Kustom 1-B Combo Amp - Do I Buy?/Does Anyone Know About Anything About This?

[gaeba]

hi guys, I have the opportunity to buy a Kustom 1-B amp for $50 (pictured)

I can find literally nothing on the internet about this amp so I decided to make an account and post something here. Someone here has to know about this amp lol

thanks!

 

[gaeba]

If I bought I would be using for practice as I don't see this thing holding up for a gig. Will probably also mess around with running guitar through it

 

[Vintage-Blue]

I can't provide any useful info but the first amp I ever owned was one of those. I played really poorly through it all through high school! I was pretty ignorant about equipment details back then but don't remember it being anything special.

 

[abarson]

Welcome to TB!

The "1 B" shows up in the 1974 bass amplification catalog, but VintAxe is charging money to see it.
VintAxe.com Vintage Guitars - Vintage American Catalogs - Kustom Bass Amplifiers - 1974

There are a few for sale on ebay and Reverb, and based on those ads the amp is around 200 watts and contains a 15" speaker. Of course the ads could be wrong. The ones in the ads are $200-250, so if the one you're looking at is in working condition, it would be a steal.

 

[Tom Bechtel]

I have owned a few of this amp's cousins, all "Big K" versions (because they have a big white "K" on the faceplates). Similar to the amp shown but different cosmetics. My first amp was a Kustom IIB SC (SC being self-contained, i.e. combo). Later I picked up a Big K version of the Kustom I SC (guitar combo version). I now own a III SC. The "I" models had 30-35 Watts (can't recall which), the "II" models had 65 Watts and the "III" models had 130 Watts.

So yours is 30-35 Watts. The Big K amps were late 70s (my current amp was dated at 1978). I can't recall if the style of amp in your photo came earlier or later, but my understanding is the guts are the same.

I played bass and guitar through my old IIB SC and thought it was a great practice amp. It took guitar pedals well. I don't gig, but I don't think that would be a good gig amp but if you mic it, you never know.

For $50 I'd grab it since it is in what looks like pretty good condition. But then I am a Kustom fanboy.

The site vintagekustom DOT com has ads/literature and a forum that might be of help.

 

[agedhorse]

A mediocre amp of the day, but many amps were mediocre back then.

 

[Michedelic]

hi guys, I have the opportunity to buy a Kustom 1-B amp for $50 (pictured)View attachment 5485805

I can find literally nothing on the internet about this amp so I decided to make an account and post something here. Someone here has to know about this amp lol

thanks!

Please know that it is from the era after founder Bud Ross sold the company(and long after the classic tuck'n'roll era), so the Kustom name is irrelevant, it's just a generic little practice amp of its era.

 

[optidan]

hi guys, I have the opportunity to buy a Kustom 1-B amp for $50 (pictured)View attachment 5485805

I can find literally nothing on the internet about this amp so I decided to make an account and post something here. Someone here has to know about this amp lol

thanks!

I have a head that someone took out of the combo. It's a 50w amp. Playing it through a 15" speaker. It sounds nice. Relatively quiet. I did have to have the caps replaced.