NAD - Kustom Deep End 200W Combo

[Tom Bechtel]

I am pretty sure Kustom does not get a huge amount of love here so sorry in advance. My first bass amp was a 1977-8 "Big K" Kustom II 65W combo that I really liked. So I like the company even though some of their gear can be kind of ?. Anyway I am primarily a guitar player so when I bought a bass a couple years ago I wanted a Kustom amp but couldn't find anything locally so I bought what I could find, a Peavey Basic 60, for $50. I like it but I recently ran across a used Kustom DE-200 115 combo and bought it.

It's sounds great and is very powerful. I don't gig and I kind of suck as a player so it may be ridiculous but the thing WAS pristine. I think these were made like 2009 and this looked like it was never played. Until UPS got ahold of it, see tolex damage in the pics. It ain't pristine no longer.

Regardless, it sounds great and cosmetic damage not withstanding, I will probably keep it. Since I am old, if an amp is not a boat anchor, it isn't an amp, so it has that going for it. And it is a Kustom which is cool. Initially I was looking for their KXB-200 model but those have evaporated, so this is what I settled on.

Vendor (I won't mention any names but it rhymes with Merry Go Round) will not let me return it before UPS pays his damage claim, which is really poor business practice and pisses me off, but I am too old to mess around and the amp is pretty decent so I may keep it. Plus, not sure if my old butt could haul it to UPS anyway.

After I tested the Kustom, I played thru the Peavey and it sounded like a kazoo -- no bass! So I dropped $50 on a Pyle woofer and it helped a bit. Actually sounds pretty good. Pyle instead of Pile of...

I guess I am done trying to buy/have delivered amps now. UPS seems to be on an amplifier search and destroy mission, based on my experiences. I have more than I need anyway...

 

[MegaSwing]

Good things can be found in unexpected places. I’ve had really excellent luck with the ‘new’ Kustom, wherever it is at the moment. My two nearly-expendable DE200HD heads are terrific performers that I would trust on any gig. Always trust your ears.

 

[Tom Bechtel]

Good things can be found in unexpected places. I’ve had really excellent luck with the ‘new’ Kustom, wherever it is at the moment. My two nearly-expendable DE200HD heads are terrific performers that I would trust on any gig. Always trust your ears.

Thanks, very true!

 

[Michedelic]

I am pretty sure Kustom does not get a huge amount of love here so sorry in advance. My first bass amp was a 1977-8 "Big K" Kustom II 65W combo that I really liked. So I like the company even though some of their gear can be kind of ?. Anyway I am primarily a guitar player so when I bought a bass a couple years ago I wanted a Kustom amp but couldn't find anything locally so I bought what I could find, a Peavey Basic 60, for $50. I like it but I recently ran across a used Kustom DE-200 115 combo and bought it.

It's sounds great and is very powerful. I don't gig and I kind of suck as a player so it may be ridiculous but the thing WAS pristine. I think these were made like 2009 and this looked like it was never played. Until UPS got ahold of it, see tolex damage in the pics. It ain't pristine no longer.

Regardless, it sounds great and cosmetic damage not withstanding, I will probably keep it. Since I am old, if an amp is not a boat anchor, it isn't an amp, so it has that going for it. And it is a Kustom which is cool. Initially I was looking for their KXB-200 model but those have evaporated, so this is what I settled on.

Vendor (I won't mention any names but it rhymes with Merry Go Round) will not let me return it before UPS pays his damage claim, which is really poor business practice and pisses me off, but I am too old to mess around and the amp is pretty decent so I may keep it. Plus, not sure if my old butt could haul it to UPS anyway.

After I tested the Kustom, I played thru the Peavey and it sounded like a kazoo -- no bass! So I dropped $50 on a Pyle woofer and it helped a bit. Actually sounds pretty good. Pyle instead of Pile of...

I guess I am done trying to buy/have delivered amps now. UPS seems to be on an amplifier search and destroy mission, based on my experiences. I have more than I need anyway...

Just an FYI, any 90’s-onward Kustom branded gear like that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the late 70’s equipment(let alone the original Bud Ross/tuck’n’roll/Kasino era). Ross sold the company in the mid-70’s, and the new owners just let the line go through a process of atrophy. This newer stuff is just run of the mill gear with a few bells and whistles, but nothing exceptional, so any nostalgia you might have had is a bit misplaced.

 

[Tom Bechtel]

Just an FYI, any 90’s-onward Kustom branded gear like that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the late 70’s equipment(let alone the original Bud Ross/tuck’n’roll/Kasino era). Ross sold the company in the mid-70’s, and the new owners just let the line go through a process of atrophy. This newer stuff is just run of the mill gear with a few bells and whistles, but nothing exceptional, so any nostalgia you might have had is a bit misplaced.

Yep. Luckily it is my nostalgia to misplace! Thanks friend

 

[guitarflinger]

1977 (or so). Speakers replaced with Eminence 12's. Sounds great

 

[MegaSwing]

Just an FYI, any 90’s-onward Kustom branded gear like that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the late 70’s equipment(let alone the original Bud Ross/tuck’n’roll/Kasino era). Ross sold the company in the mid-70’s, and the new owners just let the line go through a process of atrophy. This newer stuff is just run of the mill gear with a few bells and whistles, but nothing exceptional, so any nostalgia you might have had is a bit misplaced.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I fully understand why there was no preexisting reason to expect this to be such a nice amp to play through. It looks like a cheap copy of a Mesa head, and it wasn’t that expensive. Somehow it delivers the goods, with grit and beef, and I liked it enough to buy a second one. If they blow up tomorrow, I have totally defied the actuaries.

 

[Michedelic]

1977 (or so). Speakers replaced with Eminence 12's. Sounds great

That’s actually from the 90’s, the TR series, manufactured in China by a company called Hanser Holdings, who bought the Kustom brand name from Bud Ross when the original company went bankrupt years before. The original Ross era heads would not have had a gain boost switch. Is that a tube amp?

 

[guitarflinger]

That’s actually from the 90’s, the TR series, manufactured in China by a company called Hanser Holdings, who bought the Kustom brand name from Bud Ross when the original company went bankrupt years before. The original Ross era heads would not have had a gain boost switch. Is that a tube amp?

It is a tube amp. Thanks for the update!

 

[Michedelic]

It is a tube amp. Thanks for the update!

To confuse things more, the latter day Kustom company issued both tube and solid state heads(the amps of the original glory days of the late 60’s into the 70’s were strictly solid state, of course, as Bud Ross had a background in aviation electronics). * Then roughly around the same time, Ross and his son came back as Krossroad, with the same tuck’n’roll covering look on all the gear, but with modern speaker configurations and graphic EQ on the heads. Unfortunately, they didn’t last long.

Another giveaway about your rig, the 60’s cabs had the chrome ring port holes on the grill cloth, whereas the later Kustom company did not feature those.


*On top of that, the Kustom look-alike Plush/Earth amps of the late 60’s were tube, basically Fender knock-offs.

 

[Mathewaz]

Just picked up one of these today, was pretty surprised by how nice it sounds. I also got two bass bins with it, not sure if they count as "Cabs"