I have a charcoal "Frankenstein" Kustom head, really nice condition, but have a question about it's output. From what I understand, these were the early equivalent of the Kustom 200 heads. This one has lovely tone, but seems to be about half the volume of my Kustom 200 heads. Other than that, the tone controls & volume operate fine. Is this normal, or is something ot quite right with this?
The Frankenstein heads were the predecessor to the K200A and then the K200B heads. They were rated at 100 watts into a 4 ohm load. What speakers are you using with the amp?
A loss of power could be caused by any number of things, like a the wrong speaker impedance or a faulty power supply or a bad circuit component. I would expect it to be close to if not as loud as a K200B head.
Maybe one of the other guys will have a better feeling for comparative volume.
Kustom_Bart Messages: 601 Registered: October 2010 Location: Greenville, MichiGUN
Senior Member
I would say that is about right, I know mine is similar to that with my K200's The Frankie's have great tone for sure though! once you put a processor in front of them, it will be more power than you will ever need anywhere. I only use a K50 and that is 25 watts and can play anywhere with that without a mic in front of it.
stevem Messages: 4730 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Having worked on many of these over the years I can tell you that drifting of the bias resistors in the output stage due to age can knock 35 watts off of the output of the amp, and you hear that for sure !
My own amp when I got was down to some 62 watts until I corrected it, then I was getting a much more correct 92 watts of clean power.
Thanks Chicago Bill! I've used it with a few speaker cabs, right now with an old Kasino 1-15" 8 ohm cabinet. I also have two Kustom 200 heads, so I can A/B all of them. Both 200 heads are considerable "louder" than the Frankie. It has great tone, no hiss, just not the power..... I thought that too, that it should be comparable to the 200 heads.