Kustom 118B replacement speaker

christw · #1 12-11-2012, 07:35 PM

I'm looking at picking up one of these Kustoms for a very good price. It's loaded with a blown Eminence speaker. After some reading, it looks like I might be best off looking for an EVM 18B, old Vega recone, or a Black Widow.

Thoughts?

CL pic: (so long as it's listed)

Oren Hudson · #2 12-12-2012, 05:31 AM

I got one those a couple of months ago from the original owner with original cover. It is a brute, I believe around 137lbs or so. I had the original 4 ohm 150 watt CTS 18 rebuilt and then stored it for future use. I put a 8 ohm Cerwin Vega 18 300 watt in, mainly so I could use my '68 Kustom 200 head with it and the matching 2-15 8 ohm cab. The Kustom head is 4 ohm, so I needed to pair two 8ohm cabs. End result, perfect. Biggest problem you'll have is getting the thing apart. With the folded horn design, you actually have an enclosure within an enclosure. The within enclosure is real tough to get loose with the seal that Kustom put around it having turned to glue. I'm not sure I would try the 15 with adapters since the second biggest problem I had was getting all of the rattles out. That folded horn design forces all of the bass through chambers and deflectors within. They are subjected to a tremendous amoung of bass volume and air flow and way more things to vibrate and rattle. I did get them all out after I took the entire guts out and tightend and reworked many areas including the metal access panel in the back. In fact, I had to remount it in a slightly different place and put a good gasket sealer around it. If you get it and need more info, I'll be happy to share, including some pics that are on another forum.

christw · #3 12-13-2012, 11:46 AM

I'd like to see some pics from your rebuild if you don't mind. I'm wondering if it would be proper sized to stick an EVM 18L or 18B in there. I know I loves some EV's in Mesa cabs.

Still, I probably should have it in my hands before I get too ahead of myself. I'm now going to try to pick it up tomorrow...

Oren Hudson · #4 12-13-2012, 08:31 PM

The EVs were used in the Acoustic (vintage) 301 cabs etc. as well as Sunn folded horn cabs. Those are generally the 187 4 ohm speakers. I used a 188EB in the Kustom. Pretty much the same except 8ohm that I needed as explained. The pics are at the unofficial Acoustic Control site http://oren-hudson.u.yuku.com/gallery. Once there, click the pic of the Kustom cab on the third line down. Then click comments under the first pic. You'll then have full size pics and can go forward and backward. You'll see the cab taken apart along with the original CTS speaker and the EV speaker that I used.

B-string · #5 12-13-2012, 08:49 PM

Interesting ACC used EV in the 301's, the 361 I owned used C-V.

Oren Hudson · #6 12-14-2012, 06:44 AM

You're exactly right B-string. I got my speaker abbreviations confused. Now corrected. Thanks for pointing that out. Cerwin Vega is correct.

christw · #7 12-14-2012, 09:59 AM

I found a line on a JBL E155 for a fair price. If things work out with the Kustom in about an hour I'll pick up the JBL in a few days and just eBay it if it doesn't play nice.

christw · #8 12-14-2012, 02:01 PM

Picked up the cab with stock CTS 18" unloaded. It's damn heavy-I had to install casters so I could manage to move it through my house! The voice coil is frozen up courtesy of a shifted magnet. I might have it reconed later but for now I'll pick up the local JBL E155 and give it a shot.

Pics to come!

will33 · #9 12-14-2012, 02:08 PM

Heh...cool, man. Love old gear.

Was going to suggest a couple that make decent "fullrange" 118 direct radiator cabs but don't know how they'd work in a horn.

I remember from one of Bill Fitzmaurices writings that a horn pushes the Fs of the driver lower, so, if you start with something that already has a really low Fs, it might not work out so well.

