vjrdlr7017 Messages: 3 Registered: April 2015 Location: Upstate New York
Junior Member
New to this site, hopefully I'm posting this in the right area. I have a gold tuck and roll 2-15 cabinet. Kustom Electronics emblem, not Kustom by Ross. The speaker jack plate says CTS. The speakers are Diaphonic, part# ES-0017, made by Jordan Electronocs. Wondering if Kustom ever used these speakers, or were they replaced by previous owner. I've never heard of this brand, and always thought most cabinets used either CTS or Jensen speakers.
Also, did Kustom use any sealant on the cabinet backs ? This one has a sticky black sealer, almost like a gasket sealer. I had to pry the back off. My other cabinets only have s felt or thin rubber gasket.
Kustom_Bart Messages: 601 Registered: October 2010 Location: Greenville, MichiGUN
Senior Member
They used a foam rubber to seal the backs with and it turns into the black tar eventually. The best way we have found to get them off is to use a 2 x 2 or baseball bat from inside the port and knock it loose from the front. Kustom used CTS, Jensen, Altec, JBL, and their own brand KEI speakers.
stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
The KIE speakers came to be well after your Ross era cabinet that you have and some of those Ross era cabs have no port tubes so using a bat or such to assist in removing the back is not a option!
Your cabinet originally had CTS speakers in it when it left the factory. That's why you have a CTS speaker jack plate.
The Diaphonic speakers that are in there now were added at some later date by a previous owner. They came out of an amp made by Jordan Electronics. The same people that sold the BossTone fuzz.
I'm sure that Jordan did not actually manufacture the speakers, so you may find some code numbers on them that will let you know what OEM company did make them.
Welcome to the site. Many of us refer to that sticky goo you mentioned as the black death. It is all but impossible to get it off the cabinets. I have scraped, used goof off, paint thinner every thing short of a blow torch to remove it. I finally gave up and scraped it off as much as possible and then painted over it with oil based black paint. I then resealed the cabinets with felt and not rubberized foam so the next guy 40 years from now won't have that gooey mess to deal with.
vjrdlr7017 Messages: 3 Registered: April 2015 Location: Upstate New York
Junior Member
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, it is a mess. I've started scraping off what I can, but I see it taking a lot of time. Paint thinner seems to work without damage to the material, but again, I'll be spending a lot of time cleaning it after the scraping. Glad I found this site, when I'm not cleaning my cabinet I see myself spending a lot of time reading all the posts.
Never thought to tell you of the option that I did...........removed the boards and turned them over so the goo is facing the inside of the cabinet. The screws on the back will have to be re-bored into the frame but it will make the back tighter on the frame.
vjrdlr7017 Messages: 3 Registered: April 2015 Location: Upstate New York
Junior Member
Clever idea. That might turn into a option since I opened up another Kustom cabinet I have and found the same sticky mess. Might be a real time saver since now I have 2 cabinets to clean up. Thanks again.
stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
I had one cabinet of mine that I was re-doing some years ago and one last 4 inch lenght of the Black Death to remove and ran out of paint stripper on that Sunday night so just by chance I used some of my electronic freeze spray and snapped it clean off !!
Yeah I saw it also, the cat peed yellow.....formerly silver head. There's also a Frank head, not working on there as well, but its now gone. Not much for vintage equipment on there now and what is there is way over priced. You'd think after reposting and reposting that they'd get the hint that they're asking too much.