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Kustom 2 x 15

Father Gino

Father Gino

Nov 3, 2018
616
1,218
Farthard, Connecticut
#1
Much ado here about the science of speaker cabinets. All the components combined with a calculated effect. I believe in science in general and I’m amazed how all these itty bitty new bass cabs make such a big and pleasing sound.
But climb aboard the time machine to when I got my first real bass cab: mid 70’s tuck and roll 2x15 that weighed 90 lbs. It was a fantastic cabinet. Way better than the Silvertone guitar/case/amp I’d been using. Way better! I used it for a good long while and one day I thought the speakers were maybe getting old and farty. Lasalle Music said: “You want new speakers? What’s a good speaker you say young man? Here buy these EVMs.” So I installed them and it sounded better than ever.
Was there any science involved in that Kustom? Where there less choices in speakers then? Just curious. I’m not nostalgic about it. I don’t want the big ugly thing back. Each generation of speakers I’ve owned are smaller, lighter, sound better (and more expensive) than what they replaced.
 
#2
Well two factors....

1. If you worked at say EV or JBL there were dudes with slide rules and tube powered computers who actually did the math and worked things out. Probably not as technical at a place like Kustom. I am sure they played around with porting, MAYBE but they also used the same ports in all of their cabs so you do have that

2. OEM speakers were usually crap, built to spec by speaker companies with a low price being the most important factor.

Believe it or not Eminence used to be associated with being total crap because they supplied cheap speakers to amp companies. No doubt they could have done better but the cheap price was the goal.

This is why the first thing people did was to take out their CTS or Eminence speakers and replace them with JBL's and EV's.

These speakers may not have been "optimized" for the design of the cabinets but they were so much better than the stock speakers they still sounded better.

Analogeezer

p.s. Back in the day a lot of companies offered "upgrades" to JBL or EV speakers at additional cost.
 
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#4
Had the same rig for years. I put JBL K140's in it and was very pleased with the tone. Of course, I never really cranked it up, but it was great for the Blues band I was in at the time. Heavy though, and those casters sucked.
 
#5
I replaced the casters at least 4 times with better and better units. None of them lasted, being dragged through gravel, puddles, snow, etc. I can’t imagine schlepping an Ampeg 8x10 or god forbid, a Hammond B3, but 90 lbs of disintegrating tuck and roll was annoying enough on stairs.
 
#6
Father Gino said:
I replaced the casters at least 4 times with better and better units. None of them lasted, being dragged through gravel, puddles, snow, etc. I can’t imagine schlepping an Ampeg 8x10 or god forbid, a Hammond B3, but 90 lbs of disintegrating tuck and roll was annoying enough on stairs.
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Yes, I did the same. Strangely enough, the tuck n roll upholstery held up pretty well with all the one nighters I played back then, but I did have a cover for the amp and cab.
 
#7
I rebuilt one a couple years ago for a local studio owner/bass player . The grill was ripped , the bottom of the cab had water damage and the original speakers were gone . He did research on what speakers to use and we put Eminence Gammas in it . The bottom of the cabinet was in sorry shape and I ended up using PL plus and a putty knife to spread it , worked very well . I also put new grill cloth on it , turned out pretty good . He had one years ago and wanted to restore this one . It was a challenge but was rewarding to see it and hear it when done . It sounds pretty good to me . He has the head too and is getting it repaired , don't know if he has it done yet or not .
20191206_163040.jpg
 
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#8
Bill Whitehurst said:
My guess is that there was some thought put into that cab design.
However, the very fact that they used the same ports for Eminence, CST or JBL speakers means there was not a lot of deep thought involved.
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My first bass amp was a Kustom 100 combo, single 15" and it had the two classic chrome ring ports on the front.

The guy I had bought it from moved up to a Kustom 250 (the new at the time version, with the square power button) with the 2 x 15" bottom. His cabinet had the same porting arrangement.

It seems like they knew adding ports added bottom end but they just stuck the same ones in every cabinet LOL

Analogeezer

p.s. The one that killed me was they made these cabs, ostensibly for guitar that used a 15" AND A HORN, the horn being sort of a small copy of the Altec 511. The guitar player in one of my bands had this setup, a Kustom 150 head and this tall cab with the 15" and the horn. It had those same ports. He played a Telecaster and man that amp was HARSH sounding.

I know ACC Acoustic used to make a lot of their amps with those HF Horns in the cabinet but it seems like they stopped doing that by about 1972.
 
#10
He's played through some of the cabs I've built and liked them so he thought I could do this too . I was really dreading it because they were never an amp that I liked that much and everything I've built has been for a weight/performance itch for me . He is very picky and I was pretty apprehensive .
Turned out to be very interesting and rewarding experience .

I just remembered , I had to put a new baffle in it . He had the 3/4" birch so I really didn't want to mess that up . That was the hardest part , to get it right so the ports would fit . Also if I remember right I checked the interior volume and the port size and length and the cab was tuned around 48Hz.
 
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#11
Analogeezer said:
My first bass amp was a Kustom 100 combo, single 15" and it had the two classic chrome ring ports on the front.

The guy I had bought it from moved up to a Kustom 250 (the new at the time version, with the square power button) with the 2 x 15" bottom. His cabinet had the same porting arrangement.