But, that's just me parroting Bill. I don't claim to know much if anything about horns.

christw · #10 12-14-2012, 02:31 PM

I did a lot of reading before buying the cab about that same thing. Almost every 18" available online (eBay, PE, MCM, etc) for under $200 is a woofer/subwoofer rather than a midbass and they seem like poor choices. The JBL was marketed as a bass guitar speaker but also has a darn low fs. If it doesnt work out, I'll flip it on eBay and either use the cash to repair the CTS or try my Kappa Pro 15A in there with an adapter ring. It might be the better choice anyways.

will33 · #11 12-14-2012, 02:42 PM

Proof is in the pudding....I'd be curious how it turns out.

Some of Bills designs are cool with Fs down to about 35, but I just don't know enough about it to even make an educated guess. Some designs, like the ones where the driver is mounted in a small sealed chamber, put a lot of extra pressure on the cone, others don't.

christw · #12 12-14-2012, 03:37 PM

It's definitely a small chamber. That would give me a pretty big midbass hump with the Kappa Pro. I bet it would come off a bit Ampeg-y.

Size shot. It's has similar dimensions to an Ampeg 810 but comes out 2" deeper. Mesa Buster on the left, Kustom 215 on the right

Disassembly: back is off and the speaker chamber is visible. All of the seals in this cab were garbage. I'll be using the same rubber foam strips as I do in the Portaflex.

Speaker chamber opened up

Speaker size!

Speaker 2

will33 · #13 12-14-2012, 04:10 PM

I wish I knew what I was looking at, but that thing looks big enough to have a long enough horn path to load down into the real bass.

will33 · #14 12-14-2012, 04:14 PM

Or is it like a W-bin set up on end? That's gonna make lowmids/highbass that'll knock you down.

christw · #15 12-14-2012, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by will33

Or is it like a W-bin set up on end? That's gonna make lowmids/highbass that'll knock you down.

You got it! I can't wait to get it up and running and see how it works out.

will33 · #16 12-14-2012, 04:39 PM

Cool. W-bins usually have their strongest output right where the meat of our sound is, midbass/lowmids. Cool stuff. Might like it as is, or depending on the sound you're after, stick a PA top on top for clean harmonics, or a couple of guitar speakers for dirt.

Awesome.

will33 · #17 12-14-2012, 05:25 PM

Geez...that took forever. I officially hate this new .beta.photobucket crap. Gotta find somewhere else to put my stuff.

Anyway, this is my drummers PA stack he got from his late uncle who played, toured with, and provided sound for Tejano bands for many, many years...decades. If you've ever heard a live Tejano band, they like it loud and they like lotsa fat bass. We've used those W-bins....a big kick in the pants for sure. I would expect something similair from yours.

dhsierra1 · #18 12-14-2012, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by will33

Geez...that took forever. I officially hate this new .beta.photobucket crap. Gotta find somewhere else to put my stuff.

Anyway, this is my drummers PA stack he got from his late uncle who played, toured with, and provided sound for Tejano bands for many, many years...decades. If you've ever heard a live Tejano band, they like it loud and they like lotsa fat bass. We've used those W-bins....a big kick in the pants for sure. I would expect something similair from yours.

geez!

What's the driver complement and what was used to power all that? Looks like Carvin cabs from here.

will33 · #19 12-14-2012, 05:42 PM

15's in the W-bins, 15's in the mid bins and big horn drivers....tri-amped.

We used the W-bins under my regular 15/6/1 PA cabs on sticks.

I also plugged them into my bass amp once....just because I could.

And yeah, '80's Carvin models. That was a pro touring PA setup then.

christw · #20 12-14-2012, 07:25 PM

Cool guys! Looks like it's time for me to join the W bin party...

I made an adapter ring and snuck the Kappa Pro 15A in there. (I'll replace that missing brace later.)

Test drive! I was getting spanked by the low mids in front of the cab. It's definitely got some tasty grunt going on. I didn't get to really push the 300 Pro into it yet but I sure will tomorrow!