Kustom Bass 150

It's the Kustom Tuck and Roll Bass 150. It was made '70-'71. The top channel has volume,treble, tone selector (w/three different selections), bass. My top channel doesn't work, I don't know how it sounds. The bottom channel is volume, bass, middle, treble. It's an early solid state amplifier. It breaks up at about three or four depending on how much of the bass knob i have rolled. I usually have the bass at 5 or 6, my guitar player likes to "feel" the bass. I like the sound of thing fuzzing out a bit. In the back it's got a "To Tape Record" 1/4 inch jack output that i used for quick demo making. it's sounds great. I run it with a Kustom 2-15" cabinet. I only wish I could run another cabinet off the head, it only has one speaker output. It's loud enough to play at clubs with good sound systems, and totally great for bars that don't mic or D.I. the bass.

I wish i could run another speaker cabinet off the head because I've recently found out that my rig was buzzing, and it turns out the speaker had gotten a hole in it at the rim of the cone. I believe it's from overdriving the head to much trying to get more volume. It's old, and it's built in response to tube amps, so it sounds like one, and the volume just turns into overdrive after about four or five with my settings (lots of bass, little treble and Mid.) I think the speakers have never changed in the thirty years it's been around, so maybe it's a combo of old speakers and overdriving the head.

I believe the thing wants an 8ohm cabinet for the best sound. (it has two 16ohm speakers in it's cabinet arranged in a parellel electrical flow)

I play a 1991 Fender P-Bass '62 re-Issue. Everything stock. The 150 suits me perfectly, i play garage- rock and roll pop. I like a little overdrive on the amp, i probably would get a nice old blackface Fender Bassman, or find the Marshall amps that Entwhistle, Butler and Bruce used to get their guitar-ish sounding growling bass tones. BUT, i don't that kind of dough! This thing is great, and let's face it, it LOOKS real cool... Of course it doesn't have built in distortion like say an Acoustic or a Sunn, but it's not as powerful as those monsters either, it breaks up like a tube head and at fairly low volume.

It doesn't break up too much at practice or in the studio, but on stage it growls. I love the sound of bass through 2-15" speakers.

Well, it's hard to say, the top channel doesn't work. The bottom channel hasn't crapped out yet, I've had it for three months. It's lasted thirty years.

I've been playing music on one electric stringed instrument or another for 16 years. I'm twenty six, and I love talking about and buying and trying gear. I used to play an old Peavy Century 200 (1974) with two 15' speakers. it died. I bought this thing at the next gig 'cause the kid needed the bread and I needed to finish that leg of the tour. I'm happy with the purchase. I can't wait to record with it. Would I buy another one, i dunno, I'm tired of using old solid state amps that try to sound like tube amps. Tubes amps are easier to fix if they break down, and if you tour a lot, stuff breaks. I don't have a lot of cash, so I need something I can fix myself, or at least can trouble shoot with ease. It took me fifteen minutes to just get the back off the cabinet of this thing, and I'd have to work around an inch of insulation around the entire cabinet, and then unscrew the whole speaker just to get at the top of the cone. i know that's not the Kustom 150, but i can only imagine what the electronics insde are like, if you can find a repair guy who even looks at solid state stuff. I got my old Peavy worked on, only a couple of years older than this and it died after month.

I'm still playing bluegrass/gospel on my old Fender P-Bass thru this 2-piece Kustom. Over the years, I've tried other amps but they didn't seem to have the punch and clarity as my simple, durable, portable Kustom. About 7 years ago, I needed one of the 2 - 12" speakers fixed and called all over the United States to find the service company to send it to. I finally found them in Arkansas. They still had my name on file as an original owner and the repair was about three weeks - I paid the freight one way. Now the amp head is making a "pop" occasionally, and I guess I'll have to send it in again. Why can't someone build and strong, punchy, portable bass amplifier today?