stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
The PA k200-5 head is 50% like the non effects k200-1 head,which you are calling a bass head.
Each channel in the PA head is like the brite channel in the non effects head, but the PA preamp has a reverb control where the brite switch is in the non effects preamp.
The normal or low channel in the effects head is a different preamp board with a bass boost section and has a tone tgat you will not get out of the PA head.
Also the extra two channel and the reverb mixer section eats up more current out of the k200b-5 power supply so that head outputs a little less overall wattage than the k200-1 head.
coconutsteve Messages: 4 Registered: October 2014 Location: Williamsburg, OH
Junior Member
I see. When I bought my Kustom amp the speaker cabinet was a guitar cabinet with Jensen speakers and had a Jensen emblem where the cord from the amp plugs into the speaker cabinet. Not a JBL emblem. I wanted a bass amp so they replaced the Jensen speakers with 3-JBL D-140s. Is it possible I had a guitar head instead of a bass head or does it even make a difference? Thanks
Since your cabinet originally had Jensen's in it, those were usually used in guitar cabinets if I'm not mistaken. This amp can really be used for any instrument......but primarily bass and PA.
I have this amp and play bass and guitar thru it. I like the sound even though it does tend to be a little on the treble side and not the deep bass sound that is more prominent in the bass amp...like Stevem said due to the bass boost.
Regardless, its a nice amp and there are lot of these on the market and you can usually pick one up for less than $200......bass one's run more and not as prevalent. If your really serious about your bass sound, and you don't plan to own a couple amp heads, I would have held out for the bass amp. Since you already have it, if you play a bass head.....you will notice the difference and wished you had one instead. Mine will be used to power monitors and am watching for a good deal on two K250 bass heads.
stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Please note that the k200-1 head was not designated by Kustom as a Bass head, it is just the stripped down none effects head that has if you care to call it such a guitar channel / preamp and a bass channel/ preamp .
Any channel of the k200-5 could be changed with 5 dollars worth of part to pass more low mids and bottom, but it will never have the same response as the normal channel in the -1 head!
The great thing about the K150 and K250 heads is that all the model heads have the same two channels and you can jump both both channels and not have the signal go out of phase which is something that after all of these years I stil have not proved out about all the other K200 heads but for the -5 head!
So Stevem, if the k200-1 wasn't designed specifically for bass, was there an amp head in that series that was? What about the K250 series......are these designed for bass or were these all guitar amps without the effects?
stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
That's not what I said, I just stated that Kustom called it a non effects energizer to be precise!
The-1 head has one PC 105 preamp that has a. Brite boost circuit, and it also has a pc203 preamp that has a bass boost circuit, you decide which it is, a bass amp, or a guitar/ keyboard amp?
So in a nut shell your saying that Kustom amps were designed to be used by any instrument then and the only difference was the effects that were added to them? I can see where the PA heads were designed primarily for that function but were versatile as well.......correct? Therefore if my thinking is correct.....if you wanted an amp head to be used primarily for bass, you would want one that has the brite effect and the bass boost as well and not one of the PA series since there is a difference in tone quality and output?
Isn't there a 200 series head that has effects on one side that would be of benefit for guitar and then the effects on the other side that would work best for bass? I though I had seen one of these heads a while back on ebay but thought it was a guitar head.
It would have been nice if Kustom had just designed one series of heads for bass...one series for guitar...and one series for keyboards like most other companies did. Be a lot less confusion as to what you were buying especially since I don't think the majority of people who have this equipment don't even know what they have.