth brush and hot water with dish soap. Your problem with no audio passing thru the brite/boost channel could be just a simple as a blown first stage input transistor, but thats just a guess from past experience. You wil have to just replace the reverb pan with one from accutronics, part number 4FB3D1B. One thing you can try, is to take the end of that rca cable that was pluged into the reverbs pan output jack, turn up the reverb control and you should hear a buzz just like tapping the end of you guitar cord. If that happens than atleast the mixer/ output stage of the channels preamp is working. Hope this helps, and as bill says, listen closly as you turn the bass and treble controls on that channel as if you hear noise change when you do that chances are pretty good the the problem lies somewhere in or around the first 3 transistors the guitars signal hits on that board. Let us know what happens Report message to a moderator

Re: Kustom 200B head [message #8178 is a reply to message #8172] Mon, 05 February 2007 13:01   stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY Senior Member PS, I do not know how those speakers are wired for sure, but I had a k200 speakers like that and I seem to recall them being 16 ohms. If you have a ohm meter just make sure you get a reading of over 4 ohms for now and you will be OK. These are really for voice and do not have much low end for guitar so you may or may not be too happy with their tone. Report message to a moderator

Re: Kustom 200B head [message #8180 is a reply to message #8172] Mon, 05 February 2007 13:12   SRI_AUROBINDO Messages: 4 Registered: January 2007 Location: Baltimore, MD Junior Member thanks for all of the help so far! I'll have to try out those suggestions and take it from there. I wrote down all of the serial number stuff but then I forgot the paper at home! Steve, I was expecting the same thing you said about the speakers- midrangey, more for vocals. You can imagine how surprised I was when I plugged in and found out that they are exceptionally bassy! BTW, I was testing it with a Jaguar w/ Novak p/us! It may be because one of the speakers has been replaced. Shouldn't all three speakers have the metal center cap? The bottom speaker on both cabs is just normal black. so maybe i'm getting some more bass response from those. i want to crack open the back to see what's going on in there anyway. I'm not going to be using it for guitar. My band is going to use it as our PA. We'll be running three mics and our combo organ through it. We have a separate mixer to use so the absence of the 4 channels on the head won't be a problem. i hadn't realized that it was a just the guitar head when i bid on it, but i think $162 is a damn good price for all of that! Report message to a moderator

Re: Kustom 200B head [message #8181 is a reply to message #8172] Tue, 06 February 2007 06:56   stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY Senior Member Hi, Yes the 2 drivers with out the aluminum voice coil cover are likly replacements. If they where repaired by a autherized Kustom dealer back when, then mabe they just had the original alinco magnet CTS brand driver reconed with a regular kit. If there is a number 137 stamping on the speakers, then they are still CTS drivers. For good PA use out of those towers I Sgest this mod to you if it turns out that when you open up the cabinets you have 8 ohm speakers only. Depending on you EQ range you have from your mixer, these cabinets when adjusted to give good voice sibilance also give good mid-range feedback, so if you replace the top speaker in each cabinet with the parts express(eminence made) 12 inch coaxial driver(#290-504) and the matching screw on high frequency driver(#290-530) you will have a nice sounding PA. You will also need 2 (#260-146) crossovers. Report message to a moderator

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