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Kustom and The Beatles [message #4382]

Mon, 21 June 2004 21:26

fuzzy4dice
Messages: 49
Registered: June 2004
Location: NJ

Member

HI,

I was just wondering if anyone had ever heard about The Beatles ever using Kustom amps (together or solo)? If anyone has any pictures please post them!

Thanks,

ezt

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Re: Kustom and The Beatles [message #4383 is a reply to message #4382]

Tue, 22 June 2004 07:00

VinceG2
Messages: 26
Registered: April 2004

Junior Member

Didn't/doesn't Tom Petty own some Kustoms?

He and George Harrison were together in the Traveling Wilburys and were friends, so it's possible that as some point in time, Mr. Harrison has played through a Kustom Amp (though not on the Traveling Wilburys CDs) of Tom's.

As the Beatles, they never used Kustom amps. They used mostly Vox amps, but did use Fenders and in the early days used a wide range of amps from Selmer to "Quad", "Leak" and other brands I've never heard of.

Here's a webpage that is devoted to showing what the Beatles used for amps: http://www.beatlesgear.com/

[Updated on: Tue, 22 June 2004 07:11]

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Re: Kustom and The Beatles [message #4384 is a reply to message #4382]

Tue, 22 June 2004 07:06

stevem
Messages: 4733
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

Hi.not to blow my own horn, but from my extensive interest in the beatles I think is quite safe to say that of all the amps they got their hands on, kustom was not one of them. At least together as the beatles, maybe once they split. The most likly one of them would be John, once the moved to new york city.At the time when Kustoms came out the beatles had stopped touring, and Vox amps had made there largest amp ever, and named it the super beatle. It was 120 watts rms, 4-12s and a horn, with built in wa wa and distortion, the latter two of which kustoms would not have built into them untill almost 3 years latter than Vox.In the let it be move they are all playing thru fender amps on the roof of the recording studio and monitoring there vocals thru a fender PA system.The beatles loved the sound of tube amps, like the earlyer vox and the fenders they played thru. The used the big vox super beatle live, for its higher output. Its tone was sub standard compared to the tube fenders and vox. Tone did not matter much when the music could not be heard above all the screaming of 60,000 peaple at shea stadium! I know I was there. They needed the larger soild state amps just to hear themselves on stage!

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Re: Kustom and The Beatles [message #4406 is a reply to message #4382]

Tue, 29 June 2004 12:17

axeman
Messages: 25
Registered: March 2003
Location: Overland, MO (near St. L...

Junior Member

I've read Andy Babiuk's "Beatles Gear" and found no mention of Kustom. Given the time frame the Beatles toured, and when Kustoms were in their heyday, there is not much overlap. And, the Beatles had deals with Vox, etc. And, availability of Kustoms in England during the years of the final albums would have been pretty limited.

Could one of the Beatles have played Kustoms as an individual? Yes. Have I ever seen any evidence? No. But, seeing is believing, so if anyone has the goods I'd love to see it. It really would be pretty kool if one of them did. If one of them did, my money would be on George. He spent a lot of time in the states and was seemingly more into equipment. John was more of an acoustic guy. Sir Paul, well maybe if someone gave him one! Ha!

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Re: Kustom and The Beatles [message #4451 is a reply to message #4382]

Thu, 08 July 2004 16:05

QModer
Messages: 413
Registered: June 2003

Senior Member

The Beatles manager Brian Epstein had a verbal agreement with Vox that the Beatles would use only Vox amps live and it remained in force until Brian died. But very little time remained after his death until their breakup. The Beatles had always liked american amps and so for the last album and the roof top concert (their last live appearance) they can be seen using Twin Reverbs and a Bassman. Both John and George had seperate Twins. Paul was hooked into a Bassman.

In the fifties before the Beatles became famous John did use a Fender Tweed before his coming under Brian's managment. There are many pic's of the Beatles live and there is almost always a Bassman or Bandmaster sitting on stage with all of those Voxes with the power light on. Of course the offical story was that it belonged to the previous group and had not been moved off stage yet and that it was there on standby and not offically on.

But why so many concerts all over the world and why could the previous band always move all of there equipment off of the stage except for one lone fender amp has never been fully explained. The Beatles did indeed use solid state amps. The Super Beatles were one hundred watt solid state amps with four twelves and one horn. They were made in america.

They were needed by that time when the Beatles were still preforming live so that the fab four could be heard over the screaming girls and were used most notably at Shea stadium. Tom Petty's band later used Super Beatles and the drummer later described the sound as a bizzard of nails. If they had remained together and if Bud Ross had given them a couple there is no reason they would not have used Kustoms. Most of the Beatles equipment was given to them or bought by Brian. The exception to this was George who often bought guitars. He was seen with so many guitars.

So still Kustom's most famous users are Creedance Clear Water Revival and the group Smith. The big hit of Smith was Baby its you. CCR had so many it boogles the mind. John Fogerty continues to use Kustoms and Rickenbackers to this day.

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