VintageKustom.com: Repairing Kustom Amps

Tue, 17 July 2018 23:08

sskydiver1
Messages: 27
Registered: December 2008
Location: Texas

Junior Member

I plugged in my K200B4 tonight for it's 90 day workout (wish I had time to play it it more often!) -

and I was hearing way more way more of the "white noise" (which in retrospect may have been 120v hum) than usual.

I went ahead and started playing through it and checked out all the functions, which all seemed to work - and the volume was as loud as usual.

I did notice that when I switched the "Selective Boost" knob it was making quite a loud popping noise when switching positions - but the frequencies were changing as they should.

Within 5 minutes, the amp volume dropped WAY down and the white noise/hum went away. You could still hear the guitar - but the volume was low bedroom volume at best. All the amp functions still seemed to work just fine, but no volume so to speak. When I used my flashlight to look at the back I saw a little smoke and turned the amp off right away.

Also - at the new very low bedroom volume - the amp gets very distorted as if there is a fuzz box on it when you turn the volume past halfway (I turned the amp on again to see if anything had changed - which it hadn't)

Any thoughts? Wondering/hoping it might be a part I could install with my intermediate soldering chops - and if not - can anyone recommend a tech who could fix her up and keep her going? I am hopeful that it is not TOO big an issue - it would be a shame to let this amp go into the scrap heap of history.

Final question - is this something that a good electronics and amp tech can fix - or do you need very specific experience and rare parts to fix it?

Many thanks for any response!

Derek

[Updated on: Tue, 17 July 2018 23:27]

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