Custom Tuck & Roll

[GtenderG]

Sometime in the early 80s I picked up a Kustom 2x15 gold sparkle tuck and roll cabinet. Ive looked for the matching head off and on ever since. The 2 or 3 Ive come across didnt sound good to me.
So about a year ago I came up with the idea to build a cheap, sturdy rack box. Buy the vinyl and cover it myself. I'm pretty good with a sewing machine. Then I realized how bad an idea that was. Better to have someone who knows what they're doing. The guy I had do it did a really good job. Here are some pics.
Before:

After:

The full monty:

 

[GtenderG]

A couple angles:

 

[Jim C]

Beautiful
Where did you get the material?

 

[finn74]

Looks great.

 

[biguglyman]

Dude...

 

[2saddleslab]

Well executed! Love when the collar matches the cuffs.

 

[Edword]

You devil

 

[Kukulkan61]

Reminds me of the banana seat I had on my Schwin bike back in the 70s!

 

[edbass]

I came up with a different solution for a similar problem. I bought a vintage blue sparkle Kustom rig, plus a somewhat rare "Frankenstein" Kustom guitar amp some years ago. It reminded me of Jr High School dances a million years ago, when I saw a band who's bass player had a sunburst Jazz Bass slung down low plugged into a blue sparkle Kustom with a curly cord.
Thought that was about the coolest looking thing I'd ever seen, and a neophyte bass player was born...



Anyway, I'm a professed tube snob, and even after I had the old Kustom gone through and "brand newed" stage by stage, as bitchin' as it looked, the Kustom just wasn't cutting it audibly for stage use.
I was playing for a Motown R&B revue act at the time, and that old Kustom would be visually perfect for the vibe, so I got creative...

I pulled the CTS 15's out of the cab, put in D140F's, and wired a shielded jumper from one of the Kustom's inputs direct to one of the speaker jacks. Ran a shielded cable to this head hiding behind the backline;



Vintage wise, the Sunn is still era correct. Ran the output from the 2000S to the now JBL loaded blue sparkle cab, coiled cord from a SB Fender into the Kustom head on stage, click on the Kustom to get that blue pilot jewel glowing, and voilà, I'm back staring at that cool bass player in Jr High School all over again!

 

[jnewmark]

I came up with a different solution for a similar problem. I bought a vintage blue sparkle Kustom rig, plus a somewhat rare "Frankenstein" Kustom guitar amp some years ago. It reminded me of Jr High School dances a million years ago, when I saw a band who's bass player had a sunburst Jazz Bass slung down low plugged into a blue sparkle Kustom with a curly cord.
Thought that was about the coolest looking thing I'd ever seen, and a neophyte bass player was born...



Anyway, I'm a professed tube snob, and even after I had the old Kustom gone through and "brand newed" stage by stage, as bitchin' as it looked, the Kustom just wasn't cutting it audibly for stage use.
I was playing for a Motown R&B revue act at the time, and that old Kustom would be visually perfect for the vibe, so I got creative...

I pulled the CTS 15's out of the cab, put in D140F's, and wired a shielded jumper from one of the Kustom's inputs direct to one of the speaker jacks. Ran a shielded cable to this head hiding behind the backline;



Vintage wise, the Sunn is still era correct. Ran the output from the 2000S to the now JBL loaded blue sparkle cab, coiled cord from a SB Fender into the Kustom head on stage, click on the Kustom to get that blue pilot jewel glowing, and voilà, I'm back staring at that cool bass player in Jr High School all over again!

I also loaded my 215 with JBL's, the K140, but I had a 200 Kustom head. Sounded great until it didn't. I used other heads with that cab and it always sounded great. I think that 215 was made for JBL 15's.

 

[Liam Wald]

Yeah man, nice work!

 

[40Hz]

It reminded me of Jr High School dances a million years ago, when I saw a band who's bass player had a sunburst Jazz Bass slung down low plugged into a blue sparkle Kustom with a curly cord.
Thought that was about the coolest looking thing I'd ever seen,

Me too!

So when my cousin needed a bass player for his band two years later when I reached sophomore year in HS (I’d been studying upright until then) and loaned me the use of his sunburst JB and purple sparkle Kustom with the big dual-15 to do it with, I got to be one of those “cool cats” too.

