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Old Kustom amps sound?

#21
hitch said:
I think that the Kustom amps sound great!!! I know this is a little of a sidetrack, but I recently bought a 1969 Plush Royal 1060-S for $250 (from Guitar Center of all places). It is loud as hell. I am getting new tubes and a grounded power cable installed as we speak and I can't wait to get it back. I know these were copies of Kustoms and that internally they are similar to Bassman's (could be wrong about that). I am extremely pleased with it especially for what I paid for it!!!!

6868e9e35035.jpg
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No, Kustoms are Solid State amps. All the T&R Plush amps are tube amps and similar in design to Fenders. In the early 70's the the owners of Plush parted ways and the remaining partner started rebadging Plush amps as Earth Amps. A few years later he ripped off Peavey's solid state circuit design and even the visual aesthetics of the cabinets.
 
#22
John123z said:
No, Kustoms are Solid State amps. All the T&R Plush amps are tube amps and similar in design to Fenders. In the early 70's the the owners of Plush parted ways and the remaining partner started rebadging Plush amps as Earth Amps. A few years later he ripped off Peavey's solid state circuit design and even the visual aesthetics of the cabinets.
Click to expand...

if by ripped off you mean improved. I have that same Royal 1610, it sounds like a V4 and is spectacular.

My guitarist has an Earth Sound Research Marshall Major Clone. Less than 100 made, sounds better than the real thing, 300 watts of planet-shattering clean bass or guitar tone. We love them.

Back on track, Kustom stuff is great, I love it.
 
#23
xampworshipx said:
if by ripped off you mean improved. I have that same Royal 1610, it sounds like a V4 and is spectacular.

My guitarist has an Earth Sound Research Marshall Major Clone. Less than 100 made, sounds better than the real thing, 300 watts of planet-shattering clean bass or guitar tone. We love them.

Back on track, Kustom stuff is great, I love it.
Click to expand...

You have a Plush Royal 1060s like I do. Great sounding tube amps designed by a Fender tech that was displaced after the CBS buyout of Fender. It does not sound like a V4, it sounds like a Fender. And if you look at the circuitry you will see why. Plush eventually became Earth and for a short time continued to make the same tube amps, just with the Earth logo. The 1060S became the Earth Super Bass 2000. Eventually Earth turned their backs on tube amps and switched to solid state amps. Unfortunately their solid state amps were a complete rip off Peavey (they were sued), not an improvement. Both the circuitry and even the aesthetics of the cabinetry.

Here is an example of both an Earth and a Peavey solid state amp. Look at post 21..
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5696944

So, Earth SS gear sounds identical to Peavey SS gear. On a side note, when Earth copied Peavey's printed circuit layout they even copied a mistaken unused trace on the Peavey circuit board. Talk about being caught red faced.

John
 
#25
Hmmm...Kustom...takes me back...my chorus director in high school had a Kustom rig with a 215. Liked the speaker, hated the head. It was very noisy and kind of light on oomph. But one thing's for sure...it looked cool as all get out!
 
#26
John123z said:
You have a Plush Royal 1060s like I do. Great sounding tube amps designed by a Fender tech that was displaced after the CBS buyout of Fender. It does not sound like a V4, it sounds like a Fender. And if you look at the circuitry you will see why. Plush eventually became Earth and for a short time continued to make the same tube amps, just with the Earth logo. The 1060S became the Earth Super Bass 2000. Eventually Earth turned their backs on tube amps and switched to solid state amps. Unfortunately their solid state amps were a complete rip off Peavey (they were sued), not an improvement. Both the circuitry and even the aesthetics of the cabinetry.

Here is an example of both an Earth and a Peavey solid state amp. Look at post 21..
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5696944

So, Earth SS gear sounds identical to Peavey SS gear. On a side note, when Earth copied Peavey's printed circuit layout they even copied a mistaken unused trace on the Peavey circuit board. Talk about being caught red faced.

John
Click to expand...


I stand corrected.

I still think mine sounds like a v4. it's also kind of messed up. But either way, I dig their tube stuff.
 
#27
hitch said:
I think that the Kustom amps sound great!!! I know this is a little of a sidetrack, but I recently bought a 1969 Plush Royal 1060-S for $250 (from Guitar Center of all places). It is loud as hell. I am getting new tubes and a grounded power cable installed as we speak and I can't wait to get it back. I know these were copies of Kustoms and that internally they are similar to Bassman's (could be wrong about that). I am extremely pleased with it especially for what I paid for it!!!!

6868e9e35035.jpg
Click to expand...

Actually, the insides of the Plush copied Fender. Nice amp.
 
#29
The first bass amp I ever heard was a Kustom with the 3-15 cab. The bass player was playing a Hofner Beatle bass and I was instantly convinced that my life would include something as cool.

I heard a guy playing a 65' Precision through a Kustom 2-15 with D-140s in a small theater a month ago and it was without a doubt, one of the finest bass tones I've ever heard in my life. Sweet, pure, fat and just dang PERFECT!
 
#30
bottomend! said:
The first bass amp I ever heard was a Kustom with the 3-15 cab. The bass player was playing a Hofner Beatle bass and I was instantly convinced that my life would include something as cool.

I heard a guy playing a 65' Precision through a Kustom 2-15 with D-140s in a small theater a month ago and it was without a doubt, one of the finest bass tones I've ever heard in my life. Sweet, pure, fat and just dang PERFECT!
Click to expand...

What amp was he using?
 
#31
I used to have a Kustom PA head back in the 70's I got rid of it in the 90's still working,and it was old when I got it.I saw a silver one with 2 15's in the music store window and it was gone in a day but I would love to score one maybe I will find one while I simultaneously have money in my pocket
 
#37
geezerjpj said:
Here's what a Kustom 200 sounds like pushing a swr goliath 4x10 cab. The guy is Itmar Ziegler. He plays an old Vox hollowbody with flats.
He's a terrific bassist. He also plays with Firewater and Balkan Beat Box. I'm pretty sure he only uses the rig above for all of these gigs.
Link Removed
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Balkan Beat Box, eh? They're killer. I love that album they did with Eugene Hutz from Gogol Bordello. This stuff you linked us to is also pretty amazing. Sounds like Russian surf music ;)
 
#38
pedro said:
What amp was he using?
Click to expand...

He was using a Kustom 200 or 100. It's the simple one with just volume/bass/treble. It was unbelievably clear and it just layed down a nice wooly floor of bass all over the theater. It was 8/10's as good as the 360 rig I wrote about on the Acoustic forum a couple of months back. I heard the same guy play through the same amp a week ago with a different bass and it didn't create the same effect. The combination of the real vintage Precision, the Kustom loaded with JBL's in that room was pure magic...
 
#39
I had a Kustom 200 with 2x2x15 cabs CTS loaded (rolled and pleated (I can still smell it in my mind)). It was the 1st amp to have that tight clean transistor sound with plenty of volume. If you clipped it though it got real ugly. We also used a Kustom 200 PA back in those days. It replaced a Bogan with a Shure mixer. The Kustom PA (2 columns with 4x12's in each) it was a huge improvment over the Bogans. I loved that stuff.
 

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