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Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8478]

Mon, 02 April 2007 20:23

bandersen
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2007

Junior Member

My father-in-law musician was cleaning out his garage and gave me a Kustom 200B-5 PA head that he said worked when it was put there. He also gave me 2 Ramsa 100W speakers to go with it. The Kustom head has no outer covering whatsoever, the entire top and side is exposed so that it is just the metal frame with the contents. There is a white laminate board screwed onto the bottom. I believe the covering was removed so that it could be rack mounted at one time, but this is a guess.

To my surprise, all channels appear to work, although the reverb does not. I have replaced the non-working bulb under the purple cover and used compressed air to clean out the dust.

This came as quite a coincidence for me because I was just researching small PA's as my neighborhood has a block party every summer and it costs us $100 to rent a small PA for the day to play music and make anouncements, etc. So that will be it's purpose hopefully and I will be using a CD player, iPod and mic on this thing.

My questions:

1) What are recommendations on encasing this amp head again? I am not interested in restoring it to the original (maybe one day), I just want a case around it to protect the electronics for now. I want to go cheap on this.

2) What should I check for on the reverb not working?

3) Is it ok to use these Ramsa speakers since they are 100W and the PA is 200W? I also have a home built 12" speaker cab that has a sub woofer and a horn. I acquired this years ago and don't know any more specs. It was used as a bass speaker at one time. It sounds a lot better than the Ramsa speakers. In fact it sounds pretty good with the 12" speaker and one Ramsa.

4) When looking at the back of the head, there are the speaker outputs to the left and a single input or output on the right. What is this for?

It must be my weekend because I was telling someone at work (who is quite the gearhead) about my find and he whips this Roland GS-6 effects processor out of his desk cabinet drawer and says "here it's yours, get out your old mothballed electric and have fun". It was for keeps!

Maybe I should research winning the lottery now!

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8482 is a reply to message #8478]

Tue, 03 April 2007 07:31

stevem
Messages: 4733
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

Hi , your reverb problem is most likly something with the reverb pan its self, you can eithier replace the whole pan, or if you can use a soldering iron sometimes they fail in a way that they can be fixed.
The first thing to do is determin which end of the pan is dead, which can be done by turning the amp on while it it hooked up to a speaker and turning up the volume and reverb control on one channel and banging on the reverb pan some, you should hear a crash like thunder sound.If so than the output labeled side of the pan is good, and your problem lies on the input side of the pan.
If you remove the pan, and look inside it on the input side you will see 2 small wires coming off that RCA jack going to a small white transformer, if one, or both of these 2 wires are off at the jack side just solder them back on, and you can use the output side as a color code reference when hooking them back up.
You should also check those 2 RCA cables that feed the pan as one off those could be bad also, just unplug and test them one at a time.
These heads can drive as low as a 4 ohm load, so if your 2 ramsa`s are 8 ohms your OK.
The other small jack on the back is a recording output, and can also be used to drive another item of gear.
As far as a cabinet goes, heck! if you are not in need of moving the around alot even 1/4 inch plywood would do, the main thing would be to have a 1/4 inch air gap on the top side to vent the head,
No vent slots on the top please as they only invite drinks to be spilled in!
If you have any lucky numbers that work, let me know too!

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8483 is a reply to message #8478]

Tue, 03 April 2007 09:35

bandersen
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2007

Junior Member

Hey thanks! Those are great suggestions! I will check out that reverb tray like you said.

What would be typical things that would be used for that recording output?

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8484 is a reply to message #8478]

Tue, 03 April 2007 12:30

stevem
Messages: 4733
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

Back in the day most folks like myself would feed that output to a reel to reel type tape deck, today you could feed a digital recorder.

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8491 is a reply to message #8478]

Wed, 04 April 2007 17:41

bandersen
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2007

Junior Member

There were no rca cables at all. I plugged a couple in and saw two rca jacks right below the tray on the left side ( I assume these are the ones I need) and plugged them in there and got nothing, I swapped them because I wasn't sure which was which and still nothing. The solder connections all looked good. The tray looks like it's been messed with, it may not have the original top part and appears the be held down with duct tape in some spots. Clearly for some reason the rca cables were removed. I have a digital reverb unit I could use I suppose.

If I build a 3/4" plywood enclosure how would you suggest a way to attach the aluminum frame to the enclosure? I suppose I would just be building a rectangular sleeve of sorts for the top, sides and bottom since it has a front and back. I just wouldn't know how to secure it to the amp.

EDIT: I was looking at one on Ebay and I see 4 screws on the bottom, I suppose I just screw it in there? The laminate board that's on there now is just using 2 screws so I didn't see the other two.

Also I am not in front of it now but as I recall there are (looking from the back) 2 1/4" speaker outputs, an RCA plug in the middle and then another 1/4" jack to the right. I assume the small jack is for the recording unit you mentioned but what is the other 1/4" jack for?

[Updated on: Wed, 04 April 2007 17:55]

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8493 is a reply to message #8478]

Thu, 05 April 2007 06:44

stevem
Messages: 4733
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

If you go to radio shack and get 2 rca female to mono 1/4 inch male adapters you can hook up the effects unit to the the kustom if you need reverb on all 4 channels.
With the reverb on one channel up, tap the end of the rca cables, on the the cable that you hear a buzz on that is the output cable and will go to the output jack of the effects unit.
You will most likly only need to crack open the input level control on the effects unit, as the kustom will be providing alot more signal to its input then it may need.

If on that cable test you do not hear a buzz, than the effects unit, nor a new reverb pan will work, as the reverb recovery amp section of the kustom has a problem in it.
New reverb pans go for about 28 to 35 dollars.

There are 4 captured nuts on the bottom of the amp that get used for mounting it, you will need to get 4, 1/4inch by 24 fine threaded bolts of the length you need to mount the amp.

The other single 1/4 inch jack on the back of the amp is for the foot switch to ONLY TURN THE REVERB OFF!, The reverb will be on all the time with out the foot switch if it is turned up on a channel.

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8495 is a reply to message #8493]

Thu, 05 April 2007 08:54

bandersen
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2007

Junior Member

Many thanks again stevem!

Another question, could the small jack in the back be used for a monitor or a subwoofer do you think? I have those two Ramsa's but the homemade speaker sounds much better, I'd like to be able to use all three since the homemade speaker cab gets a better bass sound than the Ramsa's

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8497 is a reply to message #8478]

Thu, 05 April 2007 12:31

stevem
Messages: 4733
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

It could drive a power amp which could then drive eitheir of those speakers.

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Re: Kustom 200B-5 PA/Amp [message #8498 is a reply to message #8478]

Thu, 05 April 2007 12:44

bandersen
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2007

Junior Member

A power amp will cost me over 100 which I don't want to spend. I can't rationalize spending the money for what I use it for. I guess I will just use one ramsa and the homemade one.

Thanks for all the great info!

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