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Old Kustom amps sound?

#41
I did the daisy chain trick and all I can say is WOW!!!! Now the amp is sounding great....thought it never had the ooomph it needed. Now it pushes mondo air.

I have the 250 with the two channels...top has three modes and the bottom has the treble, mid and bass controls.

Does the 250 truly have 250 watts?
 
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#44
Looks nice - its in great condition.
You probably already know this, but Kustom discontinued the color red the last few years of tuck and roll production (but it was still available special order only). You rarely see red ones after when yours was made (~May 1971).
 
#49
Oren Hudson said:
Old Kustoms, the rolled & pleated style, IMO are not only cool looking, but can handle small to fairly large areas with no PA support. Rig I used for several years in the mid to late 70s was a KB200 (100 watts RMS) head with with 2 2-15 CTS loaded cabs. No PA support and no problem being heard with or above the lead guitars Marshall rig and the other guitars large Vox rig. Keep in mind that I play with LOTS of pants shaking bottom, so if you don't, you'll of course have even more volume capabilities. Granted, newer rigs have a bunch more power etc. but the old ones can and do get the job done. And as I mentioned, the cool factor is way up there. There are several colors for these rigs in sparkle that are real eye catching. I have one blue sparkle head and the otheres are black, but I'd love to have red and cascade sparkle. Keep in mind that there are old Kustoms that were for guitars as well as bass. If you end up with one, don't forget the old trick of daisy chaining your channel inputs for maximum power.:cool:
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I just got my second kustom 250-4, had 1st one 20 years ago and someone stole the head. now i have 2 boxes with 2-15 in each. how do you "daisy chain" them. I play a 50 yr old Kent bass thru the amp. i have only had one box on it so far. [email protected]
 
#50
Oren Hudson said:
Old Kustoms, the rolled & pleated style, IMO are not only cool looking, but can handle small to fairly large areas with no PA support. Rig I used for several years in the mid to late 70s was a KB200 (100 watts RMS) head with with 2 2-15 CTS loaded cabs. No PA support and no problem being heard with or above the lead guitars Marshall rig and the other guitars large Vox rig. Keep in mind that I play with LOTS of pants shaking bottom, so if you don't, you'll of course have even more volume capabilities. Granted, newer rigs have a bunch more power etc. but the old ones can and do get the job done. And as I mentioned, the cool factor is way up there. There are several colors for these rigs in sparkle that are real eye catching. I have one blue sparkle head and the otheres are black, but I'd love to have red and cascade sparkle. Keep in mind that there are old Kustoms that were for guitars as well as bass. If you end up with one, don't forget the old trick of daisy chaining your channel inputs for maximum power.:cool:
Click to expand...

what is the safe way to hook 2 (2-15)cabs to a 250-4?
[email protected]
 
#51
If your 2x15 cabinets are 8 ohms each or 16 ohms each you can just plug them in to the two speaker outputs on back of the K250.
If they are 4 ohms each you need to connect them in series.
If you don't know the ohms of the cabinets, remove the back and see what is stamped on the back of the speakers.
For example if they are marked 16 ohms and wired in parallel, then the cabinet net impedance is 8 ohms.
-Les S
 
#53
I have a K200B-1 w/ 3x15 CTS cabinet I play electric bass through. The two channels are wired parallel internally so I can operate both channels (Bright and Normal) simultaneously. The Bright channel (on left) seems to have a fuller tone. Schematic reveals it has a PC board with a Boost circuit, but it really cuts mids/lows when the Bright switch is turned ON. The Normal channel sounds thinner in comparison, the Bright switch is a high pass/low cut filter.

The K200B-6 (w/ 3-position Selectone) offers more midrange tonal choice. Later Kasino brand amps offered Selectone and midrange tone controls as well. The Kustom 250 Series offers a Middle tone control on Channel 1 and Selectone on Channel 2 (in place of a Mid control). With an extra 25 Watts (RMS), this was the most suitable Kustom amp for bass.

Volume with 8-piece variety band was fine, little bit of head room left before clipping. For very loud rock band it was lacking. Tone is just adequate for most occasions, but it only has treble/bass controls. I have six vintage bass amps that I gig with, but the Kustom is the weakest as far as tone goes. A graphic EQ pedal or 3-control pre-amp is probably the best way to get the most from these amps. The 3x15 cabinet is good for live gigs since it puts a speaker at ear level (better for monitoring), but I believe the 2x15 is better tuned for bass tone.

For guitar the K100B series w/ 2x12 Jensen's sounds best with humbucker equipped guitars. The K150 combos sound pretty good for guitar or bass. Kustom cabinets always sounded best with the upgraded speaker options (Altec or JBL).
 
#54
i used to play thru a cascade sparkle (turquiose) K200 with two matching 2x15 cabs with JBLs. it had no problem keeping up with any band with a loud drummer (without any PA support). the original cabs had two 16 ohm JBL's in them, so each cab had a total load of 8 ohms. when you used two you had a 4 ohm load and were able to tap the full 100 watts rms potential out of the head. IMO, they were the best sounding SS amps of the era, and to me, they still sound great. i only have a K200 head (charcoal sparkle) now, but wish i had a matching cab or two to go with it.
 
#55
This is a 69' with Altec 421a's...was in a closet with the covers on it for 41 years 4 hours of playing time on it in his house only.At lower volumes it does real well,have used my BX500 or Mesa WA thru the Altec cabinet...oh yeah ;)
 

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#59
JimmyM said:
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!
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I owned a Kasino 200 with 2X15's. the amp even had a four way tone selector switch that tried to copy the voicing switch on an SVT. It was as big as a small refrigerator and had two cast wheels on the bottom rear of the cabinet that did not turn. You leaned it back and took a running start. The tone was really dry and as Jimmy mentioned the lows just didn't have any presence. I traded it in on a B-15-N (C) that I still have it was a good deal then and a great deal now. The Kasino's were covered in black tolex. Here's a pic.
 

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#60
Original owner: 1971 KUSTOM B-200: 2-15 CTS@8 ohms.

Low headroom; can't take volume above 10 o'clock unless you enjoy that Pappalardi tone. Less-s says it's nature of the beast. Mine can stand against Fender Super, but 100 watt Marshalll?? Essentially mute. A better design would be to have mid-range tone knob.

Great in it's time. Recommend 2-2x15's, better yet with JBL'S.

When I pre-amp mine with Furman PQE3; sounds great, otherwise, not for larger venues or against loud guitar and drums.

Once I an my Acoustic 370 through a Kustom w/ 3-15 JBL'S..awesome.

OREN & BOTTEMEND..It's...rikfenzon, AKA zon6c-f on TB.
 

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