It seems like they knew adding ports added bottom end but they just stuck the same ones in every cabinet LOL

Analogeezer

p.s. The one that killed me was they made these cabs, ostensibly for guitar that used a 15" AND A HORN, the horn being sort of a small copy of the Altec 511. The guitar player in one of my bands had this setup, a Kustom 150 head and this tall cab with the 15" and the horn. It had those same ports. He played a Telecaster and man that amp was HARSH sounding.

I know ACC Acoustic used to make a lot of their amps with those HF Horns in the cabinet but it seems like they stopped doing that by about 1972.
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Those ended up being halfway decent PA cabs, much better than those silly columns with 8” and 10” drivers, but I think they were actually intended for combo organ. The biggest problem about their 2x15 cab is that it wasn’t as deep as it should have been, a problem that also plagued Fender Bassman and Showman. Could have been a little taller as well.
I grew up about two hours north of Chanute, KS, where the company was located, so there was Kustom gear everywhere. But when it came time for me to get a real bass amp, I went with Sunn; those cabs rocked the house, although I first suffered with a Sorado that had crap CTS drivers, but soon got a 200-S with JBL’s and a better porting system. I suspect that Kustom sold more from the flash visual appeal than for sound; the bass was just OK, but I thought John Fogerty’s transistor guitar tone was awful, especially with any distortion.
 
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#12
Michedelic said:
Those ended up being halfway decent PA cabs, much better than those silly columns with 8” and 10” drivers, but I think they were actually intended for combo organ. The biggest problem about their 2x15 cab is that it wasn’t as deep as it should have been, a problem that also plagued Fender Bassman and Showman. Could have been a little taller as well.
I grew up about two hours north of Chanute, KS, where the company was located, so there was Kustom gear everywhere. But when it came time for me to get a real bass amp, I went with Sunn; those cabs rocked the house, although I first suffered with a Sorado that had crap CTS drivers, but soon got a 200-S with JBL’s and a better porting system. I suspect that Kustom sold more from the flash visual appeal than for sound; the bass was just OK, but I thought John Fogerty’s transistor guitar tone was awful, especially with any distortion.
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Yeah I never thought of Kustom as having taken over the guitar amp world, my friend that had one his parent's bought it for him when he was in 9th grade and he probably wanted the Kustom because it was cool looking. His was a sort of aquamarine sparkle, my 100 was just basic black.

I think where Kustom did well was in the bass amp arena because first with the 200 and then the 250, paired with their 2 x 15" cab (sure they had the 3 x 15" cab but I never saw one of those) they were fairly loud, far louder than anything common Fender offered at the time and the SVT was very expensive and rare at the time.

So they were the kind of bass amp you wound up with if you were not hip to Acoustic or Sunn gear at the time.

I believe they were cheaper than Acoustic/Sunn as well; but what put Kustom as a major player in the dust I think were:

1. Tuck and Roll - this might have been cool circa 1968, but by the 1970's it was a tired, old fashioned look

2. Peavey - the Peavey bass heads with the 2 x 15" cabs were as loud as Kustom, maybe louder, didn't look old fashioned and I believe they were cheaper as well.

Analogeezer

p.s. Totally agree with you on Fogarty's sound, nothing sounds worse with a naturally twangy guitar than a loud transistor amp, hell hard to take that sound even with a Fender LOL
 
#15
Blues Bass 2 said:
I rebuilt one a couple years ago for a local studio owner/bass player . The grill was ripped , the bottom of the cab had water damage and the original speakers were gone . He did research on what speakers to use and we put Eminence Gammas in it . The bottom of the cabinet was in sorry shape and I ended up using PL plus and a putty knife to spread it , worked very well . I also put new grill cloth on it , turned out pretty good . He had one years ago and wanted to restore this one . It was a challenge but was rewarding to see it and hear it when done . It sounds pretty good to me . He has the head too and is getting it repaired , don't know if he has it done yet or not .View attachment 4538009
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That's really sharp! Can you tell us where you got the material? Do you have photos of the rebuild?
I've been bitten with a Kustom Bug recently and think the Koolness Factor of having one on stage would make up for the size and weight issues.
 
#16
Had a Kasino (made by Kustom) 2x15s cabinet that more closely resembled an Ampeg 8x10s than the tuck n roll Kustom cabs.

Tossed in some Eminence Legend CB158s on a gamble and good grief they were amazing. I loved that cab, especially paired with an all-tube amp. However, living on the 3rd story of your apartment building with no elevator really puts things into perspective lol. Maybe when I can afford a house someday...
 
#17
Hurricane Jimmie said:
That's really sharp! Can you tell us where you got the material? Do you have photos of the rebuild?
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No pictures but it needed a new baffle and the grill was ripped . He had some 3/4" Birch and the grill cloth already . I just did the labor and used some of my PL-Plus to strengthen the bottom of the cabinet .
 
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#18
Bill Whitehurst said:
My guess is that there was some thought put into that cab design.
However, the very fact that they used the same ports for Eminence, CST or JBL speakers means there was not a lot of deep thought involved.
Click to expand...
Yea, you could buy the same Kustom 2x15 cab with JBL's for a premium price. I had the Kustom 200 with the 2x15 CTS cab. It was just fine for me as long as I didn't crank it past its' limits.
 

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