At least as far as I was concerned.

I’m not so sure anybody else was that convinced.

 

[40Hz]

Ive looked for the matching head off and on ever since. The 2 or 3 Ive come across didnt sound good to me.

You did the smart thing repackaging a better rack head in matching a tuck-n-roll case. Those old Kustom heads weren’t that great sounding IMO either. Especially now that we have our current amps to compare them to. About the most you could say they had going for them was they were loud back in an era when louder was always considered better. That and they were much less expensive than a Fender or Ampeg rig. Their reliability wasn’t particularly good based on my experiences with them back between 1970-72 either.

 

[GtenderG]

Beautiful
Where did you get the material?

Thanks Jim! I got 2 yards from farbric.com.
Naugahyde Zodiac Vinyl 22 Gold

I came up with a different solution for a similar problem. I bought a vintage blue sparkle Kustom rig, plus a somewhat rare "Frankenstein" Kustom guitar amp some years ago. It reminded me of Jr High School dances a million years ago, when I saw a band who's bass player had a sunburst Jazz Bass slung down low plugged into a blue sparkle Kustom with a curly cord.

Nice! I love the Blue sparkle as well. I put 2 Kappa Lite in mine. Lighter and sounds great but still weighs at least 80lbs.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

I'm totally diggin those old tuck'nroll Kustoms. I remember how many guys I saw using them back in the day.
Creedence used them early on. When I saw John Fogarty a few years ago, he rolled one out ( a black one ) to play "Susie Q" and " I put a spell on you ".
Gave a little speech about how using that amp, with his Ric guitar was the only way to get that sound from their first album.

 

[rodak]

I'm totally diggin those old tuck'nroll Kustoms. I remember how many guys I saw using them back in the day.
Creedence used them early on. When I saw John Fogarty a few years ago, he rolled one out ( a black one ) to play "Susie Q" and " I put a spell on you ".
Gave a little speech about how using that amp, with his Ric guitar was the only way to get that sound from their first album.

Fogerty used the K200-4 model, the rarest one, and still more desirable than the others. the -4 had Reverb and Tremolo on one channel and the Harmonic Clipper (fuzz) and Selective Boost (I think it was just a switched filter) on the other channel.

Check out www.vintagekustom.com for complete catalog scans and a discussion board inhabited by folks who know these beasts inside-out.

 

[bumperbass]

I've always wondered if those ports were for looks, or were just installed to look cool

 

[Nephilymbass]

Sometime in the early 80s I picked up a Kustom 2x15 gold sparkle tuck and roll cabinet. Ive looked for the matching head off and on ever since. The 2 or 3 Ive come across didnt sound good to me.
So about a year ago I came up with the idea to build a cheap, sturdy rack box. Buy the vinyl and cover it myself. I'm pretty good with a sewing machine. Then I realized how bad an idea that was. Better to have someone who knows what they're doing. The guy I had do it did a really good job. Here are some pics.
Before:
View attachment 3432316

After:
View attachment 3432317
The full monty:
View attachment 3432318

That’s pretty cool. Used to have one of those cabs. I kept it at one of the rehearsal spots that’s was up a flight of stairs so I didn’t have to carry a cab up the stairs every rehearsal. They look cool imo.

 

[Basshappi]

That is a great job, Well done!

 

[zon6c-f]

Sometime in the early 80s I picked up a Kustom 2x15 gold sparkle tuck and roll cabinet. Ive looked for the matching head off and on ever since. The 2 or 3 Ive come across didnt sound good to me.
So about a year ago I came up with the idea to build a cheap, sturdy rack box. Buy the vinyl and cover it myself. I'm pretty good with a sewing machine. Then I realized how bad an idea that was. Better to have someone who knows what they're doing. The guy I had do it did a really good job. Here are some pics.
Before:
View attachment 3432316

After:
View attachment 3432317
The full monty:
View attachment 3432318

I use a Furman PQE-3 in my CTS loaded 71 which I’ve owned since new.

It’s the difference between “eewwwww”
and Ahhhhhhh.....