Product: Kustom 200
Price Paid: US $150
Submitted
12/26/2000
at
09:12pm
by
Anonymous
Features
:
1
Not much it has four channels, volume, bass, treble, and reverb which was removed because appearantly all Kustom's reverb section sucked, you would hear popping and crackling, but I play bass through mine so I use a pedal whenever I decide to use reverb.
Sound Quality
:
7
I use an ESP LTD B-105, with standard soapbar pickups. It works fine for anything were distortion and volume are needed since it distorts very quickly. (At about 11 O-Clock) It is extremely noisy even when nothing is plugged into it. At first I thought it might be due to the cabinet, but when I bought an ampeg with twice the power, (and is quite excellent I might add) the kustom 3-15 rocked. It just has to be the thirty year old amp. The actual sound is pure, which is a good thing if you like the sound of your guitar. I would record with it if it wasn't for the excess of noise.
Reliability
:
10
The bastard will live forever. Never has broken down. Is super cool. Have recieved many complements on tuck and roll. Cosmetically just kicks ass.
Customer Support
:
1
Don't even try to deal with Kustom unless you have one of the brand new amps. I live in wichita Kansas, and One day decided to drive out to Chanute Kansas and look in a phone book for a member of the family who designed the amp. After finding a cool guy named rich I asked about the noise and he sayed it has always been noisy. Couldn't guide me in any directions so outside of meeting a nice guy with great stories about the old factory, the trip was a waste. And the new asian Kustom doesn't care at all. Appearantly they just wanted the name.
Overall Rating
:
6
I feel as if I were ripped off due to the price. I'm currently trying to sell it and it seems as though I might get all of my money back. Definatley worth it for collectors of musical treasures. I want to keep it because it matches my ginormouse cabinet. Musicains out there. Do yourself a favor and save up a little to get a nice sounding amp. It took me nearly a year to realize that most other new amps will sound better. So I just bought an ampeg for recording purposes. Excellent in every respect.
Product: Kustom 200
Price Paid: US $50-$350 used
Submitted
07/04/2000
at
12:00am
by
Dave Gant
Email: gantamps at netscape<dot>net
Features
:
8
I love Kustom. My first experience was playing a wurlie piano through a 200 w/3-15" Altecs. Need I say more. I could actually keep up with whatever guitar amp being used. I now have 10 (you can check out my collection of amps at http://home.earthlink.net/~gantly/). 5-200's, 1-150, 2-100's,1-50, 1-25. I have every color but gold. The blue 200 bass amp 2-15 eminance and the red 100 2-12" Jensons sound the best.My 150 combo has 2-12" altecs, that's the one I use with the Wurlie. Screams.Since there collectability has gone up, I'm now looking for Standel, another good Solid State amp that hasn't quite caught on.
Sound Quality
:
8
Kustom amps were made with great parts. Not much tone but loud.They vary in sound quality. 3 of my 10 sound great. A couple are pretty noisy.
Reliability
:
9
The ones I have that work(8 of 10). Have never given me problems.
Customer Support
:
5
They are supposedly pretty straight foward to fix. i just haven't had the time.
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been playing since these amps were new. The last gig I did, I used a 200 P.A. head with a single 15" cab, worked fine. Played a PC88
through it. I own 22 keyboards and 40 amps. My true collectable is my Kustom II organ. This things amazing! It has Leslie jacks for both 122 & 147 Leslies with a slow-fast switch. Two keyboard with drawbars, percussion and RMI type piano and harpsicord on the top keyboard.Put it through a Leslie and it sounds great! The attack is lacking but the tone is good. Mine is pristene with cover and original volume pedal. I'd like to find a single keyboard model w/ built in amp.
